This week’s theme
Toponyms

This week’s words
antimacassar
podunk
charlatan
spaniel
Jerusalem syndrome

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(POH-dungk)

MEANING:

noun: A small, unimportant town.

ETYMOLOGY:

Podunk is the name of a river and a native tribe in Connecticut. Over time the name came to be used for several small towns including a mythical small and insignificant town. Earliest documented use: 1657.

USAGE:

“His spin on ‘America’s Next Top Model’: take two wannabe club kids from Podunk towns and with no money, plunk them down in New York with $1,000.”
Kevin Gray; After Prison, No After-Hours; The New York Times; May 15, 2014.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: