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hiemal



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hiemal PRONUNCIATION: (HY-uh-muhl)

MEANING: adjective: Of or relating to winter.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin hiems (winter). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which is the ancestor of words such as chimera , hibernate, and the Himalayas (from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode)). Earliest documented use: 1560.

USAGE: "Painted turtles tend to move into deeper water during the autumnal season, and dormancy occurs during the hiemal period."

Carl Ernst and Jeffrey Lovich; Turtles of the United States and Canada; The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2009.

See more usage examples of hiemal in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1819-1891)





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