English Words: Their Origins and Historical Evolutions +

1. A great landed estate; especially, of the ancient Romans.
2. A large landed property.
3. Etymology: from Latin latus, "broad, spacious" + fundus, "farm, estate, base".

The basis of the latifundia in Italy and Sicily was the ager publicus(public land of the Roman Republic and Empire) which fell to the dispensation of the state through Rome's policy of war in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD.

As much as a third of the arable land of a new province was taken for agri publici and then divided up with at least the false condition of a competitive auction for lease holdings rather than outright ownership.

In theory, title to the land remained in the name of the state, but in practice, Rome's wealthiest citizens were able to buy up leases and begin farming latifundia or "plantations".

Later in the Roman Empire, as leases were inherited, ownership of the former common lands became established by tradition, and the leases became taxable.

Latifundia are pieces of property covering tremendous areas or great landed estates, specializing in agriculture destined for export; including such things as, grain, olive oil, wine, etc.

1. Shockingly repellent; inspiring horror: "The teacher kept telling macabre tales of wars and plagues which occurred in the Middle Ages."
2. Including gruesome and horrific details of death and decay.
3. Constituting or including a representation of death; gruesome, horrific, or ghastly.
4. Etymology: from Old French danse macabré, "dance of death".

1. Angry; resentful, infuriated: "Her haughtiness makes her father mad."
2. Suffering from a disorder of the mind; insane, deranged: "Van Gogh had periods during which he was completely mad."
3. Temporarily or apparently deranged by violent sensations, emotions, or ideas: "She was mad with jealousy."
4. Lacking restraint or reason; foolish: "I was mad to have hired both of them in the first place."
5. Feeling or showing strong liking or enthusiasm; excited, impassioned: "His daughter was mad about sports."
6. Marked by extreme excitement, confusion, or agitation: "There was a mad scramble for the tickets to the Olympic games."
7. Boisterously gay; hilarious: "We had a mad time at the birthday party."
8. Affected by rabies; rabid.

For decades, language purists have been telling people that mad refers only to "insanity" and that we should not use it to mean "angry".

Regardless, mad does mean "angry", and expressions; such as, "I'm mad at him" and "She's mad because she wasn't invited to the party" are considered acceptable usages; although using such an expression in formal writing might be considered too informal and less desirable than using angry.

The origin of mad is the shortened form of Old English gemad, "insane".

1. A violent or turbulent situation: "The country was caught in the maelstrom of war."
2. A whirlpool of extraordinary size or violence.
3. A situation marked by confusion, turbulence, strong feelings, violence, or destruction.
4. Etymology: from obsolete Dutch malen, "to grind, to whirl" (from Middle Dutch) + Dutch stroom, "stream".

Example in usage: "Hungary caught in a maelstrom; the country's financial woes put focus on prime issue confronting G-20 leaders."

1. An independent thinker who refuses to conform to what are considered to be "accepted views" on a subject or someone who exhibits great independence in thoughts and actions; a dissenter; such as, maverick politicians or a maverick decision.
2. The very first "maverick" was a 19th century Texas cattleman named Samuel Augustus Maverick who became famous for not branding his cattle.

His cattle, left unidentified and free to roam, were often "adopted" by other ranchers who termed them "mavericks", and by the end of the century "maverick" had come to mean any sort of rootless wanderer or rebel.

3. Etymology: from 1867, "a calf or yearling found without an owner's brand"; with a reference to Samuel A. Maverick (1803-1870), a Texas cattle owner who was negligent about branding his calves.

The sense of being "an individualist" or "an unconventional person" was first recorded in 1886, via the notion of being "without a master" or "without controls".

1. Absolute chaos or severe disruption: "When the teacher left the room, it was mayhem in the class.
2. A state of violent disorder or riotous confusion; havoc.
3. Malicious injury that disfigures or disables a person; therefore, the offense of willfully maiming or crippling someone.
4. Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing; wanton destruction.
5. Etymology: from 1472, which came from Anglo-French maihem, from Old French mahaigne, "injury"; related to mahaignier, "to maim".

Originally, in law, the crime of maiming a person to make him less able to defend himself or to annoy one's adversary.

The term maim refers to "inflict a severe and permanent injury on a person or animal"; especially, one that injures or wounds seriously and leaves permanent disfiguration or mutilation of a bodily limb (leg or arm).

1. Coarsely ground foodstuff; especially, seeds of various cereal grasses or pulse.
2. The food served and eaten at one time.
3. Any of the occasions for eating food that occur by custom or habit at more or less fixed times.
4. Etymologies:

1. meal: "food, time for eating", Old English mael, "fixed time, a measure, a meal".
2. meal: "ground grain", Old English melu, from West Germanic melwan, "grind".

1. Someone who lives near or next door to, or close to, another person or people.
2. A person, place, or thing located next to another or very close.
3. To be located very close to something or someone, or to be close to something in character.
4. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another.

The source of our word neighbor is the assumed West Germanic form nhgabr, and was a compound of the words nhwiz, “near” and bram, “dweller, especially a farmer”.

A neighbor, then, was a near dweller. Nahgebr, the Old English descendant of this West Germanic word, and its descendant in Middle English, neighebor, and our Modern English "neighbor" have all retained the literal notion of a situation that probably would have been highly unlikely in earlier times.

A new word, involving "neighborhood" is "gayborhood" or a district either explicitly or implicitly understood to be the place to go if a person is "gay"; that is, "happy" or "joyful".

1. Insignificant or unimportant or contemptibly small in amount: "I was offered a paltry sum of money for showing the ads on my web site."
2. Lacking in importance or worth.

Named after the French chemist and bacteriologist, 1822-1895, Louis Pasteur; who's name has been immortalized in the word pasteurize because of his discovery of a method for checking excessive fermentation and reducing disease in such liquids as wine, beer, and milk by heating them not only revolutionized the French wine and beer industries, but it has since saved the lives of many thousands of milk drinkers as well.

The word pasteurization refers to the process originated by Pasteur in which milk or another liquid is heated to a specified moderate temperature for a set period of time; for example, to 60 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes, in order to kill pathogenic bacteria and to delay the growth of other bacteria.

The pasteurizer is an appliance or machine for performing pasteurism; as well as, the person who carries out the process of pasteurization.

1. Someone who makes comments or judgments, especially in an authoritative manner; a critic or commentator.
2. Someone with knowledge and wisdom.
3. A learned person, an expert, or an authority.
4. Etymology: from Hindi pandit from Sanskrit pandita, "learned".

1. An outburst of uncontrolled violent or riotous behavior, or a series of violent or riotous actions.
2. To engage in uncontrolled violent or riotous behavior, or commit a series of violent or riotous acts.

Being on a rampage is behavior in a wild and uncontrolled manner.

3. Etymology: probably from a Middle English verb ramp, "rave, rush wildly about" from about 1300, with special reference to "beasts rearing on their hind legs", as if climbing, from Old French ramper.

1. Proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern: "They made random selections of people who could participate in the TV quiz."
2. Characterizing a process of selection in which each item of a set has an equal probability of being chosen.
3. In building construction: with reference to building materials; lacking uniformity of dimensions; constructed or applied without regularity.
4. Etymology: "having no definite aim or purpose", 1655, from at random (1565), "at great speed" (thus, "carelessly, haphazardly"); alteration of Middle English randon, "impetuosity, speed" (c.1305), from Old French randon, "rush, disorder, force, impetuosity"; from randir, "to run fast", from Frankish rant, "a running".

Indefiniteness or an error in a measurement process that varies unsystematically or unpredictably from measurement to measurement; its magnitude may be quantifiable by statistical methods.

1. To look at attentively; to observe closely.
2. To look upon or to consider in a particular way: "His behavior was regarded as foolish."
3. To hold in esteem or respect: "The students have high regards their teachers."
4. To take into account; to consider.
5. To have regards for; good wishes expressing such sentiment: "Give your family my best regards."
6. Etymology: from Old French regard, from regarder, "to take notice of"; from re-, intensive prefix + garder, "look, heed". Meanings: "consideration, appearance, kindly feeling" all recorded in the late 14th century.