Beyond the familiar lies a richer vocabulary. Lexical Frontier guides you there, one word each day. Explore the Lexical Frontier, where language expands.
Today's Word of the Day
innocuous
/ɪ'nɑkjuəs/(adj.): not harmful or offensive
'Fortunately, the chemical spill was innocuous and posed no health risk,' declared the politician.
Word Origin
The word 'innocuous' originates from Latin. It is formed from the prefix 'in-' meaning 'not' and 'nocuus' meaning 'harmful' or 'injurious'. 'Nocuus' itself derives from the Latin verb 'nocere', which means 'to harm'. Thus, 'innocuous' literally means 'not harmful'.
Words with similar origins include 'innocent' (from Latin 'innocens', literally 'not harming', also from 'in-' + 'nocere'), 'noxious' (from Latin 'noxius', 'harmful', related to 'nocere'), and 'obnoxious' (from Latin 'obnoxius', originally meaning 'exposed to harm', later 'liable', 'offensive', also related to 'nocere').
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Yet Another Word of the Day Email List?
Eager to expand my lexicon, I began to search the internet for a word of the day email service that would provide me words that were new, challenging, and interesting. I found many daily newsletters, but none of them were what I was looking for. Some had words that were far too simple - words that I have known since middle school. Some just used words from other languages and pretended that they were words actually used in the English-speaking world.
Unsatisfied with the options available to me, I developed Lexical Frontier as a hobby project. I wanted each morning to receive words that are really used (if not in daily life then at least in literature). I wanted these words to be challenging; maybe I had encountered them before, but had not comprehended their precise meaning. And, of course, I wanted the information to be interesting! Definitions are not diverting or we would all be reading dictionaries. I am curious about not just what the word means but where it comes from. If you break down a word into its smaller parts and learn to build it back up again, you gain tools for breaking down and building up words you have yet to encounter.
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