Jubilate

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7419
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Jubilate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Jan 04, 2018 10:07 pm

• jubilate •

Pronunciation: jub-ê-layt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive

Meaning: To rejoice, to exult, to exhibit joy at the highest.

Notes: Today we are ignoring the noun Jubilate, always capitalized. The 100th Psalm is sometimes called "The Jubilate", as is the third Sunday after Easter. It is also possible to use this verb as a noun, uncapitalized, to refer to an outburst of joy, an instance of jubilation. A poem or song may be a jubilate of spring or a perfect snow. Such a work would be jubilatory and the writer would no doubt be jubilant in writing it. A season of jubilation, a jubilant celebration is a jubilee.
Image
In Play: We jubilate most often over good fortune: "Harvey Wallbanger jubilated over his promotion a bit too much in the pub last night and missed work today." (However, I hear that the raise that came with Harvey's promotion was nothing to jubilate over.) Of course, small jubilations are also possible: "We plan to jubilate at home with friends this New Year's eve."

Word History: Today's Good Word may be traced back almost to its original conception. It originated with a Proto-Indo-European word that had to be very close to yu-dhe-los "one who makes yu". Yu is an onomatopoeic rendition of the sound our ancient ancestors made when they jubilated. It was combined with dhe- "do, make", which went on to become Russian delat' "do, make", English do, and Latin facere "to do, make", among others. The compound word yu-dhe-los went on to become Latin jubilare "to shout with joy". We can find the descendant of this word in Spanish jubilarse "to retire," certainly a cause for jubilation. In the Germanic languages it took a quirky turn to become English yowl and Modern German jodeln "to yodel". (May we all jubilate and be thankful that Monroe Thomas Clewis reminded us of today's Good Word.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

George Kovac
Lexiterian
Posts: 457
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:54 am
Location: Miami

Re: Jubilate

Postby George Kovac » Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:14 pm

Words ending in –ate can be nouns, verbs or adjectives: indicate, vertebrate, intricate, excoriate, ornate, inebriate, celibate. “Jubilate” is both a noun and (a delightful but unexpected) verb.

Here is an example of a man who had occasion to jubilate, and the importance of carefully distinguishing between similar words ending in -ate.

Many years ago, a poor but clever boy left his village and joined a remote monastery. Despite his promise, the young monk was assigned the same task as all the other monks. He was told to take the manuscript prepared by the next most senior monk and copy it out, just as all monks had done since the monastery was established hundreds of years earlier. Disappointed, the young monk nevertheless embraced the job and produced the most accurate and beautiful copies. One day the young monk approached the abbot and asked permission to copy from the original manuscript. The abbot explained that, ever since the founding of the monastery, the original had been locked in a vault for safekeeping. But the abbot reluctantly agreed, just this once, to allow the precocious monk to copy from the original.

Four months later, the young monk returned to the abbot with his new copy in hand, and smiled from ear to ear. “I have great news Abbot! The actual word is ‘celebrate.’”
"Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language." Zia Haider Rahman, New York Times 4/8/2016


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 53 guests