A.Word.A.Day -- dictatress

A.Word.A.Day

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Jul 25, 2007

This week's theme
Unusual words used in famous quotations

This week's words
anecdotage
circumambulate
dictatress
gladsome
supramundane

“Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.” ~Emerson
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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

dictatress

(dik-TAY-tres)

noun: A female dictator.

[From Latin dictator, from dictare (to dictate), frequentative of dicere (to say). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deik- (to show, to pronounce solemnly) that is also the source of other words such as judge, verdict, vendetta, revenge, indicate, dictate, and paradigm.]

"America ... might become dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit."
John Quincy Adams; Address; Jul 4, 1821; quoted in The Yale Book of Quotations.

X-Bonus

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist." -Maria Montessori, educator (1870-1952)

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