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Jun 17, 2011
This week's themeVerbs This week's words etiolate betide lancinate lignify obtest This week's comments AWADmail 468 Next week's theme Biblical places that became words in English 
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargobtest
PRONUNCIATION:
(ob-TEST)
MEANING:
verb tr.1. To invoke as a witness. 2. To implore or beseech.verb intr. 3. To protest. 4. To plead. ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin obtestari (to implore, affirm, protest), from ob- (on, over),
from testari (to bear witness or to make a will), from testis (witness).
Ultimately from the Indo-European root trei- (three), which is also the
source of three, sitar, trivia (from trivium, place where three roads meet),
trivial, troika, trivet, testimony, testament, attest, testify (to be the
third person: to bear witness), triskaidekaphobia
(fear of the number 13),
tercel (the male of a hawk), and
trammel (restraint, shackle, net).
Earliest documented use: 1548.
USAGE:
"But I obtest, dear readers, I know nothing of any previous correspondence."Peter Hawes; Turakina Beach, Village of Thieves?; Manawatu Standard (New Zealand); Jul 8, 2008. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? -T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)
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