This week’s theme
No el

This week’s words
morbidezza
vociferate
juxtapose
hawkshaw
quingentenary

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(HAWK-shaw)

MEANING:

noun: A detective.

ETYMOLOGY:

After the name of a detective in the 1863 play The Ticket-of-Leave Man by Tom Taylor. The character also appeared in the comic strip Hawkshaw the Detective by Gus Mager. Earliest documented use: 1863.

USAGE:

“Please don’t think that Eleanor is so busy hobnobbing with Nobel Prize authors that she neglects her responsibilities as detective. In fact, FDR is always cautioning her to be discreet: ‘I believe you are intermeddling in police business, Babs. Please leave the hawkshawing to the hawkshaws.’”
Robert Gottlieb; Presidential Progeny Pen White House Whodunits; The New York Observer; Aug 26, 2002.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: