This week’s theme
People who became verbs

This week’s words
grandisonize
lynch
galvanize
mesmerize
crusoe

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(MEZ/MES-muh-ryz)

MEANING:

verb tr.:
1. To spellbind.
2. To hypnotize.

ETYMOLOGY:

After physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) who discovered a way of inducing hypnosis through what he called animal magnetism. Earliest documented use: 1829.

USAGE:

“[Luke Spiller] recalls being mesmerised by Pentecostal preachers, whose sermons would ‘have people shaking on the ground and jumping out of wheelchairs’.”
Paul Moody; Bristolian Rhapsody; The Guardian (London, UK); Mar 7, 2019.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: