Thursday, April 24, 2014

A-to-Z Challenge: Ubiquitous

Time for U! No outrageous pun this time!



Yeah, a four syllable word when almost every word I’ve done here has been one. Do you know how hard it is to find a word beginning with U that isn’t an un- word?

Ubiquitous, which basically means something that’s everywhere, showed up fairly recently, in the early nineteenth century (in etymological terms, that’s like last week). The reason it’s so recent is because another word, ubiquity, was used then (and I just found out that ubiquity is a real word! Wow!). Ubiquity showed up in the late sixteenth century, coming from the Middle French ubiquité and the classical Latin ubique. In Latin, ubi means where, and que…well, it has tons of meanings, including giving “universal meaning” when used as a suffix. So it’s like saying “all across the universe”, but in three letters and in suffix form.

I don’t pretend to understand Latin. Or any languages for that matter. They’re weird.

Sources

11 comments:

  1. I used to use this word all the time. I need to put it back in my vocabulary.

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  2. They're weird - that made me chuckle!

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  3. I can't say that word five times fast for some reason ... :)

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  4. It's a word I wouldn't be using that often!

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  5. I was a Latin genius in high school but do I remember any of it now? Of course not!

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  6. I took a semester of Latin in high school. I remember none of it now. I find it interesting how new ubiquitous is and where it came from.

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  7. I love this word. It's so hard to say, but looks so cool written down. There's something about 'q's in the middle of words.....

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  8. Ever read Ubik by Phillip K. Dick? My advice is don't. He's an acquired taste. But that's how I encountered the word ubiquitous -- trying to figure out the title.

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  9. Great word today! Four syllables and all :) I love this word, actually, no matter how 'young' it is. It has a great sound.

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  10. I love throwing big words out to students. They look at me weird. I like to pull out this one and penultimate.

    If U was difficult, I can't wait to see what you came up for for Z.

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Please validate me.