Word- 170

WISENHEIMER \WYE-zun-hye-mer\ noun

: smart aleck

Example sentence:
"Everybody's a comedian," quipped Lisa, unperturbed, when some wisenheimer in the back row interrupted her speech with a clever comment.

Did you know?

We wouldn't joke around about the origin of this witty word. In the early 20th century, someone had the smart idea to combine the adjective "wise" (one sense of which means "insolent, smart-alecky, or fresh") with "-enheimer," playing on the pattern of family names such as "Oppenheimer" and "Guggenheimer." Of course, "wisenheimer" isn't the only “wise-" word for someone who jokes around. There's also "wiseacre," "wisecracker," "wise guy," and "wisehead." All of these jokesters are fond of making "wisecracks."

Word - 169

UNDULANT \UN-juh-lunt\ adjective

1 : rising and falling in waves

*2 : having a wavy form, outline, or surface

Example sentence:
The undulant foothills gradually give way to the craggy highlands for which Scotland is celebrated.

Did you know?

"Unda," Latin for "wave," ripples through the history of words such as "abound," "inundate," "redound," "surround," and, of course, "undulant," which first showed up in print in English around 1822. (The adjective "undulate," a synonym of "undulant," is almost 200 years older but rarely used today. The far more common verb "undulate" has several meanings including "to form or move in waves.") The meaning of "undulant" is broad enough to describe both a dancer’s hips and a disease marked by a fever that continually waxes and wanes.

Word - 168

SIMULACRUM \sim-yuh-LAK-rum\ noun

1 : image, representation

*2 : an insubstantial form or semblance of something : trace

Example sentence:
The magazine is still in publication, but, since the change in ownership, it is but a simulacrum of its former self.

Did you know?

It's not a figment of your imagination; there is a similarity between "simulacrum" and "simulate." Both of those English words derive from "simulare," a Latin verb meaning "to copy, represent, or feign." In its earliest English uses, "simulacrum" named something that provided an image or representation (as, for instance, a portrait, marble statue, or wax figure representing a person). Perhaps because a simulacrum, no matter how skillfully done, is not the real thing, the word gained an extended sense emphasizing the superficiality or insubstantiality of a thing.

Word - 167

BIFURCATE \BYE-fer-kayt\ verb

: to divide or cause to divide into two branches or parts

Example sentence:

The proposed restructuring would bifurcate the company.

Did you know?

Yogi Berra, the baseball great who was noted for his head-scratching quotes, is purported to have said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi's advice might not offer much help when making tough decisions in life, but perhaps it will help you remember today's word, "bifurcate." A road that bifurcates splits in two like the one in Yogi's adage. Other things can bifurcate as well, such as an organization that splits into two factions. "Bifurcate" derives from the Latin "bifurcus," meaning "two-pronged," a combination of the prefix "bi-" ("two") and the noun "furca" ("fork"). "Furca," as you can probably tell, gave us our word "fork."

Word - 166

KICKSHAW \KICK-shaw\ noun

1 : a fancy dish

*2 : a showy trifle

Example sentence:
The shop was filled with refrigerator magnets, back-scratchers, snow globes, and other kickshaws, all adorned with images of smiling pigs.

Did you know?

"Kickshaw" began its career in the late 16th century as a borrowing from the French "quelque chose" -- literally, "something." In line with the French pronunciation of the day, the "l" was dropped and the word was anglicized as "kickshaws" or "kickshoes." English speakers soon lost all consciousness of the word's French origin and, by taking "kickshaws" as plural, created the new singular noun "kickshaw."