Word of the Day
pantoum
noun
a Malay verse form consisting of an indefinite number of quatrains with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the following one.
More about pantoum
Pantoum, “a Malay verse featuring repeated lines,” is a borrowing from French of Malay origin. Malay has two widely used standardized forms: Standard Malay, which is an official language in Malaysia and Singapore, and Indonesian, spoken by about 300 million people in Indonesia. Because Malay is a member of the Austronesian language family, it is distantly related to Hawaiian, Malagasy (in Madagascar), Maori (in New Zealand), and Tagalog (in the Philippines). The Malay source of pantoum is pantun, with the change from n to m because of a printer’s error in 19th-century France. Pantoum was first recorded in English in the early 1880s.
EXAMPLE OF PANTOUM USED IN A SENTENCE
The regular repetition of lines in pantoums means that poets have to be clever about context and meaning, or readers may find the verses rather stale.
democracy
noun
government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.
More about democracy
Democracy, “government by the people,” comes from the Middle French noun démocratie, which comes via Latin from Greek dēmokratía, “popular government.” Democracy was first recorded in English in the early 1500s.
vote
verb (used without object)
to express or signify will or choice in a matter, as by casting a ballot.
More about vote
Vote, “to express or signify will or choice in a matter,” comes from a late Middle English noun that ultimately comes from Latin vōtum “a vow made to a deity; prayer, desire, hope.” Vote was first recorded in English in the late 1400s.