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Nov 15, 2017
This week’s theme
Toponyms from fiction

This week’s words
grimgribber
ecotopia
ruritanian
edenic
stepford

The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda (1952 film)
Image: MGM

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

Ruritanian

PRONUNCIATION:
(roor-i-TAY-nee-uhn)

MEANING:
adjective: Relating to an imaginary place characterized by romance, adventure, and intrigue.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Ruritania, a fictional Central European kingdom, in the novel The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope. Earliest documented use: 1894.

USAGE:
“When the writer J.G. Ballard turned down an offer of a CBE in 2003, he did so not only because he found it ‘ludicrous’ that there should still be such a thing as an ‘Order of the British Empire’ but also because the whole honours system was ‘a Ruritanian charade that helps to prop up our top-heavy monarchy’.”
Alexander Chancellor; Long Life; The Spectator (London, UK); Jun 30, 2012.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. -Marianne Moore, poet (15 Nov 1887-1972)

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