This week’s theme
Words coined after animals

This week’s words
doryphore
ratty
pullulate
winkle
capriole

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PUHL-yuh-layt)

MEANING:

verb intr.:
1. To sprout or breed.
2. To swarm or teem.
3. To increase rapidly.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin pullulare (to sprout), from pullulus, diminutive of pullus (chicken, young animal), from Latin pullus (young animal). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pau- (few, little), which is also the source of few, foal, filly, pony, poor, pauper, poco, puerile, poltroon, punchinello, and catchpole. Earliest documented use: 1602.

USAGE:

“You know less than you think you do. The constant reinforcement of that sorry idea has become a drumbeat under parenting, as advice books of every kind pullulate like toadstools after a storm.”
Andrew Solomon; Go Play Outside; The New York Times; Dec 14, 2014.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: