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A.Word.A.Day--wain

wain (wayn) noun

1. A large farm wagon.

[From Old English wegan (to move or to carry).]

2. Big Dipper.

[Clipping of Charles's Wain or Carl's wagon, after Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor.]

"But follow me now, for it is time to go. "Telling time by the stars visible from the earth above, Virgil here refers to the constellation Pisces (the Fishes), the source of the northwest wind (Caurus), and the Wain (the Big Dipper), which looks also like a wagon, even to us today."

This week's theme: words from Dante's Inferno, a verse translation by Jean Hollander and Robert Hollander.

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