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Mar 9, 2011
This week's theme
Words with hidden animals

This week's words
corniche
cynic
aegis
pedigree
gazette

Athena wearing an aegis
Athena, daughter of Zeus, wearing an aegis with the head of the Gorgon at its center
A stamp from Greece

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

aegis or egis

PRONUNCIATION:
(EE-jis)

MEANING:
noun: Protection, support, guidance, or sponsorship of a particular person or organization.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin aegis, from Greek aigis (goatskin), from aix (goat). Aigis was the name of the shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena in Greek mythology. It was made of goatskin. Earliest documented use: 1704.

USAGE:
"'I hope that the European Commission will take these projects under its aegis,' president Yushchenko said."
Yushchenko Hopes European Commission Will Take Gas-transit Modernization Projects Under Its Aegis; Kyiv Post (Ukraine); Mar 23, 2009.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient; nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in a fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient; and looking upon them only as sick and extravagant. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)

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