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May 22, 2020
This week’s theme
Which came first: the noun or the verb?

This week’s words
transect
surfeit
reconnoiter
traject
interpose

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

interpose

PRONUNCIATION:
(in-tuhr-POHZ)

MEANING:
verb tr., intr.:1. To place in between.
 2. To intrude or to interrupt.
noun:1. The act of, or an instance of, putting something in between.
 2. An interference or interruption.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French interposer, from Latin interponere, from inter (between) + ponere (to put). Ultimately from the Indo-European root apo- (off or away), which is also the source of pose, apposite, after, off, awkward, post, puny, apposite, and apropos. Earliest documented use: for verb: 1599, for noun: 1610.

USAGE:
“‘Right -- of course we’re doing right,’ William answered her, ‘if, after what you’ve heard, you can marry a man of such incomprehensible confusion, such deplorable --’
‘Don’t, William,’ Katharine interposed.”
Virginia Woolf; Night and Day; Duckworth; 1919.

“Most remarkable is the interpose of Christmas dance during the interval at Sara’s. [Walter Murch’s journal]”
Charles Koppelman; Behind the Seen; Pearson; 2004.

See more usage examples of interpose in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. -Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (22 May 1859-1930)

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