Today's Word "Obsequious"
Published in Vocabulary
obsequious \ohb-SEE-kwe-uhs\ (adjective) - Dutifully compliant, servile, fawningly sycophantic, overly zealous to please or worm one's way into the affection of others.
"Farnsworth obsequiously refilled Lord Thistlewaithe's martini glass whenever it became half empty, without foreseeing the disastrous finale his actions were leading to."
Today's word is a thinly disguised variant of Latin "obsequiosus," the adjective of obsequium "compliance." "Obsequium" is a noun built from the verb obsequi- "to comply," derived from ob- "to" + sequi "to follow." It is also the source of obsequy "funeral," closely related to today's word. The Latin root meaning "to follow" (sequ- or secu-) is found in many contemporary English words. "Consecutive," "persecute," "sequel," "sequence," are but a few. "Second" comes from Latin "secundus," an old participle form of this stem, meaning "following."
Comments