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Jan 17, 2018
This week’s theme
Words of nautical origins

This week’s words
copper-bottomed
flotsam
leeway
jetsam
groggy


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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

leeway

PRONUNCIATION:
(LEE-way)

MEANING:
noun: The amount of freedom to do something: margin or latitude.

ETYMOLOGY:
In nautical terminology, leeway is the sideways drift of a ship to leeward (away from wind). From Old English hleo (shelter) + way. Earliest documented use: 1669.

USAGE:
“And a lack of standard practices gives some firms leeway to cut corners.”
Companies’ Green Strategies; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 30, 2016.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If you or your parents are immigrants, know that you are part of a proud American tradition -- the infusion of new cultures, talents, and ideas, generation after generation, that has made us the greatest country on earth. -Michelle Obama, lawyer, First Lady of the US (b. 17 Jan 1964)

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