Word of the Day: Chiliad, Your Vocabulary Vitamin

How indeed did chiliad become the word of the day, a vocabulary vitamin, a vocabulary bicep builder? A treat that trips off the tongue? So glad you asked.

Lest you think Cinco de Mayo is just an excuse to have a midweek margarita, let me refer you to J.L. Carey's cheery poem "A Song for Death." It informs us that Cinco de Mayo celebrates a bloody victory won in 1862 by an army on horseback in old Me-hi-co. Within the confines of this poem, a heretofore unknown-to-me-at-least word stood up and shouted: "...the riot of a chiliad of horses." As if that were not breathtaking enough, poet J.L. gives it to us in the Spanish: " . . . un chiliad de caballos." Can you not hear the hoofbeats? Chiliad, word of the day. A rhythmic and literary way to say one thousand. But how do you say it? Just the way you would if you were advertising the soup: Chili - ad. Or click here to listen to this guy. There you have it, chiliad, a way to be erudite and take a Vocabulary Vitamin at the same time.

The Vocabulary Vitamin in Song and Sonnet

Think of all the songs and poems we could rewrite with this word of the day: "A Chiliad Baby Kisses I'd Deliver." "How do I love thee? (Let me count the) chiliad of ways." "A Chiliad Miles, a Chiliad Miles." And what a refined way to discuss crass money matters. "That'll be one chiliad four hundred and thirty two whatevers." Or, "You owe me a chiliad bucks, you deadbeat." A clever cover up for unkind observations: "You only look a chiliad years old in that thing." At last, we have adjectives, too, so that we can go on to say a sum is chiliadic. Or chiliadal. (Adjectives sorely needed since we've had to make do with "thousandish.") "It's too much, it's chiliadal!" we can protest."

But, you ask, does anyone ever use this Vocabulary Vitamin?

J. L. Carey, Jr. uses it, of course, as will Etta Mology, henceforth. But, in general, this word has been sadly underused. It has just been sitting around gathering dust for about a chiliad years. (Unless you count the Mt. Chiliad in the video game Grand Theft, but they pronounce that killyad. Or chiliad.com, where you will find out about Virtual Information Sharing software.) Alas, from day to day, seldom is heard the chiliad word.

So as you take your Vocabulary Vitamin today, congratulate yourself on helping to bring a perfectly good word from obscurity to Word of the Day status. Ready, swallow!

Today's Vocabulary Vitamin: chiliad noun
[from Greek khilias, from khilioi a thousand]
chiliadal , chiliadic adj

1. A group that contains 1,000 elements.
2. One thousand years; a millennium.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chiliad

Even more about chiliad, our Word of the Day:
[Late Latin chlias, chliad-, from Greek khlias, from khlioi, thousand;
see gheslo- in Indo-European roots.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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