From Avarice to Zygoma

Expanding your Vocabulary with Benedict – Part 1

One great aspect of being a Benedict Cumberbatch fan is that he’s always (inadvertently) inspiring us to improve and expand our vocabulary. Reading interviews every so often sends me scuttling to a dictionary to look up yet another word I’d never heard before. When he used “obfuscate” in his interview with the Hollywood Reporter last September, the word spiked on the Merriam Webster Website.

His introduction for WETA’s new book “SMAUG, Unleashing the Dragon” taught me the expression avarice, and it got me thinking about other words I’d come across through following his work. Here are a few off the top of my head – feel free to add more in the comments section and I’ll include them in a future post!

(On a related note: Ghent University’s Center for Reading Research has a fun Word test on their website – they present you with various words that are either English or made up, and you have to decide which ones are which.)

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AVARICE noun \ˈa-və-rəs, ˈav-rəs\

a strong desire to have or get money

Origin: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin avaritia, from avarus avaricious, from avēre to crave — more at avid
First Known Use: 14th century

Benedict quote: “Along with his pride, anger and avarice are his other great stumbling blocks.”  (Introduction to “SMAUG, Unleashing the Dragon”)

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BUFF  transitive verb \ˈbəf\

to make (a surface) smooth and shiny by rubbing it

Origin: Middle French buffle wild ox, from Old Italian bufalo
First Known Use (of this meaning): 1838

Benedict quote: “We like nothing better than buffing our Zygoma.” (Benedict’s Reddit AMA)

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OBFUSCATE verb \ˈäb-fə-ˌskāt; äb-ˈfəs-ˌkāt, əb-\

to make (something) more difficult to understand

Origin: Late Latin obfuscatus, past participle of obfuscare, from Latin ob- in the way + fuscus dark brown — more at ob-, dusk
First Known Use: 1577

Benedict quote: “Well, ‘obfuscate’ is a distraction from truth.”  (The Hollywood Reporter – The Confessions of Benedict Cumberbatch)

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VERTIGINOUS adjective \(ˌ)vər-ˈti-jə-nəs\

causing or likely to cause a feeling of dizziness especially because of great height

Origin: Latin vertiginosus, from vertigin-, vertigo
First Known Use: 1608

Benedict quote: “It’s all gone a little bit vertiginous recently.” (The Telegraph – Benedict Cumberbatch returns in Parade’s End)

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ZYGOMA noun \zī-ˈgō-mə\

The bony arch of the cheek formed by connection of the zygomatic and temporal bones.

Origin: New Latin zygomat-, zygoma, from Greek zygōma, from zygoun to join, from zygon yoke
First Known Use: circa 1684

Benedict quote: “We like nothing better than buffing our Zygoma.” (Benedict’s Reddit AMA)

Written by elen_ancalima on 14 April 2014. 2 comments »
Category: Quotes, Various
Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Language