This week’s theme
Well-traveled words

This week’s words
angary
serenade
Zion
assassin
aprosexia

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-SAS-in)

MEANING:

noun: A person who kills someone important, especially for political or ideological reasons.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French assassin, from Latin assassinus, from Arabic hashshashin (hashish user). The word arose from the myth that members of the Nizari sect killed under the influence of hashish. Earliest documented use: 1340.

USAGE:

“I’m a hired assassin, I carry a tommy gun in a violin case! ... They call me Killer, Killer Wingfield, I’m leading a double-life, a simple, honest warehouse worker by day, by night a dynamic czar of the underworld, Mother.”
Tennessee Williams; The Glass Menagerie; 1944.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: