A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

MEANING:

noun: A sense of shame, especially in sexual matters; modesty.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French pudeur (modesty), from Latin pudere (to make or be ashamed) which also gave us pudibund (prudish) and pudency (modesty). Earliest documented use: 1876.

USAGE:

"Alexandra Styron first started reading her father's novelas soon as it came out, in 1979, when she was a preteenager. A few chapters in, encountering a steamy sex scene, she rushed from the room, overcome with adolescent pudeur."Liesl Schillinger; Literary Lions, by Their Cubs;; Aug 10, 2011.