A.Word.A.Day --cunctation

A.Word.A.Day

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Jan 13, 2017

This week’s theme
Words that appear rude, but aren’t

This week’s words
cockup
crapulous
pricket
fard
cunctation

Fabius Maximus (c. 280-203 BCE), Roman general, who earned the nickname Cunctator from his guerrilla tactics in not engaging the enemy directly when outnumbered

Photo: Schurl50/Wikimedia

This week’s comments
AWADmail 759

Next week’s theme
Words borrowed from other languages

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

cunctation

PRONUNCIATION:

(kungk-TAY-shunn)

MEANING:

noun: Delay; procrastination; tardiness.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin cunctari (to hesitate, delay). Earliest documented use: 1585.

USAGE:

“By postponement, we gain peace today. Have we anything to lose by it? Our capacity for cunctation is one of our most powerful and characteristic national weapons.”
John Maynard Keynes; The Essential Keynes; Penguin Classics; 2016.

See more usage examples of cunctation in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

To move freely you must be deeply rooted. -Bella Lewitzky, dancer (13 Jan 1916-2004)

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