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Jan 20, 2023
This week’s themeShoes This week’s words suede-shoed saboteur well-heeled sneakernet boot-faced Photo: Alizoni This week’s comments AWADmail 1073 Next week’s theme Words borrowed from other languages A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargboot-faced
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
adjective: Having a stern, angry, or sad expression.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the expression “to have a seaboot face” (to have grim face),
probably alluding to seaboots being worn on a ship in bad weather.
Earliest documented use: 1925.
USAGE:
“Jacqueline Wilson says, ‘Every time you see a librarian in a soap opera
it’s a boot-faced woman going ‘Shush!’ I’ve never come across a librarian
like that.’” Jan Dalley; Turning Over a New leaf; Financial Times (London, UK); Sep 30, 2006. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography.
-Federico Fellini, film director and writer (20 Jan 1920-1993)
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