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A.Word.A.Day--assoil assoil (uh-SOIL) verb tr. 1. To pardon. 2. To atone for. [From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin absolvere (to absolve).] "I sank my teeth into the salt ground. There was no cry. Only later, when the city put on sackcloth and starved its cattle, I heard something hiss of pity rising from the dry, ungathered grain. An assoiling sound." Barbara J Orton, Jonah, Literary Review (Madison, New Jersey), Spring 1998. This week's theme: words that appear to be mis-spellings of everyday words. X-Bonus As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls. -Matt Cartmill, anthropology professor and author (1943- )

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