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A.Word.A.Day--verecund

verecund (VER-i-kund) adjective

Bashful; modest.

[From Latin verecundus, from vereri (to respect). Ultimately from Indo-European root wer- (to watch out for) that's also the source of such words as revere, aware, award, wary, warden, lord, steward, wardrobe, panorama, and guard.]

"He speaks - on his own admission - only English; and to his credit he seemed suitably verecund." Brian Friel; Translations; Faber & Faber; 1995.

"Librarians are going to have to 'get over' (as the vernacular is these days) our verecund ways about talking out loud." Mark Y. Herring; Smoked Herring, Shotten Herring; Dacus Library, Winthrop University (South Carolina); Oct 1999.

This week's theme: words to describe people.

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