Word - 26

NATATORIAL \nay-tuh-TOR-ee-ul\ adjective

*1 : of or relating to swimming

2 : adapted to or characterized by swimming

Example sentence:

The Olympic swimmer's natatorial prowess was on full display as she won her fifth gold medal.

Did you know?

On a warm spring weekday afternoon, the local swimming hole beckons... and boys will be boys. "Mr. Foster [the town truant officer] knew very well where to find us... at our vernal and natatorial frolics," confessed John Gould in _The Christian Science Monitor_ (January 10, 1992), some 70 years after that warm spring day of his youth. The Latin verb "natare," meaning "to swim," gave English the word "natatorial" and its variant "natatory." It also gave us "natant" ("swimming or floating in water"); "supernatant" ("floating on the surface"); "natation" ("the action or art of swimming"); and last but not least, "natatorium" ("an indoor swimming pool").

Word - 25

CAUSTIC \KAWSS-tik\ adjective

1 : capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action : corrosive
*2 : marked by incisive sarcasm

Example sentence:
She always seemed to have a caustic reply to any silly or unnecessary question.

Did you know?

If you have a burning desire to know the origins of "caustic," you're already well on the way to figuring it out. "Caustic" was borrowed into English in the 14th century from the Latin "causticus," which itself derives from the Greek "kaustikos." "Kaustikos," in turn, comes from the Greek verb "kaiein," meaning "to burn." Other "kaiein" descendants in English include "cautery" and "cauterize," "hypocaust" (an ancient Roman heating system), "causalgia" (a burning pain caused by nerve damage), and "encaustic" (a kind of paint which is heated after it's applied).