Building a Better Vocabulary

Lecture 20: Words That Break and Words That Join

ż In linguistics, such missing pieces are called lexical gaps. We

might expect a word for something based on patterns found

elsewhere in the language, but instead, we get a gap. This gap

or break in the pattern is an example of a lacuna.

z Lacuna is often used to refer to a missing section of a book that has

been censored or to a part of an ancient text that has gone missing.

For example: “Although the ancient manuscript was recovered, the

notably large lacuna at the beginning made the text confusing.”

In medicine, lacuna can refer to a small cavity in an anatomical

structure, such as a bone.

z Lacuna comes from the Latin lacuna, meaning “hole or pit.”

Related words include ODNH and lagoon, which are holes or pits

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Maw (noun)

The mouth, throat, or gullet of an animal, particularly a carnivorous animal.

z Maw is a short, powerful word for the mouth and jaws of voracious,

carnivorous beasts, as in: “Staring directly into the gaping maw

of the ravenous lion, he lost all courage and ran away as fast as

he could.”

ż In addition, maw can be used to refer to a cavernous opening

that resembles the jaws of an animal: “At the end of the horror

movie, her soul is sucked down into the gaping maw of hell.”

ż MawFDQDOVREHXVHGLQDPRUH¿JXUDWLYHVHQVHWRUHIHUWR

the metaphorical center of a voracious appetite: “The paparazzi

will go to any lengths to get scurrilous pictures of celebrities,

knowing the need to feed the insatiable maw of the scandal-

loving public.”

z As is the case with many single-syllable words, maw is from an Old

English word, in this case, maga, “stomach.”