A.Word.A.Day --skylark

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Today's Word

skylark

PRONUNCIATION:

(SKY-lark)

MEANING:

verb intr.: To frolic or to engage in horseplay.

ETYMOLOGY:

Skylark is a small bird known for singing while soaring in the sky. Earlier, the term skylark was used by seamen to refer to playfully moving around the rigging of a ship. From sky + lark, from Old Norse sky (cloud). Earliest documented use: 1686.

USAGE:

“Before a race, while opponents buried themselves in their own private world, Bolt skylarked with spectators and with race officials.”
Is Jamaican Legend’s Track Career Over?; Timaru Herald (New Zealand); Jun 30, 2015.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Racism tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping -- positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace; they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead to change the subject and straw man. -Ta-Nehisi Coates, writer and journalist (b. 30 Sep 1975)

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