Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here then is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Corduroy - “a cotton-filling pile fabric with lengthwise cords or ridges OR trousers made of this fabric.” According to folk etymology, this word comes from the French corde du roi meaning “rope/cord of the king,” with roi of course meaning “king.” (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)
RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – royalty, Montreal (from Mount Royal), viceroy; also - since French is a Romance language with strong connections to the Latin language - words such as regal, regime, and reign
SENTENCE: “One of the greatest hockey goalies of all time, Patrick Roy, has a surname whose French meaning is (appropriately enough) ‘king.’”