Language

Pulchritudinous (adj) pul-krit-ood-in-us physically beautiful; comely. Pulchritudinous comes from the Latin word pulchritūdō, meaning “beauty.”…

Superfluous (adj) soop-er-flu-us Being more than is sufficient or required; excessive. 1400–50; late Middle English…

Bedevil (verb) be-dev-il to cause confusion or doubt in. edevil, in the featured sense, was…

Layman (noun) lay-man A person who is not a member of a given profession, as…

Obsequy (noun) ob-sek-wee a funeral rite or ceremony. 1350–1400; Middle English obseque (more…)

Trebuchet (noun) treb-oo-shay a medieval engine of war with a sling for hurling missiles. 1300–50;…

Abscond (verb) ab-skond to depart in a sudden and secret manner. The first records of…

Plaudit (noun) plaw-dit an enthusiastic expression of approval. An earlier version of plaudit was plaudite,…

Coom (also coomb) (noun) (Scots) koom Soot, smut First recorded in 1580–90; variant of culm…