Genuflect
JEN-yuh-flekt
a: to bend the knee
b: to touch the knee to the floor or ground
especially in worship
2: to
be humbly obedient or respectful
Genuflect
is derived from the Late Latin genuflectere, formed from the noun genu
("knee") and the verb flectere ("to bend"). Flectere
appears in a number of our more common verbs, such as reflect ("to bend or
throw back," as light) and deflect ("to turn aside"). By
comparison genu sees little use in English, but it did give us geniculate, a
word often used in scientific contexts to mean "bent abruptly at an angle
like a bent knee." Despite the resemblance, words such as genius and
genuine are not related to genuflect; instead, they are of a family that
includes the Latin verb gignere, meaning "to beget."
Offing
(AW-fing, AWF-ing)
Near future (used in the phrase “in the
offing”).
In nautical use, offing is the part of sea
visible from the shore, but beyond anchoring ground. From off (away), from of.
Earliest documented use: 1600.
Shunpike
A side road used to avoid the toll on or the
speed and traffic of a superhighway, the word has been part of American English
since at least 1790.
Indigenous
in-DIJ-uh-nuss
1: having originated in and being produced,
growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment
2: innate, inborn
Indigenous derives from the Latin noun
indigena (meaning "native"), which was formed by combining Old Latin
indu (meaning "in" or "within") with the verb gignere
(meaning "to beget"). Another term that comes from the indigena root
is indigene, a word for a plant or animal that lives, grows, or originates in a
certain area. Indigene is the older of the two; it has been used in English
since the late 16th century, whereas the earliest documented use of indigenous
occurred nearly 50 years later. Indigenous is used in scientific contexts to
describe organisms and the habitats to which they belong, and in expressly
non-scientific contexts, as in "emotions indigenous to the human
spirit." Most often, however, it's used to describe the native inhabitants
of a place.
Kudos
KOO-dahss
1: fame and renown resulting from an act or
achievement: prestige
2: praise given for achievement
Deriving from Greek, kudos entered English as
slang popular at British universities in the 19th century. In its earliest use,
the word referred to the prestige or renown that one gained by having
accomplished something noteworthy. The sense meaning "praise given for
achievement" came about in the 1920s. As this later sense became the
predominant one, some English speakers, unaware of the word's Greek origin,
began to treat the word as a plural count noun, inevitably coming up with the
back-formation kudo to refer to a single instance of praise. For the same
reason, when kudos is used as a subject you may see it with either a singular
or plural verb.