Carolina Institute for Faith & Culture

Paul Schleifer According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, recondite means “1: difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend; 2 : of, relating to, or dealing with […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.etymonline.com, mordant enters the English language in the “late 15c., ‘caustic’ (of words, speech), from Middle French mordant, literally ‘biting,’ present participle of mordre ‘to bite,’ from Latin mordere ‘to bite, bite […]

Paul Schleifer Yea, right! That’s a word? Does it mean a person whose expertise is catching eels? Or perhaps a person who makes eels out of something else? Or perhaps […]

Paul Schleifer According to the OED, pivotal means, “Of, relating to, or acting as a pivot; being that on which anything turns or depends; central, crucial, vital.” So, what’s a […]

Paul Schleifer Neoteric means “modern; new; recent.” It sounds like a new word, a neologism, because it is one you’ve probably never heard before, but according to www.etymonline.com, it entered […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.dictionary.com, cabal means “1. a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority; 2. the plots and schemes of such a […]

Paul Schleifer The word phoenix comes into English during the Old English period, from Medieval Latin phenix, which came from the Greek phoenix. It is unclear exactly which Greek meaning […]

Paul Schleifer Orthoepy is the study of correct pronunciation, or of the received pronunciation. In English, it once meant specifically the study of Received Pronunciation, or RP, which was the […]

Paul Schleifer The word inscape was coined in the 19th century by the British priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. According to www.dictionary.com, it means “the essential inner nature of […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.etymonline.com, Easter is from “Old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic *austron-, “dawn,” also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring, perhaps originally of sunrise, whose feast […]

Paul Schleifer Querulous is an adjective that can mean two different but very similar things. First, about a person, it can mean “full of complaints” or “complaining.” But it can […]

Paul Schleifer A colleague is “’an associate in office, employment, or labor,’ 1530s, from Middle French collègue (16c.), from Latin collega ‘partner in office,’ from assimilated form of com ‘with, together’ (see com-) + leg-, stem of legare ‘send as […]