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Jan 27, 2022
This week’s theme
Anti-words

This week’s words
wrongous
eupnea
postposition
apocryphal
anergy

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

apocryphal

PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-PAH-kri-fuhl)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Of dubious authorship or authenticity.
2. False; erroneous; fictitious.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin apocryphus (secret), from Greek apokruphos (secret, hidden), from apokruptein (to hide away), from apo- (away) + kruptein (to hide). Earliest documented use: 1590.

USAGE:
“The stories, so richly portrayed in so many Byzantine churches, about Mary’s birth to Joachim and Anna ... are not found in canonical scripture, but in the apocryphal Book of James.”
Geoffrey Rowell; How the Age of Reason Yielded to the Allure of Divine Mystery; The Times (London, UK); Sep 6, 2003.

“The title ‘When Pigs Fly’ refers to an (apocryphal or not, you decide) episode in the late Crabtree’s youth when a guidance counselor likened his chances of succeeding in show business to the likelihood of flying swine.”
Leah B. Green; Scaled-Down “Pigs” Proves That Size Doesn’t Matter; The Seattle Times; Mar 4, 2005.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I will remember that what has brought us up from savagery is a loyalty to truth, and truth cannot emerge unless it is subjected to the utmost scrutiny -- will you not agree that a society which has lost sight of that, cannot survive? -Learned Hand, jurist (27 Jan 1872-1961)

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