This week’s theme
Is it a noun, adjective, or verb?

This week’s words
primary
rollercoaster
wimple
sojourn
high-grade


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1114

Next week’s theme
Creative usage examples

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(hy-grayd)

MEANING:

adjective: Of high quality, amount, or degree.
verb tr.: To steal, especially by taking high-quality parts from something.

ETYMOLOGY:

From high, from Old English heah + grade, from French grade, from Latin gradus (degree). Earliest documented use: 1826, for verb: 1904.

NOTES:

Working in mines is hazardous, back-breaking work with poor wages. Some miners at the time this word became verbed didn’t feel any qualms about pocketing high-grade ore. Over time the term generalized to any instance of taking high-quality products from a place leaving lower-quality products behind, for example, in fishing, logging, etc.

USAGE:

“As we high-graded shrimp out of the stir-fry and then downed a quart of mint-chip ice cream, I see Kenny’s boyish grin unleashed from its constantly niggling awareness of his lesser status in my life.”
Lee Goodman; Indefensible; Atria; 2014.

“Even now, the men high-graded the best cuts of meat from whatever animal, fish, or bird they caught and threw the rest carelessly into the bush around the cabin.”
Hap Wilson; Dance of the Deadmen; FriesenPress; 2019.

See more usage examples of high-grade in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: