This week’s theme
Words formed by dialectal pronunciation

This week’s words
ornery
passel
sassy
tarnal
raiment

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(TAHR-nuhl)

MEANING:

adjective, adverb: Damned.

ETYMOLOGY:

Alteration of eternal (as in “eternal damnation”), from Latin aeternus, from aevum (age). Ultimately from the Indo-European root aiw-/ayu- (vital force, life, eternity), which also gave us ever, never, aye, nay, eon, eternal, medieval, primeval, utopia, Sanskrit Ayurveda, aught, coeval, and coetaneous. Earliest documented use: 1790.

USAGE:

“Why had he let himself get suckered into that tarnal poker game?”
W. Michael Gear; Long Ride Home; Tor Books; 1988.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: