perspicacity

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

perspicacity

Postby KatyBr » Sat Jul 09, 2005 8:19 pm

perspicacity
Pronunciation: pêr-spê-kæ-sê-ti

Part of Speech: Mass noun (no plural)
Meaning: The ability to see things clearly and make sound judgments based on that vision.
Notes: This good word shares a special bond with the adjective, "perspicacious" [pêr-spê-key-shês]. Remember that both words contain a hard "c" (pronounced [k]) and a soft one (pronounced [s])but both are Cs. Both Cs follow the general rule in English: [c] is hard before vowels pronounced in the back of the mouth (a, o, u) and soft before those pronounced in the front (i, e).
In Play: This word refers to shrewdness and astuteness based on accurate observation, as in "He showed considerable marital perspicacity in not introducing the new secretary to his wife for several weeks." It is a very useful capacity to have: "It was very perspicacious of Lois Riske to recognize the ulterior motives in Les Cheatham's plan to merge their bank accounts."
Word History: Today's good word is a remodel of the Latin adjective perspicax, -acis "sharp-sighted, penetrating," which contains the prefix-preposition per "through, over, along" and specere "to look at", a root also found in "inspect", "spectator", and "suspect". Although the spelling of frontispiece was influenced by the spelling of piece, it originates in French frontispiece from Latin frontispicium "façade of a building", based on frons, frontis "forehead, front" + this same "specere". Other famous members of this family include species and spice, which come from the same Latin word species "kind" which, by Late Latin meant "wares, goods" and by Old French, "spice". We slipped a copy out of Old French, then went back to Latin later for a scientific word with the original meaning.


sometimes Patsy's perspicacity makes me perspire

Katy

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Sun Jul 10, 2005 2:10 pm

I think the Latin root is also the root for the UK substance known as Perspex, which we call Plexiglas on the other side of The Pond.

From The Bantam New College Latin & English Dictionary:
perspexī perf of perspicio

perspiciō -spicĕre -spexī -spectus tr to see through; to look through; to look closely at, to look over, examine, inspect, observe; to discern, ascertain; to prove
The perfect tense of perspicio, perspexī, means I saw through, I have seen through, I looked through, or I have looked through.

The related adjectives are:
perspicax -ācis adj sharp-sighted; keen, penetrating, perspicacious

perspicuus -a -um adj clear; transparent; clearly visible, conspicuous; plain, evident; lucid (expression)
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Brazilian dude
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1464
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil

Postby Brazilian dude » Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:43 pm

Portuguese: perspicácia
Spanish/Italian: perspicacia
French: perspicacité
Catalan: perspicàcia
Romanian: perspicacitate

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 30 guests