A.Word.A.Day --pugilist

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pugilist

PRONUNCIATION:

(PYOO-juh-list)

MEANING:

noun: A boxer.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin pugil (boxer), from pugnus (fist). Ultimately from the Indo-European root peuk- (to prick) which is also the source of point, puncture, pungent, punctual, poignant, pounce, poniard, oppugn, repugn, impugn, pugilist, and repugnant. Earliest documented use: around 1740.

USAGE:

"Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist -- it reduces him to his fighting weight."
Josh Billings, columnist and humorist (1818-1885).

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world's champions. -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist (1922-2007)

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