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Mar 26, 2015
This week’s theme
Unusual synonyms

This week’s words
expectorate
seism
autochthon
leechdom
festinate

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

leechdom

PRONUNCIATION:
(LEECH-duhm)

MEANING:
noun: A remedy or medicine.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English laecedom (medicine, healing), from laece (physician). The word for the bloodsucking parasite has a different origin. Earliest documented use: 900.

USAGE:
“I will now do my leechdoms with the sick man.”
William Morris; The Water of the Wondrous Isles; Kelmscott Press; 1897.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong. -Richard Dawkins, biologist and author (b. 26 Mar 1941)

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