etiolate EE-tee-uh-layt (verb)

1 : to bleach and alter the natural development of (a green plant) by excluding sunlight

2 a : to make pale b : to deprive of natural vigor : make feeble

When we first started using etiolate in the late 1700s (borrowed from the French verb etioler), it was in reference to purposely depriving growing celery of light. (The resulting white vegetable was, and still is, considered a delicacy.) The word traces back to the Old French word for straw -- esteule -- and is related to the Latin word for straw or stalk, which is stipula. But the term for growing veggies as pale as straw is now more likely to be blanch, while etiolate is more apt to refer to depriving plants in general of light; when etiolated, they are sickly, pale, and spindly. The figurative sense of etiolate ("to make pallid or feeble") first appeared in the 1800s as a natural outgrowth of the original sense.

implacable im-PLAK-uh-bul or im-PLAY-kuh-bul (adjective)

: not placable : not capable of being appeased,

significantly changed, or mitigated

Implacable comes from the Latin word implacabilis, with which it shares the meaning not easily placated. Ultimately, it comes from the verb placare (meaning to calm or to soothe). Implacable adds the negative im- to the root to describe something that cannot be calmed or soothed or altered. The root placare also gave us placate. You may ask, what about similar-looking words placid and placebo? These words are related to implacable and placate, but not as closely as you might suspect. They come from the Latin verb placere, a relative of placare that means to please.

burgle BUR-gul (verb)

transitive senses

1 : to break into and steal from

2 : to commit burglary against

intransitive sense : to commit burglary