This week’s theme
There is a word for it

This week’s words
sinecure
pathography
performative
stridulate
mala fide

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(puh-THOG-ruh-fee)

MEANING:

noun: A biography that focuses on the negative.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek patho- (suffering, disease) + -graphy (writing). In the beginning, pathography was a description of a disease. Then the word came to be applied to the study of an individual or a community as relating to the influence of a disease. Now the term mostly refers to a biography focusing on the negative. Earliest documented use: 1848.

USAGE:

“Pizzichini’s book, though nonjudgmental, still feels like a pathography.”
Mick Sussman; The Blue Hour; The New York Times; Jul 19, 2009.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: