A.Word.A.Day --jake

A.Word.A.Day

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Slang

This week's words
jake
rhubarb
grift
jive
dibs

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Poet Carl Sandburg once described slang as "a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work." Nothing wrong with words in a tie and suit, but sometimes only slang can do the job.

Since slang is often born in the back-alleys of language rather than in a sanitized hospital room, it's not easy to pin down its origins. Does that matter? Go ahead, hire this week's five hardworking words for your verbal mill.

jake

PRONUNCIATION:

(jayk)

MEANING:

adjective: Satisfactory; all right; okay.

ETYMOLOGY:

Of unknown origin.

USAGE:

"So far as the state is concerned, everything is jake. But the council seems determined to throw a monkey wrench into the works."
James Gill; Council Seems Eager to Trip Up Churchill; The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana); Apr 20, 2005.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. -Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian (1892-1971)

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