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Apr 19, 2024
This week’s theme
Words made by combining forms

This week’s words
neophilia
pyrophobia
arithmomania
zoolatry
cryptogenic

cryptogenic
This week’s comments
AWADmail 1138

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Words related to the senses
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

cryptogenic

PRONUNCIATION:
(krip-tuh-JEN-ik)

MEANING:
adjective: Of unknown origin or cause.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek crypto- (secret, hidden) + -genic (producing, produced by). Earliest documented use: 1873.

USAGE:
“‘Barney loves her, I know that,’ said Bennett. ‘He wants to marry her. Yet for reasons we might diagnose as cryptogenic, she keeps saying no.’”
Erich Segal; Doctors: A Novel; Bantam; 1988.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. -Fred Brooks, computer scientist (19 Apr 1931-2022)

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