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 | Jan 29, 2013This week's theme There's a word for it This week's words overmorrow filipendulous paresthesia armscye onomastics Surprise me! Get a random word from A.Word.A.Day archives  Discuss  Feedback  RSS/XML             A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg filipendulous
 PRONUNCIATION: MEANING: 
adjective: Hanging by a thread.
 ETYMOLOGY: 
From Latin filum (thread) + pendere (to hang). Ultimately from the
Indo-European root (s)pen- (to draw, to spin), which is also the source
of pendulum, spider, pound, pansy, pendant, ponder, appendix, penthouse,
depend, and spontaneous. Earliest documented use: 1864.
 USAGE: 
"A group of filipendulous constructions that evoke Brobdingnagian hornets' nests." The New Yorker; Sep 25, 1989. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life. -Sophia Loren, actress (b. 1934) | 
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