To rebuff something, such as an offer or suggestion, is to reject or criticize it sharply. One can also rebuff a person by rudely rejecting or refusing them.

// When their request was immediately rebuffed by upper management, the staff was left frustrated yet also more determined.

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“The state rebuffed the lawyers’ efforts to use the fees as seed money for a new technology system.” — Robert T. Garrett, The Dallas (Texas) Morning News, 15 Feb. 2023

Many English verbs begin with the prefix re-, meaning “again” or “backward,” so we wouldn’t criticize you for drawing a connection between rebuff and buff, a verb meaning “to polish or shine.” But rebuff would beg to differ: this word comes to us from the Middle French verb rebuffer, which traces back to the Old Italian ribuffare, meaning “to reprimand.” (Buff, in contrast, comes from the Middle French noun buffle, meaning “wild ox”). A similar word, rebuke, shares the “criticize” sense of rebuff, but not the “reject” sense; one can rebuke another’s actions or policies, but one does not rebuke the advances of another, for example. Like rebuke, rebuff can also be used as a noun, as in “The proposal was met with a stern rebuff from the Board of Trustees.”

When used literally, lodestone refers to the mineral magnetite, a magnetic iron ore. Lodestone is also used figuratively to refer to something that, like a magnet, strongly attracts things.

// The city is a lodestone for aspiring musicians of all genres.

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“Her [Britney Spears’] quest to please a growing constituency was a savvy balancing act; she understood what was expected of a teen star at the time: family-friendly entertainment that didn’t rock anyone’s boat. … Spears handled this feat impressively well in those years. She became a vessel for our intense emotions, but in the process, she would also become a lodestone for criticism of an entire generation’s tastes and habits.” — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 17 Feb. 2021

The word lodestone is sometimes confused, understandably, with the similar-sounding lodestar. Both combine lode, which comes from the Old English noun lād, meaning “course,” with another word with ancient Old English roots: stone (from stān) and star (from steorra), respectively. Both lodestone and lodestar also refer to things—both literal and figurative—with the power to inspire or compel movement. But while a lodestar is something that leads the way (e.g., a moral principle that guides a person through life), a lodestone draws things toward itself. Sometimes lodestone refers to an actual magnet; indeed, its original use in the early 16th century was as a synonym for magnetite. But it didn’t take long for lodestone to attract a metaphorical sense. Today a business district might be a lodestone for entrepreneurs, or a lottery-playing friend (with the promise of riches as their lodestar) a lodestone—they hope—for good luck.

Efficacious is a formal word used to describe something—often a treatment, medicine, or remedy—that has the power to produce a desired result or effect.

// Companies like to tout the number of efficacious natural ingredients in their beauty products.

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“Baking soda is commonly used alongside detergent to fix stinky loads ... but washing soda is the typical go-to for most tough laundry jobs. Baking soda is gentler than washing soda, so it won’t be as efficacious.” — Leslie Corona, Real Simple Magazine, 29 Dec. 2023

If you guesstimate that efficacious is the effect of combining effective with the suffix -ious, you’re on the right track. Efficacious came to English from the Middle French word efficace (or that word’s Latin source, efficāc- or efficāx), meaning “effective.” (These words ultimately trace back to the Latin verb efficere, “to make, bring about, produce, carry out.”) English speakers added -ious to effectively create the word we know today. Efficacious is one of many, er, eff words that mean “producing or capable of producing a result.” Among its synonyms are the familiar adjectives effective and efficient. Efficacious is more formal than either of these; it’s often encountered in medical writing where it describes treatments, therapies, and drugs that produce their desired and intended effects in patients.

To foment something, such as hostility or opposition, is to cause it, or try to cause it, to grow or develop. Foment is used synonymously with incite.

// Rumors that the will was a fake fomented distrust between the two families.

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"For this prequel to The Witcher, we go back, back, back to 1,200 years before the time of Geralt of Rivia—and if you don’t know who that is, it matters not. Slide right into the self-contained story of a continent where elves, dwarves and other often-warring peoples are living in uneasy proximity, until the arrival of one vicious dictatorship to rule them all makes everyone even less relaxed. Out in the sticks, soldier turned travelling bard Éile (Sophia Brown) is already fomenting revolutionary solidarity by singing rousing folk songs in pubs…" — Jack Seale, The Guardian (London), 25 Dec. 2022

If you had sore muscles in the 1600s, your doctor might have advised you to foment the injury, perhaps with heated lotions or warm wax. Does this sound like an odd prescription? It's less so if you know that foment traces to the Latin verb fovēre, which means "to heat or warm" or "to soothe." The earliest documented English uses of foment appear in medical texts offering advice on how to soothe various aches and pains by the application of moist heat. In time, the idea of applying heat became a metaphor for stimulating or rousing to action. Foment then started being used in political contexts to mean "to stir up" or "to call to action."

Tractable is used to describe someone or something that is easily led, managed, taught, or controlled.

// This new approach should make the problem more tractable.

// The horse’s tractable temperament made her especially popular with new riders.

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“… Kawasaki’s popular KLR650 … only makes about 40 horsepower, yet it has launched untold numbers of epic rides due to its reliable, tractable and manageable output.” — William Roberson, Forbes, 30 Sept. 2022

A frequentative is a form of a verb that indicates repeated action. The frequentative of the word sniff, for example, is sniffle, meaning “to sniff repeatedly.” Some English words come from a frequentative in another language, and tractable is one. Tractable, meaning “easily led or managed,” comes from the Latin adjective tractabilis, which in turn comes from the verb tractare, which has various meanings including “to drag about,” “to handle,” “to deal with,” and “to treat.” Not to drag on too much about Latin, but tractare is the frequentative of another Latin verb, trahere, meaning “to drag or pull.” Now, one can pull or tug a draft animal on a lead, for example, whether or not that animal is willing or compliant. But if one can pull, handle, or otherwise deal with that animal repeatedly or continuously with ease (by treating it well, we presume)? Well, you can see where this is leading—in English we would call our helpful animal friend tractable. Speaking of farms, despite its resemblance, tractor did not pass through the frequentative tractare but it does come from trahere.

Consternation is a formal word that refers to a strong feeling of surprise or sudden disappointment that causes confusion.

// The candidate caused consternation among his supporters by changing positions on a key issue.

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“The incarcerated [Freedom] Riders’ new freedom song, which they sang incessantly to the consternation of their guards, was ‘Buses Are a Comin’,’ and the freedom buses continued to roll into Mississippi until mid-August.” — Raymond Arsenault, John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community, 2024

If you’ve ever been flummoxed, befuddled, or even fuddled, you know a thing or two about consternation—but perhaps not all of it. Consternation and confusion are not synonymous, though it’s understandable that they are sometimes confused. Consternation refers not to confusion, but to a feeling of amazement or dismay that can lead to confusion, or otherwise hinder or stop someone in their tracks. And much like dismay, consternation is often used in constructions starting with “much to,” as in “much to their consternation, their teacher announced a pop quiz as soon as class started.” People also often “express” or “show” their consternation in various ways, whether with furrowed brow, mouth agog, or assorted mumblings and grumblings—visual and audible clues that they are working out just what to do next after being consternated.

When you go incognito, your true identity is kept secret (as through the use of a different name or a disguise). Incognito can be used either as an adverb or an adjective with the same meaning.

// The food critic made an incognito visit to the restaurant.

// The pop star travels incognito as much as possible, using a fake name and wearing a wig and heavy makeup to avoid the paparazzi.

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"Though legitimate reasons exist for sailing incognito, the researchers point to a number of suspicious sites of activity. These include a region in North Korean waters that the authors suggest corresponds to illegal fishing, having briefly boasted the world's highest density of fishing vessels between 2017 and 2019. Meanwhile the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, off the eastern coast of Australia, was visited by an average of three fishing vessels a day, suggesting possible unobserved environmental damage." — The Economist, 6 Jan. 2024

The ancient Romans knew that there are times when you don't want to be recognized. For example, a story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells how Jupiter and Mercury visited a village incognito and asked for lodging. The supposedly penniless travelers were turned away from every household except that of a poor elderly couple named Baucis and Philemon; the pair provided a room and a feast for the visitors despite their own poverty. The Romans had a word that described someone or something unknown, like the gods in the tale: incognitus, a term that is the ancestor of our modern incognito. Cognitus is a form of the Latin verb cognoscere, which means "to know" and which also gives us recognize and cognizance, among other words.

To gossip is to talk about the personal lives of other people.

// The two siblings often gossip with each other about their neighbors via texting.

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“Not all gossip is bad, [psychologist, Miriam] Kirmayer said, nor does it always mean someone who talks about others will talk about you. ‘Sometimes, our friends are gossiping as a need to secure support or to set out our perspectives and experiences,’ she said. It can be a way to work through a problem or grow closer via shared values.” — Julia Pugachevsky, Business Insider, 26 Mar. 2024

Merriam-Webster here, your one and only source for the juicy history of the English lexicon (including gossip, girl). It’s no secret that gossiping often involves discussing the intimate details of other people’s lives, but did you know that the origins of gossip are a bit more chummy, and even a tad divine? Word on the street is that the Old English word sibb, meaning “relative” or “kinsman,” long ago combined with the word god (meaning, well, “god”) to form godsibb, which referred to a person who was spiritually related to another, specifically by being a baptismal sponsor. Today we call such a person a godparent. Over the centuries, godsibb changed both in form and in meaning. In Middle English, gossib came to be used for a close friend or chum as well as for a godparent. From there it was only a short step to gossip, a word for anyone—not just a friend, relative, or sponsor—known for spilling the tea. By the early 17th century, gossip had expanded into the verb use that has been the talk of the town ever since.

Moxie can refer to courage and determination (aka nerve), energy and pep (aka verve), or know-how (as, say, reflected in one’s oeuvre).

// They showed a lot of moxie in questioning their company’s policy.

// She clearly doesn’t need coffee to start her day full of moxie.

// The lead actor’s musical moxie inspired the addition of a serenade at the close of the play’s first act.

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“When your journalistic beat consists of providing helpful tips on how to win games, people naturally assume that you are an expert at playing them. That’s not always true, but I like to think that I make up for it with moxie and a reasonably consistent positive attitude.” — Deb Amlen, The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2024

If the idea of a carbonated bevvy flavored with gentian root makes you thirsty to wet your whistle, then you’ve got some moxie, friend! Lowercase moxie—which today is a synonym of both nerve and verve—originated as uppercase Moxie, as in Moxie Nerve Food, a patent medicine and tonic invented by Dr. Augustin Thompson and sold in New England in the 1870s. Within a decade, when it was clear his drink wasn’t really medicinal, he carbonated Moxie and marketed it as a kind of 19th-century energy drink with a “delicious blend of the bitter and the sweet.” The soft drink and its advertising slogans (among them Make Mine Moxie!) eventually caught on around the country. The beverage was even a favorite of Charlotte’s Web author E. B. White, who wrote, “Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life.” The semantic jump from “a drink that gives you energy” to “energy” itself is as natural as a good advertising campaign. By 1930, moxie had acquired its earliest modern sense referring to vim and pep.

Someone described as affluent has a large amount of money and owns many expensive things. Something, such as a place or institution, described as affluent is similarly rich or wealthy.

// The affluent suburb sports some of the finest public schools in the county owing to its considerable tax base.

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"Princeton packs many charms into its 18.4 square miles. Halfway between New York and Philadelphia, it has long attracted affluent professionals, many enduring commutes of more than an hour in return for roomy, historic houses, old-growth trees that burst into flower in spring and the cultural riches of Princeton University." — Julie Lasky, The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2021

Visualize with us: coffers overflowing, a cash flow more than adequate, assets that are fluid, an elderly duck in a top hat diving into a pool of gold coins. The images conjured reflect the essence of the word affluent. Based on the Latin verb fluere, meaning "to flow," affluent is all about flow. (The same image is echoed in other fluere descendants, such as confluence, fluctuate, fluid, influence, mellifluous, and superfluous.) The flowing of goods or riches wasn't the word's first concern, however; 16th century print examples of affluent tend to be about the abundance of such intangibles as "goodness" and "spirit." In the 17th century, the flow suggested by affluent varied greatly: streams, poisons, estates, and blood were all described with the word. In modern use, affluent most often describes wealthy people (or ducks), or places where wealthy people live.