Category: Uncategorized

depose (v.)

c. 1300, “to remove from office, especially from royalty,” from Old French deposer (12c.), from de- “down” (see de-) + poser “put, place” (see pose (v.1)). Meaning “testify to, attest,” especially “give testimony on oath” is from early 15c.; sense of “take testimony from or examine under oath” is from 1560s. Literal sense of “lay down, let fall” (early 15c.) is obsolete. Related: Deposed; deposing.

clandestine (adj.)

“secret, private, hidden, furtive,” 1560s, from Latin clandestinus “secret, hidden,” from clam “secretly,” from adverbial derivative of base of celare “to hide” (from PIE root *kel- (1) “to cover, conceal, save”), perhaps on model of intestinus “internal.” Related: Clandestinely. As a noun form, there is awkward clandestinity (clandestineness apparently being a dictionary word).

Nice v Kind

nice (adj.)
late 13c., “foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless,” from Old French nice (12c.) “careless, clumsy; weak; poor, needy; simple, stupid, silly, foolish,” from Latin nescius “ignorant, unaware,” literally “not-knowing,” from ne- “not” (from PIE root *ne- “not”) + stem of scire “to know” (see science). “The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj.” [Weekley] — from “timid, faint-hearted” (pre-1300); to “fussy, fastidious” (late 14c.); to “dainty, delicate” (c. 1400); to “precise, careful” (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to “agreeable, delightful” (1769); to “kind, thoughtful” (1830).


kind (n.)
“class, sort, variety,” from Old English gecynd “kind, nature, race,” related to cynn “family” (see kin), from Proto-Germanic *kundjaz “family, race,” from PIE root *gene- “give birth, beget,” with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.

Ælfric’s rendition of “the Book of Genesis” into Old English came out gecyndboc. The prefix disappeared 1150-1250. No exact cognates beyond English, but it corresponds to adjective endings such as Goth -kunds, Old High German -kund. Also in English as a suffix (mankind, etc., also compare godcund “divine”). Other earlier, now obsolete, senses included “character, quality derived from birth” and “manner or way natural or proper to anyone.”

Phrase a kind of (1590s) indicating something like or similar to something else led to the colloquial extension as adverb (1804) in phrases such as kind of stupid “a kind of stupid (person), (one) not far from stupidity.” However “good usage” once condemned as inaccurate the use as an adjective as in our kind of people, some kind of joke. All kinds is Old English alles cynnes, in Middle English sometimes contracted to alkins.

Winter Solstice = Christmas, Valentines Day
Summer Solstice = Fourth of July
Fall Equinox = Halloween, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving
Spring Equinox = Easter, Memorial Day, Mothers Day

Elohim

a name of God in the Bible, c. 1600, from Hebrew, plural (of majesty?) of Eloh “God” (cognate with Allah), a word of unknown etymology, perhaps an augmentation of El “God,” also of unknown origin. Generally taken as singular, the use of this word instead of Yahveh is taken by biblical scholars as an important clue to authorship in the Old Testament, hence Elohist (1862; Elohistic is from 1841), title of the supposed writer of passages of the Pentateuch where the word is used.

jurat (n.)

also jurate, “one who has taken an oath,” early 15c. (mid-14c. in Anglo-French), from Medieval Latin iuratus “sworn man,” noun use of past participle of Latin iurare “to swear” (see jury (n.)). Meaning “official memorandum at the end of an affidavit” (showing when and before whom it was sworn) is from 1796, from Latin iuratum, noun use of the neuter past participle.

scruple (n.)

“moral misgiving, pang of conscience,” late 14c., from Old French scrupule (14c.), from Latin scrupulus “uneasiness, anxiety, pricking of conscience,” literally “small sharp stone,” diminutive of scrupus “sharp stone or pebble,” used figuratively by Cicero for a cause of uneasiness or anxiety, probably from the notion of having a pebble in one’s shoe. The word in the more literal Latin sense of “small unit of weight or measurement” is attested in English from late 14c.

abdicate (v.)

1540s, “to disown, disinherit (children),” from Latin abdicatus, past participle of abdicare “to disown, disavow, reject” (specifically abdicare magistratu “renounce office”), literally “proclaim as not belonging to one,” from ab “off, away from” (see ab-) + dicare “proclaim” (from PIE root *deik- “to show,” also “pronounce solemnly”). Meaning “divest oneself of office, privilege, etc., before the term expires” first recorded 1610s in English (it was in classical Latin). Related: Abdicated; abdicating.