boniface - Word of the Day - 21/12/17

boniface

noun

Pronunciation

BAH-nuh-fuss
 

Definition

: the proprietor of a hotel, nightclub, or restaurant

Did You Know?

Boniface has been the name of eight popes, one antipope, and one saint, but none of those had anything (directly) to do with the English word boniface. The word boniface comes from the name of the jovial innkeeper in George Farquhar's 1707 play The Beaux' Strategem, the story of two penniless rakes who determine that one of them must find and marry a wealthy lady. Farquhar's play made more than one contribution to the English language. The name of the character Lady Bountiful is a byword for a generous (and often conspicuously so) philanthropist. Farquhar, incidentally, never got to see the influence his play had on the lexicon. He finished The Beaux' Strategem on his deathbed, and died on the night of its third performance.

Examples

"Vince Bommarito, boniface of Tony's restaurant at 410 Market Street, said last week was one of his busiest in years and that this week is shaping up to look the same." — Deb Peterson, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 18 Oct. 2011

"In 1901, a correspondent writing to a local paper about the pubs of Cardiff said … that its former name was Winstones, having been kept by the late Alderman John Winstone, 'a rare old bluff gentleman who, for some years, like a good many more bonifaces, was a member of our local parliament.'" — Brian Lee, WalesOnline, 20 Mar. 2014

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for an English class of landed gentry or landed proprietors in the past: s _ _ ir _ a _ c _ y.

Merriam-Webster

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recumbent - Word of the Day - 20/12/17

recumbent

adjective

Pronunciation

 rih-KUM-bunt 

Definition

1 a : suggestive of repose : leaning, resting

   b : lying down

2 : representing a person lying down

3 : (of a bicycle) having the seat positioned so that the rider's legs are extended horizontally forward to the pedals and the body is reclined

Did You Know?

If you're ready to take your vocabulary lying down, you'll want to be familiar with the synonyms recumbent, prone, supine, and prostrate, all of which mean "lying down." Recumbent, which derives from the Latin prefix re- and the verb cumbere, meaning "to lie down," focuses on the posture or position native to sleeping or resting. Prone describes someone who is lying facedown, as, for example, in doing push-ups. Supine flips it over, suggesting the position of someone lying inert on the back, while prostrate implies a full-scale physical collapse or submission, regardless of the exact position of the defeated body. Recumbent, dating from 17th century, is the newest of the four words; the others all entered English before the 16th century.

Examples

When Bert glanced at his father's recumbent form in the armchair, he immediately realized that he could use a good nap himself.

"The exhibit includes a limestone statue of a recumbent lion carved between 305 and 30 BCE." — Amy McRary, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 29 Jan. 2017

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of recumbent that is used especially to mean "lying down with the head up": c _ _ c _ a _ t.

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

stultify - Word of the Day - 19/12/17

stultify

verb

Pronunciation

STUL-tuh-fye

Definition

1 : to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical

2 a : to impair, invalidate, or make ineffective : negate

   b : to have a dulling or inhibiting effect on

Did You Know?

Stupid or absurd behavior can be almost laughable at times. That's the kind of situation depicted in an 1871 London Daily News article, describing how a witness "stultified himself" by admitting that he was too far off to hear what he had claimed to have heard. But there is nothing especially funny about the now-archaic original usage of stultify. The word was first used in the mid-1700s in legal contexts, where if you stultified yourself, you claimed to be of unsound mind and thus not responsible for your acts. Nor is there humor in the most common meaning of stultify nowadays, that of rendering someone or something useless or ineffective.

Examples

What started out as a promising plan to redesign the town square ended up being stultified by bureaucracy and too many conflicting special interests.

"But I have found the capacity to block off certain thoughts. Like, with this film, about the scale of it or how people loved the Potter films and what's at stake and not wanting to screw it up. I'm getting better at blocking that part of my head because it can stultify you." — Eddie Redmayne, quoted in The Straits Times (Singapore), 16 Nov. 2016

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of stultify meaning "to invalidate or make ineffective": _ u _ l _ _ y.

Merriam-Webster

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permeable - Word of the Day - 18/12/17

permeable

adjective

PER-mee-uh-bul

 Pronunciation

Definition

: capable of being permeated : penetrable; especially : having pores or openings that permit liquids or gases to pass through

Did You Know?

The synonyms permeable and pervious both make good use of the Latin prefix per-, meaning "through." Permeable traces back to a combination of per- and the Latin verb meare, meaning "to go" or "to pass," whereas the history of pervious calls upon Latin via, meaning "way." Both permeable and its more common relative, the verb permeate, still retain the original Latin idea of "passing through." Pervious also has the connotation of "penetrating through" but is also used to describe a susceptible mind, as in "Though set in his ways, the professor was pervious to reason." The prefix per- also gave English pervade, meaning "to become diffused throughout every part of." Meare also has other English descendants, including congé, which can mean "a formal permission to depart," and irremeable, meaning "offering no possibility of return."

Examples

"More rigid, less permeable foam insulation lines the home's walls to block wind and water from breaching its facade." — Troy McMullen, Forbes, 30 Aug. 2017

"Massachusetts politicians chasing the company will soon realize just how insular and secretive Amazon is. I often compare it to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. They sometimes invite people in—to hire them or pitch them to be customers of collaborators—but the current headquarters in Seattle is not a very permeable place." — Scott Kirsner, The Boston Globe, 29 Oct. 2017

Quiz

Unscramble the letters to create a verb that means "to pass through a permeable substance": NUASDTER.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

lothario - Word of the Day - 17/12/17

lothario

noun

Pronunciation

loh-THAIR-ee-oh
 

Definition

: a man whose chief interest is seducing women

Did You Know?

Lothario comes from The Fair Penitent (1703), a tragedy by Nicholas Rowe. In the play, Lothario is a notorious seducer, extremely attractive but a haughty and unfeeling scoundrel beneath his charming exterior. He seduces Calista, an unfaithful wife and later the fair penitent of the title. After the play was published, the character of Lothario became a stock figure in English literature. For example, Samuel Richardson modeled the character of Lovelace on Lothario in his 1748 novel Clarissa. As the character became well known, his name became progressively more generic, and lothario (often capitalized) has since been used to describe a foppish, unscrupulous rake.

Examples

"He was now quite an elderly Lothario, reduced to the most economical sins; the prominent form of his gaiety being this of lounging at Mr. Gruby's door, embarrassing the servant-maids who came for grocery, and talking scandal with the rare passers-by." — George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life, 1858

"He probably even envisioned himself as a prized Lothario, never for a moment identifying with this observation by the great songwriter Kinky Friedman: 'Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.'" — Joe Fitzgerald, The Boston Herald, 16 Oct. 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create a word for a conceited foolish person or a fop: CMCXBOO.

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

terpsichorean - Word of the Day - 16/12/17

terpsichorean

adjective

Pronunciation

terp-sih-kuh-REE-un

 Definition

: of or relating to dancing

Did You Know?

In Greek and Roman mythology, Terpsichore was one of the nine muses, those graceful sister-goddesses who presided over learning and the arts. Terpsichore was the patron of dance and choral song (and later lyric poetry), and in artistic representations she is often shown dancing and holding a lyre. Her name, which earned an enduring place in English through the adjective terpsichorean, literally means "dance-enjoying," from terpsis, meaning "enjoyment," and choros, meaning "dance." Choros is also the source of choreography and chorus (in Athenian drama, choruses consisted of dancers as well as singers). The only other word we know that incorporates terpsis is terpodion, an obsolete term for a piano-like musical instrument that was invented around 1816 but never really caught on.

Examples

"Cronkhite's exuberant dances look great but let the kids act like kids, and don't demand terpsichorean polish beyond the cast's abilities." — Marty Clear, The Bradenton Herald, 13 Jan. 2017

"The musical theater specialists at Signature Theatre will test their terpsichorean mettle with the toe-tappin' 'Crazy for You,' the show that clinched Susan Stroman's reputation as a gleeful and inventive choreographer...." — Nelson Pressley, The Washington Post, 8 Sept. 2017

Word  Quiz

What word derived from Greek choros refers to an old round dance with singing or to a song of joy?

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

fructify- Word of the Day - 15/12/17

fructify

verb

Pronunciation

FRUK-tuh-fye 

Definition

1 : to bear fruit
2 : to make fruitful or productive

Did You Know?

Fructify derives from Middle English fructifien and ultimately from the Latin noun fructus, meaning "fruit." When the word was first used in English in the 14th century, it literally referred to the actions of plants that bore fruit; later it was used transitively to refer to the action of making something fruitful, such as soil. The word also expanded to encompass a figurative sense of "fruit," and it is now more frequently used to refer to the giving forth of something in profit from something else (such as dividends from an investment). Fructus also gave us the name of the sugar fructose, as well as usufruct, which refers to the legal right to enjoy the fruits or profits of something that belongs to someone else.

Examples

My parents are in a comfortable financial position, thanks to some investments that have recently begun to fructify.

"I don't care for the jokey body language and elaborate costuming of the four male bees in the Waltz of the Flowers, and yet I find myself paying close attention each time to how tightly they're woven into the musical tapestry. They're not just there to fructify the 16 female flowers, they also become part of one dance pattern after another…." — Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times, 16 Dec. 2013

Test Your Vocabulary

What verb can mean "to break at once into pieces" or "to drop off leaves, petals, or fruit"?

Merriam-Webster

http://plotsandtension.blogspot.com.au/

gravamen - Word of the Day - 14/12/17

gravamen

noun

Pronunciation

gruh-VAY-mun 

Definition

: the material or significant part of a grievance or complaint

Did You Know?

Gravamen is not a word you hear every day, but it does show up occasionally in modern-day publications. It comes from the Latin verb gravare, meaning "to burden," and ultimately from the Latin adjective gravis, meaning "heavy." Fittingly, gravamen refers to the part of a grievance or complaint that gives it weight or substance. In legal contexts, gravamen is used, synonymously with gist, to refer to the grounds on which a legal action is sustainable. Gravis has given English several other weighty words, including gravity, grieve, and the adjective grave, meaning "important" or "serious."

Examples

The gravamen of Walter's letter to the editor was that the newspaper frequently reported on the school system's failures but rarely covered its successes and improvements.

"In the ultimate legal absurdity, even the prosecutors trying the case occasionally are barred from seeing the evidence that provides the gravamen of their arguments."

Word Quiz

What is the meaning of the adjective gravid (a descendant of Latin gravis)?

Merriam-Webster

diaphanous - Word of the Day - 13/12/17

diaphanous

adjective

Pronunciation

 dye-AF-uh-nus
 

Definition

1 : characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through
2 : characterized by extreme delicacy of form : ethereal
3 : insubstantial, vague

Did You Know?

Can you guess which of the following words come from the same Greek root as diaphanous?
A. epiphany B. fancy C. phenomenon D. sycophant E. emphasis F. phase
The Greek word phainein shows through more clearly in some of our quiz words than others, but it underlies all of them. The groundwork for diaphanous was laid when phainein (meaning "to show") was combined with dia- (meaning "through"). From that pairing came the Greek diaphanēs, parent of the Medieval Latin diaphanus, which is the direct ancestor of our English word.


"For an hour and 45 minutes, Jackson wound through the various chapters of her career, directing her diaphanous voice to nearly three dozen songs…. " — Brian McCollum, The Detroit Free Press, 30 Oct. 2017

"… no element of Sienna Miller’s wardrobe—the hippy vests, the diaphanous vintage dresses, the scrunched, sun-weathered lace blouses—went undiscussed or undocumented." — Mark Holgate, Vogue, 30 Oct. 2017

Word Quiz

What word is derived from Greek phainein ("to show") and is the name for the luminous floating shapes that you see when closing your eyes tight and pressing them with your fingers?

Merriam-Webster

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sustain - Word of the Day - 12/12/17

sustain

verb

Pronunciation

suh-STAYN

Definition

1 : to provide with nourishment
2 : keep up, prolong
3 : to support the weight of : prop; also : to carry or withstand (a weight or pressure)
4 a : to buoy up
   b : suffer, undergo
5 a : to support as true, legal, or just
   b : to allow or admit as valid

Did You Know?

Sustain, prop, buttress, and brace all mean "to provide support for something or someone." Sustain (from Latin sus-, meaning "up," plus tenēre, meaning "to hold") may suggest constantly holding up or maintaining ("the floor sustains the weight of dozens of bookcases"). Prop often implies a tendency to fall, sink, or recede on the part of the thing being treated—and therefore, a need for strengthening or reinforcing ("propped up the damaged fence with long boards"). Buttress tends to involve strengthening, reinforcing, or stabilizing at a stress point ("buttress the economy"). Brace typically suggests supporting or strengthening so that the thing treated is made firm, unyielding, or rigid against pressure ("brace the shelf with an angle iron").

Examples

"It takes a village, a tribe, and a sorority to sustain one another, to flourish and to become an accomplished adult. So sisterhood means inspiring women around me, encouraging each other, crying, laughing, stumbling, and continuing on the path." — Diana Tofan, Glamour, November 2017

"So one of our main goals was how can we make the game safer, prevent the injury that I sustained and that others sustained, head and neck injuries, from happening without affecting the speed, intensity, heritage or adding any more rules to the game." — Thomas Smith, quoted on National Public Radio, 6 Jan. 2014

Word  Quiz

What offspring of tenēre means "a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true"?

Merriam-Webster

http://writingforchildrenstage.blogspot.com.au/

orphic - Word of the Day - 11/12/17

orphic

adjective

Pronunciation

OR-fik
 

Definition

1 : (capitalized) of or relating to Orpheus or the rites or doctrines ascribed to him
2 : mystic, oracular
3 : fascinating, entrancing

Did You Know?

Orpheus was a hero of Greek mythology who was supposed to possess superhuman musical skills. With his legendary lyre, he was said to be able to make even the rocks and trees dance around. In fact, when his wife Eurydice died, he was nearly able to use his lyre to secure her return from the underworld. Later on, according to legend, he was killed at the bidding of Dionysus, and an oracle of Orpheus was established that came to rival the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. Because of the oracle of Orpheus, orphic can mean "oracular." Because of Orpheus' musical powers, orphic can also mean "entrancing."

Examples

"'No summer ever came back, and no two summers ever were alike,' said I, with a degree of Orphic wisdom that astonished myself." — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance, 1852

"The market skipped higher last week after some Orphic hints from the Federal Reserve Board that it may lower interest rates this summer." — Alison Grant, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 26 Mar. 2007

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for a woman who practices divination: p _ _ ho _ _ s _.

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

cachinnate - Word of the Day - 10/12/17

cachinnate

verb

Pronunciation

 KAK-uh-nayt

Definition

: to laugh loudly or immoderately

Did You Know?

Cachinnate has been whooping it up in English since the 19th century. The word derives from the Latin verb cachinnare, meaning "to laugh loudly," and cachinnare was probably coined in imitation of a loud laugh. As such, cachinnare is much like the Old English ceahhetan, the Old High German kachazzen, and the Greek kachazein—all words of imitative origin that essentially meant "to laugh loudly." Our words giggle and guffaw are unrelated to those (and to each other) but they too are believed to have been modeled after the sound of laughter.

Examples

As the author read from her newest book, we tried to tune out the spectator cachinnating at the back of the auditorium.

"And all the way the Fates walking with him, whispering and cachinnating, ordering him to tread there, breathe here, spit there, unless he wanted to be eviscerated by destiny." — Will Self, Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys, 1998

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create a verb with the meaning "to laugh when amused or pleased": RHTLCOE.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

zoomorphic - Word of the Day - 09/12/17

zoomorphic

adjective

Pronunciation

 zoh-uh-MOR-fik 

Definition

1 : having the form of an animal

2 : of, relating to, or being a deity conceived of in animal form or with animal attributes

Did You Know?

Zo- (or zoo-) derives from the Greek word zōion, meaning "animal," and -morph comes from the Greek morphē, meaning "form." These two forms combined to give us the adjective zoomorphic in the 19th century to describe something that resembles an animal. English includes other words that were formed from zo- or zoo-, such as zoology (made with -logy, meaning "science"). And there are also other words that were formed from -morph, such as pseudomorph, for a mineral having the outward form of another species. (The combining form pseud- or pseudo- means "false.")

Examples

The couple could not agree on a dining room set: one preferred a sleek, modern style, while the other liked a more elaborate one with the table and chairs ending in zoomorphic clawed feet.

"The vibrant postmodern façades of Mamani's buildings (and their imitators) contrast with the raw brick and concrete of El Alto's ramshackle architecture.… Ancient motifs, like … zoomorphic figures from mythology, are abstracted and merged with futuristic flourishes." — Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2015

Word Quiz

Fill in the blanks to complete a "morph" word that describes something (such as a lens) that distorts an image: _ n _ morph _ _.

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

wend - Word of the Day - 08/12/17

wend

verb

Pronunciation

WEND
 

Definition

: to direct one's course : travel, proceed

Did You Know?

Wend is related to the verb wind, which means, among other things, "to follow a series of curves and turns." It is also a distant relative of the verb wander. Wend itself began its journey in Old English as wendan, which was used in various now-obsolete senses relating to turning or changing direction or position and which is akin to the Old English windan ("to twist"). Wend has twisted itself into various meanings over the years. Most of its senses—including "to come about," "to depart," "to change," and "to betake"—have since wandered off into obscurity, but its use in senses related to going or moving along a course has lent the English verb go its past tense form went (as a past tense form of wend, went has long since been superseded by wended). The current sense of wend, "to direct or to proceed," is holding steady on the path.

Examples

The hikers wended their way along the forest trail toward the evening's campsite.

"Meanwhile, several lawsuits involving the hotel developments that stoked the city's political divides are still wending their way through the courts." — Sheila Mullane Estrada, The Tampa Bay Times, 13 Oct. 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

What verb beginning with "t" can mean "to travel over" or "to trade or barter"?

Merriam-Webster

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maieutic - Word of the Day - 07/11/17

maieutic

adjective

Pronunciation

may-YOO-tik
 

Definition

: relating to or resembling the Socratic method of eliciting new ideas from another

Did You Know?

Maieutic comes from maieutikos, the Greek word for "of midwifery." In one of Plato's Dialogues, Socrates applies maieutikos to his method of bringing forth new ideas by reasoning and dialogue; he thought the technique analogous to those a midwife uses in delivering a baby (Socrates' mother was a midwife). A teacher who uses maieutic methods can be thought of as an intellectual midwife who assists students in bringing forth ideas and conceptions previously latent in their minds.

Examples

"The maieutic art of Socrates consists, essentially, of asking questions designed to destroy prejudices; false beliefs which are often traditional or fashionable beliefs; false answers, given in the spirit of ignorant cocksureness." — Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, 1962

"Montaigne wrote as a kind of maieutic exercise, a way of drawing his thoughts into the light of day, of discovering what he wanted to say as he said it." — James Somers, The Atlantic, 21 Dec. 2010

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective that means "of, relating to, or associated with childbirth": _ _ s _ et _ ic.

Merriam-Webster

http://grammarandpunctuationmodule4.blogspot.com.au/

candor - Word of the Day - 06/12/17

candor

noun

Pronunciation

KAN-der 

Definition

1 : whiteness, brilliance
2 : freedom from prejudice or malice : fairness
3 : unreserved, honest, or sincere expression : forthrightness

Did You Know?

The origins of candor shine through in its first definition. Candor traces back to the Latin verb candēre ("to shine or glow"), which in turn derives from the same ancient root that gave the Welsh language can, meaning "white," and the Sanskrit language candati, which translates to "it shines." Other descendants of candēre in English include candid, incandescent, candle, and the somewhat less common candent and candescent (both of which are synonyms of incandescent in the sense of "glowing from or as if from great heat"). There is even excandescence, an uncommon word that refers to a feverish condition brought on by anger or passion.

Examples

"In an e-mail, Shonda Rhimes praised [Jenji] Kohan's kindness and candor, calling her one of the few showrunners with whom she can talk honestly about career strategy." — Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker, 4 Sept. 2017

"'I pay very little attention to legal rules, statutes, constitutional provisions,' he said in a retirement interview. He deserves credit for candor, at least." — National Review, 2 Oct. 2017

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word that means "lacking in candor": _ i _ i _ g _ n _ o _ s.

Merriam-Webster

http://writingthestorypruthpunton.blogspot.com.au/

maudlin - Word of the Day - 04/12/17

maudlin

adjective

Pronunciation

MAUD-lin

Definition

1 : drunk enough to be emotionally silly
2 : weakly and effusively sentimental

Did You Know?

The history of maudlin owes as much to the Bible as to the barroom. The biblical Mary Magdalene is often (though some say mistakenly) identified with the weeping sinner who washed Jesus' feet with her tears to repent for her sins. This association led to the frequent depiction of Mary Magdalene as a weeping penitent, and even the name Magdalene came to suggest teary emotion to many English speakers. It was then that maudlin, an alteration of Magdalene, appeared in the English phrase "maudlin drunk," which, as one Englishman explained in 1592, described a tearful drunken state whereby "a fellow will weepe for kindnes in the midst of his Ale and kisse you."

Examples

Rather than give his aunt a maudlin greeting card, Jake looked for one that was more in line with her snarky sense of humor.

"There are scenes of violence, grieving, hardship and heartbreak, but 'Rags' never melts into a puddle of maudlin self-pity. It maintains an optimistic attitude." — James Gill, The New Orleans Advocate, 25 Oct. 2017

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of maudlin: ONLCYIG.

Merriam-Webster

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pillory - Word of the Day - 03/11/17

pillory

noun

Pronunciation

PILL-uh-ree
 

Definition

1 : a wooden frame for public punishment having holes in which the head and hands can be locked
2 : a means for exposing one to public scorn or ridicule

Did You Know?

In days gone by, criminals who got caught might well have found themselves in the stocks (which held the feet or both feet and hands) or a pillory. Both of those forms of punishment—and the words that name them—have been around since the Middle Ages. We latched onto pillory from the Anglo-French pilori, which has the same meaning as our English term but the exact origins of which are uncertain. For centuries, pillory referred only to the wooden frame used to hold a ne'er-do-well, but by the early 1600s, folks had turned the word into a verb for the act of putting someone in a pillory. Within a century, they had further expanded the verb to cover any process that led to as much public humiliation as being pilloried.

Examples

"When I was in college in the 1980s, the general store down the road shamed deadbeats by posting their bounced checks next to the cash register. It was a pillory of sorts, a wall of shame." — Dwight Garner, Esquire, September 2017

"The really offensive thing about the bailouts was … that Congress and the White House and the Treasury and the Fed were more or less making things up as they went along. This bank got rescued, that one didn't. This firm got a bailout on generous terms, that one got the pillory." — Stephen Spruiell and Kevin D. Williamson, The National Review, 5 Apr. 2010

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word that means "an object of ridicule": _ a _ g _ _  n _ s _ oc _.

Merriam-Webster

http://creatingcharactersforfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

intersperse - Word of the Day - 02/12/17

intersperse

verb

Pronunciation

 in-ter-SPERSS

 Definition

1 : to place something at intervals in or among
2 : to insert at intervals among other things

Did You Know?

Intersperse derives from Latin interspersus, formed by combining the familiar prefix inter- ("between or among") with sparsus, the past participle of spargere, meaning "to scatter." In sparsus one finds an ancestor to our adjective sparse, as well as a relative of spark. (The relationship of spark to a word that describes something being scattered about makes sense when you think of sparks bursting or scattering off a flame.) Intersperse is often followed by the preposition with, as in "a straggling street of comfortable white and red houses, interspersed with abundant shady trees" (from H. G.  Wells' 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds).

Examples

The author has interspersed the guidebook with illustrations of the different birds we might encounter on the safari tour.

"Interspersed throughout the beds of deliberately overgrown azaleas, roses, and hydrangeas is the world's largest private collection of sculptures…. — Harper's, 18 Apr. 2017

Word Quiz

What verb derives from Latin spargere ("to scatter") and can mean "to sprinkle with holy water" or "to attack with false charges"?

Merriam-Webster

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