This week's theme
There's a word for it

This week's words
gelasin
sprezzatura
polylemma
schadenfreude
palimpsest

This week's comments
AWADmail 558

Next week's theme
Terms with connections to the number 19

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PAL-imp-sest)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A writing surface such as a parchment that has been reused after partially or completely erasing the original text.
2. Something reused but still showing traces of its earlier form.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek palimpsestos, from palin (again) + psestos + (scraped). Earliest documented use: 1661 Also see pentimento.

USAGE:

"All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed exactly as often as was necessary."
George Orwell; Nineteen Eighty-Four; 1949.

"Her memories, too, are a palimpsest of the real and the staged; their courting scenes in a play."
Molly and the Playwright; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 24, 2010.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: