A.Word.A.Day --impetuous

A.Word.A.Day

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Feb 4, 2013

This week's theme
Words to describe people

This week's words
impetuous
uxorious
implacable
cantankerous
impudent

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Do you see people in black and white? They are either good or bad. Saints or sinners.

We should leave that Manichean view to the fairytales where one is either an innocent princess or a wicked witch. In reality, there are many shades of gray in between. And humans are rather colorful. This week's A.Word.A.Day will give us five words to describe them.

impetuous

PRONUNCIATION:

(im-PECH-oo-uhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Marked by impulsiveness or impatience.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin impetus (assault, impetus), from impetere (to attack), from in- (in) + petere (to go to). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush or fly), which also gave us feather, petition, compete, perpetual, pterodactyl, helicopter, propitious, pinnate, and lepidopterology (study of butterflies and moths). Earliest documented use: 1398.

USAGE:

"Fools rush in ... Taylor Swift often acts, well, like an impetuous teen straight out of one of her songs."
Eric Andersson; Why Taylor Can't Find Love; Us Weekly (New York); Nov 19, 2012.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Habit with him was all the test of truth, / It must be right: I've done it from my youth. -George Crabbe, poet and naturalist (1754-1832)

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