Junoesque

Ju•no•esque (joo-noh-ESK)  adj

Definition:
having the stately bearing and imposing beauty of the goddess Juno
Origin:
1888; from Juno + -esque

Related:
Synonyms: statuesque, shapely, regal

Sentence Examples:
• When I was twenty-one, I swore,
If I should ever wed,
The maiden that I should adore
Should have a classic head;
Should have a form quite Junoesque;
A manner full of grace;
A wealth of hirsute picturesque
Above a piquant face.
- Cobwebs from a Library Corner, John Kendrick Bangs

• For almost an hour then he lay considering solemnly whether a red-headed girl could possibly be pretty. By two o'clock he had finally visualized quite a striking, Juno-esque type of beauty with a figure about the regal height of Cornelia's, and blue eyes perhaps just a trifle hazier and more mischievous. - Molly Make-Believe, Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

• That there should have been in the uncommon-tall young woman of buxom stateliness and prepossessing features, attired (to the mere masculine eye) in quite elegant black raiment--a thing called, I think, a picture hat, broad-brimmed with a sweeping ostrich feather, tickled my especial fancy, but was afterwards reviled by my wife as being entirely unsuited to fresh widowhood--what there should have been in this remarkable Junoesque young person who followed on the heels of Franklin to strike terror into Jaffery's soul, I could not, for the life of me, imagine. - Jaffery, William J. Locke

Wikipedia:

Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire she was called Regina ("queen") and, together with Jupiter and Minerva, was worshipped as a triad on the Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome.

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

jentacular

jen•tac•u•lar (jen-TAK-yuh-luhr)  adj

Definition:
of or relating to breakfast, especially a breakfast taken early in the morning, or immediately on getting up

Origin:
from Latin jentaculum “a breakfast taken immediately on getting up” and English -ar

Sentence Examples:
• He rode his favourite hobby of gardening, and took his regular 'ante-jentacular' and 'post-prandial' walks, and played battledore and shuttlecock in the intervals of codification. -The English Utilitarians, Leslie Stephen

• To us, the amount of strong liquor consumed from medieval to comparatively recent times is a matter of surprise, and sometimes even of Pharisaical comment; but 150 years ago a college Head was fulminating against tea and coffee drinking as "a fashionable vice which leads only to squandering of money and misspending the morning in jentacular confabulations." - A cyclopedia of education, Paul Monroe

• To valetudinarians and others the following method of making coffee for breakfast is earnestly recommended, as a most wholesome and pleasant jentacular beverage, first ordered by an able physician. - The new family receipt book, 1810

Sources: WordSmith, Wiktionary

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

jounce

jounce (jouns)

Definition:
v
to move or cause to move with bumps and jolts; bounce
n
a rough, jolting movement; a jolt

Origin:
mid-15c., of unknown origin, perhaps a blend of jump and bounce

Related:
Synonyms: bounce, bump, jar, jolt, jolting

Sentence Examples:
• A jounce sent them flying towards each other; they collided and recoiled, regarding one another in breathless indignation. -A Young Man in a Hurry, Robert W. Chambers

• Steadying himself, he trained his guns on the leading plane and fired. His tracers streaked out and seemed to be cutting the Zero's left wing in two, but the Jap craft continued to come boiling in at the big four-engined bomber. Lumps of lead began to bounce and jounce around in Dawson's stomach. -Guadalcanal, by Robert Sydney Bowen

• I might have if I hadn't tumbled into the bushes, Tom. Gracious, how the buckboard did jounce up and down! -The Rover Boys on the Farm, Arthur M. Winfield

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

jugulate

ju•gu•late (JOO-gyuh-leyt, JUHG-yuh-)  v

Definition:
1. to check or suppress (often said of disease) by extreme measures
2. to cut the throat of; kill
jugulated past participle; jugulated past tense; jugulating present participle; jugulates 3rd person singular present;  jugulation noun

Origin:
1615–25;  from Latin jugulatus, past participle of jugulare  "to cut the throat of", from jugul "throat" , from jug "yoke"

Related:
Related Words: jugular

Sentence Examples:
• However, occasional passages of guerrillas in the boundary areas of the country where it abuts on Laos and Viet-Nam are, of course, impossible to jugulate entirely. Not that total jugulation of the South Vietnamese border area would by now guarantee eventual victory any more than the successful closing of the Algero-Tunisian border brought the French victory in the Alergian war. -Street without joy, Bernard B. Fall

• So convinced am I that the salts and acid solution used boldly will jugulate most cases of dysentery, that hereafter (unless contra-indicated) I shall try to jugulate the disease first. -The Medical era: a practical medical magazine, Solomon Claiborne Martin

• To comprehend fully the idea of jugulation we must be vitalists, for the organic physicians fail more or less to jugulate a disease outside of intermittent fever, and even this will return under their treatment, whether they attend to the miaspis. the microbes, or the toxic condition of the blood. -American medical journal, 1891


Sources: Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

jape

jape (jeyp)

Definition:
noun
1. something designed to arouse amusement or laughter
2. a trick or practical joke

verb, intransitive
to say or do something jokingly or mockingly

verb, transitive
to make mocking fun of

japed past participle; japed past tense; japiing present participle; japes 3rd person singular present
japer, japery noun

Origin:
c.1300, "to trick, beguile," perhaps from O.Fr. japer "to howl," of echoic origin, or from O.Fr. gaber "to mock, deride." Phonetics suits the former, but sense the latter explanation. Took on a slang sense mid-15c. of "have sex with," and disappeared from polite usage. Revived in harmless M.E. sense of "say or do something in jest" by Scott, etc.

Related:
Synonyms: fool, jeer, jest, mock, prank, quip, trick
Related Words: jibe

Sentence Examples:
• He scarce lost an opportunity to put them down with a rough jape; and, to say truth, it was not difficult, for they were neither of them quick. -Weir of Hermiston, Robert Louis Stevenson

• Then for a moment we fell to jape and jesting; foolishly, for the Gods are always listening, and the Desert-Gods have long ears. -The Leicestershires beyond Baghdad, Edward John Thompson

• This obscene drawing is matched by many equally odious.  Abject domesticity, ignominies of married life, of middle-age, of money-making; the old common jape against the mother-in-law; abominable weddings: in one drawing a bridegroom with shambling side-long legs asks his bride if she is nervous; she is a widow, and she answers, "No, never was."  In all these things there is very little humour. -Essays, Alice Meynell

The Storyline
Sensing the tension, Sara attempted to diffuse the situation with an inappropriate jape directed at the mess in the office and room fell into awkward silence.

Sources: Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

juvenescent

ju•ve•nes•cent (joo-vuh-NES-uhnt)  adj

Definition:
1. being or becoming youthful; young
2. young in appearance
3. having the power to make young or youthful

juvenescence noun

Origin:
1815–25;  from L juvene-scent-  (s. of juvene-sce-ns,  prp. of juvene-scere  to become youthful), equiv. to juven-  young  + -escent

Related:
Related Words: juvenal, rejuvenate, juvenile, junior

Sentence Examples:
• "But it's just like her," he said. "She is the sort of relative who always does turn up unexpectedly, Dolly. How does she look?"
"Juvenescent," said Dolly; "depressingly so to persons who rely upon her for the realizing of expectations. A very few minutes satisfied me that I should never become Mrs. Griffith Donne upon her money."
-Vagabondia, Frances Hodgson Burnett

• It had been a dull, wet day and he was sitting by his fire, when there came a tap at his door. "Flora;" by which juvenescent name his aged Indian handmaid was known, usually announced her presence with an imitation of a curlew's cry: it could not be her. -Drift from Two Shores, Bret Harte

• She was the great passion of every soul, she, the Virgin most powerful, the Virgin most merciful, the Mirror of Justice, the Seat of Wisdom. All hands were stretched towards her, Mystical Rose in the dim light of the chapels, Tower of Ivory on the horizon of dreamland, Gate of Heaven leading into the Infinite. Each day at early dawn she shone forth, bright Morning Star, gay with juvenescent hope. Lourdes, Emile Zola

The Storyline
While only in her late 20s, Anna was the oldest person on the juvenescent staff at the bookstore.


Sources: Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

jactation

jac•ta•tion (jak-tey-shuhn)   n

Definition
1. (pathology) a tossing or shaking of the body; physical agitation, especially while asleep or confined to bed by illness
2. the action of throwing
3. boasting; bragging; showing off

jactitation
 1. (law) a false boast or claim that is intended to harm someone, especially a malicious claim by a person that he or she is married to a particular person
2. involuntary tossing and twitching of the body and limbs

jaculation
hurling or throwing

Related
Related Words: ejaculation

Examples
• There are crises of convulsions, violent shouting, loud weeping, violent jactation, fainting, and semi-coma.
• Thus a sentence of jactitation of marriage only imports, that it did not appear that the parties were married at a particular time and place, and not that there was no marriage at any time or place.
• Grandfather Smallweed immediately throws the cushion at her. ‘Drat you, be quiet!’ says the good old man. The effect of this act of jaculation is twofold. It not only doubles up Mrs. Smallweed’s head against the side of her porter’s chair and causes her to present, when extricated by her granddaughter, a highly unbecoming state of cap, but the necessary exertion recoils on Mr. Smallweed himself, whom it throws back into HIS porter’s chair like a broken puppet. Bleak House, Dickens

The Storyline
But Kurt was roused from his stupor and Anna wheeled about at the sounds of Tyler's sudden jactations.

Origin
jactation
1570–80; Latin jactatare , "to throw." equiv. to jacta-t ( us ) (ptp. of jacta-re,  freq. of jacere  to throw) + -io-n-  -ion

jactitation
1625–35; from Latin jactitation (tossing, false declaration), past participle of jactitare (to throw out publicly, to boast), frequentative of jactare (to throw about), frequentative of jacere (to throw)

jaculation
1615–25;  < L jacula-tus  (ptp. of jacula-re  to throw the javelin), equiv. to jacul ( um ) javelin (n. use of neut. of jaculus  used for hurling, equiv. to jac-  hurl + -ulus  adj. suffix) + -a-tus -ate

Sources: Wicktionary, Wordsmith, Dictionary.com

Why This Word:
Three similar words. Two disparate meanings. What gives? My handy Latin-English Dictionary helps. (Doesn't everyone have one?)
jactantor: boastfully
jactatio: tossing to and fro
jactator: braggart
jacto: to throw, cast
Of course, what would be really helpful would be if I could find some source to sort this out. But it sure seems like two very similar Latin words became conflated and two out of our three English words today acquired both meanings.
The surviving sense of jactation is toss about, with a rarer use of boasting. The surviving sense jactitation is a boast, albeit of a specialized nature, with a rarer use of tossing about. And the surviving form of jaculation, is, well, that word - you know.
In any event, this mash up of meaning and words gives us a bit of a glimpse into the messiness of language change. We think of etymologies as clear chains of lineage. But apparently not always.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day