A.Word.A.Day --cordate

A.Word.A.Day

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Dec 1, 2014

This week's theme
Words derived from body parts

This week's words
cordate
amanuensis
impedimenta
spleen
mansuetude

Photo: Lea Aharonovitch

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Did you hear about this schoolteacher from Romania? He taught for 50 years. Always wanted to have a skeleton for the biology lessons in his school, but never got one. So he willed his body and now his skeleton hangs in the class. There are many dedicated teachers, but he takes the apple.

This week I'm going to help you learn words derived from body parts. And while I admire this teacher, I'm not going as far as he did for this lesson.

What I have done, though, and I hope you do too, is pledge to be an organ donor.

cordate

PRONUNCIATION:

(KOR-dayt)

MEANING:

adjective: Heart-shaped.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin cor (heart). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kerd- (heart), which also gave us cardiac, cordial, courage, record, concord, discord, and accord. Earliest documented use: 1651.

USAGE:

"The cordate leaves were large and broad, and ended in a single point."
Yann Martel; Life of Pi; Knopf; 2001.

See more usage examples of cordate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I took a speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia. -Woody Allen, author, actor, and filmmaker (b. 1935)

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