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Dec 12, 2007
This week's theme
Whose what?

This week's words
busman's holiday
friar's lantern
curate's egg
widow's peak
shank's mare

Curate's egg
Curate's egg
Cartoon: George du Maurier

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

curate's egg

PRONUNCIATION:
(KYOOR-itz eg)

MEANING:
noun: Something having both good and bad parts.

ETYMOLOGY:
From a cartoon in Punch magazine (London, UK) in which a timid curate (a junior clergy member), when served a stale egg at a bishop's table, tries to assure his host that parts of the egg are edible. Earliest documented use: 1905.

USAGE:
"One act of sportsmanship by London Irish and a moment's opportunism by Saracens separated these two sides after a curate's egg of a match."
David Llewellyn; Saracens 24 London Irish 20; The Independent (London, UK); Nov 25, 2007.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, and author (1872-1970)

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