Word of the Day!

invidious [in-vid-eeuh-s]

adjective:
1 calculated to create ill will or resentment or give offense; hateful.
2 offensively or unfairly discriminating; injurious
3 causing or tending to cause animosity, resentment, or envy.

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I am concerned today with Alfas and a section of the Ulama who engage in mercantilism and invidious rapprochement with occultic powers in order to be up ‘there’ in the world. (Afis A Oladosu, Of prosperity-preachers and materialism, Guardian Nigeria, September 2025)

The committee of the Bureau point out in their letter to the Government of India that in a matter of such importance to all the communities it is better to avoid any invidious distinction as was unfortunately made, and the committee hope that in connection with similar conferences in future Indian representatives will be invited. (Afis A Oladosu, Cotton and wheat conferences, Guardian Nigeria, September 2025)

He believes that awards are 'offensive', and describes them as 'invidious comparisons of works of art'. (Maya Binyam, Percival Everett Can't Say What His Novels Mean, Guardian Nigeria, March 2024)

This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt. (Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things)

The tribes belonging on this economic level have carried the economic differentiation to the point at which a marked distinction is made between the occupations of men and women, and this distinction is of an invidious character. (Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class)

Origin:
c1600, from Latin invidiosus 'full of envy, envious' (also 'exciting hatred, hateful'), from invidia 'envy, grudge, jealousy, ill will' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Fittingly, invidious is a relative of 'envy.' Both are descendants of invidia, the Latin word for envy, which in turn comes from invidēre, meaning 'to look askance at' or 'to envy.' These days, however, invidious is rarely used as a synonym for 'envious.' The preferred uses are primarily pejorative, describing things that are unpleasant (such as 'invidious choices' and 'invidious tasks') or worthy of scorn ('invidious remarks' or 'invidious comparisons') (Merriam-Webster)

incarnadine [in-kahr-nuh-dahyn, -din, -deen]

adjective:
1 blood-red; crimson
2 flesh-colored; pale pink
verb:
to make incarnadine, redden

Examples:

Inspired by the dreamlike, incarnadine color schemes of the series' covers, this piece exudes a fresh and fearsome attitude befitting an unapologetic battler of demons and fantastic beasts. (Rich Johnston, Level 52 and Vault Comics Create Statue For Natasha Alterici's Heathen, Bleeding Cool News, April 2020)

That outpouring of flowers from an upper window, washing down like a sea incarnadine around the white walls of the medieval fortress. (Chris Upton, 'Has sense of grief been hit by poppy spectacle?', The Birmingham Post, December 2014)

No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red. (William Shakespeare, Macbeth)

Oh no. He was emberant. Incarnadine. He was bright with better bright beneath, like copper-gilded gold. (Patrick Rothfuss, The Slow Regard of Silent Things )

On the lips incarnadine of my own beloved Joy there is honey most divine. (Giuseppe Calvino, Sicilian Erotica)

She ran quick with a little cry, and coming again, sat crowned, incarnadine in the blushing depths of the gold. (M P Shiel, The Purple Cloud)

Origin:

1590s (adj.) 'flesh-colored, carnation-colored, pale red, pink,' from French incarnadin (16c), from dialectal Italian incarnadino 'flesh-color,' from Late Latin incarnatio. The adjective now is archaic or obsolete. Its direct root might be the noun incarnadine 'blood-red; flesh-color,' though this is not attested until 1620s.(Online Etymology Dictionary)

Carn- is the Latin root for 'flesh,' and 'incarnates' is Latin for flesh-colored. English speakers picked up the 'pinkish' sense of 'incarnadine' back in the late 1500s. Since then, the adjective has come to refer to the dark red color of freshly cut, fleshy meat as well as to the pinkish color of the outer skin of some humans. The word can be used as a verb, too, meaning 'to redden.' Shakespeare used it that way in Macbeth: 'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.' (Merriam-Webster)

ineffable [in-ef-uh-buhl]

adjective:
1 incapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressible
2 not to be spoken because of its sacredness; unutterable

Examples:

No unearthly agenda at all, in fact, ineffable or infernal. (Alexis Gunderson, The Ineffable Romance of Good Omens… Four Years, One Pandemic, and Two Hollywood Strikes Later, Literary Hub, August 2023)

"I'm aware it sounds kind of unbelievable," says Foot - which, among its other qualities, is what makes this show remarkable: a standup set that leads us into the ineffable, and dares to leave us there. (Brian Logan, Paul Foot: Dissolve review - a comic antidote to life's pain, The Guardian, August 2023)

Madagascar cinnamon, if you would. From the East Coast. It has a certain ineffable quality imparted by the rays of the setting sun. (James Lileks, How to do Father's Day the old-fashioned way, Star Tribune, June 2022)

Can you understand the happiness I get out of my absinthe? I yearn for it; and when I drink it I savour every drop, and afterwards I feel my soul swimming in ineffable happiness. (W Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage )

Origin:

late 14c, 'beyond expression, too great for words, inexpressible,' from Old French ineffable (14c) or directly from Latin ineffabilis 'unutterable,' from in- 'not, opposite of' + effabilis 'speakable,' from effari 'utter,' from assimilated form of ex 'out' + fari 'to say, speak,' from PIE root bha- (2) 'to speak, tell, say.' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

"Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness," wrote Frederick Douglass in his autobiography. Reading Douglass's words, it's clear that ineffable means 'indescribable' or 'unspeakable.' And when we break the word down to its Latin roots, we see how those meanings came about. Ineffable comes from ineffābilis, which joins the prefix in-, meaning 'not,' with the adjective effābilis, meaning 'capable of being expressed.' Effābilis comes from effārī, 'to speak out,' which in turn comes from ex- and fārī, meaning 'to speak.' (Merriam-Webster)