This week’s theme
Bird words

This week’s words
gannet
snipe
dodo
magpie
dotterel


This week’s comments
AWADmail 693

Next week’s theme
Words with hooks

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(DOT-uhr-uhl)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Any of various plovers breeding in mountainous areas.
2. Someone who is easily duped.

ETYMOLOGY:

From dote (to be weak-minded from old age), from Middle English doten (to be foolish) + -rel (diminutive or pejorative suffix), as in doggerel and wastrel. The metaphorical sense of the word derives from the apparently unsuspecting nature of the bird. Earliest documented use: 1440.

USAGE:

“A willowy young creature walked down the stairs from the rooms above, holding on to the arm of some old dotterel who had no doubt been duped into imagined vigour.”
David Ashton; Inspector McLevy Mysteries: Omnibus; Polygon; 2015.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: