Restaurateur vs restauranteur

Restaurateur is not a word I had typed before the other day.  I was doing a restaurant review for the Berthoud Weekly Surveyor. The word seemed to fit the person who owned the restaurant I was writing about.

I tried to spell it restauranteer  (like mouseketeer, maybe.)   Spellcheck did not like this so I was forced to Google the word.

There is a spelling close to the one I tried to use for this person I know who owns, runs and cooks at a Mexican eatery.  This word is restauranteur. Turns out this is not the preferred method of spelling the word. There should be no N in it.

The term I was wanting is restaurateur.   This is a  person who opens and runs restaurants professionally.  This person is usually highly skilled and proficient in all aspects of the restaurant business.  Sometimes it is used for anyone who owns an eating establishment.

The French word restaurateur comes from the late Latin term restaurator—meaning restorer.

The first known use of restaurateur is in 1796.

Say what — How you say it depends where you live

Words are pronounced differently in different areas of the United States.

Thanks to http://www.businessinsider.com for showing us how we as Americans pronounce or label a variety of words.

The map showing the words are here —  http://tinyurl.com/m3sxl6g

Being from Iowa originally, it was interesting to see how my upbringing influenced how I say some words.

I wish the list would have added

1. What do you call the person who carries out your groceries ? (bag boy, caddie, etc.)

2. What do you call the thing you carry groceries in? (bag or sack)

That words does your area of the country say differently than the rest?

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Obsolete words

Words are fun–that’s what wordsbybob.com is all about.

One of my fellow writers, and also a good friend, Maryjo Morgan alerted me to this article on obsolete words.  It appeared on a website called http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com

Here is the article:

By Carmel Lobello 90 days ago

 Just like facts and flies, English words have life-spans. Some are thousands of years old, from before English officially existed, others change, or are replaced or get ditched entirely.

Here are 18 uncommon or obsolete words that we think may have died early. We found them in two places: a book called “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk, and on a blog called Obsolete Word of the Day that’s been out of service since 2010. Both are fantastic— you should check them out.

Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Oenophile — I’ll drink to that

Oenophile is a word that is new to me.  I saw it the other day in a trivia column written by my buddy Jim Willard.   (He is an oenophile, by the way.)

I now know that an oenophile is one who enjoys or loves wines.   It can be any person with a fondness or appreciation for wines.   One would probably say they are a connoisseur of wine.

www.dictionary.com defines connoisseur as:

a person who is especially competent to pass critical judgments in an art, particularly one of the fine arts, or in matters of taste.

The word first appeared around 1925 to 1930.  It’s origins are from the Greek word oinos which means wine.

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Consanguinity — close enough

Consanguinity is a new word for me.  I was scanning a website where it was mentioned relating to membership in a group.  This is a military veterans group and it is not only for veterans, but those with consanguinity.  The site says eligibility to the group is for veterans along with spouses of veterans or related to a veteran within two degrees of consanguinity.

The general definition of consanguinity is a family relationship through parentage or decent.  It also means a blood relative, close relationship or connection.

The first usage of consanguinity is in the 14^th century.  It comes from “com” meaning together combined with “sanguineus” which means of or pertaining to blood.

Way back when, laws in many areas used the degrees of consanguinity to prohibit sexual relations and marriages. It also was used to determine whether a person was eligible to inherit property when someone died without a will.

Cafetoriums have been around for a while

Cafetoriums have been around for years.

The work originates from a combination of two words—cafeteria and auditorium. If you read wordsbybob regularly, you will recognize this word as a portmanteau.

The cafetorium is a large room, usually in a school that serves both functions.

It seems the term cafetorium originated in somewhere between 1950 and 1955. I was in grade school at that time. Our school. Kenwood Elementary in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had a cafeteria and the gym was our auditorium.

Ducat — That’s the ticket

Ducat  (rhymes with bucket) is an old word.  Today, you hear it used to mean a ticket to an event—especially a sporting event.

The word ducat is probably from the 14^th Century. It was used to describe a variety of gold coins used in central European countries.

Derivation is Middle English, from Middle French, from Old Italian ducato coin or from duca doge, from Late Greek douk.