This week’s theme
Unusual antonyms

This week’s words
malison
pogonotomy
agnoiology
iteroparous
melanism

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(po-guh-NAH-tuh-mee)

MEANING:

noun: The cutting of a beard; shaving.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek pogon (beard) + -tomy (cutting). Earliest documented use: 1896.

NOTES:

Why simply “shave” when you can announce you’re off to perform a pogonotomy? Using this word adds a certain gravity to your morning routine. The opposite is pogonotrophy, the growing of a beard.

USAGE:

“[Rimsky-Korsakov] wore a professorial beard, led a dignified life, was a good family man, ...
In the total absence of filmable amours and licentious behavior in Rimsky-Korsakov’s disconcertingly placid life, the caliphs of Baghdad-on-the-Hollywood-Hills, eager to make use of his technicolor music, performed a pogonotomy on his chin and, dipping a greasy hand into a barrel of schmaltz, came up with a spectacular movie version of the Russian master’s life.”
Nicolas Slonimsky; The Listener’s Companion; Schirmer Trade Books; 2012.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: