A.Word.A.Day --grimthorpe

A.Word.A.Day

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Jul 3, 2017

This week’s theme
People who became verbs

This week’s words
grimthorpe
mithridatize
penelopize
Robinson Crusoe
out-Herod

Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe

Vanity Fair Feb 2, 1889

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

You can do good things or bad, but if you do them greatly, differently, or intensely, chances are your name will become a word.

There was a real man named Boycott who became a verb (and noun) in English (and other languages: French boycotter, Spanish boicotear, Greek μποϊκοτάρω, and so on). And there are many more people, from fact and fiction, who live on in the English language as verbs.

This week we’ll meet five such people from real life and fiction and mythology.

grimthorpe

PRONUNCIATION:

(GRIM-thorp)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To restore or remodel something without paying attention to its original character, history, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe (1816-1905), an architect whose restoration of St. Albans Cathedral in England was criticized for radical changes made to the building. Earliest documented use: 1890.

USAGE:

“Hey, let’s zone against any further grimthorping in Springfield.”
Take My Word for it; State Journal Register (Springfield, Illinois); Apr 21, 2005.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast. -Julie Burchill, writer and journalist (b. 3 Jul 1959)

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