This week’s theme
Miscellaneous words

This week’s words
anodyne
salacious
probity
rectitude
emollient

This week’s comments
AWADmail 696

Next week’s theme
Unusual synonyms for everyday acts

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(i-MOL-yuhnt)

MEANING:

adjective: Soothing or softening.
noun: Something that soothes or softens.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin emollire (to soften), from ex- (intensive prefix) + mollire (to soften), from mollis (soft). Ultimately from the same Indo-European root mel- (soft) as words such as malt, melt, mollify, smelt, enamel, schmaltz, and moil. Earliest documented use: 1643.

USAGE:

“The supremely emollient Kaiser loves these figures, announcing them to me with a great beam of fiscal rectitude.”
Bryan Appleyard; The Opera Ain’t Over...; Sunday Times (London, UK); Jul 16, 2000.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: