This week’s theme
Words made by combining forms

This week’s words
neophilia
pyrophobia
arithmomania
zoolatry
cryptogenic


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1138

Next week’s theme
Words related to the senses

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(krip-tuh-JEN-ik)

MEANING:

adjective: Of unknown origin or cause.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek crypto- (secret, hidden) + -genic (producing, produced by). Earliest documented use: 1873.

USAGE:

“‘Barney loves her, I know that,’ said Bennett. ‘He wants to marry her. Yet for reasons we might diagnose as cryptogenic, she keeps saying no.’”
Erich Segal; Doctors: A Novel; Bantam; 1988.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: