A.W.A.D. - Words That Are Not What You Think

Even though most malefactors on this planet happen to be male, the word in itself has nothing to imply that men have a monopoly in the crime biz. A woman who holds up a bank is still a malefactor, maybe a malefactress, but never a femalefactor.

The combining form male- meaning 'evil' occurs in words derived from Latin. So malevolence in a person can be a precursor to violence in those belonging to the fair sex as easily as in those of the unfair sex. This week brings together five words with meanings that are not the first things that come to mind. Watch out for these red-herring words!

malefactor
(MAL-uh-fak-tuhr) noun
One who does harm.

[From Latin male- (evil) + facere (to do).]

incommode
(in-kuh-MOD) verb tr.
To inconvenience.

[From Latin incommodus (inconvenient), ultimately from the Indo-Europeanroot med- (to take appropriate measures) that is also the source of medicine, modern, modify, modest, and modulate.]

axenic
(ay-ZEN-ik, ay-ZEE-nik) adjective
Free from contamination.

[From Greek a- (not) + xenikos (foreign). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghos-ti- (stranger, guest, or host, literally one who has a reciprocalduty of hospitality) that also gave us host, hostel, hostile, hostage, hospice, hospital, xenophobia, and xenon (a gas).]

hardscrabble
(HARD-skrab-uhl) adjective
1. Yielding little for much effort.
2. Relating to a place that provides for bare subsistence.

[From English hard + Dutch schrabbelen (to scrape). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut) that's also the source of words such as skirt, sharp, scrape, screw, shard, shears, carnage, curt and carnivorous.]

breastsummer
(BRES-sum-uhr, BREST-, BRES-e-muhr) noun
A horizontal beam supporting a wall over a large opening, such as a shop window.

[From breast (in architecture, part of a wall between a window and the floor) + Old French somier (packhorse, beam), from Latin sagma (packsaddle).]

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