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Nov 3, 2022
This week’s theme
Abbreviations, acronyms, and blends

This week’s words
retcon
flak
hazmat
larp
blad

larp
Photo: Jane Starz

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

larp

PRONUNCIATION:
(larp)

MEANING:
noun:A role-playing game in which participants assume various characters and use costumes and props.
verb intr.:1. To play such a game.
 2. To pretend to be what one is not.

ETYMOLOGY:
An acronym for Live Action Role Playing. Earliest documented use: 1990.

USAGE:
“If Collins is pro-choice, then I’m Baba Yaga. It’s time the political press stopped playing along with her centrist LARPing.”
Erin Gloria Ryan; It’s Time to Stop Calling Susan Collins “Pro-Choice”; The Daily Beast (New York); Sep 25, 2021.

“Chaos League, the Italian collective, created a larp about water shortages in the developing world, in which players received only half a litre of water per day.”
Neima Jahromi; The Great Pretenders; The New Yorker; May 30, 2022.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
An artist discovers his genius the day he dares not to please. -Andre Malraux, novelist, adventurer, art historian, and statesman (3 Nov 1901-1976)

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