This week’s theme
Words coined after animals

This week’s words
reptilian
eager beaver
testudinal
weasel
big fish

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(tes-TOOD/TYOOD-i-nuhl)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Slow.
2. Arched.
3. Old.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin testudo (tortoise). Earliest documented use: 1823.

USAGE:

“Time now assumed a testudinal pace, and a pain that had been growing in the small of O’Malley’s back intensified.”
R.E.G. Sinke, Jr.; When None of Their Dreams Were Dead: Book 1; Eloquent Books; 2009.

“Greenspan has startled others into cutting rates too, but not the testudinal Wim Duisenberg: the man who runs the European Central Bank (but who runs it very slowly).”
Give Credit Where It’s Due; Sunday Business (London, UK); May 13, 2001.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: