

Aug 19, 2013 This week's theme

Baddies from fiction



This week's words

bluebeard

procrustes

siren

gorgon

Dr. Strangelove



Bluebeard about to kill his last wife Art: Frédéric Lix (1830-1897) Baddies from fiction A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg



A few weeks ago we saw baddies from the real world, and now it's time to visit the rogues' gallery from fiction. This week we'll see a killer, a maimer, a seducer, a petrifier, and an evil scientist. Which world do you think has worse baddies? Factual or fictional? Bluebeard PRONUNCIATION: (BLOO-beerd)

MEANING: noun: A man who marries and kills one wife after another.

ETYMOLOGY: After Bluebeard, nickname of Raoul, the blue-bearded main character in a fairy tale by Charles Perrault (1628-1703). In the story, Bluebeard's wife finds the bodies of his previous wives in a room she was forbidden to enter. The feminine equivalent of the word could be black widow. Earliest documented use: 1795.

USAGE: "I'd always considered you more of a monk than a Bluebeard. This new pattern is somewhat a concern."

Cathy Maxwell; Treasured Vows; Avon; 2004.

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



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. -Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797)





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