A.Word.A.Day		About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us

Home Today's Word Yesterday's Word Archives FAQ

A.Word.A.Day--brassy brassy (BRAS-ee) adjective 1. Made of or resembling brass. 2. Resembling the sound of brass instruments. 3. Brazen; bold; impudent. 4. Showy; pretentious. [From brass, from Middle English bras, from Old English bræs.] "There was a shot of a muscular, tanned young man playing paddle-ball at the beach. A blaring radio commercial would be heard in the background while one of the sisters was preparing lunch in her apartment. With only a couple of strokes, this depiction of brassy, confident Israel, always in a hurry to live, made the sisters' lives - slow and sad, with death behind them and death in front of them - that much more vivid." Larry Derfner; What's Up, Doc?; Jerusalem Post (Israel); Apr 16, 1999. "According to Kewalram Sital, a Hong Kong businessman who makes a hobby of tracking the whereabouts of his countrymen, there are even 4,000 Sindhis - the most nomadic of Indian communities and its brassiest businessmen - in the Canary Islands off the northern cost of Africa." Rahul Jacob and Meenakshi Ganguly; Entrepreneurs: Overseas Indians Make it Big; Fortune (New York); Nov 15, 1993. This week's theme: metallic words used as metaphors. X-Bonus It's difficult to wake one who is only pretending to be asleep. -Tagalog saying

The Book: A Word A Day is now a book. Find it in your local bookstore or at Amazon.com. "A delightful, quirky collection." -The New York Times Sponsored by: Join Us: Subscribe to A.Word.A.Day to receive it in your mailbox every day. Interact: Bulletin board AWADtalk Moderated Chat AWADchat Readers' Voice AWADmail