Welcome

Welcome
John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Words for writers to know

 

Jettison comes from Anglo-French geteson, which means literally "action of throwing" and is related to the Latin verb jactare, meaning "to throw." The noun jettison refers to a voluntary sacrifice of cargo to lighten a ship's load in time of distress, and it is the source of the word jetsam (the name for goods "jettisoned"); the word is often paired with flotsam ("floating wreckage"). These days you don't have to be on a sinking ship to "jettison" something: the verb also means simply "to get rid of."

Garble comes from Anglo-French garbeler, meaning "to remove impurities or refuse from (spices)." The English word refers to distortion of speech or writing that makes its meaning unclear (impure).

Waffle is from the Dutch wafel. Ultimately from the Indo-European root webh- (to weave; to move quickly), which also gave us weave, webster, wave, waver, wafer, wobble, and weft.

Intemperate means "not well tempered"—in other words, not well mixed or balanced. The word comes from Latin intemperatus, a combination of in- and the verb temperare, meaning "to temper" or "to mix."

Opine is not a back-formation of opinion. Both words come from Middle French opiner, meaning "to express one's opinion," and Latin opīnārī, "to have in mind" or "to think." And they were thought up as words for the English language independently at different times.

Disheveled comes from Middle English discheveled, meaning "bareheaded" or "with disordered hair." That word is partially based on Anglo-French deschevelé, a combination of the prefix des- ("dis-") and chevoil ("hair"). In English, disheveled describes things other than hair that have a messy or untidy appearance.

Derring-do is a quirky holdover from Middle English that came to occupy its present place in the language by a series of mistakes and misunderstandings. In Middle English, dorring don meant simply "daring to do." The phrase was misprinted as derrynge do in a 15th-century work by poet John Lydgate, and Edmund Spenser took it up from there. (A glossary to Spenser's work defined it as "manhood and chevalrie.") Literary author Sir Walter Scott and others brought the noun into modern use.