This week’s theme
One thing leads to another ...

This week’s words
irrefutable
amnesia
psychogenic
polydipsia
propensity

This week’s comments
AWADmail 964

Next week’s theme
Words made with combining forms

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(pruh-PEN-suh-tee)

MEANING:

noun: An inclination to behave in a particular way.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin pro- (toward) + pendere (to weigh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root (s)pen- (to draw, to spin), which also gave us pendulum, spider, pound, pansy, pendant, ponder, appendix, penthouse, depend, spontaneous, vilipend, pendulous, filipendulous, equipoise, perpend, pensive, and floccipend. Earliest documented use: 1550.

USAGE:

“Mackenzie also mentions an infant of three who had polydipsia from birth and drank daily nearly two pailfuls of water. At the age of twenty-two she married a cobbler, unaware of her propensity, who found that his earnings did not suffice to keep her in water alone, and he was compelled to melt ice and snow for her.”
George M. Gould & Walter L. Pyle; Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine; W.B. Saunders; 1897.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: