A.Word.A.Day --monosemous

A.Word.A.Day

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Nov 20, 2023

This week’s theme
Self-referential words

This week’s words
monosemous
double-barreled
exolete
pentasyllabic
back-form

The Monosemous Express: It stops only at one station.

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

Previous week’s theme
Well-traveled words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Words are cheap -- it’s action that counts. In this world full of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do, there are some that practice what they preach.

I’m talking about self-referential words. Also known as autological or self-descriptive words.

Whatever you call them, such words, like such people, are a rarity.

Monosyllabic is a hypocrite (mon-uh-si-LAB-ik: five syllables: 5!), while its cousin polysyllabic knows the importance of keeping one’s word.

The word brief, is brief, just one syllable. Maybe hyphenated and non-hyphenated can learn something, both of which are the opposite of what they claim to be.

What are your fave self-referential words? Share below or email us at words@wordsmith.org (include your location: city, state).

monosemous

PRONUNCIATION:

(mon-uh-SEE-muhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Having only one meaning.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek mono- (one) + sema (sign). Earliest documented use: 1975.

USAGE:

“[R]eason is confined to a monosemous logic, and the most sensible people choose their actions based on cause-and-effect calculations.”
Daniel Saldaña París; Among Strange Victims; Coffee House Press; 2016.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is. -Nadine Gordimer, novelist, Nobel laureate (20 Nov 1923-2014)

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