This week's theme
Words borrowed from other languages

This week's words
mojo
boondocks
gam
mammonism
leviathan

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(gam)

MEANING:

noun: 1. A leg, especially a woman's attractive leg.
noun: 2. A school of whales. 3. A social visit, especially between whalers or ship crews.
verb tr., intr.: 4. To hold such a visit; to spend time talking.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1: Probably from Polari, from Italian gamba (leg), from Latin gamba (leg). Polari is a jargon used among actors, circus performers, etc. in the UK. Earliest documented use: 1789.
For 2-4: Perhaps a dialectal variant of game. Earliest documented use: 1850.

USAGE:

"They didn't call her 'The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs' for nothing: the actress Betty Grable insured her gams for $500,000 each."
Celebrities and Their Insured Body Parts; Calgary Sun (Canada); Nov 3, 2009.

"If the captain wanted to turn his vessel around in mid-sea to follow a gam of whales for a few miles, he could do so."
Art Maier; Adventure Afloat; The Washington Post; Feb 6, 1994.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: