A.Word.A.Day --cogent

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Jan 7, 2013

This week's theme
Miscellaneous words

This week's words
cogent
praxis
conterminous
aurorean
cenobite

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Have you ever opened a dictionary to look up a word, only to find yourself distracted by another word on the page? The definition of that word steers you to yet another, some two hundred pages ahead, and before you know it your fingers are cavorting as if in a random dance on the leaves of the lexicon.

This week's words in AWAD were chosen by following precisely that route. You could call it Brownian Motion, Browsing the Web, or Looking Words Up In a Dictionary.

cogent

PRONUNCIATION:

(KOH-juhnt)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Convincing or believable.
2. Relevant.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin cogere (to drive together), from co- (together) + agere (to drive). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ag- (to drive, draw), which is also the source of such words as act, agent, agitate, litigate, synagogue, and ambassador. Earliest documented use: 1659.

USAGE:

"[Michael Chabon's novel] 'Telegraph Avenue', tries to weave the stories of nearly a dozen different characters into a cogent narrative."
Failure of Imagination; The Economist (London, UK); Sep 8, 2012.

See more usage examples of cogent in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

And the fox said to the little prince: men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (1900-1944)

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