This week’s theme
Tosspot words borrowed from other languages

This week’s words
amuse-gueule
skitterbrook
cache-sexe
scaldabanco
gainpain

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(skal-duh-BAHNG-koh)

MEANING:

noun: A fiery speaker, especially a preacher.

ETYMOLOGY:

From obsolete Italian scaldabanco (literally, heats the bench), from scaldare (to heat) + banco (bench). Earliest documented use: 1670.

USAGE:

“A hot scaldabanco ... verjuicing his sermon with every fright he could, he spit his wrath and spanked the vices of his age without a break or breath.”
Alexander Theroux; Darconville’s Cat; Doubleday; 1981.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: