Thursday word: zyzzyva
Nov. 6th, 2014 08:36 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
prettygoodword.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
1word1dayzyzzyva (ZIZ-uh-vuh) - n., any of various South American weevils of the genus Zyzzyva, often destructive to plants.
The weevils themselves are not very interesting, but the word for them is: it was coined in 1922 by Thomas Casey, the first person to describe the genus in a scholarly paper. No one knows where he got it, though, as there's nothing like it in Latin, Greek, or the local Brazilian languages where it's found -- and it is widely believed he coined it entirely to make it the last word in the dictionary, which it often is. As such, it has another meaning, by way of a metaphoric extension: the last word in a conversation or argument, which even can be used as a verb, to have the last word.
I hate it when you zyzzyva me then flounce out of the room.
ETA: Plus a big thank you to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brendala for filling for me while I was gone. It's good to be back.
---L.
The weevils themselves are not very interesting, but the word for them is: it was coined in 1922 by Thomas Casey, the first person to describe the genus in a scholarly paper. No one knows where he got it, though, as there's nothing like it in Latin, Greek, or the local Brazilian languages where it's found -- and it is widely believed he coined it entirely to make it the last word in the dictionary, which it often is. As such, it has another meaning, by way of a metaphoric extension: the last word in a conversation or argument, which even can be used as a verb, to have the last word.
I hate it when you zyzzyva me then flounce out of the room.
ETA: Plus a big thank you to
brendala for filling for me while I was gone. It's good to be back.---L.
