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Jan 29, 2013
This week's themeThere'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.Day
with Anu Gargfilipendulous
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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