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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--acescent This week's theme: miscellaneous words. acescent (uh-SES-uhnt) adjective Turning sour; slightly sour. [From acescere to turn sour. Ultimately from the Indo-European root ak- (sharp) that's also the source of acrid, vinegar, acid, acute, edge, hammer, heaven, eager, oxygen, and mediocre.] -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Heaven indeed must be a very dull place to inspire such saccharine chords from the composer of the acescent and biting Elektra." Carl Van Vechten; In the Garret; Kessinger Publishing; 2005. X-Bonus The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos. -Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002)

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