A.Word.A.Day --bavardage

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Today's Word

bavardage

PRONUNCIATION:

(bah-vuhr-DAZH)

MEANING:

noun: Chattering; gossip.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French bavarder (to chatter), from bavard (talkative), from bave (saliva, drivel). Earliest documented use: 1835.

USAGE:

“A long time ago, I joined a former friend from high school and her husband for dinner at a restaurant. Though the three of us shared a table, the couple engaged in side conversations in French, which they spoke fluently knowing that my French was barely conversational. As their bavardage grew more frequent and lengthy, I dined alone in their company.”
Algernon D’Ammassa; As Time, Money Pass, to Whom Is CAP Entity Accountable?; Las Cruces Sun-News (New Mexico); Oct 13, 2017.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much. -Sarah Vowell, author and journalist (b. 27 Dec 1969)

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