This week’s theme
Unusual synonyms

This week’s words
ceraceous
hebdomadal
piscine
odontalgia
abligurition

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PY-seen, PIS-ayn)

MEANING:

adjective: Fishy.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin piscis (fish). Earliest documented use: 1670.

NOTES:

In French, the word piscine means a swimming pool. This is an example of a false friend, the linguistic term for a word that looks or sounds similar to a word in another language, but means something completely different. Another example is the word jubilation, which in Spanish (jubilación) means retirement or pension.

USAGE:

“When all aquatic possibilities have been exhausted, it can take to dry land, slithering through moist brush and grass in pushes toward new waters that can last for hours. The eel is, thus, a fish that transcends the piscine condition. Perhaps it doesn’t even realize it is a fish.”
Patrik Svensson (Translation: Agnes Broomé); The Book of Eels; Ecco; 2021.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: