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Jul 1, 2011
This week's themeEponyms This week's words jeeves thrasonical barmecidal man Friday micawber 
Mr Micawber
Illustration: Fred Barnard (1846-1896)
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargmicawber
PRONUNCIATION:
(mih-KAW-buhr)
MEANING:
noun: An eternal optimist.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Wilkins Micawber, an incurable optimist in the novel David
Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens. Earliest documented example
of the word used allusively: 1852.
USAGE:
"As the shadow work-and-pensions secretary, David Willetts, said yesterday,
he takes the Mr Micawber approach to economics: something will turn up."Larry Elliott; Mr Micawber May Find Result Misery; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 4, 2004. See more usage examples of micawber in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A neurosis is a secret that you don't know you're keeping. -Kenneth Tynan, critic and writer (1927-1980)
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