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Feb 13, 2013
This week's theme
Words with initial silent letters

This week's words
pteridology
knacker
gnathic
wraith
chthonic

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

gnathic

PRONUNCIATION:
(NATH-ik)

MEANING:
adjective: Of or relating to the jaw.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek gnathos (jaw). Ultimately from the Indo-European root genu- (jawbone, chin), which is also the source of chin, prognathous , and Sanskrit hanu (jaw). Hanuman (literally, having a large jaw) is the name of a monkey god in the Hindu pantheon. Earliest documented use: 1882.

USAGE:
"For the first time in his life Judah sees the strangeness of the khepri, hears the scissor-sounds their gnathic movements make."
China Miéville; Iron Council; Del Rey; 2004.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)

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