This week’s theme
New words

This week’s words
dox
photoshop
defriend
affluenza
peeps

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(af-loo-EN-zuh)

MEANING:

noun: A feeling of malaise accompanied by lack of motivation, dissatisfaction, feelings of guilt, especially among wealthy young people.

ETYMOLOGY:

A blend of affluence + influenza. Both words are from Latin fluere (to flow). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhleu- (to swell or overflow), from which flow words such as influence, fluctuate, fluent, fluid, fluoride, flush, flux, reflux, superfluous, fluvial, and profluent. Earliest documented use: 1973.

USAGE:

“When Ethan Couch was 16, he was spared prison after killing four people in a drink-driving accident because a judge found that he suffered from affluenza ...
“Couch’s blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit and there were traces of Valium and marijuana in his system when he took seven friends for a high-speed ride in his pick-up truck on June 15, 2013. He ploughed into a broken-down car at over 70 mph, killing four people who were working on it. Two of his friends were critically injured and one was left paralysed. ...
“Couch’s defence hinged on a psychologist’s evidence that the boy could not understand the consequences of his actions because he had been raised by ‘profoundly dysfunctional’ millionaire parents who encouraged his bad behaviour. ‘Instead of the golden rule, which was -- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you -- he was taught ‘We have the gold, we make the rules,’ Dick Miller [a psychologist hired by the defense] testified.”
Ben Hoyle; Boy Who was Too Rich for Jail Goes on the Run; The Times (London, UK); Dec 18, 2015.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: