This week’s theme
Words formed in error

This week’s words
megrim
posthumous
lutestring
messuage
frontispiece

Like what you see?
Send a gift subscription
It’s free.

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(MES-wij)

MEANING:

noun: A residential building with outbuildings and the attached land.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the misreading of the letter n as u in Old French mesnage (household), from Latin manere (to remain, dwell). Ultimately from the Indo-European root men- (to remain), which also gave us manor, mansion, ménage, immanent, permanent, menagerie, menial, and remain. Earliest documented use: 1490.

USAGE:

“Can you tell me where I can find a messuage by the name of Neolithic Villa?”
JRL Anderson; Redundancy Pay; Littlehampton Book Services; 1976.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: