A.Word.A.Day --elocutionary

A.Word.A.Day

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Sep 9, 2024

This week’s theme
Words with all the vowels

This week’s words
elocutionary
commensurability
vituperatory
equivocacy
perfunctionary

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

Previous week’s theme
Coined words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Vowels and consonants, the dynamic duo of language. Vowels -- A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y -- are the social butterflies at the party, bringing melody, flow, and rhythm to the conversation. They glide through words, making everything sound lively and connected. Consonants, on the other hand, are the sturdy framework, the reliable guests who give words their shape and structure.

But here’s the magic: when the vowels and consonants start interacting, the party truly comes alive. Vowels glide in between consonants, adding warmth and movement, turning static clusters of consonants into words that dance off your tongue. The vowels bring the conversation to life, giving the consonants something to wrap around, something to hold. Without consonants, language would be a mushy mess; without vowels, it would be dry and rigid.

While we can’t get all consonants into a single word without the party getting too wild, we can do that with vowels. This week we’ve picked five words, each of which has all the vowels present.

elocutionary

PRONUNCIATION:

(el-uh-KYOO-shuhn-uhr-ee)

MEANING:

adjective: Relating to public speaking, especially in clear, expressive, and often emphatic manner.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin eloqui (to speak out), from ex- (out) + loqui (to speak). Earliest documented use: 1846.

USAGE:

“[Harry Houdini] taught himself to speak in advanced elocutionary English, and to write in the ornate tones of period ballyhoo.”
David Denby; Chain Me Up; The New Yorker; Mar 30, 2020.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (9 Sep 1828-1910)

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