This week’s theme
Well-traveled words

This week’s words
cramoisy
kaput
lilac
alembic
talisman

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(TAL-is-man, -iz-)

MEANING:

noun:
1. An object, such as a stone, believed to have occult powers to keep evil away and bring good fortune to its wearer.
2. Anything that has magical powers and brings miraculous effects.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French or Spanish, from Arabic tilasm, from Greek telesma (consecration), from telein (to consecrate or complete), from telos (result). Ultimately from the Indo-European root k^wel- (to revolve), which also gave us colony, cult, culture, cycle, cyclone, chakra, collar, col, and accolade. Earliest documented use: 1599.

USAGE:

“He’d clung to that round-eyed, happy-faced stuffed animal every night before he went to sleep like it was some kind of talisman that could force her to keep her word.”
Sara Arden; Finding Glory; HQN Books; 2015.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: