Word of the Day!

compos mentis [kohm-pohs men-tis, kom-puhs men-tis]

adjective:
(Latin) of sound mind, memory, and understanding

Examples:

Each of these stories was, in some measure, autobiographical, and each a reassurance that, despite my worrying, I was still compos mentis. (John L'Heureux, John L'Heureux on Death and Dignity, The New Yorker, April 2019)

Erica Wagner tells us that sometime after 1917, when, in Washington's words, Edmund was "a harmless white haired old man of over 70," a doctor engaged on behalf of the estate of his recently deceased brother Ferdinand had declined to say whether Edmund was compos mentis. Apparently this had been something of a life-long concern. (Richard Howe, Erica Wagner's Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, The Gotham Center for New York City History, September 2018)

"I had little bit of whiplash, I smacked the back of my head," she later recalled on The Jonathan Ross Show. "And I had a man standing over me with a flashlight until about 3am to make sure I was compos mentis." (Nuray Bulbul, Brit Awards: 10 memorable moments ahead of 40th ceremony, BBC, February 2020)

Eldridge gives no facts to support his assumption. If Whitman was compos mentis at this time, the only way to attack his story is to attack the moral character or the memory of the witness. (Emory Holloway, 'Whitman Pursued', American Literature March 1955)

"It is getting the better of me," he said aloud, "and I must not give way. Lunacy is often the development of one idea, while, in other respects, the patient is compos mentis. No, no; a lunatic could not feel as I do." (George Manville Fenn, The Man with a Shadow)


Origin:
Latin, literally 'in command of one's mind,' from compos 'having the mastery of,' from com 'with, together' + stem of potis 'powerful, master' (from PIE root poti- 'powerful; lord'), + mentis, genitive of mens 'mind' (from PIE root men<.em>- 'to think') (Online Etymology Dictionary)

pecuniary [pi-kyoo-nee-er-ee]

adjective:
1 of or relating to money
2 consisting of or given or exacted in money or monetary payments
3 (of a crime, violation, etc.) involving a money penalty or fine

Examples:

By night, she lives alongside four other young women on the top floor in the May Of Teck club which 'exists for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London'. (Claire Wood, Poignant, punchy staging captures Spark’s smart, sassy girls of slender means, The Wee Review, April 2024)

As a result, the claimant requested that a pecuniary sanction be imposed on the respondent for its continued refusal to comply with the arbitral tribunal's order. (Oliver Cojo and Angela Portocarrero, Fine line? A New Case on Arbitrators' Power to Impose Sanctions, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, May 2022)

But to deliberately throw up roadblocks that prevent easy comparisons is to turn up an institution's collective nose at anyone with even the mildest pecuniary concerns. (Ron Lieber, Concealing the Calculus of Higher Education, The New York Times, January 2016)

In Nevada, 'no person actively engaged or having a direct pecuniary interest in gaming activities shall be a member' of the Nevada Gaming Commission, according to state law. (Dana Gentry, Murren's donning of multiple hats may prove problematic, Nevada Current, December 2024)

But they, Exalted Creatures! scorned to reflect a moment on their pecuniary Distresses and would have blushed at the idea of paying their Debts.--Alas! (Jane Austen, Love and Friendship)

I had passed over the manner in which this person had remarked that I was more than twenty-one, and that I had no pecuniary interest in my aunt's Will. (Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone)

(click to enlarge)

Pecuniary first appeared in English in the early 16th century and comes from the Latin word pecunia, which means 'money.' Both this root and Latin peculium, which means 'private property,' are related to the Latin noun for cattle, pecus. Among Latin speakers (as among many other populations, past and present) cattle were viewed as a trading commodity, and property was often valued in terms of cattle. Pecunia has also given us impecunious, a word meaning 'having little or no money,' while peculium gave us peculate, a synonym for embezzle. In peculium you might also recognize the word peculiar, which originally meant 'characteristic of only one' or 'distinctive' before acquiring its current meaning of 'strange.' (Merriam-Webster)

monocoque [mon-uh-kohk, -kok]

noun:
1 a type of boat, aircraft, or rocket construction in which the shell carries most of the stresses
2 (automotive) a type of vehicular construction in which the body is combined with the chassis as a single unit
adjective:
of or relating to the design characteristic of a monocoque

The figure is a best early estimate for repairs the car, and could yet go up - Red Bull are still looking into whether the monocoque can be repaired or will have to be replaced with a new one. (Andrew Benson, British Grand Prix crash to cost Red Bull £1.3m, says Christian Horner, BBC, July 2021)

The monocoque is the largest single carbon fiber piece in the automotive industry, according to the company, dramatically cutting weight and improving safety. (Sean O'Kane, Rimac reveals the Nevera, a 1,900-horsepower electric hypercar, The Verge, June 2021)

Using a unibody, or monocoque, construction makes these Mustangs stiffer and lighter than a body on frame design. (Karl Brauer, Test-Driving The 'New' 1968 Ford Mustang By Revology Cars, Forbes, November 2024)

The front section, including the cockpit survival cell and the jet engine's air intake, is a carbon fiber monocoque, similar to a top flight race car (and now the occasional road car). (Jonathan M Gitlin, Bloodhound SSC: How do you build a car capable of 1,000mph?, Ars Technica, November 2018)

Origin:
French: mono- + coque, shell (from Old French, from Latin coccum, berry, from Greek kokkos) (The Free Dictionary)

ormolu [awr-muh-loo]

adjective:
1 Any of several copper and zinc or tin alloys resembling gold in appearance and used to ornament furniture, moldings, architectural details, and jewelry
2 an imitation of gold.

(click to enlarge)

Clars had described the clocks in its auction catalog as 'a rare pair of Chinese ormolu bronze automaton clocks' manufactured in a workshop in the southern port city of Guangzhou. (Steven Lee Myers and Graham Bowley, They Look Like the Emperors' Clocks. But Are They Real?, The New York Times, December 2018)

No gilded ormolu appears, certainly, but pieces are not without decorative flourishes. (Antonia van der Meer, Hemingway’s Homey Cuban House, The Wall Street Journal, June 2016)

He claimed almost 100 items had been stolen, including a Persian rug worth £35,000, valuable antiques and clocks, and a 19th century red marble rococo fire surround, with ormolu inserts. (Nina Morgan, St Albans fraudster who staged burglary and committed £1m mortgage fraud jailed, Herts Advertiser, January 2019)

He was rather sorry he had come, till Lady Narborough, looking at the great ormolu gilt clock that sprawled in gaudy curves on the mauve-draped mantelshelf, exclaimed: "How horrid of Henry Wotton to be so late!" (Oscar Wilde, The Picture Of Dorian Gray)

Origin:
1765, 'an alloy of copper, zinc, and tin resembling gold,' from French or moulu, literally 'ground gold,' from or 'gold' (from Latin aurum, from PIE aus- 'gold;' see aureate) + moulu 'ground up,' past participle of moudre 'to grind,' from Latin molere 'to grind' (from PIE root mele- 'to crush, grind'). The sense of the word before it reached English began as 'gold leaf prepared for gilding bronze, brass, etc.,' then shifted to 'gilded bronze,' then to various prepared metallic substances resembling it. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

contemporaneous [kuhn-tem-puh-rey-nee-uhs]

adjective:
existing, beginning, or occurring in the same period of time

Examples:

Some economic data, such as last month’s unemployment rate and consumer-inflation numbers, can’t be compiled retroactively, the Labor Department has said, because they rely on contemporaneous surveys. (Nick Timiraos and Matt Grossman, Wholesale Price Gains Hint at Muted Rise in Fed’s Preferred Inflation Gauge, The Wall Street Journal, November 2025)

These moments of reckoning - in which something that once felt exciting begins to seem noxious, mephitic, dangerous - are important to heed. (Alex Ross, At Ninety, Arvo Pärt and Terry Riley Still Sound Vital, The New Yorker, November 2025)

In addition to contemporaneous comics, architecture, and music, the film explores the influence of the space race on everyday life of the 1960s. (Ben Sachs, Lewis Klahr’s Sixty Six is a masterful journey through inner space and the American past, Chicago Reader, May 2017)

It gave the explanation, gave sanity to the pranks of this atavistic brain of mine that, modern and normal, harked back to a past so remote as to be contemporaneous with the raw beginnings of mankind. (Jack London, Before Adam)

Origin:
'living or existing at the same time,' 1650s, from Late Latin contemporaneus 'contemporary,' from the same Latin source as contemporary but with an extended form after Late Latin temporaneous 'timely.' An earlier adjective was contemporanean (1550s). (Online Etymology Dictionary)

couchant [kou-chuhnt]

adjective:
1 lying down especially with the head up; crouching
1 (Heraldry) represented as lying on its stomach with its hind legs and forelegs pointed forward.

(click to enlarge)

We see Kim getting dressed or undressed, lounging poolside or couchant on beds or 'in my closet in Miami trying on clothes.' (Stephen Burt, Kim, Caitlyn, and the People We Want to See, The New Yorker, July 2015)

As a boy I first scaled this lion couchant by scrambling up the gritstone box of its nose and grabbing handfuls of its mane, namely long, wiry grasses. (Tony Greenbank, Cafe with a view - and a mugful of memories, The Guardian, January 2016)

The centre, which is in the light, is occupied by a couchant lion growling, his one paw on a bundle of arrows, the symbol of the United Provinces. (Sarah Knowles Bolton, Famous European Artists)

It may be seen in various forms on a number of monumental effigies and brasses, usually with the couchant white lion of the house of March as a pendant, but on the accession of Richard III the lion was replaced by his silver boar. (Hope, Sir W H St John, Heraldry for Craftsmen & Designers)

Ahead could be discerned the famous rock, although viewed from an altitude and 'end on' its well-known appearance as a lion couchant was absent. (Percy F Westerman, The Airship Golden Hind)

Origin:
Heraldic couchant ("lying down with the head up") is late 15c, from the French present participle of couch c1300, 'to spread or lay on a surface, to overlay,' from Old French couchier 'to lay down, place; go to bed, put to bed,' from Latin collocare 'to lay, place, station, arrange,' from assimilated form of com 'with, together' + locare 'to place,' from locus 'a place' (Online Etymology Dictionary)