visceral (adj. VIH-suh-rul or VISS-rul)

1 : felt in or as if in the viscera

2 : not intellectual : instinctive

3 : of or relating to the viscera

The viscera are the internal organs of the body -- especially those located in the large cavity of the trunk (e.g., the heart, liver, and intestines). The word viscera comes from Latin, in which it has essentially the same meaning. Something visceral has to do with the viscera. In a more figurative sense, something visceral is felt deep down. Even in the early years of its use, visceral often referred to things emotional rather than physiological. For example, in 1640, an English bishop named Edward Reynolds wrote, "Love is of all other the inmost and most visceral affection." This figurative use is the most common use of visceral, but the word continues to be used in medical contexts.

tome (n. TOHM)

1 : a volume forming part of a larger work

2 : book; especially : a large or scholarly book

Tome comes from the Latin tomus, which comes from the Greek tomos, meaning section or roll of papyrus. Tomos comes from the Greek verb temnein, which means to cut. In ancient times, some of the longest scrolls of papyrus occasionally were divided into sections. When it was first used in English in the 16th century, tome was a book that was a part of a multi-volume work. Now a tome is most often simply a large and often ponderous book.

prestigious (adj. preh-STIH-juss or preh-STEE-juss)

: having an illustrious name or reputation : esteemed in general opinion

You may be surprised to learn that prestigious actually had more to do with trickery than respect when it was first used in 1546. The earliest (now archaic) meaning was of, related to, or marked by illusion, conjuring, or trickery. Prestigious comes to us from the Latinword praestigiosus, which meant full of tricks, deceitful. The words prestige and prestigious are related, of course, though not as directly as you might think -- they share a Latin ancestor, but they entered English by different routes. Prestige, which was borrowed from French in 1656, initially meant conjurer's trick, but in the 19th century it developed an extended sense of blinding or dazzling influence. That change in turn influenced prestigious, which now means simply illustrious or esteemed.

devolve (v. dih-VAHLV or dee-VAHLV)

1 : to pass (as rights or responsibility) by transmission or succession

2 : to come by or as if by flowing down

3 : to degenerate through a gradual change or evolution

Devolve evolved from Latin volvere, a word that means to roll. The prefix de- means down. (Other words that revolve around "volvere" are the five other words containing -vol- found in this paragraph.) Knowing which preposition to use with devolve can seem a bit involved, but it's really not all that convoluted. Responsibility or rights devolve on, upon, or to someone. When something comes into a present state by flowing down from a source, either literally or figuratively, we say devolve from, as in "customs that devolve from old beliefs." And when the devolving is a downward evolution to a lower state we say devolves into (or sometimes devolves to), as in "order devolves into chaos."

crepuscular (adj. krih-PUSS-kyuh-ler)

1 : of, relating to, or resembling twilight : dim

2 : active in the twilight

The early Romans had two words for twilight. Crepusculum was favored by Roman writers for the half-light of evening, just after the sun sets; it is a diminutive formation based on their word for dark, which is creper. Diluculum was reserved for morning twilight, just before the sun rises -- it is related to lucidus, meaning bright. We didn't embrace either of these Latin nouns as substitutes for our Middle English twilight, but we did form the adjective crepuscular in the 17th century. At first, it only meant dim or indistinct, often used in a figurative sense. In the 1820s, we added its special zoological sense, describing animals who are most active at twilight.