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A.Word.A.Day--brumal

brumal (BROO-muhl) adjective

Occurring in or related to winter.

[From Latin brumalis (pertaining to winter), from brevima dies (shortest day or winter solstice), from brevis (short). Other words that are derived from the same Latin root are abbreviate, abridge, brevity, breve, and brevet.]

"Our motley platoon of snowmobiles was chewing up a rippled meadow high on the southwestern flanks of the Gore Range near Vail, Colo., four bundles of motorized mayhem zigzagging across a brumal landscape."
Rick Lyman; It's Vail in the Winter. Who Needs Skis?; The New York Times; Jan 26, 2003.

"Now that we've been robbed of yet another blizzard, we're actually beginning to wish there were a little snow out there. Perhaps we'd feel more inclined to don our pricey new Christmas ski outfit if the landscape looked a tad more brumal."
Christopher Muther; Space Oddity; Boston Globe; Jan 8, 2002.

Usually the words in AWAD are organized in a theme, but once in a while we simply feature words that are engaging by themselves. This week we'll take a cross-country drive through the dictionary, with no itinerary in hand. We'll make several stops along the way, but who knows where we might stop. Let's see what kind of words we might come across. Perhaps we'll meet words that are long and short and unusual and uncommon, but all of them, just like people, are interesting only if we care enough to learn about them. -Anu Garg

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