A.Word.A.Day --forswear

A.Word.A.Day

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Jul 2, 2018

This week’s theme
Verbs

This week’s words
forswear
circumvallate
rowel
subduct
contund

Image: someecards

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

“First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns, and I speech nothing because I no verbs.”

Someone said that many years ago, and even though we are not entirely sure what it means, we don’t want you to be verbless. So this week our objective is to make verbs the subject of discussion.

forswear

PRONUNCIATION:

(for-SWAR)

MEANING:

verb tr., intr.:
1. To renounce something.
2. To commit perjury.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English forswerian, from for- (away, off) + swerian (to swear). Ultimately from the Indo-European root swer- (to speak), which also gave us the word answer. Earliest documented use: before 1000.

USAGE:

“It disgusted him that his resolve to forswear all women and live in solitude had not even lasted as long as his inebriation.”
Christine Merrill; Lady Drusilla’s Road to Ruin; Harlequin; 2011.

See more usage examples of forswear in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis. -Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice (2 Jul 1908-1993)

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