A.Word.A.Day --interdict

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interdict

PRONUNCIATION:

(noun: IN-tuhr-dikt, verb: in-tuhr-DIKT)

MEANING:

noun: A prohibition, especially a formal one, as by a court, church, etc.
verb tr.: To prohibit or stop.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin interdictum (prohibition), from interdicere (to prohibit), from dicere (to speak). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deik- (to show, to pronounce solemnly) that is also the source of other words such as judge, verdict, vendetta, revenge, indicate, dictate, and paradigm.

USAGE:

"In China, near Shanghai, the inhabitants of two small districts have the privilege of raising eggs for the whole surrounding country, and that they may give up their whole time to this business, they are interdicted by law from producing silk."
Charles Darwin; The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication; 1868.

See more usage examples of interdict in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity that questions has little healing in its touch. -Edith Wharton, novelist (1862-1937)

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