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Feb 17, 2006

This week's theme
Coined words

This week's words
eustasy
pangaea
McJob
locust years
prehensile

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Next week’s theme
Red-herring words

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prehensile

adjective:
1. Capable of seizing or grasping, especially by wrapping around.
2. Skilled at keen perception or mental grasp of an idea or concept.
3. Greedy.

[From French prehensile, coined by French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc De Buffon, from Latin prehensus.]

"The drugstore toothbrush rack has become a circus of ergonomic grips, flexing heads, and prehensile gum-probes -- an entire retail sector transformed by design."
Philip Nobel; Can Design in America Avoid the Style Trap?; The New York Times; Nov 26, 2000.

See more usage examples of prehensile in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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