“Y” (pronounced the same as “why” or “wye”) is the 25th and penultimate letter of the English alphabet. “Y” appears in the Semitic alphabet as waw, which it shares with several other Latin letters, namely F, U, V and W. n the Classical Greek alphabet “upsilon” or “ypsilon” represents the letter Y. In mathematics “Y” is the 2nd unknown variable, following “X”. Y is a consonant but also can be a vowel in the articulation of certain sounds (eg, the semi-vowel “yes”).
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Yale: (Euro. myth.) mythical animal resembling a horse (or antelope) with a tusk in combination with the the tail of an elephant (used in heraldry) [etymology uncertain but believed to be derived from the Hebrew word yael (“ibex“)]
A Pair of yales adorning St John’s College, Cambridge
Yam: (Hist.) was a postal system or supply-point route messenger system extensively used by the Great Khans; a posting-house along a road (Marco Polo: a yam was a waystation where a “large and handsome building” housed messengers and horses in “rooms furnished with fine beds” fit for a king, decorated with “rich silk” and “everything they can want.”) [Mongolian. örtöö, (“checkpoint”)]
The Yam system: described as a kind of “medieval pony express” operating within Mongolia (source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Yarborough: hand of cards (whist) or bridge with no card above a nine; a weak hand [Eng. from toponymic surname, from Yarburgh (Yarborough) in Lincolnshire, from OldEng. habitational or topographic nameeorðburg (“earthworks”; “fortifications”)]
A Yarborough hand (source: Science matters)
Yardland: unit of land area equal to 30 acres (¼ of a hide🄰); also called a Virgate) [MidEng. yerdlond, from yerde (“yard”; “measure”) + –lond (“land”)]
Yardland or virgate
Yare: (esp of a vessel) answering swiftly to the helm; easily handled; marked by quickness and agility; nimble; prepared [from OldEng. gearu (“ready”)]
Yaud: a worn out or old horse; a workhorse (Scot. mare) [MidEng.? yald from Old Norse. jalda (“mare”) of Finno-Ugric origin, cf. “jade”] 🐴
Yealing: person of the same age as oneself (of uncertain origin)
Yellowplush: a footman [from character in Yellowplush Papers, a series of satirical sketches by William Makepeace Thackeray (1850s) (compounding of “yellow” + “plush”)]
Yellowplush
Yegg: a burglar of safes; safecracker (origin unknown)
Yegg
Yobbery: hooliganism; characteristic of the (bad) behaviour of a yob; a rowdy, disruptive youth [coined 1970s by inverting the spelling of “boy”]
Yogibogiebox: a container holding the assessories used by a spiritualist [a compound of yogi + –bogey + –box. Coined or introduced by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922)]
Yogibogiebox (Ulysses’)
Yogini female yogi [from yoga from Sanskrit. yuj (“to join or unite”)]
Yoicks: a hunting cry used to urge hounds after a fox or other quarry; expression of surprise or excitement (origin unknown but appears related to fox-hunting) (cf. Yikes: exclamation of alarm or surprise)
Yonderly: mentally or emotionally distant; vacant or absent-minded [from “yonder” from Eng. “yon” and from Dutch. ginder (“over there”)]
Yoni: symbol representing female genitalia [Sanskrit. yoni (“female reproductive organ”; literally “the womb” or (“the source”)]
Yowndrift: snow driven by the wind (Scot. Eng.? origin uncertain)
🄰 English unit of land measurement originally intended to represent the amount of land sufficient to support a household
“W”, letter number 23 in the alphabet, traces its genesis to the Semitic letter vaw (as does f, u, v and y), which the ancient Greeks adopted as upsilon. W’s place in the English alphabet came about indirectly via the prior-existing letters “U” and “V”. At first there was no letter “W”, “W” was represented by two consecutive letter U or V …eventually one single character evolved to represent the “W” sound – “W” or “Double-U”. “It’s this history that gives W the longest name of any letter of the English language—and also means that the acronym www uniquely contains three times more syllables than it does letters” (www.mentalfloss.com).
Why Double-U and not Double-V? In print (but not cursive writing) “W” comprises two Vs (VV), so why wasn’t it called “Double-V”? Basically it’s to do with the timing of the letter W’s evolution in Old English. At the time the “W” symbol was created “V” did not exist in that language, so “W” was rendered as “UU”, and so it stayed (‘Why isn’t a W called a double V?’ Grammarphobia (27-Apr-2011), www.grammarphobia.com).
<word> <meaning> <derivation>
Wafture: (cf. Waftage) act of waving or making a wave-like motion; wafting: to convey or carry lightly and smoothly through the air or over water [from LowGer., Dutch wachter, from wachten (“to guard”, the sense of “convey by water”/“escort a ship”) from wafter (“armed convoy vessel”)] 👋
Waggoner (source: National Maritime Historical Society)
Wagtail: an obsequious person; a harlot (origin unknown)
Wale: to choose; the act of choosing(?) (origin unknown)
Wamble: nauseous; walk unsteadily; a staggering gait; wobbling or rolling motion; churning of the stomach [MidEng. wamlen; (“to become nauseated”), from L. vomere (“to vomit”)]
Wergild: fine paid by family of murderer to family of murder victim (“man-price”) [MidEng. wergeld, from OldEng. wer (“man”) + -geld, alteration of gield, geld (“payment”; “tribute”) 💰
Wertfrei: without value judgement; morally neutral [Ger. wert (“worth”) + -frei (“free”)]
Whangam: an imaginary creature [17th cent. neologism coined by Oliver Goldsmith, Anglo-Irish author]
Whipcat: a person who makes, repairs, or altersouter garments, esp menswear; a tailor (slang: a worker “who whips the cat”) (origin unknown)
Whiskerando: a man with extravagant whiskers [Scand. Iceld. visk (“a wisp of hay”); allusion to Don Ferolo Whiskerando in RB Sheridan’s The Critic] (cf. Whiskerine: beard-growing contest)
Widdershins: counterclockwise, anticlockwise; to walk around an object by always keeping it on the left MidLowGer. weddersinnes, (literally “against the way”, i.e. “in the opposite direction”)] cf. Widersinnen: “to go against”)
Wight: nimble; strong; courageous; a supernatural, man-like being [from MidEng. wight or wiȝt, from OldEng. wiht, from Proto-West Germanicwihti]
Wold: a piece of high, open, uncultivated land or moor (Brit.) [OldEng. wald (“wooded upland”) of Germanic origin; perhaps related to wild]
Wondermonger: one who promises miracles; a person who tells of or exploits strange or freakish things [from MidEng. wonder, wunder, from OldEng. wundor (“wonder”; “miracle”; “marvel”), from Proto-West Germanic*wundr + from L. –mangō (“dealer”; “trader”)]
Woonerf: a road in a residential district which has installed devices (eg, traffic calming, low speed limits, shared space) to reduce or slow the flow of traffic (a living street) [Dutch: wonen (“reside”) + erf (“ground”; “premises”) (literally: “living yard” or “residential grounds”)]
Woopie: an affluent retired person able to pursuit an active lifestyle [derived from the acronym “well off older person” (“woop)”]
The letter “T”/“t”, in English pronouncedtee, numeroventi (20) in the Latin alphabet, like many of its letters owes its advent to the Phoenicians et al. It derives from the Semitic Taw 𐤕 and Paleo-Hebrew script (Aramaic and Hebrew Taw ת/𐡕/, Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ) and once again the linguistic go-between is the Greek letter τ (tau). Unlike the English “T”, Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets. The T-words that follow consist of lexemes and morphemes of all shapes and sizes, including the unholy trinity of the trim, the taut and the terrific, not to forget the terras, the teles, the technos, the thermos, the tachys, and a whole lot more!
Tabellary: auditor; carrier of letters [L. tabellārius from tabella (“letter”) + -ārius]
Tabellion: (Hist.) a scrivener under the Roman Empire with some notarial powers; an official scribe or notary public especially in England and New England in the 17th and 18th cent. [from L. tabella + -ion] 🪶
Tabellion: a Roman scribe 📜
Tacenda: things not to be mentioned [from [L. tacëo (“silent;” “shut up”)](cf. Tacent: (“to be silent”; “hold one’s tongue”)
Tachyphrasia: the act of talking very fast [Gk. takhús, (“swift”) + -phrasia (“talk”; “say”)] (cf. Tachyphagia: fast eating) (cf. Tachygraphy: shorthand; literally, “speedy writing” ✍️
Taliped: with a club-foot; with a foot twisted out of shape or position [L. talus (“ankle”) (?) + –ped (“foot”)]
Tambour: (Arch.) sloping buttress wall or fortification [Fr. tambour (“drum”), from Arabic ṭunbūr]
Tantième: share of profits or royalties [Fr. tantième (“percentage”;“proportion”)]
Tapinosis: use of degrading or diminutive diction regarding a topic; undignified language that debases something or someone; deliberately using a base word to diminish a person or thing’s dignity [Gk. tapeinós, (“low”)] (cf. Meiosis – using a euphemism to depreciate an object or thing’s size or significance)
Tarantism: (Psych.) an extreme impulse to dance, esp to overcome a feeling of melancholy [It. tarantismo (from Italian city of Taranto (during (15th-(17th. a spider bite from the tarantula was believed to trigger the dancing mania)] 🕷️
Tarantella, the frenetic dance inspired by Tarantism (source: britannica.com)
Tauromachy: the art or practice of bullfighting [Gk. taurus (“bull”) + –machia (“fight”)] 🐂
Tautochronous: lasting the same amount of time [Gk. tauto (“the same”) + –khrónos (“time”) + -ous]
Tautonym: word composed of two identical words/spellings/sounds (in repetition) eg, paw-paw, yo-yo 🪀[Gk. tautó, (“the same”) + –onuma (“name”)]
Technopole: place where high-technology industries are located; tech hub [Gk. tékhnē, (“skill”) + –pólis (“city”)] (cf. Tectiform: shaped like a roof) (cf. Tectonic: structural component of a building/construction)
Technopole (image: mixcloud)
Telegenic: having an appearance and exhibiting qualities thought to be attractive to televisionviewers [Gk. têle, (“at a distance”; “far off”; “far away”; “far from”) + -genḗs, (“offspring”; “kind”)]
Telekinetic: (Psychic.) supposed skill to move objects at a distance by exercising your mental power only [Gk. têle + –kinēsis (“motion”) from -kinein (“to move”)]
Telos: ultimate object or aim; provides the moral justification [Gk. télos, (“end”; “purpose” or “goal'”)]
Temporality: (Philos.) linear projection of past, present and future; existing within or having some relationship with time; temporal [L. temporālis (“of time”) + –itāt, itās]
Tempore: in the time of; in historical literature, denotes a period during which a person whose exact lifespan is unknown, was known to have been alive or active, or some other date which is not exactly known, usually given as the reign of a monarch [L. tempus (“time”; “period”)] (cf. Temporise: to delay; to procrastinate) 🕰️
Teratology: study of monsters, freaks, abnormal growths or malformations [Greek terat-, téras– (“sign sent by the gods”; “portent”;“marvel”; “monster”) + –logie (“-logy”)] (cf. Teratoid: resembling a monster) (cf. Teramorphous: of abnormal or monstrous form)
Teratology (credit: GregLuzniakArt/Etsy)
Terdiurnal: three times per day [L. ter (“thrice”) + LateLat. –diurnalis “daily”)
Terebration: a pain that feels as though a drill is boring through some body part [L. terebro, (“to bore”) + -ion]
Tergal: of, like or pertaining to the back; (Zool.) relating to the terga of an arthropod [L. terga (“the back”)]
Termagant: a violent, nagging, brawling woman; a shrew [MidEng. termagaunt, earlier tervagaunt, alteration of OldFr. tervagan (“name of the imaginary deity”)]
Terraneous: of, like or pertaining to the earth [L. terrenum (“land”; “ground”), from terra (“earth”) + -ous] (cf. Terrigenous: produced on land; produced by the land)
Terremotive: (Geology) relating to an earthquake; seismic [L. terra (“earth”) + –mōtus (“movement”)]
Terremotive (Diagram: worldatlas.com)
Terrisonant: having a terrible sound [L. terrëo (“frighten”; “terrify”; “scare away” + -ant]
Tessaraglot: a person who is capable of speaking in four languages [Gk. téssara (“four”) + –glôssa (“tongue”)] 👅
Tessellation: fitting together exactly; leaving no spaces; surface tiling with no gaps or overlays [L. tessella (“small square”) from Gk. tessera, (“four”)]
Tessellation (source: tilewizards.com.au)
Tesserarian: of, like or pertaining to games of dice [Gk. tessera + -ian] 🎲
Testicond: having the testes concealed within the body [L.testis (“testis”) + –condere (“to hide”)]
Thalassic: marine; of seas; of inland seas [Gk. thalassa (“sea”)] (cf. Thalassography: science of the sea) 🌊
Thaumaturgic: performer of miracles, esp a magician or a saint [Gk. thaumatourgós (“performer of wonders (as an acrobat”) + -ia– y]
Theandric: divine and human at the same time [Gk. theandros (“God-man”)]
Thelemite: one who does as he or she pleases; libertine [Fr. thélémite, from L’Abbaye deThélème, imaginary abbey with the motto “Do as you please” in Gargantua (1535) by François Rabelais (1553) + -ite] (cf. Thelemic: allowing people to do as they wish [Gk. thelema (“will”) + -ic)
Thelemite: L’Abbaye de Thélème, Rabelais’ fictional “anti-monastery”
Thelyotokous: having only female offspring [Gk. thêlus, “female”) + –tókos, (“birth”)]
Theologaster: petty or shallow theologian [Gk. theológos, (“one who talks about the gods”; “theologian”) + L. –aster (“inferior”; “shallow”, etc.)
Theotherapist: faith-healer; treatment of illness or disease by prayer and other religious exercises [Gk. theó, (“god”) + -therapeía, “(service”; “medical treatment”)]
Thereology: the art of healing; therapeutics [Gr. therein=therapeuein, (“totendthesick”) + -logy]
Theriacal: (Medic.) of, like or pertaining to antidotes [Gk. thēriakḕ, “of or related to poisonousreptiles”), from thēríon, “littlebeast”) from thḗr + -al]
Therianthropic: combining human and animal forms [Gk. thērianthrōpos (“beast-man”)]
Theriatrics: the science of veterinary medicine [Gk. thḗr, (“wild beast”) + iatrós, (“doctor”)]
Thesmothete: law-giver; (Hist.) a juniorarchon or magistrate responsible for legislation in Ancient Greece [from Gk. thesmothétēs]
Thirdborough: petty provincial constable [MidEng. thridborro, probably by folk etymology, from frithborg (“frankpledge”)]
Thooid: resembling a wolf; (Zool.) relating to an obsolete group of carnivores including wolves, dogs and jackals [Gk. thōs jackal + -oid]
Threnody: a lament for the dead (poem, speech, song) [Gk. thrēnōidia, from thrēnos, (“dirge”)]
Threpterolagnia: A lust for female nurses [Gk. threptero(?) + –lagnia (“coitus”; “lust”)]
Thyestean: cannibalistic [from Greek mythology, Thyestes, a king of Olympia, was served his own children’s flesh by his vengeful twin brother Atreus as revenge for adultery]
Thygatrilagnia: an incestuous desire by a father for his own daughter [Gk. thygatro (“daughter”) + –lagnia]
Tibialoconcupiscent: having a lascivious interest in watching women put on stockings [L. tibia (“shinbone”?) + -lo (?) + –concupiscēns, –concupiscere (“to conceive an ardent desire for”)]
Timbromaniac: an avid stamp collector; a passionate philatelist [Fr. from timbre (“postage stamp”) + -o- + -mania]
Timbromaniac (credit: istockphoto.com)
Tirocinium: a soldier’s first battle; military baptism of fire [L. tirocinium (“first military campaign”; “inexperienced raw recruit”; “first attempt”]
Tmesis: a word compound that is divided into two parts, with another word infixed between the parts for emphasis, thus constituting a separate word compound, eg, “Absar—bloody—lutely!”; “in—fucking—credible!” [Gk. tmēsis (“a cutting”) from temnō, (“I cut”)]
Tolutiloquent: pertaining to a smooth talker, characterised by fluency or glib utterances [L. tolutim, “trotting along”) + –loqui (“speak”)]
Tomecide: the act of “murdering” or destroying a book, esp by the act of book burning [Gk. tomḗ + -cide]
Tomecide: Book burning by the Pinochet regime after the 1973 coup in Chile
Toponym: (Onomastics) a name by which a geographical place is known or a word derived from a place name or from a topographical feature eg, cashmere from Kashmir, lima beans from Lima [Back-formation from toponymy Gk. topos (“place”) + -nym] (cf. Toponymics: the study of place names)
Toxophilite: archer; fond of or an expert in archery [Gk. toxon, (“bow and arrow”) + -phil + -ite]
Toxophilite (source: allkpop.com)
Tranch: a portion (literally: slice) of something [OldFr. trenche, (“slice”)]
Tritavia: (Ancient Rome) the female ascendant in the sixth degree; the great grandmother of one’s great grandmother; the mother of either an atavus or atavia [L. trēs (“three”) + –avus (“(“grandfather;” “uncle”)] (cf. Tritavus: great grandfather of one’s great grandfather)
Tropoclastics: the science of breaking habits [Gk. trope᷄ (“a turning”) + -klastos (“shattered”) from –klan (“to break”)
Tuism: apostrophe; reference to or regard to a second person [L. tu (“thou”) + -ism]
Turgescence: act or process of swelling; swollenness [L. turgescent-, turgescens, turgescere (“to swell”)] (cf. Tumefy: to swell)
Turnverein: (Hist.) (19th-(20th. German-American association of gymnasts (members called “turners” promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics); athletic club [Ger. turnen (“to practice gymnastics”) + verein (“club”; “union”) ]
I, that single vertical stroke, is the most selfish letter in the entire English alphabet. It’s all about “I”, “I”,”I”! By which we mean “me”, “me”, “me”. The opposite of “U”, its more outward-looking brother vowel. No surprise we get “individual”, “idiosyncratic”, “intransigent” and “IPhone” from the letter “I”…”I” is all about “Isness”. Linguistically, “I” corresponds to the Semitic yod (early symbol for hand?) and the Greek iota (I). Anyway, having impugned I’s reputation, let’s accentuate the positive side of the letter—also the Roman numeral for “1”—by feeding the word-maniacs and lexical tragics out there with a sampler of I-words almost none of which succumbto the pitfall of self-centredness.
Iamatology: <meaning> study of remedies [<derivation>Gk. iama (“remedy”) + -logy]
Iatrarchy: government by physicians) [Gk. iatros (“doctor”; “healer”) + –arkhein (“to rule”)] (cf. Iatramelia: medical neglect)
Iatrarchy (image: kansaz.in)
Ichthyic: of resembling or pertaining to fish [Gk. ikhthús (“fish”) + Eng. -ic]🐠
Ichnogram: footprint [Gk íkhnos (“foot imprint”) + -gramma (“that which is drawn”)] 🐾 👣
Iconolagny: sexual stimulation from pictures or statues [Gk. eikon (“likeness”; “image”, “portrait”) + –lagnia(“lust”)]
Ideopraxis: one compelled to carry out an idea [Gk. ideo (“idea”) + –praxis “doing”)] 💡
Idioglossia: private, idiosyncratic language developed between children [Gk. ídios “own”, “personal”, “distinct”) + -glôssa (“tongue”)]
Idiolect: distinctive, individual form of speech [Gk. ídios “own”, “personal”, “distinct”) + légō (“I speak”)]
Impecunious: little or no money [L. pecūnia (“money”) + -ōsus (“full of”)]
Imperator: ruler; military commander [L. imperare (“”to order”; “command”)]
Imperator source: http://www.roman-empire.net/army/army-pictures.html
Ineluctable: irresistible or inescapable [L. in (“not”) + -eluctari (“struggle out”)]
Incivism: neglect of duty as a citizen [Fr. incivisme (“non-compliance”; “anti-social behaviour”)]
Incondite: not well assembled; poorly constructed; unpolished [L. un (in) (“not”) + -conditus (“to put in”; “restore”)]
Incult: uncultivated; coarse [L. in + –cultus (“to till”; “cultivate”)]
Incunabulist: (cf. Incunabulum) one who collects early books [L. in (“into”) + -cunae (“cradle”) + Eng. -ist] 📚
Infelicious: unhappy, unlucky [Gk. in (“not”) + L. -felicitas (“happiness, fertility,”)]
Infonaut: a voyager in cyberspace/virtual reality; a frequent or habitual user of the internet [ “info” from “information” [L. īnfōrmātiō (“formation, conception; education”) + Gk. –nautēs (“sailor”)]
Infracaniniphile: someone who champions or favours the underdog [Neologism, L. infra (“below, under, beneath”) + -canino (“dog) + -phile (“to prefer”)
Interamnian: situated between or enclosed by rivers [L. inter- (“in between”; “amid”) + amnis (“river”)]🏞️
Intercolline: situated between hills [L. inter “between”; “amid”) [L. inter- (“in between”; “amid”) + coll (“hill”) + Eng. -ine]
Intercrural: the area between one’s legs [L. inter (“between”; “amid”) + -crūs (“leg”)]
Interstices: small spaces (figuratively as well as literally) [L. inter- (“in between”; “amid”) + –stes (“standing”)
Irenic: peaceful; conducive to peace; non-confrontational (cf. Irenology: the study of peace [Gk. eirēnē (“peace”) from Eirene, Greek goddess of peace] ☮️
Iridal: of, like or pertaining to the rainbow [origin unknown]
Irresiant: having no residence [origin unknown]
Irrison: the act of laughing at another [origin unknown]
Isagogic: introductory (cf. Isagoge: academic introduction to a subject, chiefly to do with Christian theology) [Gk. eisagōgē (“lead-in”) + -ics)]
Isorropic: (geom.) of equal value [Gk. isos (“equal to”; “the same as”; “equally divided”) + –rropic (?)]
Ithyphallic: indecent; immoral; esp a statue with the representation of an erect penis [Gk. ithúphallos, “Bacchic phallus,” lit. “straight penis” + -ic)]
Ithyphallic symbol
Itinerarian: traveller [Neologism: Late Lat. Itinerari (“to journey”) + an]
Itinerarian Marco Polo
Ivresse: drunkenness; intoxication [OldFr. ivre (“drunk;” “inebriated”) + –esse (fem. form of noun)]
Izzard: an archaic word for Z [OFr. et zede (lit. “and zed”)]
