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Mar 2, 2010
This week's themeWords borrowed from various languages This week's words goulash cabal potlatch laager baksheesh Make a gift that ... keeps on giving, all year long A gift subscription of AWAD It takes less than a minute. 
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargcabal
PRONUNCIATION:
(kuh-BAL)
MEANING:
noun:1. A small, secret group of plotters or intriguers. 2. The plots of such a group. ETYMOLOGY:
Via French and Latin, from Hebrew kabbalah (tradition), literally "something received".
NOTES:
Kabbalah is the ancient Jewish tradition of the mystical interpretation
of the Hebrew Bible. During the reign of Charles II of England, it was pointed
out that the names of a group of his ministers (Sir Thomas Clifford, Lord
Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Ashley, and Lord Lauderdale) made the
acronym CABAL. Also see, backronym.
USAGE:
"The barrage was the latest salvo from a group of small silver and gold
investors who claim that a cabal of banks is conspiring to keep precious
metals too cheap."Gregory Meyer; Silver and Gold Critics Win Hearing; Financial Times (London, UK); Feb 25, 2010. See more usage examples of cabal in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)
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