This week’s theme
Eponyms (words coined after people)

This week’s words
maecenas
guy
victorian
gongorism
gongorism
Addisonian

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(guy)

MEANING:

noun: A man (in plural, persons of either sex).
verb tr.: To make fun of; ridicule.

noun: A rope to steady, guide, or secure something.
verb tr.: To steady, guide, or secure something with a rope.

ETYMOLOGY:

For set 1:After Guy Fawkes (1570-1606), a conspirator in the failed attempt to blow up England’s Parliament in 1605. Earliest documented use: 1874.
For set 2: From Old French guie (guide), from guier (to guide). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weid- (to see), which is also the source of guide, wise, vision, advice, idea, story, history, polyhistor, invidious, hades, eidos, eidetic, previse, vidimus, and vizard. Earliest documented use: 1375.

USAGE:

“There was much guying of America’s Tea Party movement or teabaggers, as some hilariously call themselves.”
Veronica Lee; Bigots and the PC Brigade are Expertly Skewered; The Independent (London, UK); May 27, 2015.

“Ropes guyed it down to the goalpost crossbars.”
Ian McDonald; Kirinya; Gollancz; 1998.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: