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May 4, 2012
This week's theme
Eponyms

This week's words
mentor
nestor
tartar
hector
satyr

Satyr sculpture at Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney
Satyr sculpture at Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney
Photo: Marko

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

satyr

PRONUNCIATION:
(SAY-tuhr, SAT-uhr)

MEANING:
noun:
1. A lecherous man.
2. A man who has satyriasis: excessive and uncontrollable sexual desire. The female equivalent is nymphomania.
3. Any of several butterflies of the family Satyridae, having eyelike spots.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Satyr, a woodland creature in Greek mythology shown as having features of a goat and a horse (pointed ears, horns, tail, etc.) and known for lasciviousness. Earliest documented use: around 1374.

USAGE:
"Presiding like a twinkly satyr over this parade of sauciness and silicone is Antoine de Caunes, the aforementioned Frenchman."
James Rampton; Sauciness and Silicone; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 19, 1998.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Hundreds of hysterical persons must confuse these phenomena with messages from the beyond and take their glory to the bishop rather than the eye doctor. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)

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