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Jan 8, 2009
This week's themeMiscellaneous words This week's words liminal avenaceous span-new etesian ecumenical Give a gift that ... keeps on giving, all year long A gift subscription of AWAD Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargetesian
PRONUNCIATION:
(i-TEE-zhuhn)
MEANING:
adjective: Occurring annually.
ETYMOLOGY:
The word refers to the annual summer winds of the Mediterranean. It's derived
from Latin etesius, from Greek etesios, from etos (year). Ultimately from the
Indo-European root wet- (year) that is also the source of such words as
veteran, veal (in the sense of yearling), and veterinary (relating to the
beasts of burden, perhaps alluding to old cattle), inveterate, wether, and
bellwether.
USAGE:
"British gold medal hope Paula Radcliffe suffers from asthma. She will
be praying Greece's etesian wind will blow away much of the Athens
smog."Paula Radcliffe Suffers From Asthma; The News of the World (London, UK); Aug 8, 2004. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. -Banksy, street artist (b. 1974)
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