PAW-suh-tee
The paucity of affordable housing in the city has become a growing concern for residents.
Fun Fact
“Paucity” comes from the Latin paucus, meaning “few.” It’s often used in discussions of resources, such as food shortages, a lack of evidence, or even a paucity of ideas. A fun twist? While the word describes a shortage, the English language is anything but lacking in colorful vocabulary!
ob-SEE-kwee-us
(adjective) Excessively eager to please or obey; fawning and submissive to the point of being insincere.
The new intern was so obsequious — laughing at every joke, volunteering for every errand, agreeing with every opinion — that even the managers who enjoyed the flattery found it unsettling.
Obsequious derives from the Latin obsequiosus, meaning “compliant” or “accommodating,” rooted in obsequium, meaning “compliance” or “dutiful service,” from obsequi — “to follow after” or “to comply with.” It entered English in the 15th century originally without negative connotation, simply describing dutiful service. By the 17th century, writers began using it specifically to describe excessive, servile flattery — and the negative undertone has stuck ever since.
Fun Fact
Shakespeare was particularly fond of skewering obsequious characters — some of literature’s most memorable sycophants appear in his plays, from Osric in Hamlet to Malvolio in Twelfth Night. But the most culturally enduring obsequious archetype may be Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield — a character so aggressively humble and fawning that his name became a byword for insincere servility. Dickens based him partly on a real person he despised, making Uriah Heep one of literature’s most satisfying acts of revenge through fiction.
Today's Word Obsequious ob-SEE-kwee-us Definition (adjective) Excessively eager to please...
Read MoreToday's Word Abberation ab-uh-RAY-shun Definition (noun) A departure from what...
Read MoreToday's Word Ubiquitous yoo-BIK-wih-tus Definition (adjective) Found or appearing everywhere...
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