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Oct 1, 2019
This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
thinko
besaiel
apophenia
anacoluthon
delphinestrian

besaiel
Image: Amazon

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

besaiel

PRONUNCIATION:
(bi-SAY-uhl)

MEANING:
noun: A grandfather’s father: great-grandfather.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French besayel/besaiol, from Latin bis (twice) + avolus, diminutive of avus (grandfather). Earliest documented use: 1480.

NOTES:
A grandfather is an aiel, a great-grandfather a besaiel, a great-great-grandfather a tresaiel. Now that you know the pattern, feel free to coin words beyond your grandfather’s grandfather. Also, now that you know what to call them, who’s your besaiel?

USAGE:
“She is met by Rickhill for the defendant alleging an older fine made in the thirteenth year of Edward II, great-grandfather (besaiel) of King Richard now reigning.”
Michigan Law Review; University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); 1915.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
For there is no friend like a sister / In calm or stormy weather; / To cheer one on the tedious way, / To fetch one if one goes astray, / To lift one if one totters down, / To strengthen whilst one stands. -Christina Rossetti, poet (1830-1894)

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