A.Word.A.Day --Capuan

A.Word.A.Day

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Mar 20, 2023

This week’s theme
Toponyms

This week’s words
Capuan
canterbury
helotage
Elysium
Canaan

Ancient instagrams are lost to history, but we’ll take the modern-day Olympus Capua on their word that they offer “Exclusive Luxury Suites”

Image: Olympus Capua

Previous week’s theme
Words related to the number 29

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

What comes to mind when you think of Paris? Love, some would say. It has been called the City of Love. Stand on top of the Eiffel Tower and you’ll probably see Seine overflowing with romance. We’ll always have Paris.

Dictionaries, English or French, don’t yet list Paris as another word for love, but there are other cities that have entered the English lexicon as metaphors. For example: Waterloo (a crushing defeat), Babylon (a place of luxury and extravagance), and Shanghai (to recruit forcibly).

These words are known as toponyms, from Greek topos (place) + -nym (name). This week we’ll feature five more such words, derived after Italy, the UK, Greece, Middle East, and a mythical place.

Capuan

PRONUNCIATION:

(KAP-yoo-uhn)

MEANING:

adjective: Luxurious.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Capua, a city in south Italy, that was known for its luxurious comfort in ancient times.

USAGE:

“Or occupy yourself elsewhere until we are returned to our Capuan comforts.”
J.M. Clements; Spartacus: Swords and Ashes; Titan Books; 2012.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

What didn't you do to bury me / But you forgot that I was a seed. -Dinos Christianopoulos, poet (20 Mar 1931-2020)

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