Word of the Week – Miniature

by Roseanna White | May 13, 2019 | Word of the Week

This ranks as another of those words that surprised me!

I’ve long known that people used to call small portraits miniatures–but what I didn’t realize was that the “small” part wasn’t the root of the word.

In fact, the word miniature comes from the Latin miniare, which means “to paint red.” (Red being one of the primary colors used in illumination [illustration] of manuscripts.) Who knew?! So back in the day, when people were making books by hand, they would put small pictures onto the page and color them in, which they, therefore, called “miniatures.” So naturally, it was only a matter of time before it came to mean any “small picture.” And from there, it shifted to mean anything small!

Word of the Week – Boycott

by Roseanna White | May 6, 2019 | Word of the Week

No, I’m not advocating one of anything. 😉 I just read the history of the word in my son’s vocab book and thought I’d share.

Word of the Week – Opportunity

by Roseanna White | Apr 29, 2019 | Word of the Week

This is one I’ve never thought to look up the meaning of before! But it appeared in my son’s vocabulary book, so I’ll happily soak up the knowledge. 😉

Opportunity comes to us via French, directly from Latin. It means, in all those languages “fitness, convenience, suitableness, favorable time.” But what I didn’t realize was that it’s actually a combination of three Latin words: ob portum veniens. Literally, “coming toward a port.”


According to the vocab book, sailors identified “coming toward a port” as when they’d have the chance/time/be able to do the things they couldn’t do at sea. It may also have to do with the fact that they had to await the tides and weather to be able to come into port, so that “favorable” circumstance was kind of built into it already.

Who knew it was so nautical?

Word of the Week – Scale

by Roseanna White | Apr 22, 2019 | Word of the Week

I always find it interesting when a word with different meanings comes, in fact, from different root words. Such is the case with scale.

Though that single English word can mean many different things–fish’s scale, or a scale that builds up on something; to scale a mountain; something that measures weights–none of those meanings actually have anything to do with each other!

The first meaning comes from the Old French escale, meaning “shell,” hence being applied to thin, hard plates on animals.

The Latin word scala means ladder, which is where our “climb” meaning comes from.

And there’s an old Scandinavian word, skal, that means “bowl”–which were used for measuring in the old-timey scale versions that we all recognize but probably don’t have in our house these days. 😉

Now, why we gave them all the same spelling in English…I have no idea, LOL.

Word of the Week – Mediocre

by Roseanna White | Apr 15, 2019 | Word of the Week

So mediocre has meant the same thing since it entered English round about 1580: “of moderate quality, neither good nor bad.”

But I’d never really looked it up to realize where it comes from. Medi- of course means “middle” or “halfway” in Latin, which we know from other words like medium, etc. But what about the second half of the word? That comes from the Latin ocri, which means…”mountain.” Who knew? Mediocre is literally “halfway up the mountain.” From that literal meaning, the word has pretty much always meant “of middling height or station.”

I think what I like about this though is that “halfway up the mountain” implies (in my mind, at least) a journey. We all start at the bottom and hike our way up. Maybe we’re mediocre at something now, but that’s just because it’s a step along the way… 😀😀

Word of the Week – Sinister

by Roseanna White | Apr 8, 2019 | Word of the Week

Yet another homeschool-inspired Word of the Week–this one from my daughter, who bounced out to the kitchen the other day to say, “Do you know where the word sinister comes from?”

To which I replied, stopping what I was doing, “No! Tell me!” And so she did. 😀 (I adore my word-loving children, LOL.)

So apparently sinister comes Latin by way of Greek and literally means “from the left.” As soon as she said that, I said, “Of course!” I’m sure we’ve all heard the medieval superstition about the left side being unlucky–which was why left-handed children for centuries were forced to use their right hand in school.

But I hadn’t realized the full scope–and the complication–of this. Apparently this particular movement of “from the left” to “unlucky” and finally “evil” started with omen-reading. Greeks would always face north when reading omens. And so, things like bird flights seen on the left were considered bearers of ill-tidings and misfortune. However, Romans actually often faced south…and when they did so, omens seen on the left side were actually considered favorable! So in Latin, this word can actually mean two opposite things–the Greek-inspired “unfortunate” as well as their own “fortunate.” How confusing must that be?

Sinister entered English in the 15th century with the meaning of “prompted by malice, intending to deceive.” This meaning was directly influenced by the idea of something unfavorable coming from the left-hand side. But by the end of the century, the meaning we still know today–evil–had taken hold.