a-priss-i-tee | /eɪpɹˈɪsɪti/
Apricity describes the welcome warmth of sunlight in the cold of winter. It derives from the Latin apricarus, meaning to be warmed by the sun or to be sunny. The verb apricate, meaning to bask in the sun, also derives from apricarus. When skiing, moments of apricity are a welcome bonus. However, my wife hates skiing (she thinks the mountain is trying to kill her) but is more than happy to apricate on the cafe veranda.
Apricity was first recorded in Henry Cockeram’s 1623 English Dictionarie but is missing from most modern dictionaries. The Oxford English Dictionary is the exception, wherein around 600 words are still attributed to Henry Cockeram’s work.
In 1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour published Letters to Squire Pedant as an aid to learning new vocabulary. Instead of drily listing definitions, he penned imaginary correspondences using the words in context. For apricity, he offered up this chilly little vignette:
“These humicubations, the nocturnal irrorations,
and the dankishness of the atmosphere,
generated by a want of apricity,
were extremely febrifacient.”
Humicubations refer to lying on the ground, irrorations to dew, and febrifacient to fever producing.
After a long period languishing in the shadows, apricity is itself enjoying some overdue time in the sun – its renewed popularity hopefully earning its future inclusion in dictionaries beyond the Oxford English Dictionary.
Introduction Aeolian Alpenglow
Benthos Crepuscular Crispate Crown shyness
Desire lines Dreich Endragoned Edgelands
Frondescence Fumarole Gluggaveður Gossamer
Karst Komorebi Lawrence Long acre
Machair Monkey’s wedding Moonglade
Psithurism Quartz Rakuyou Roaring forties
Snag Soft estate Specular, diffuse and pellucid
Spoondrift Steam fog Swash zone Sylvan
Tellurian and thalassic Terracettes Uliginous