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Dec 9, 2020
This week’s theme
Words derived from metals

This week’s words
brazen
auricomous
philargyry
tinpot
lead balloon

“You have to fall in love with hanging around words.” ~John Ciardi
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

philargyry

PRONUNCIATION:
(fil-ARJ-uh-ree)

MEANING:
noun: The love of money; greed.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek phil- (love) + argyros (silver). Ultimately from the Indo-European root arg- (to shine; white) that is also the source of argue (from Latin arguere, to make clear), argillaceous (clayey), and French argent (money). The word also appears in the chemical symbol for silver (Ag) and in the name of the country Argentina (where flows Rio de la Plata, Spanish for “river of silver”). Earliest documented use: 1529.

USAGE:
“The Popes (labouring daily more and more with this incurable disease of philargyry).”
William Lambarde; A Perambulation of Kent; Henrie Middleton; 1576.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. -John Milton, poet (9 Dec 1608-1674)

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