A.Word.A.Day

transpicuous

PRONUNCIATION:

MEANING:

adjective: Easily seen through or understood.

ETYMOLOGY:

frontispiece, perspicuous, prospicient, From Latin transpicere (to see through), from trans- (across) + specere (to look). Ultimately from the Indo-European root spek- (to observe) which also gave us suspect, spectrum, bishop (literally, overseer), espionage, despise, telescope, spectator, spectacles, conspectus omphaloskepsis (navel gazing), perspicaciousness soupcon (a very small amount), speciesism specious , and speculum . Earliest documented use: 1638.

USAGE:

“I recognize it at once, when in a history text I first read William Penn’s dreamy yet transpicuous instructions for the layout of Philadelphia.”

Andrea Lee; Altered State; The New Yorker; Jun 30, 2008.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: