

Jan 29, 2013 This week's theme

There's a word for it



This week's words

overmorrow

filipendulous

paresthesia

armscye

onomastics



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filipendulous PRONUNCIATION: (fi-li-PEN-juh-luhs, -PEN-dyoo-)

MEANING: adjective: Hanging by a thread.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin filum (thread) + pendere (to hang). Ultimately from the Indo-European root (s)pen- (to draw, to spin), which is also the source of pendulum, spider, pound, pansy, pendant, ponder, appendix, penthouse, depend, and spontaneous. Earliest documented use: 1864.

USAGE:

The New Yorker; Sep 25, 1989. "A group of filipendulous constructions that evoke Brobdingnagian hornets' nests."The New Yorker; Sep 25, 1989.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life. -Sophia Loren, actress (b. 1934)





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