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Jun 11, 2013
This week's themeMiscellaneous words This week's words canorous prosaic expansive animadversion sempiternal A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargprosaic
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
adjective: 1. Dull; unimaginative. 2. Everyday; straightforward; ordinary. 3. Having the character of prose as compared to the feeling of poetry. ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin prosa (prose), from prosa oratio (straightforward speech),
from provertere (to turn forward). Ultimately from the Indo-European
root wer- (to turn or bend), also the source of wring, weird, writhe,
revert, universe, wroth,
verso ,
conversazione,
versicolor, and
animadvert.
Earliest documented use: 1589.
USAGE:
"On a throne ornate to the point of gaudiness, the queen reads out the
legislative agenda of 'her' government, written on goatskin vellum.
The content of that speech is usually more prosaic." Britain: The Vision Thing; The Economist (London, UK); Nov 10, 2007. See more usage examples of prosaic in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Some stories are true that never happened. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)
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