Today, the First Day of the Last Month of 2011…Advent Season, Merriam Webster graces the Internet with their “Word of the Day .”
Sadly, this word is not very observed anymore. We must truly work on that.
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Word of the Day
December 1
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genuflect
 \JEN-yuh-flekt\ |
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1
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a :
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to bend the knee
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b :
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to touch the knee to the floor or ground especially in worship
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2 :
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to be servilely obedient or respectful
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“Genuflect” is derived from Late Latin “genuflectere,” formed from the noun “genu” (“knee”) and the verb “flectere” (“to bend”). “Flectere” is an ancestor of a number of common verbs in English, such as “reflect” (“to throw back light or sound”) and “deflect” (“to turn aside”). By comparison “genu” sees little use in English, but it did give us “geniculate,” a word often used in scientific contexts to mean “bent abruptly at an angle like a bent knee.” Despite the resemblance, words such as “genius” and “genuine” are not related to “genuflect”; instead, they are of a family that includes the Latin verb “gignere,” meaning “to beget.”
From The Pews 
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