A.Word.A.Day --scop

A.Word.A.Day

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May 4, 2015

This week’s theme
Words that turn into another word when beheaded

This week’s words
scop
junto
hauteur
astringent
futilitarian

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

What happens when you remove the letter ‘a’ from the front of the alphabet? You b-head it. Each of this week’s words sprouts another word when you behead it. Go ahead, try it. Decapitate these words. Decollate them. You won’t hurt a thing. Nor will the word-police arrest you for verbicide -- destroying (the meaning of) a word -- for in each instance you’ll be generating another word, a 100% guaranteed dictionary word.

scop

PRONUNCIATION:

(shop, skop)

MEANING:

noun: A poet or minstrel.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English scop (poet, minstrel). Earliest documented use: 888.

USAGE:

“The modern poet’s vision would be more ambiguous, and much less happy, than that of the medieval scop.”
Adam Kirsch; Back to Basics; The New Yorker; May 11, 2009.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron. -Horace Mann, educational reformer (4 May 1796-1859)

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