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Dec 31, 2020
This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
bounder
toplofty
worrywart
airling
altricial

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

airling

PRONUNCIATION:
(AIR-ling)

MEANING:
noun: A carefree, thoughtless person.

ETYMOLOGY:
A combination of air, from Latin aer (air) + -ling (small, young, inferior). Earliest documented use: 1611.

USAGE:
“‘Does that mean he is short a few marbles upstairs?’ Matthew asked. ... he knocked on his own head and said, ‘Airling,’ which got them all laughing.”
Sylvia Abolis Mennear; Enchanted Castle On The River; Xlibris; 2015.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it. -George Marshall, US Army Chief, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Nobel laureate (31 Dec 1880-1959)

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“Overall, the universe’s apostrophe store stays in balance. It seems our linguistic world was intelligently designed -- for every gratuitous apostrophe there’s an instance where it’s omitted.”

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