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Dec 11, 2003

This week's theme
Words borrowed from Spanish

This week's words
amigo
loco
duende
disembogue
armada

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Read it today

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disembogue

verb intr.: To discharge or pour out, as from the mouth of a river or stream.
verb tr.: To discharge.

[From Spanish desembocar (to flow out), from des- (dis-) + embocar (to put into the mouth), from Latin en- (in) + boca (mouth), from bucca (cheek).]

The name of the city of Boca Raton (Florida) literally means Mouse's Mouth. Why it's named so isn't clear. Some attribute it to the shape of the inlet, while others believe it was named to describe the presence of rocks that gnaw at a ship's cable, or that it refers metaphorically to the sense of pirate's cove.

"And natives with their trinkets speed the long, light pirogue From where the muddy island streams in languor disembogue."
William Rose Benet; Merchants From Cathay; Yale University Press; 1919.

"Page: Conduct me to the lady of the mansion, or my poniard shall disembogue thy soul."
Philip Massinger; The Maid of Honour; 1632.

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