This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
longhair
blackleg
double-dome
white-livered
dittohead

This week's comments
AWADmail 681

Next week's theme
Words related to Pluto and its moons

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(DIT-oh-head)

MEANING:

noun: One who mindlessly agrees with an idea or opinion.

ETYMOLOGY:

After callers on the talk radio program Rush Limbaugh Show who often unquestioningly agree with the radio host. The word began as a term to describe listeners to the show who would agree with the previous caller’s effusive praise of Limbaugh with the word “ditto”. From ditto (same, likewise), from Italian (Tuscan dialect ditto) detto (said, above-mentioned), from Latin dictus (said), from dicere (to say). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deik- (to show, to pronounce solemnly), which also gave us judge, verdict, vendetta, revenge, indicate, dictate, paradigm, diktat, fatidic, hoosegow, interdict, retrodiction. Earliest documented use: 1989.

USAGE:

“Wade Lawlor and all his dittoheads are implicating her in the murder of the colleague she never met.”
Breakdown; Kirkus Reviews (New York); Dec 1, 2011.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: