Carolina Institute for Faith & Culture

Paul Schleifer According to the OED, pivotal means, “Of, relating to, or acting as a pivot; being that on which anything turns or depends; central, crucial, vital.” So, what’s a […]

Paul Schleifer Neoteric means “modern; new; recent.” It sounds like a new word, a neologism, because it is one you’ve probably never heard before, but according to www.etymonline.com, it entered […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.dictionary.com, cabal means “1. a small group of secret plotters, as against a government or person in authority; 2. the plots and schemes of such a […]

Paul Schleifer The word phoenix comes into English during the Old English period, from Medieval Latin phenix, which came from the Greek phoenix. It is unclear exactly which Greek meaning […]

Paul Schleifer Orthoepy is the study of correct pronunciation, or of the received pronunciation. In English, it once meant specifically the study of Received Pronunciation, or RP, which was the […]

Paul Schleifer The word inscape was coined in the 19th century by the British priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. According to www.dictionary.com, it means “the essential inner nature of […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.etymonline.com, Easter is from “Old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic *austron-, “dawn,” also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring, perhaps originally of sunrise, whose feast […]

Paul Schleifer Querulous is an adjective that can mean two different but very similar things. First, about a person, it can mean “full of complaints” or “complaining.” But it can […]

Paul Schleifer A colleague is “’an associate in office, employment, or labor,’ 1530s, from Middle French collègue (16c.), from Latin collega ‘partner in office,’ from assimilated form of com ‘with, together’ (see com-) + leg-, stem of legare ‘send as […]

Paul Schleifer www.etymonline.com says that certitude comes into the language in the “early 15c., from Middle French certitude ‘certainty’ (16c.), from Late Latin certitudinem (nominative certitudo) ‘that which is certain,’ from Latin certus ‘sure, certain,’ originally a […]

Paul Schleifer According to www.dictionary.com, aesthetics is “the branch of philosophy dealing with such notions as the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime, the comic, etc., as applicable to the fine […]

Paul Schleifer The word premiere can be a noun, a verb, or even an adjective. As an adjective, it means “first, initial,” as in “Michael Jordan was the premiere basketball […]