UNREMACADAMIZED
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:59 am
• unremacadamized •
Pronunciation: ên-ree-mê-kæ-dê-mayzd • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Past participle
Meaning: Having not been covered again with crushed stone bound by tar or asphalt.
Notes: One of the most fascinating aspects of the English language is the extent to which it reflects the melting pots of the English-speaking nations. Today's Good Word is a lexical Dagwood sandwich: an English prefix and suffix holding chunks of four other languages together. The prefix un- "not" and the past participle suffix -ed are pure English. Between them we find the Latin prefix re- "again", the Scots Gaelic prefix mac "son of" from "MacAdam", the inventor of macadam, the Hebrew word adam "man", and, finally, -ize, the Greek verbal suffix found in words like archa-iz-ein "to be old fashioned".
In Play: Conceivable situations calling for today's improbable Good Word do arise: "Our road remained unremacadamized for decades until the head of the Department of Transportation bought a house on it." Of course, anyone living in an invious region would be envious of even an unremacadamized road.
Word History: The root of today's Good Word has an eponym in the name of John Loudon MacAdam (1786-1836), a Scotsman who built roads with crushed stone bound with gravel on a firm base of large stones. By curving the surface of his roads, water ran off to the sides so as to preserve the base. Travel was much faster on these roads, which quickly came to be called 'Macadamized' roads. Much later, the crushed stone in macadamized roads was bound by tar, then asphalt.
Pronunciation: ên-ree-mê-kæ-dê-mayzd • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Past participle
Meaning: Having not been covered again with crushed stone bound by tar or asphalt.
Notes: One of the most fascinating aspects of the English language is the extent to which it reflects the melting pots of the English-speaking nations. Today's Good Word is a lexical Dagwood sandwich: an English prefix and suffix holding chunks of four other languages together. The prefix un- "not" and the past participle suffix -ed are pure English. Between them we find the Latin prefix re- "again", the Scots Gaelic prefix mac "son of" from "MacAdam", the inventor of macadam, the Hebrew word adam "man", and, finally, -ize, the Greek verbal suffix found in words like archa-iz-ein "to be old fashioned".
In Play: Conceivable situations calling for today's improbable Good Word do arise: "Our road remained unremacadamized for decades until the head of the Department of Transportation bought a house on it." Of course, anyone living in an invious region would be envious of even an unremacadamized road.
Word History: The root of today's Good Word has an eponym in the name of John Loudon MacAdam (1786-1836), a Scotsman who built roads with crushed stone bound with gravel on a firm base of large stones. By curving the surface of his roads, water ran off to the sides so as to preserve the base. Travel was much faster on these roads, which quickly came to be called 'Macadamized' roads. Much later, the crushed stone in macadamized roads was bound by tar, then asphalt.