This week’s theme
Well-traveled words

This week’s words
aubade
prosopography
kurbash
postiche
safari

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(poh-STEESH)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A hairpiece.
2. An imitation or sham.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French postiche (hairpiece, fake), from Italian posticcio (counterfeit), from Latin appositus, past participle of apponere (to put near), from ponere (to put). Ultimately from the Indo-European root apo- (off or away), that also gave us after, off, awkward, post, puny, aphelion, apheresis, apograph, apopemptic, apophasis, and aposematic. Earliest documented use: 1854.

USAGE:

“America that forgot the lessons of Vietnam, plunging ever recklessly into a protracted Iraqi conflict, notwithstanding the electoral postiche of a Middle East democracy.”
Rotan E. Lee; Press Must Be Free to Expose the Muck; Philadelphia Tribune (Pennsylvania); Feb 11, 2005.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: