A.Word.A.Day --wakerife

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Dec 17, 2012

This week's theme
Yours to discover

This week's words
wakerife
quadrennium
subjugate
xerophyte
conversazione

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

This week's words may appear to be chosen at random, but they are not. It took a bit of effort to find these five words so they'd fit. In what way? Well, that's for you to find out.

CONTEST: Can you discover the reason these words were selected to be featured? Send your answers to contest@wordsmith.org by Friday this week. One entry per person. Be sure to include your location (city/state/country). Results will be announced this weekend. A reader randomly selected from all the correct entries will receive the T-shirt AWAD to the wise is sufficient.

wakerife

PRONUNCIATION:

(WAYK-ryf)

MEANING:

adjective: Wakeful; alert.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English wacan (to wake up) + rife (abundant, common). Earliest documented use: around 1480.

USAGE:

"If you're still wakerife let me suggest another, possibly chastening, exercise in memory."
S.L. McKinlay; The Shots That Count; Glasgow Herald (Scotland); Dec 14, 1965.

"As for me, I'm wakerife and morne, but hope springs eternal. I don't know how she does it, what with those leg irons on, but spring she does."
Ben Tripp; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda; CounterPunch (Petrolia, California); May 30, 2003.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools. -Spanish proverb

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