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Apr 16, 2010
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Toponyms

This week's words
shanghai
munich
bayonet
babylon
maffick

Mafeking, South Africa
Mahikeng, South Africa
Map: Wikipedia

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

maffick

PRONUNCIATION:
(MAF-ik)

MEANING:
verb intr.: To celebrate boisterously.

ETYMOLOGY:
Back formation from Mafeking (now Mahikeng), a town in South Africa, where a British garrison was besieged for 217 days during the Boer War. Lifting of the siege on May 17, 1900 sparked wild celebrations in London.

USAGE:
"Colin Milburn had a glazed look of stupefaction in his unseeing eyes and was completely oblivious to the mafficking going all around him in the wake of England's recently completed Test victory over Australia."
Frank Tyson; Driven by Natural Gifts; Sportstar (Chennai, India); Jul 4, 2009.

"Last year, about 300 people who like comics showed up ... It was a successful day of mingling, marketing, and mafficking."
Wayne Alan Brenner; Giant-Sized Annual; The Austin Chronicle (Texas); Mar 3, 2006.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. -Chapman Cohen, author and lecturer (1868-1954)

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