My Science School

'Widow' is the only female word in the English language that is shorter than its corresponding male term 'widower'.

A woman who has lost her husband by death and has not married again. The word comes (in Old English) from an Indo-European root meaning ‘be empty’, and may be compared with Sanskrit vidh ‘be destitute’, Latin viduus ‘bereft, widowed’, and Greek eitheos ‘unmarried man’.

The widow is an informal term for champagne, from a translation of French la Veuve Clicquot, a firm of wine merchants.

The Widow at Windsor Queen Victoria after the death of the Prince Consort, in reference to her prolonged withdrawal from public life; the phrase was used as the title of a poem by Rudyard Kipling (1890).

Widow Twankey the name given to Aladdin's mother in in H. J. Byron's dramatization of the story of Aladdin as a pantomime. She was so named in reference to a kind of green tea which was then popular (Byron's play had a number of jokes about China tea). Widow Twankey is now one of the stock characters for this pantomime.

Widow’s cruse an apparently small supply that proves inexhaustible, with biblical allusion to 1 Kings 17:10–16, in the story of the widow to whom Elijah was sent for sustenance. When he asked her for bread, she replied that all she had for herself and her son was ‘an handful of meal…and a little oil in a cruse’; Elijah told her to make a cake of it for him first, and then to make food for herself and her son, since by God's decree neither meal nor oil should be exhausted.

widow's mite a small monetary contribution from someone who is poor, with biblical allusion to Mark 12:42–44 which tells the story of a poor widow who gave to the Temple treasury ‘two mites, which make a farthing’; Jesus, who saw her, told his disciples that she had given more than the richest contributor, because she had given all that she had.

Widow’s peak a V-shaped growth of hair towards the centre of the forehead, especially one left by a receding hairline in a man; held to resemble the peak of a cap traditionally worn by a widow.

Widow’s weeds black clothes worn by a widow in mourning, traditionally including a crape veil and broad white cuffs or ‘weepers’.

Credit :  Oxford Reference 

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Let the cat out of the bag is a common saying that means to make a secret known.

This expression probably dates back to the Middle Ages when unscrupulous vendors in the marketplace would sometimes substitute a cat when someone bought a piglet, putting the cat in a bag where its thrashing would look like the struggle of a pig. Once the buyer walked away, they would let the cat out of the bag, revealing the trickery.

The second theory has to do with a multi-tailed whip that was called a “cat o’ nine tails,” the shortened form being “the cat.” This whip was used for the physical punishment of sailors who broke certain rules (such as theft, I think). This whip, or “cat” was kept in a bag, perhaps to keep the leather from drying out. Anyway, if a time came for a sailor to receive punishment, “the cat” was taken out of the bag, hence the phrase.

Example: James was planning to surprise his wife with a trip to Japan, a place she’s been wanting to visit. He was supposed to keep this a secret until next week, but he let the cat out of the bag early because he was so excited and wanted her to know.

Credit : Know your phrase

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Loophole (or murder hole') comes from the Dutch word liupen, meaning 'to peer'. Loopholes were a vertical slit or opening in the wall of a fortification such as a castle, allowing a defender to look out and shoot arrows or other projectiles while remaining protected. Metaphorically, therefore, the word means a gap, omission, error, ambiguity that one can exploit.

A loophole is a miswritten law or ambiguity in the law or a set of rules that allows someone to circumvent the law or a set of rules. The plural form of loophole is loopholes. Interestingly, the word loophole goes back to the sixteenth century and refers to an architectural feature. In castles of the time, narrow slits were built into the walls where archers could shoot at attackers. These narrow slits were known as loopholes, most probably derived from the Dutch word Iupen meaning to watch. The term loophole came into use in the seventeenth century in a figurative sense to mean a small opening or a outlet of escape.

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Torpor

Meaning:

Torpor is a state of physical/mental inactivity or lethargy. Torpor appears to be an involuntary state that one enters into as the conditions dictate. The term can also refer to the time a hibernator spends at low body temperature, lasting days to weeks.

Origin:

A noun, torpor comes from the Latin torpere meaning "be numb, inactive or sluggish". Its first-known use was in the 13th Century Middle English when it referred to intellectual lethargy. The term resurfaced in the early 17th Century to refer to both mental and physical sluggishness.

Usage:

Lulled by the gentle breeze and soothing music, I drifted into a deep torpor.

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Belligerent

Belligerent means hostile, aggressive or displaying a readiness to fight. It can be used as an adjective as well as a noun. As a noun, it refers to a person, group or country at war or engaged in conflict.

Origin:

Belligerent originates from Latin belligerant meaning "waging war (from bellum meaning "war' and gerere meaning "to carry", "bear" or "to conduct oneself). It has been in use since the late 16th Century.

Usage

The tone of the letter is belligerent and I don't think negotiation will work.   He turns belligerent whenever she brings up the topic of finding employment.

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Anime

The noun refers to Japanese movie and television animation, often with a science fiction subject.

Origin:

The Japanese word for animation, the seems to have arisen in Japan in the 1970s, apparently based on French anime "animated, lively, roused", from the same Latin source as English animate. It is pronounced ah-nee-may.

Example:

Her room had several anime posters.

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Convivial

Meaning:

Convivial means friendly, cheerful and pleasant. Used as an adjective, the term indicates the sociable nature of a person who makes good company. It can also be used to describe an atmosphere that is festive, relaxed and welcoming.

Origin:

The term derives from the Latin convivialis meaning "relating to a feast", which in turn comes from convivium meaning "a banquet" (con-"with or together" + vivere "live"). First coined in the mid-17th Century, it initially meant a festive occasion where there was abundant food and drink. It is said to have taken on the meaning of "sociable" from the 18th Century.

Usage:

I cannot forget the convivial atmosphere at the college reunion. Ravi is a convivial host who always makes his guests feels comfortable.

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Amateur

Amateur is a noun which refers to a person who takes part in an activity as a hobby or for pleasure and not as a job. It could also mean a person who is unskilled in or having only a superficial knowledge of a subject or activity.

Origin

The word comes from French amateur which means "one who loves lover." In 1784, the word meant "one who has a taste for some art, study, or pursuit, but does not practise it." Since 1786, it has been used in its current sense.

Usage

Amateur astronomers gathered to catch the meteor shower. A growing tribe of amateur forecasters are using their spare time to make predictions about weather.

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Vignette

A vignette is a brief scene or a short description in a film or play.

Origin:

The word has its roots in the Middle French noun "vigne", meaning "vine".In the early 17th Century, designs or illustrations were often made along the border of a page. or to demarcate chapters in a book. They came to be called vignettes because they looked like vines. It was only after the late 19th Century, that the word began to be used for a brief literary sketch or a narrative.

Examples:

The documentary is a series of vignettes showing the lives of people during the lockdown imposed on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Conjecture

Meaning:

The word 'conjecture' means speculation, guess or formation of an opinion based on insufficient information or evidence available. In other words, it is a guess about something based on how it seems and not on proof

Origin:

The term originated from the Latin conicere meaning "put together in thought" (con: "together + iacere: "throw"). "Conjecture" entered English in the 14th Century as a noun to refer to the act of interpreting omens from signs. By the 16th Century, it had acquired the meaning of speculation, which is what we follow today. It can be used as both noun and verb.

Usage:

I have never counted the number of mails, but I conjecture that there are more than 20 today. Activity: Use the word in a sentence of your own.

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Luminous

The adjective refers to anything producing or reflecting bright light, especially in the dark. It also means very beautiful.

Origin:

The late Middle English word is from the Old French word "lumineux" or from Latin "luminosus", where lumin means light.

 Example:

My watch has a luminous dial so I can see it in the dark.

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Tsundoku

The Cambridge Dictionary defines this noun as the practice of buying a lot of books and keeping them in a pile because you intend to read them but have not done so yet also used to refer to the pile itself.

Origin:

A Japanese term now used in English, the word can be found in print as early as 1879, meaning it was likely in use before that. The word "doku" can be used as a verb to mean "reading" while the "tsun" originates in "tsumu" - a word meaning "to pile up". So when put together, "tsundoku" has the meaning of buying reading material and piling it up.

Example:

I know that my tsundokus have unlimited patience

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Flaneur

The word is a noun and is used to refer to someone who walks around not doing anything in particular but watching people and society.

Origin:

In use since the 19th Century, the word has origins in French-from the word flaner meaning "to stroll, loaf saunter

Example:

She wanders around with her camera, a flaneur with a keen eye.

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Fluke

The word is a noun referring to an unlikely chance occurrence, especially a surprising piece of luck. Originally a term used in games such as billiards, it denotes a lucky stroke

Origin:

The word is said to have been around since the 12th Century. Its origin itself is not clear although it is possibly an English dialect word. One of the origin stories point to the Low German word flugel (meaning wing), though how this is exactly related to the context of "luck" does not seem to have been established.

Example:

Her second and third awards proved that her first was not a fluke, as many had alleged.

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Anomaly

Anomaly is a thing or a person which is different from what is usual or expected. It could also refer to an error or a mistake in a particular system.

Origins

The word 'anomaly' derives from the Latin anomalia, meaning "inequality".

Examples:

1. The software detected an anomaly caused by the virus.

2. There was an anomaly in his blood test.

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