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May 7, 2015
This week’s theme
Words that turn into another word when beheaded

This week’s words
scop
junto
hauteur
astringent
futilitarian

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

astringent

PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-STRIN-juhnt)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Contracting or constricting.
2. Caustic; pungent.
3. Stern; austere.
noun: A substance that constricts body tissues.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin astringere (to bind fast), from ad- (toward) + stringere (to bind). Ultimately from the Indo-European root streig- (to stroke or press), which is also the source of strike, streak, strict, stress, strain, and strait. Earliest documented use: 1541.

USAGE:
“However, unlike the apple and its other cousin the pear, quince flesh is hard and astringent and cannot be eaten raw.”
Jan Bilton; Quinces, the Perfect Accompaniments; Hawke’s Bay Today (New Zealand); Apr 25, 2014.

“Young Ajay Mishra, whose family carries with it a wound that will not heal, reads Ernest Hemingway and finds in that astringent language a way out.”
Amrita Dutta; Remains of the Day; The Indian Express (New Delhi); May 10, 2014.

See more usage examples of astringent in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of his tail. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (7 May 1861-1941)

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