This week’s theme
Words related to time

This week’s words
timeous
yealing
witching hour
meridian
ephemeral


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1037

Next week’s theme
Unusual synonyms

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(i-FEM-uh-ruhl)

MEANING:

adjective: Lasting a very short time; transitory.
noun: Anything short-lived.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek ephemeros (short-lived), from epi- (upon) + hemera (day). Earliest documented use: 1576.

USAGE:

“‘Collin is an ephemeral artist,’ Nikolaus bragged.
‘Oh, whoa, like street art and fireworks?’ Travis asked. ...
‘You’re an artist too?’ Collin asked.
‘I wish. I’m a hairdresser.’
‘That’s an ephemeral art,’ Collin said.”
Anitra Lynn McLeod; Oops! Gargoyle; 2020.

“You do not recognize the name now, but you would have in 2000. This is the problem of ephemeral fame. Katherine Harris was the Secretary of something for the state of Florida. She was in the middle of the controversy over vote-counting in the 2000 election. Her nights were apparently no less frenetic than her days during that period. She had dreams. In one of them, she confided to friends, she saw herself riding a horse into a stadium full of Republican fans and delivering the trophy of victory to them. I am not certain how her dream squares with her duties of impartiality. I suspect the American legal profession has developed a legally protected freedom to dream, established through a lot of expensive litigation.”
Philip Blackpeat; The War of Art; iUniverse; 2005.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: