• peculate •
Printable Version Pronunciation: pe-kyê-layt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: To embezzle, to steal money entrusted to you.
Notes: Today's Good Word behaves pretty much like speculate: a peculator is someone who engages in peculation, a peculative activity. The spelling is straightforward: since the C appears before a back vowel (u, o, a) it is pronounced 'hard', like K. (When it occurs before a front vowel (e, i) it is usually pronounced 'soft', like S.)
In Play: "Why do we need peculate if we have embezzle?" I heard someone ask. The answer is simple; it gives us a marvelous play on words: "Some say Hans Oppenfriese got his start by speculation, others say by peculation." And speculate isn't the only word you can play with: "Russell peculated all the coffee money and pilfered the percolator, too."
Word History: Today's Good Word, like many others in English, is based on the past participle, peculatus of a Latin verb, in this case, peculari "to embezzle". This verb is based on the noun peculium "private property", whose adjective, peticularis, is the source of English peculiar. Peculium, in its turn, is based on Latin pecus "cattle", which explains why the original root entered Old English directly as feoh "cattle, goods, money". Latin also had a word pecunia "property, wealth" that was borrowed by English as pecunious "rich". The negative prefix im- was added to this word in the late 16th century to provide English with one of its synonyms for "poor", impecunious.
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