This week’s theme
Words coined after fairy tales and folktales

This week’s words
breadcrumb
Tom Thumb
Domdaniel
Chicken Licken
open sesame

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(dom-DAN-yuhl)

MEANING:

noun: A place of wickedness.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French domdaniel (house of Daniel), apparently from Latin or Greek. Earliest documented use: 1801.

NOTES:

It’s not clear who Daniel is in the term Domdaniel. The place Domdaniel was introduced by a French continuation of the Arabian Nights by Dom Chaves and M. Cazotte in the late 18th c. Later, the place has appeared in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft, and Neil Gaiman, among others.

USAGE:

“They generally proceeded to the Domdaniel, riding on spits, pitchforks, or broomsticks.”
Charles Mackay; Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions; Richard Bentley; 1841.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: