English Words: Their Origins and Historical Evolutions +

1. A clumsy social mistake or breach of etiquette; such as, an insensitive remark.
2. A clumsy social error; a faux pas.
3. A blatant mistake or misjudgment.
4. Etymology: the meaning of "blunder" is from about 1909, from French gaffe, "clumsy remark"; originally, "boat hook" from Old French gaffe, which came from Old Provençal gaf.

1. An English term used to describe nonsensical language, or sounds that resemble language but have no meaning; encrypted text.
2. Something that is being expressed in an overly complicated manner.
3. Unintelligible, inflated language; usually the hallmark of many government agencies.
4. Involved, pedantic, repetitious, and pompous jargon, relying heavily upon Latinized expressions and meaningless cliches; applied especially to the written and spoken language of bureaucrats and professional politicians.

Coined by Texas Congressman, Maury Maverick, U.S. Congressman and chairman of the Smaller War Plant Corporation, in a 1944 memo after attending a wordy committee meeting. He is said to have vehemently denounced the long-winded, pretentious speech of his colleagues and other government spokespeople.

He later said the word just came to him, but perhaps he was thinking of the turkey gobblers back in his native Texas and of the "gobbledygobbling" sound they made while strutting so pompously, and that their gobbling ended in a "gook" sound.

Gobbledygook was just a continuation of the New Deal's bureaucratic officialese, which delighted in such terms as activation, clearance, coordinator, implementation, objective, to process, and roll-back.

By the 1950s, such talk, or writing, was also called bafflegab and by the early 60s, Pentagonese; and even now, whitehallese.

Also known as, bureaucratese, or the legalistic, wordy style of communication often characteristic of government announcements.

A painting technique by which an image is executed entirely in shades of gray and usually severely modeled to create the illusion of sculpture, especially in a relief.

This aspect of grisaille was used particularly by the 15th-century Flemish painters (as in the outer wings of the van Eycks’ Ghent Altarpiece) and in the late 18th century to imitate classical sculpture in wall and ceiling decorations.

Among glass painters, grisaille is the name of a gray, vitreous pigment used in the art of coloring glass for stained glass. In French, grisaille has also come to mean any painting technique in which translucent oil colors are laid over a monotone under painting.

1. A sudden powerful, strong blast, or rush of wind.
2. A sudden powerful experience or expression of an emotion.
3. A sudden rush or burst of water, fire, smoke, sound, etc.
4. Etymology: from 1588, possibly a dialectal survival from Old Norse gustr, "a cold blast of wind", or Old High German gussa, "flood"; both from Proto-Germanic gustiz. Probably originally used in English as a nautical term.

1. Description of blowing in or marked by gusts; such as, a gusty storm.
2. Characterized by sudden outbursts.

1. Blowing in loud and abrupt bursts.
2. Blowing or coming in gusts, as wind, rain, or storms.
2. Affected or marked by gusts of wind, rain, etc.: "It has been a gusty day."
3. Occurring or characterized by sudden bursts or outbursts; such as, sound or laughter.
4. Full of meaningless, pretentious talk: "We were getting perturbed by his gusty speech."
5. Vigorous; hearty; zestful: "She is a gusty young lady."

1. To persistently annoy, to attack, or to bother somebody.
2. To impede and exhaust an enemy by attacking repeatedly or with repeated raids.
3. To irritate or to torment persistently.
4. To wear out; to exhaust.

Historical origin of harass and its various forms

Just about everyone has been harassed at one time or another, and at such times it may seem that we are being "hounded" unmercifully by those who oppose us.

In an etymological sense, this may be true because the French harasser, from which harass is derived and which has the same range of meanings as its English counterpart, is derived from the Middle French harer, meaning "to set a dog on".

This verb is derived from Old French hare, a cry used to encourage hunting dogs during the chase.

Although hare is of Germanic origin, akin to Old High German hara, hera, "hither", and hiar, "here", its specific origin is unknown.

1. Someone or something that foreshadows or anticipates a future event.
2. Something that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a forerunner.
3. Anything that foreshadows a future event; an omen; a sign: Frost and the falling of leaves are a harbinger of winter."
3. A person sent in advance of troops, a royal train, etc., to provide or to secure lodgings and other accommodations.
3. Etymology: from Middle English herbengar, "a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings", from Old French herbergeor, from herbergier, "to provide lodging for", from herberge, "lodging" or "army shelter" (from heri, "army" + berga, "shelter").

1. To give serious attention to a warning or advice and take it into account or have regard to when taking action.
2. Serious attention paid to someone or to something; such as, a warning, a piece of advice, or a request. 3. Etymology: Old English hedan, "to take care, attend", from West Germanic hodjan. The term essentially survives only in literary use and as the object of verbs ("take heed", etc.).

1. Shockingly brutal or cruel; hateful; odious.
2. Grossly wicked or reprehensible; abominable: "The shooter of the students committed a heinous crime."
3. Etymology: from Old French haineus; from French haineux, from haine, "hatred"; and hair, "to hate".

1. An intuitive feeling about something.
2. A stoop or a curved posture of the body with the head down and shoulders forward.
3. To stand, sit, or walk in a bent posture.
4. A large lump or slice of something.
5. Etymology: originally (1581) a verb, "to push, to thrust", of unknown origin.

Until the rise of scientific medicine, it was generally believed that a deformed person had special links with the demonic world.

• A gross malformation; such as, a hump or "hunch" in the spine was considered to be a mark of great psychic powers.
• With special connections with the devil, a hunchback was believed to be capable of seeing into the future.
• For centuries, accurate predictions were strongly linked with the possession of a gnarled back.
• As a result, any premonition or flash of insight came to be known as a hunch.

1. To bend or to draw up into a hump: "She hunched her shoulders against the wind."
2. To push or to shove; to thrust oneself forward.
3. To assume a crouched or cramped posture: "When the dog came into the room, the cat hunched in a corner."

1. To bounce up and down and rock from side to side while moving, or to make someone or something move in this way.
2. To move or to cause to move with bumps and jolts; to bounce up and down repeatedly.
3. A rough, jolting movement; a jolt (a sudden, rough movement).
4. Etymology: used from about 1440, of unknown origin; perhaps a blend of jump and bounce.

1. To happen or to develop more slowly than expected or wanted; "Production has continued to lag far behind demand."
2. Hanging back or falling behind: "One of the hikers kept lagging behind the rest of the group."
3. A person or thing that does not go or move as quickly as others: "The auto company has been a laggard in developing new models."
4. Not moving or able to move quickly; proceeding at a low speed: "The laggardness of the arrival of the train was difficult for many of the passengers who had to wait so long."

1. Softly gleaming, shining, or glowing softly, but without heat: "We could see lambent sunlight glinting off the waves".
2. Flickering; such as, a flame over a surface without burning it.
3. Having a light but brilliant touch; exhibiting lightness or brilliance of wit; clever or witty without being unkind: "He was a writer known for his lambent wit."
4. Brushing or flickering gently over a surface; softly bright or radiant.
5. Etymology: moving lightly over a surface, flickering, shimmering from 1647, borrowed from Latin lambentem, lambens, present participle of lambere, "to lick".