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Jul 25, 2001

This week's theme
Less-known counterparts of everyday words

This week's words
epizootic
anile
estivate
thegosis
trilemma

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estivate

estivate (ES-tuh-vayt)

verb: To pass the summer in a dormant state.

[From Latin aestivare (to spend the summer). Earliest documented use: 1623.]

"Spiral-shaped 'Rabdotus' snails estivate through the warm summer months on the trunks of the trees."
John Tveten and Gloria Tveten, Birds And Butterflies Among Amenities of New Valley Inn, The Houston Chronicle, Mar 19, 1999.

"If the self's immutability
can bear a hazy long hiatus,
estivate, vanish, die - and stay the same --
what were the months and years of pain?"
Eric Colburn; The Long Poem; Literary Review (Madison, New Jersey); Spring 2001.

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