3 Words I Learned this Month

I learned some new words and we want to share 3 of them with you. Hopefully, you will learn the 3 new words too.

Flummoxes

1. To confuse someone greatly, so much that they do not know what to do. To perplex someone greatly (Verb).
2. Flummoxed – A state, look or feeling of utter confusion (Adjective).

Origin – First used in 1837. Word origin is currently unknown but its first use was in a Charles Dicken’s novel – The Pickwick Papers

Source – Oxford Dictionary Cambridge Dictionary Merriam Webster

Usage – He was flummoxed by the legal jargon

Oboe

1. A woodwind instrument with a double-reed mouthpiece, a slender tubular body, and holes stopped by keys (Noun).
2. Flummoxed – A state, look or feeling of utter confusion (Adjective).

Origin – First used in 1726. The English word oboe comes from the Italian name of the instrument, oboe, which in turn comes from the oboe’s French name, hautbois. The word hautbois is a compound made up of haut, “high, loud,” and bois, “wood.”

Source – Dictionary Merriam Webster

Plural – Oboes

Usage – An organ stop resembling an oboe in tone

Sisyphean

1. Denoting a task that can never be completed. Impossible to complete(Adjective).
2. Of or relating to Sisyphus.(Adjective).

Origin – First used in 1635. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who annoyed the gods with his trickery. The word originated from there.

Source – Oxford Dictionary Merriam Webster

Usage – Graduating into the Great Recession only added to the sense of Sisyphean striving.