A.Word.A.Day --idiolatry

A.Word.A.Day

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Jan 9, 2023

This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
idiolatry
cynanthropy
bolt-hole
hyperacusis
yesternoon

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Previous week’s theme
Misc words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

One of the small joys of life is discovering a word for something, especially if it’s something unusual, something uncommon. It may be a word to describe a sensation or lack of it. It could be a word for a phenomenon observed in nature or even a single word for something that happens every day, it’s just that that single word isn’t very common.

This week we’ve assembled five such words.

idiolatry

PRONUNCIATION:

(i-di-OL-uh-tree)

MEANING:

noun: Self worship.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek idio- (one’s own, personal) + -latry (worship). Earliest documented use: 1626. A synonym is autolatry.

USAGE:

“The idiolatry led to this ruin and the ruin of his race.”
Paul Collins; God’s New Man; Bloomsbury; 2005.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth -- and truth rewarded me. -Simone de Beauvoir, author and philosopher (9 Jan 1908-1986)

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