5 Words. What they mean, where they come from and relevant popular culture or literary references. Build your vocabulary by reading this all in one post.
1. punitive
adjective. inflicting or intended as punishment.
Pronunciation: [pyoo-ni-tiv]
Related: punitively, punitiveness, nonpunitive, nonpunitory, self-punitive
Origin: 1620s, “inflicting or involving punishment,” from French punitif or directly from Latin punitus, past participle of punire “to punish, correct, chastise”.
Punitive damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. Also, the name of a 1999 documentary on New Zealander Helen Todd’s law suit against an Indonesian general that she pursued after her son, Kamal, was shot dead in the Dili massacre in East Timor.
2. chaste
adjective. abstaining from or not having any sexual nature or intention. without unnecessary ornamentation; simple or restrained.
Pronunciation: [cheyst]
Related: chastely, chasteness
Origin: “virtuous, pure from unlawful sexual intercourse”, from Old French chaste “morally pure”, from Latin castus “clean, pure, morally pure”.
Sweet little chaste woman / Why are you holding your breath in an ocean? / Where the abyss is infinitely deep / Skiing mountains, dangerously steep: from Chastity, a song by iiO.
3. impediment
noun. a hindrance or obstruction in doing something.
Pronunciation: [im-ped-uh-muh nt]
Related: impedimental, impedimentary, nonimpedimental
Origin: c. 1400, from Latin impedimentem “hindrance,” from impedire “impede,” literally “to shackle the feet”.
From the world of Harry Potter, Impedimenta or the impediment jinx is used to slow the target. “Swift use of this jinx can freeze an attacker for a few moments, or stop a magical beast in its tracks.” – Miranda Goshawk in the Book of Spells.
4. corroborate
verb. confirm or give support to (a statement, theory, or finding).
Pronunciation: [kuh-rob-uh-reyt] / [kuh-rob-er-it]
Related: corroborative, corroboratively, corroboratorily, corroborator
Origin: 1530s, “to give confirmation to,” from Latin corroboratus, past participle of corroborare “to strengthen, invigorate”.
In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes: Their evidence, corroborated by that of several friends, tends to show that Sir Charles’s health has for some time been impaired, and points especially to some affection of the heart, manifesting itself in changes of color, breathlessness, and acute attacks of nervous depression.
5. exhume
verb. dig out (something buried, especially a corpse) from the ground.
Pronunciation: [ig-zoom, -zyoom, eks-hyoom]
Related: exhumation, exhumer
Origin: early 15c., from Medieval Latin exhumare “to unearth”, from Latin ex-“out of” + humare “bury,” from humus “earth”.
Watch The Case of the Exhumed Client, the 31th episode of the 1954-55 Sherlock Holmes series where Sir Charles Farnsworth is found dead in his mysterious Farnsworth Castle.
Sources:
Apart from Google search, the data in this series is taken from Dictionary.com, Online Etymology Dictionary and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.