• striate •
Pronunciation: strai-ayt • Hear it!Part of Speech: Adjective, verb
Meaning: Marked with striae or striations (stripes), striped, having many more or less parallel lines, grooves or rows.
Notes: Today's word is the adjective for stria (Latinate plural striae). It is also a verb meaning "to mark with striations or striae". The noun for this verb is striation, a near synonym of stria.
In Play: All these words are most comfortable in the world of science: "Every striate muscle in his body ached after the softball double header." This word does occasionally wander outside that world: "Noah Zarque's striate brow spoke eloquently of his long, hard life".
Word History: Today's Good Word was taken directly from Latin stria "furrow, flute of a column" (plural striæ). Latin remodeled Proto-Indo-European (PIE) streig- "to stroke" to get to this word. The same PIE root came to English via English's Germanic ancestors as strike, stroke and streak. This PIE word had little if any effect on the remainder of PIE's linguistic progeny, i.e. the remainder of current Indo-European languages. (William Hupy recommended today's Good Word a long time ago, but the Good Doctor remembered despite a streaky memory.)
