Ian Erickson's Word Journal: Words from the Weekend

The words I have chosen for my blog post are words that are representative of my eventfully uneventful weekend.

Friday: Effervescent /ˌefərˈvesənt/ (adj.)

• 1(of a liquid) giving off bubbles; fizzy.

• 2vivacious and enthusiastic

  -OED

  This word both describes the types of beverages I was consuming Friday night, as well as my attitude and personality after ingesting said beverages.  I was at the birthday party of my friend's upstairs neighbors.  I didn't know anyone so I was a little bit nervous about having to talk to people that I didn't know and might not like.  Fortunately enough, I went with a group of my close friends and ended up having a great time, befriending many people who had previously been strangers.  Anyways, I felt that this was the perfect, one-word summation of my night.  I love the way it sounds out loud.  It is almost onomatopoeic; the /f/, /v/, and /s/ sounds like the fizzling of bubbles, only to crackle and pop with a hard /t/ stop.  The origin of this word comes from the Latin effervescent- 'boiling up', and from the verb effervescere (see effervesce) (OED).  Looking up the origin of 'effervescere' on OED, one gets this: "early 18th century: from Latin effervescere, from ex- 'out, up' + fervescere 'begin to boil' (from fervere 'be hot, boil')."  So basically, effervescent has root meanings of "to begin to boil out and up."
  
  

Saturday: Adroit /əˈdroit/ (adj.)

   clever or skillful in using the hands or mind
              -OED
   I came across this word on Saturday.  A friend and I decided to go to this Yoga open house that another friend of ours invited us to.  Neither of us had ever tried Yoga, but we were openminded about trying it.  Plus, there was free food!  But anyway, while we were there, we were able to get a private session with one of the more experienced yoga-teachers.  She told us that Yoga was as much about meditation and calming the mind as it was about flexibility and core strength.  I heard this word "Adroit" a couple times through out the course of our yoga experience and felt like looking it up.  Sure enough, it definitely applies yoga, being both about the body and the mind.  Its origin, according to OED, is from France around the 17th century, from the phrase "à droit", meaning 'according to right, properly.'

Sunday: (to) "Break Bad" /brāk bad/ (idiom, v)

   Searching for the definition of this idiom on the online OED automatically brings you to the definition of "bad break", which reads "a piece of bad luck."  While this is not the true definition, it certainly rings true through out the course of the television show "Breaking Bad", which inspired me to look into the title's actual meaning.  According to the show's creator, Vince Gilligan, to "break bad" is a "southern regionalism...meaning 'to raise hell.'"  The Urban Dictionary furthers the definition with it's top definition, defining the idiom as "to go wild, get crazy, let loose, to forget all your cares and just plain not give a sh**, to have a great time, to break out of your mold."  The phrase has been noted to appear as early as 1919.

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/09/23/breaking-bad-what-does-that-phrase-actually-mean/