Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words words that don't betray
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
OP Just by chance I sometimes come across a word that in nothing betrayed me it's meaning. Most of the time I have a guess in some direction, even if it proves to be the wrong one.
This one caught my eye on a random dictionary page ;
sidereal
1634, "of or pertaining to the stars," earlier sideral (1594), from Fr. sidereal (16c.), from L. sidereus "starry, astral," from sidus (gen. sideris) "star, constellation," probably from PIE base *sweid- "to shine" (cf. Lith. svidus "shining, bright").
I didn't see the starry or astral connection in any way. It looked like sidderaal, which in fact means 'electric eel'. but I knew that was nonsense. Surprised to see what it really means.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted words that don't betray BranShea 04/13/09 08:35 AM Re: words that don't betray Faldage 04/13/09 10:32 AM Re: semantic betrayals zmjezhd 04/13/09 12:29 PM Re: semantic betrayals Buffalo Shrdlu 04/13/09 12:55 PM Re: semantic betrayals BranShea 04/13/09 01:36 PM Re: semantic betrayals zmjezhd 04/13/09 02:22 PM Re: semantic betrayals tsuwm 04/13/09 03:20 PM Re: semantic betrayals BranShea 04/13/09 07:25 PM
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,580Members9,187 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Karin, JeffMackwood, artguitar, Jim_W, Rdbuffalo
9,187 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 332 guests, and 0 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 23
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,713tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,931Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org