4 English - Wordsmith Words - January 2025 Flashcards
Embiggen (transitive verb)
→ To make larger
ETYMOLOGY:
From em- (to cause to be in) + big (large) + -en (verbal suffix), formed on the pattern of enliven.
Earliest documented use: 1884.
NOTES:
The word was popularized by writer Dan Greaney when he independently coined it in the television show The Simpsons. In the episode, “Lisa the Iconoclast”, aired in 1996, the founder of Springfield founder Jebediah Springfield inspires his fellow cityfolks by declaring “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.”
The earliest recorded use of the word is from 1884 which seems to be self-referential:
“Are there not, however, barbarous verbs in all languages? … but the people magnified them, to make great or embiggen, if we may invent an English parallel as ugly.” (Notes and Queries)
USAGE:
“The podcast [Stretch Marks] is all about the things that stretch us as we enter and stumble through parenthood, the marks the stretches leave, the embiggening of ourselves (and our bellies).”
- Fiona McCann; Advice as Welcome as a Full Night’s Sleep; Irish Times (Dublin); Aug 26, 2023.
Lower Slobbovia (noun)
→ A place regarded as isolated, underdeveloped, or unimportant.
ETYMOLOGY:
Coined by Al Capp in the comic strip Li’l Abner as the name of a fictional, perpetually snowbound, impoverished, and comically backward country.
Earliest documented use: 1946.
USAGE 1:
“Compared to the capital of the United States, we are an embarrassment, a crying shame.
True, with one-tenth the US population, we could never expect our capital to fully match Washington. But do we really have to look like the first city of Lower Slobbovia?”
- Janice Kennedy; National Affirmation Is Something the Americans Do So Very Well; The Ottawa Citizen (Canada); Apr 6, 2008.
Cromulent (adjective)
→ Valid; acceptable; satisfactory.
ETYMOLOGY:
Coined by the television writer David X. Cohen in the animated television series The Simpsons.
Earliest documented use: 1996.
NOTES:
In the episode “Lisa the Iconoclast” two schoolteachers discuss the word “embiggen” they have just heard:
Mrs. Krabappel: Embiggens? Hmm, I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield.
Ms. Hoover: I don’t know why. It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
USAGE:
“What sets the Impreza apart from equally cromulent competitors?”
- Dan Neil; Gear & Gadgets; The Wall Street Journal (New York); May 27, 2017.
→
→
→
Towardly (adverb, adjective)
Towardly (adverb, adjective)
Adverb:
→ 1. In a compliant or docile manner.
→ 2. In a pleasant manner.
Adjective:
→ 1. Compliant.
→ 2. Pleasant.
→ 3. Favourable.
ETYMOLOGY:
From toward, from to + -ward (directional suffix). Earliest documented use: 1513.
USAGE:
“‘You’ll see,’ the girl whispered towardly, having cuddled under her thin blanket.”
- Viktor Khorunzhy; Jennifer. Residence of Grief; Andrew Afonin; 2016.
“Master Wolfall was described by the captain of the ship Anne Francis as someone who had ‘a good, honest woman to wife and very towardly children’ … I cannot recall my own children ever being described as ‘towardly’.”
- Rev. David Long; Church History Goes a Long Way Back; Tribune (Canada); Aug 31, 2002.
Passing (adverb, adjective, noun)
Adverb
→ To a surpassing degree.
Adjective
→ Transitory or cursory.
Noun
→ The act, process, or instance of transition, movement, or transference from one state, place, time, or condition to another.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French passer, from Latin passare (to pass), from passus (step, pace). Earliest documented use: 1340.
USAGE:
“It is passing strange that the ACCC should see fit not to reveal which banks are most vulnerable to scams.”
Name the Banks Most Vulnerable to Scammers; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Oct 29, 2024.
Seemly (adverb, adjective)
Adverb:
→ 1. In a pleasing manner.
→ 2. Suitably.
Adjective:
→ 1. Pleasing; handsome.
→ 2. Appropriate; fitting.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old Norse sœmiligr (seemly), from sœmr (fitting). Earliest documented use: 1225. Seemly should not be confused with seemingly, which means “apparently”.
USAGE 1
“They spoke to each other while still waving and seemly smiling.”
Son Of David; Hearts Window; Xlibris; 2012.
USAGE 2
“For much of General Franco’s dictatorship many of the clergy danced to his tune. A seemly distance between church and state is probably better for both, and certainly better for Spanish society at large.”
State v Church; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 28, 2001.
Thither (adverb)
→ To or towards that place.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English thider. Earliest documented use: before 1150.
USAGE:
“At some point in the conversation the Israeli PM excused himself and asked for the washroom. … Thither Bibi repaired for a while, and it may or may not be a coincidence but I am told that later, when they were doing a regular sweep for bugs, they found a listening device in the thunderbox [washroom].”
Boris Johnson; Unleashed; Harper; 2024.
→
→
Automania (noun)
Ever run into your accountant at a rock concert and barely recognize them? You see one side of a person at work. Meet them at another venue – at the gym, a park, or maybe a karaoke night – and suddenly, you’re questioning if they’re even the same person.
Words can be like that too, pulling off a neat little trick with their multiple personas. This week’s words wear different hats, showcasing wildly different meanings sprouting from the same roots. Context is the key – depending on where you meet them, you might encounter their serious side or their playful alter ego. It’s like running into your boss moonlighting as a stand-up comedian or discovering your librarian has a secret life as a heavy-metal drummer.
→ 1. An obsession with oneself; egomania.
→ 2. An obsession with automobiles or fast driving.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek auto- (self), also short for automobile + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze). Earliest documented: for 1: 1835, for 2: 1902.
USAGE 1:
“So my automania – my desire for my self to live, to continue; eternity became a fixation.”
John E. Muller; Survival Project; Orion; 1966.
USAGE 2:
“It’s clear that Cars holds a special place in Lasseter’s heart, partly because of the automania that’s been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. ‘I’m a car nut,’ he says, offering by way of explanation: ‘My father was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership.’”
Marc Lee; What Drives the Man at Pixar?; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jul 16, 2011.
Airhead (noun)
→ 1. An area in a hostile territory, secured for bringing in supplies and personnel by air.
→ 2. A silly or unintelligent person.
→ 3. A horizontal channel created to provide ventilation in a mine.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From air + beachhead. Earliest documented use: 1943. Also see bridgehead.
For 2: From the metaphorical notion that a person’s head contains only air. Earliest documented use: 1971.
For 3: From air + head (source of a channel). Earliest documented use: 1817.
USAGE 1:
“As the Allied armies advanced east, the Dakotas landed at recently captured German airfields and finally at Brussels, which became a major airhead.”
Ken Cranefield: Pilot Badly Wounded Dropping Supplies Over Arnhem in 1944;
The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Oct 19, 2016.
USAGE 2:
“Jeff Spicoli, the surfing-obsessed truant … may have been an airhead, but he had a vocabulary. Things he enjoyed were ‘gnarly’ or ‘humongous’.”
Glenn Kenny; The Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe;
The New York Times; Aug 16, 2024.
Monophagy (noun)
→ 1. The eating of only one kind of food.
→ 2. The act of eating alone.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek mono- (one) + -phagy (eating). Earliest documented use: 1625.
USAGE:
“I feel your pain, but monophagy isn’t a diet that anyone is recommending. … Mike Roman, from Hackensack, New Jersey, says he has eaten a plain cheese pizza for dinner every night for the past 37 years, since he was four.”
That’s Monophagous: the Woman Who Drinks Nothing but Pepsi and Has Done for the Past 64 Years; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 16, 2018.
“Monophagy makes a man melancholy and unsocial. … If a man dines alone, and has a good dinner, how can he praise it properly if he does not praise it on the spot.”
George Webbe Dasent; Three to One, Vol. 2; Chapman and Hall; 1872.
Secular (adjective, noun)
Adjective:
→ 1. Relating to worldly rather than religious matters.
→ 2. Occurring once in an age or century.
→ 3. Enduring over an extended period.
Noun:
→ 1. A member of clergy not bound by monastic vows.
→ 12. A layperson.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French seculer, from Latin saeculum (generation, age). Earliest documented use: 1290.
USAGE 1:
“Pilgrims to the gravesite often visit Safed, whose picturesque labyrinth of cobblestone streets attracts secular tourists as well.”
Canaan Lidor; Resolve in Safed Amid Rockets; Montreal Gazette (Canada); Sep 30, 2024.
USAGE 2:
“Like the Roman emperors, Trump has done a good job of presenting himself as the proponent of a new age. His America is not ‘great’, but it can be ‘great again’. Augustus, Claudius, and Domitian peddled the same myth. With the celebratory Secular Games, they signalled that Rome was waving goodbye to one age and entering a new one reminiscent of the fabled days of old.”
Daisy Dunn; What the Lessons of the Roman Empire Can Teach Us About Donald Trump; The New Statesman (London, UK); Jan 25, 2017.
USAGE 3:
“Juvenile systems, including those in Michigan, continue to shrink due to a secular trend of lower juvenile crime and fewer arrests.”
Stop Charging 17-Year-Olds as Adults; Detroit Free Press (Michigan); Apr 11, 2019.
Wonky (adjective)
→ 1. Unreliable; unsteady; not working properly.
→ 2. Concerned with minute details in a field; nerdy.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: Of uncertain origin, perhaps from dialectal wanky, alteration of wankle, from Old English wancol (unsteady).Earliest documented use: 1919.
For 2: Of uncertain origin, perhaps related to the first term or the term wanky. Earliest documented use: 1978.
USAGE 1:
“Even in buildings that have light and motion sensors, the technology is notoriously wonky: They can turn off the lights if someone is standing still or working at a computer.”
- Erica Langston; Dim-Witted; Mother Jones (San Francisco); Nov/Dec 2016.
USAGE 2:
“As wonky as they are, the Gateses quickly realized that the social part of the foundation was vital. … [Melinda] once recounted Bill’s observation: ‘I’m starting to realize that talking to people about tuberculosis at a cocktail party doesn’t go so well.’”
- Laura Brown; The Savior in Seattle; Harper’s Bazaar (New York); Sep 2014.
→
→
Nefandous (adjective)
→ So wicked as to defy description: abominable, appalling
Eight billion people. That’s a lot of humanity – and a lot of personality! Which is why I believe one can never have too many words, especially words to describe people.
Sometimes a single word just won’t cut it when summing up someone’s essence. This week’s words might help. Who in your life, at work, or beyond fits one or more of these words?
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin “nefandus” (wicked), from “ne-“ (not) + “fandus” (to be spoken), gerundive (verbal adjective) of “fari” (to speak).
Earliest documented use: 1649.
NOTES:
A synonym of today’s word is “nefarious”, but it’s from Latin “fas” (right, divine law) instead of “fari” (to speak).
USAGE:
“Does it not, then, fit such a man to a hair to call him nefandous? … Better kiss an asp or a viper; then the risk is a bite and a pain which the doctor cures when you call him. But from the venom of your kiss, who could approach victims or altars? What god would listen to one’s prayer?”
-Lucian (Translation: H.W. Fowler and F.G Fowler); The Works of Lucian of Samosata; Oxford University Press; 1905.
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
→
