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Dec 5, 2023
This week’s theme
Illustrated words

This week’s words
aristology
diablerie
heliophilous
lotic
umbriferous

diablerie
Illustration: Leah Palmer Preiss

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

diablerie

PRONUNCIATION:
(dee-AH-bluh-ree or dee-AB-luh-ree)

MEANING:
noun:
1. Sorcery; witchcraft; black magic.
2. A representation of devils or demons in art or literature.
3. Mischievous manner or conduct.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French diable (devil), from Latin diabolus (devil), from Greek diabolos (slanderer), from diaballein (to slander), from dia- (across) + ballein (to hurl). Earliest documented use: 1653.

USAGE:
“[The hat] unquestionably lent a diablerie to my appearance, and mine is an appearance that needs all the diablerie it can get.”
P.G. Wodehouse; Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves; Simon & Schuster; 1963.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I don't believe in playing down to children, either in life or in motion pictures. I didn't treat my own youngsters like fragile flowers, and I think no parent should. Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. -Walt Disney, entrepreneur and animator (5 Dec 1901-1966)

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