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Jan 17, 2017
This week’s theme
Words borrowed from other languages

This week’s words
satori
hegira
pronunciamento
bobbery
camorra

hegira map
Map: Google Maps

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

hegira

PRONUNCIATION:
(hi-JY-ruh, HEJ-uhr-uh)

MEANING:
noun: A journey or migration, especially when taken to escape an undesirable situation.

ETYMOLOGY:
From the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE to escape persecution. From Arabic hijra (departure), from hajara (to depart). Earliest documented use: 1590.

USAGE:
“He seamlessly presents historical information on such trail subjects as ... the Mormon hegira to Salt Lake that began in 1847.”
The Oregon Trail (review); Wild West (Tysons, Virginia); Dec 2015.

“In Blinded by the Right, his account of his ideological hegira from conservative button man to liberal media critic, David Brock describes a hilarious scene at an Arkansas bait shop.”
Charles P. Pierce; Politics: Sure, They Love Her Now...; Esquire (New York); Jun 2013.

See more usage examples of hegira in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (17 Jan 1706-1790) [Editor's note: This quotation is misattributed to Franklin.]

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