• invious •
Pronunciation: in-vi-ês, in-vi-ês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Without paths or roads, impassable, inaccessible.
Notes: Invious land is nothing to be envious of unless you want a wildlife preserve. These two words are very close, so remember the difference the initial letters make. This becomes a real problem in places like Australia, New Zealand, and the US South, where E is pronounced I before N. (In Australia and New Zealand this shift occurs everywhere, so that [bid] could be bid or bed.) One solution would be to use the second pronunciation.
In Play: For those of us who love the outdoors, this word specifies one of our reasons for loving it: "Our family enjoys hiking the invious areas of the Colorado Rockies." On a plane even higher than the Rockies, we can say things like, "Dermott is a valuable member of our team because he isn't afraid of driving his thinking into invious territories," giving uncharted a well-deserved rest.
Word History: This Good Word comprises Latin in- "not" + via "way, road" + an adjective suffix. It comes from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *wegh-, which also gave Sanskrit vah-âmi "bring, lead", German Weg "way" and Wagen "wagon, car", and English way and wagon. That is also it there in Latin vehiculum "carriage", derived from veh-ere "bear, carry", and borrowed into English as vehicle. (Our old South African friend, Chris Stewart, shared this favorite of his some time ago.)
INVIOUS
- Dr. Goodword
- Site Admin
- Posts: 7444
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
- Location: Lewisburg, PA
- Contact:
INVIOUS
• The Good Dr. Goodword
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8093
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Now, to take this a bit further, or backward perhaps, could we use this as an insult?"Dermott is a valuable member of our team because he isn't afraid of driving his thinking into invious territories," giving uncharted a well-deserved rest.
"That Dermott has such an invious little brain that I'm afraid he'll never catch on."
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Return to “Good Word Discussion”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 22 guests