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Nov 24, 2011 This week's theme Words borrowed from languages that are now extinct This week's words cacique wampum pharaoh mantissa dragoman A tablet with Etruscan inscription, Cortona, Italy Photo: Anita Filson Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg mantissa PRONUNCIATION: (man-TIS-uh) MEANING: noun: 1. An addition of little importance. 2. The decimal part of a logarithm or the positive fractional part of a number. ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin mantisa/mantissa (makeweight, something put in a scale to complete a needed weight), from a now extinct language, Etruscan, once spoken in what is now Tuscany, Italy. Earliest documented use: 1641. USAGE: "Are we supposed to think that most criticism of Mr. John Fowles is a mantissa?" John Leonard; Books of the Times; The New York Times; Aug 31, 1982. Explore "mantissa" in the Visual Thesaurus. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

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