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Mar 9, 2018
This week’s themeFive words that use all letters of the alphabet This week’s words expergefaction vaquero azymous whipjack vendible
A sign outside the US Supreme Court, protesting the Citizens United decision
Photo: takomabibelot
This week’s comments AWADmail 819 Next week’s theme Tosspot words A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargvendible
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
adjective: Salable; marketable. noun: Something that can be sold. ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin vendere, from venum (sale). Ultimately from the Indo-European
root wes- (to buy), which is also the source of vend, bazaar, vilify,
venal, and
monopsony. Earliest documented use: 1384.
USAGE:
“Her first book became a best-seller. The Tenth Muse was listed among
the most vendible books in London soon after it was published.” Amy Alexander; Anne Bradstreet Didn’t know The Definition of Stop; Investor’s Business Daily (Los Angeles, California); May 9, 2008. “Silence is only commendable in a neat’s* tongue dried and a maid not vendible.”** William Shakespeare; The Merchant of Venice; 1596. *neat = bull **not vendible = not marketable, i.e. not marriageable, i.e. old See more usage examples of vendible in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
What has occurred over the course of the last few centuries is a growing
(but by no means universal or certain) recognition that science gets the
job done, while religion makes excuses. Sometimes they are very pretty
excuses that capture the imagination of the public, but ultimately, when
you want to win a war or heal a dying child or get rich from a discovery or
explore Antarctica, you turn to science and reason, or you fail. -PZ Myers,
biology professor (b. 9 Mar 1957)
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