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May 22, 2014
This week's theme
Words coined after Shakespearean characters

This week's words
ophelian
benedict
hamlet
bardolphian
polonian

Bardolph
Bardolph
Art: Henry Stacy Marks, 1853

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

Bardolphian

PRONUNCIATION:
(bar-DOL-fee-uhn)

MEANING:
adjective: Having a red complexion, especially a red nose.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Bardolph, a character in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, who was noted for his red nose. Earliest documented use: 1756. Another character from these plays who has become a word in English is Falstaff.

USAGE:
"The man, who had flushed a Bardolphian hue from the excitement, unlocked a drawer."
Matthew Pearl; The Dante Club; Random House; 2003.

"His cheeks were plump and sanguine; his eyes bright and cheerful; and the tip of his nose glowed with a Bardolphian fire."
Nathaniel Hawthorne; Fanshawe; Marsh and Capen; 1828.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (1859-1930)

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