Word of the Day
emporium
noun
a large retail store, especially one selling a great variety of articles.
More about emporium
Emporium with its Latin ending –um still looks foreign. In Latin, emporium means 鈥渢rade center, business district, market town.鈥� The Latin word means something larger and more permanent than the Greek original 别尘辫贸谤颈辞苍 鈥渢rading station, trading post, entrep么t.鈥� 贰尘辫贸谤颈辞苍 is a derivative of 别尘辫辞谤铆补 鈥渃ommerce, trade, business,鈥� itself a derivative of 茅尘辫辞谤辞蝉 鈥減assenger on a ship, traveler, merchant, trade.鈥� The compound noun 茅尘辫辞谤辞蝉 breaks down into em-, a variant of en– 鈥渋n, on,鈥� and 辫贸谤辞蝉 鈥渨ay, passage, journey.鈥� 笔贸谤辞蝉 derives from the Proto-Indo-European root per-, por-, 辫峁�– 鈥渢o lead, pass, pass over.鈥� Per– is the source of English firth and fjord (both from Old Norse 蹿箩谦谤迟丑, inflectional stem firth-, from Germanic ferthuz 鈥渇ord鈥�). The variant por– is the source of Old English faran 鈥渢o go on a journey, get along” (English fare). The suffixed form por–eyo– forms the causative Germanic verb farjan 鈥渢o make go, lead,鈥� which becomes ferian in Old English and ferry in English. The variant 辫艞– forms the Latin nouns porta 鈥渄oor, gate,鈥� portus 鈥減ort, harbor,鈥� and the verb 辫辞谤迟腻谤别 鈥渢o carry, transport.鈥� Emporium entered English in the second half of the 16th century.
how is emporium used?
He sold everything in the emporium, from coffee to collar studs, camisoles to cuckoo clocks, candied sugar to collapsible top hats.
Following a stint as a window dresser at Luisa Via Roma, Florence鈥檚 famous fashion emporium, she relocated to Paris, learning tailoring from the French designer Myr猫ne de Pr茅monville ….
spitzenburg
noun
any of several red or yellow varieties of apple that ripen in the autumn.
More about spitzenburg
A spitzenburg or spitzenberg is a variety of apple from Esopus, New York, a town on the west bank of the Hudson River about 100 miles north of New York City. The full name of the variety of apple is Esopus Spitzenberg, after Esopus, a Lenape (Delaware Indian) word meaning 鈥渉igh banks,鈥� and Dutch spits 鈥減oint鈥� and berg 鈥渕ountain鈥� (a seedling was found on a hill near Esopus). This variety of apple was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who had several trees of the variety planted at Monticello. Spitzenburg entered English at the end of the 18th century.
how is spitzenburg used?
… the old gentleman turned in his tracks, looked at me severely, and said, “Young man, the Spitzenburg聽is the best apple God ever invented.”
Biting into a Spitzenburg produces an explosion of flavor; the yellow flesh is crisp, firm, tender, juicy with an extremely rich, aromatic flavor: the ultimate gourmet apple.
maugre
preposition
Archaic.
in spite of; notwithstanding.
More about maugre
The archaic preposition maugre 鈥渋n spite of; notwithstanding鈥� shows its origin in some of its other Middle English spellings, e.g., malgrie, malgre, from Old French 尘补耻驳谤茅, 尘补濒驳谤茅, mal 驳谤茅, malgreit. The open compound mal 驳谤茅 shows the etymology of maugre: the Old French adjective mal 鈥渂ad, wrongful鈥� (from Latin malus 鈥渂ad, unpleasant, evil鈥�) and the noun 驳谤茅, gred, gret 鈥減leasure, goodwill, favor鈥� (from Latin 驳谤腻迟耻尘 鈥�(something) pleasing,鈥� a noun use of the neuter of the adjective 驳谤腻迟耻蝉). Old French 驳谤茅 is the source of Middle English gre 鈥済oodwill, favor,鈥� from which English has the archaic noun gree in the same sense. Maugre entered English at the end of the 13th century.
how is maugre used?
He had his faults; but聽maugre them all, I loved him.
In his only tender moment, [Shakespeare’s] Aaron promises: ” This before all the world do I prefer, This maugre聽all the world will I keep safe. “