English Word Of The Day

Dwam (Noun)

Pronunciation: [dwom]

Definition: 1) A fainting fit, a swoon; 2) a daydream.

Usage: In north-eastern Scotland a sickly child can be called "dwamie" or "dwamish," demonstrating that the two meanings of "dwam" are not as far apart as they at first appear. The feverish child not only feels faint, but may also drift off into half-waking reveries. To be "in a dwam" is to be far gone in a daydream. The verb "to dwam" means "to faint," but to "dwam over" is simply to drift off gently to sleep or to take a nap.

"Dwamming over" is just as pleasant as it sounds: "I had just dwammed over nicely last Sunday afternoon, when some idiot phoned the wrong number and woke me up." But going into a dwam at the wrong moment can be problematic: "I came out of a dwam at the last board meeting to discover I'd been elected to chair the pay-review committee." (We are thanking Yourdictionary.com again for the nice word and pefect examples!)

Etymology: Originally spelled "dwalm," this word reaches back to an old Germanic "strong" verb (they cahange vowels in the steem) , like "swim : swam." In this case it shifted from "dwel-" and "dwal-" to "dwol-", and meant something like "to be stunned" or "to go astray." From the present tense of the same verb we have derived English "dwell," which originally meant "to delay" or "to desist from action," and only later shifted to take on its modern meaning of staying in one place for some time.

English Word Of The Day

Cleave (Verb)

Pronunciation: [kleev]

Definitions: 1) To split asunder or into two pieces. 2) To cling or adhere firmly to.

Forms: This word has two past tense forms. The past tense of cleave (to cling or adhere to firmly) is "cleaved" or "clove" and the past participle is "cleaved." The past tense of cleave (to split asunder) is are the same, but the past participle is "cleft" (as in "cleft palate") or "cloven" (as in "cloven hoof"). Both verbs are in the process of 'morphological regularization'. That means that irregular (that means not usual) past forms are being replaced by regular forms on -ed.

How to use it: It is possible to use both senses of these verb in one sentence, as in following: "When I clove (cleaved) the log, splinters flew up and clove (cleaved) to my sweater." (Thanks YourDictionary.com for this great word and its interesting usage).

Etymology: The reason this particular verb has two meaning, that are actually antonyms, is is that it is, in fact, two different verbs. The first is from Old English clifian, Middle English clevien, akin to Old High German kleben "to stick." The second is from Old English cleofan, Middle English cleven, akin to Old Norse kljufa "to split," Latin glubere "to peel," and Greek glyphein "to carve" (as in hieroglyphics "sacred carvings").