lacuna \leh-KU-neh\ (noun) - A cavity or hollow; a hiatus or gap left by a missing part.

"Every mention my friend Jason made of his political campaign last fall resulted in a lengthy lacuna in the conversation at the New Year's Eve party."

From Latin lacuna "pool, pond, cavity, gap" from lacus "lake." "Lacuna" became French "lagune" and ...Read more

semitic \seh-MI-tik\ (adjective) - Pertaining to the Semites: the Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Assyrian peoples. Also pertaining to an Afro-Asiatic family of languages that includes Hebrew, Aramaic and modern Syriac, Amharic, Tigre, and others, all clearly sharing a common stock and origin.

"The on-going Middle Eastern conflict could ...Read more

fossick \FA-sik\ (verb) - 1 : To search for gold in a disorganized manner, especially in abandoned mines. 2 : To fossick about: to rummage around for something, to nose about.

"Jason's dog was wont to spend his days fossicking about the yard searching for the bones of past years as if, in reclaiming them, he could reclaim the happier days ...Read more

quintessence \kwin-TES-ehns\ (noun) - The purest essence of something. Originally it was, earth, air, fire, and water, Aristotle's fifth element (thus "fifth essence;" see Etymology) of which the heavenly bodies were made and which was latent in all earthly things.

"Sally is the quintessence of a soccer mom; she takes her team out for ice ...Read more

lycanthropy \lI-KAEN-therh-pi\ (noun) - The supposed power of certain human beings to convert themselves into wolves; the belief in such power; the delusion that one has become a wolf. In other words, today's word is the scientific term for "werewolf."

"Convinced he was infected with lycanthropy, Lawrence's behavior became increasingly odd as ...Read more

arcane \ahr-KEYN\ (adjective) - Known or understood by only a few.

"Lydia's knowledge of arcane economic principles occasionally pays off."

Latin arcanus "shut up, closed" hence "secret" from arca "a chest, box", as in Ark (Arc) of the Covenant. Unrelated to arcade, which derives from Latin arcus "arch".

usufruct \YU-seh-frehkt or YU-zyu-frehkt\ (noun) - A usufruct is the right of using and receiving profits (the fruits) from a property that belongs to someone else.

"Albert married Angela in hopes of getting his hands on her ranch. He soon discovered, however, that her father had astutely gauged her ability to choose a spouse and left her a ...Read more

austral \A-strehl\ (adjective) - Of, pertaining to, or coming from the south.

"My cousin from Georgia speaks with a quaint austral accent"

A word for "southern" on a somewhat higher plane: "austral winds", "austral climes", "austral gravitation". From the Latin auster "south", as in Australia but not Austria (from German Osterreich "the ...Read more

agora \AEH-geh-reh\ (noun) - A meeting place or marketplace.

"Jenny agreed that the university was the town's intellectual agora, while her house was neighborhood's the social agora."

From Greek agora "marketplace," the noun from ageirein "to assemble." The Greek word also underlies "category" from Greek kategorein "to accuse, predicate" ...Read more

bonanza \beh-NAEN-zeh\ (noun) - 1 : An unexpectedly rich pocket of ore in a mine, a mother lode; 2 : an unexpectedly great supply of anything, as to find a beach with a bonanza of sea shells.

"In their window I spotted a small quartz specimen containing visible gold -- a sure sign of bonanza quality. On impulse, I bought it for a couple of ...Read more

apotropaic \ae-peh-treh-PEY-ik\ (adjective) - Having the power or designed to ward off evil, as an apotropaic symbol or talisman.

"Lydia was fond of wearing apotropaic ankle-length dresses with long sleeves and a collars that rose to her chin."

From Greek "apotropaios," the adjective of the verb apotrepein "to ward off" comprising apo- "off, ...Read more

irenic \i-REH-nik\ (adjective) - Favoring, conducive to, or operating toward peace, moderation, or conciliation.

"Jasmine had always been one of the more irenic students on campus, so no one was surprised to learn that she had helped negotiate a truce between feuding student factions."

In Greek mythology, Eirene was one of the Horae, the ...Read more

murrain \meh-REYN\ (noun) - A plague, a pestilence, especially affecting cattle, such as anthrax or foot-and-mouth disease; any horrendous event.

"A murrain upon your head!" or, as Trinculo put it in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' (III, ii, 50), "A murrain on your monster, and the devil take your fingers!"

Borrowed from Old French morine, from ...Read more

evanescent \e-veh-NE-sehnt\ (adjective) - Tending to vanish like vapor, transient.

"The popular tune by the one-hit-wonder was so evanescent as to disappear from ones mind mere moments after vanishing from the airwaves."

Latin evanescens, present participle of evanescere "to vanish, disappear" from e(x) "from" + vanescere "vanish" from van-us ...Read more

onomastics \o-neh-MAES-tiks\ (noun) - 1 : The study of the formation and origins of (proper) names; 2 : the system that underlies the formation of names and specialized nomenclature (related terms).

"Aubrey looked into the onomastics of his name and discovered that it a variant of 'Alberic,' which originally meant "elf power," which seemed ...Read more

inglenook \ING-gl-nuk\ (noun) - The corner of a large open fireplace with space on either side of the hearth or built-in stove.

"Jerzey wouldn't recommend putting plants in the inglenooks lest the fire reduce them to the vegetable course of dinner."

In medieval times, fires were located in the middle of the room and the smoke wandered freely ...Read more

prelapsarian \pree-laep-SEr-ee-ehn\ (adjective) - Characteristic of or belonging to the time or state before the fall of mankind.

"A five minute walk brought Jamie to a prelapsarian spot so pristine and undisturbed it struck her that Adam and Eve might have just abandoned it."

The invention of this word is relatively recent. Its first attested...Read more

dinkum \DING-kehm\ (noun) - Genuine, honest person or thing.

"Fair dinkum, you won the lottery?" asked an incredulous Mick as Jason walked in wearing a new suit, after he told everyone of his good fortune.

Fair dinkum is "the real stuff, the truth." Americans and Brits trying to cut back on their profanity now have the perfect substitute for "...Read more

extirpate \EK-stehr-peyt\ (verb) - 1 : To completely remove surgically. 2 : To annihilate, exterminate, destroy completely, especially by rooting out.

"We are going to extirpate every single source of drugs in the city."

Latin exstirpare "to root out, eradicate" from ex "out (of)" + stirp-s "trunk, root." Related to torp-ere "to be stiff" ...Read more

"AI Fires Silver Bullet for Creating New Life," read a recent newspaper headline. The story below it reported that molecular scientists are using AI to design new organisms that destroy lethal bacteria such as Escherichia coli.

Let's send that headline to ballistics. What exactly is a "silver bullet"? Is it the same as a "magic bullet"...Read more