Word of the Day
tenacious
adjective
holding together; not easily pulled asunder; tough.
More about tenacious
Tenacious, “not easily pulled asunder; tough,” is based on the noun tenacity and the suffix -ous, “full of.” Tenacity comes from Latin tenāx (stem tenāc-), “holding fast,” from the verb tenēre, “to hold.” Tenēre has three common stems in English: ten- (as in lieutenant, tenable, and tenor) and -tin- (as in continue and retinue) as well as -tain (as in abstain, attain, and maintain) by way of French. Tenacious was first recorded in English circa 1605.
EXAMPLE OF TENACIOUS USED IN A SENTENCE
The team remained tenacious even as their rivals came closer and closer to winning the game.
peri
noun
one of a large group of beautiful, fairylike beings of Persian mythology, represented as descended from fallen angels.
More about peri
Peri, “a fairylike being of Persian mythology,” comes from Persian parī, “fairy,” which evolved from pairikā, “witch,” in Avestan, a long-extinct language of southwestern Asia. Though p in most Indo-European languages tends to correspond to English f, peri is not related to fairy, which derives by way of Old French from Latin. However, it is interesting to note that, just as peri evolved in sense from “witch” to “fairy,” an earlier sense of fairy in Old French was “enchantment, witchcraft.” Peri was first recorded in English in the 1770s.
EXAMPLE OF PERI USED IN A SENTENCE
It caught his breath to see the peri slowly descending from the air, floating on its feathered wings.
rabble-rouse
verb
to stir up the emotions or prejudices of the public; agitate.
More about rabble-rouse
Rabble-rouse, “to stir up the public’s emotions,” is a back formation from rabble-rouser, which is a compound of the noun rabble, “a disorderly crowd,” and the verb rouse, “to stir to anger.” Rabble is of uncertain origin, but it may be related to Middle Dutch rabbelen, “to speak hurriedly.” An earlier sense of rouse was “to shake the feathers” and referred to hawks, and while the origin of rouse is equally uncertain, one hypothesis is a connection to Latin recūsāre, meaning “to demur, object,” which is the source of English recuse. Rabble-rouse was first recorded in English in the late 1950s.
EXAMPLE OF RABBLE-ROUSE USED IN A SENTENCE
Though at first its organizers were accused of mere rabble-rousing, the civil rights march evolved into a widely-celebrated parade.