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May 30, 2012
This week's theme
Insults

This week's words
flagitious
thewless
flaneur
prima donna
cunctator

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

flaneur

PRONUNCIATION:
(flah-NUHR)

MEANING:
noun: An idler or loafer; a man about town.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French flâneur (stroller, idler), from flâner (to stroll). Earliest documented use: 1854.

USAGE:
"In Dessaix's delightful contribution to the genre, he turns himself into a modern-day literary flaneur -- that is, one with a round-the-world air ticket."
A Magnificent Buffoon; Financial Times (London, UK); Jan 28, 2005.

"The dandy, on the other hand, is a flâneur, a jaded, narcissistic observer well-suited to the 7280 cell phone, whose screen becomes a mirror when not in use."
Ed Tenner; Digital Dandies; Technology Review (Cambridge, Massachusetts); Jan 2005.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Life is an adventure in forgiveness. -Norman Cousins, author and editor (1915-1990)

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