This week’s theme
Words that aren’t what they appear to be

This week’s words
eudemonic
tradecraft
roadstead
sudarium
otherguess

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(soo-DAY-ree-uhm)

MEANING:

noun: A handkerchief.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin sudare (to sweat). Earliest documented use: 1609.

NOTES:

You might think a sudarium is a collection of something or a place to hold a collection and you’d be wrong. Unlike an aquarium, armamentarium, or a columbarium, a sudarium is simply a piece of cloth. According to legend, on the way to Christ’s crucifixion, St. Veronica wiped his face with a cloth on which an image of his face was impressed. In Christianity, it’s known as the Sudarium of Oviedo and the Veil of Veronica.

USAGE:

“Lead me to the river with your mirror.
Unwrap the sudarium from my face.”
F.D. Reeve; Deepstep Come Shining; Poetry (Chicago, Illinois); Jul 2000.

“A prominent association between pity and handkerchiefs can be found in the story of St. Veronica, who has pity on the suffering Christ and offers him what is either her veil or a sudarium with which to wipe his face.”
Shawn Smith; Love, Pity, and Deception in Othello; Papers on Language and Literature (Edwardsville, Illinois); Winter 2008.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: