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Dec 24, 2015
This week’s theme
Yours to discover

This week’s words
quoz
vidimus
pinchbeck
jayhawker
expergefacient

jayhawker
The Jayhawk, mascot of U of Kansas. It’s now explained as the hybrid of the two birds: blue jay and sparrow hawk.

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

jayhawker

PRONUNCIATION:
(JAY-haw-kuhr)

MEANING:
noun: 1. A robber. 2. A native or resident of Kansas.

ETYMOLOGY:
Originally, a Jayhawker was a member of antislavery guerrillas in Kansas or Missouri during the US Civil War. It’s not clear why they were called Jayhawkers. Earliest documented use: 1860.

USAGE:
“On occasion, Jennison’s men joined Jim Lane’s jayhawkers in a series of hit-and-run raids.”
Wilmer L. Jones; Behind Enemy Lines; Taylor Trade Publishing; 2015.

“Some Kansans are complaining that Miss America Tara Dawn Holland isn’t exactly a Jayhawker. ‘She wasn’t really Miss Kansas,’ Joyce Carron of Wichita said as Holland arrived for appearances in the state. Responded Holland: ‘I learned a long time ago that home is where you hang your hat.’ She attended the University of Missouri at Kansas City, after three attempts at becoming Miss Florida.”
Arlene Vigoda; Losing Faith; USA Today; Oct 16, 1996.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You have not converted a man because you have silenced him. -John Morley, statesman and writer (24 Dec 1838-1923)

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