Today’s word of the day is preterist, a person who is largely interested only in the past. The root preter- is from the Latin praeter meaning “past” or “beyond.” Anyone who has studied grammar will recognize it in preterite, but it’s also found in preternatural ‘beyond what is normal or natural’ and preterhuman ‘beyond what is human.’
Today’s word of the day is spirituel, “having or evidencing a refined mind and wit.” The feminine form of the word—spirituelle—is defined even more fully: “characterized by or exhibiting a refined intellectuality, grace, or delicacy.” Both are French cognates of the English spiritual, which concerns the intangible nature and characteristics of humans.
Today’s word of the day is cicisbeo, used in Italy since the 1700s to mean a professed gallant and attendant of a married woman or “one who dangles about women.” Cicisbeism, then, is “the practice of acting as, or the custom of having, a cicisbeo; the practice of dangling about women.” J. Safford Fiske’s translation of Hippolyte Adolphe Tine’s A Tour through The Pyrenees describes such a fellow this way: “The cicisbeo is a bony cartilaginous gentleman, fixt perpendicularly on his saddle like a telegraph-pole.” The Century Dictionary posits that the word derives from the French chiche, meaning small or little (though perhaps “meager” or “paltry” would be more accurate), plus beau, meaning “beautiful.” In modern French, the word is sigisbée.
Today’s word of the day is heartsease, meaning “peace of mind.” It has also been written as “heart’s ease” and “heart-ease.” It’s a positive feeling, as opposed to feeling heartsick, which is feeling despondent or depressed, or heartbreak, which is a feeling of extreme disappointment or sorrow.
Today’s word of the day is jesting-beam, which is, in building, a beam introduced for appearance, and not for use. It’s related to jest, a playful or amusing act, and jesting-stock, a laughingstock or a butt for ridicule.
Today’s word of the day is pavonine, meaning “resembling, or like, a peacock.” A synonym is pavonian. The collective noun for a flock of peacocks is a muster. Peacock-blue, sometimes unhyphenated as peacock blue, is a dark, greenish blue, though some of the feathers of a peacock are smaragdine, an emerald-green also called smaragd.
Today’s word of the day is sobersides, a sedate or serious person. Like yesterday’s word of the day, sobersides is both the singular and plural form. It literally refers to someone whose sides—the face, for example—are sober in the meaning “plain or subdued.” In another era, such a grave and serious person might be said to have “visited the cave of Trophonious,” which was an oracle which left supplicants “pale and dejected.”