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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--paraph This week's theme: There is a word for it. paraph (PAR-uhf, puh-RAF) noun A flourish at the end of a signature, originally as a precaution against forgery. [Via French and Latin from Greek paragraphos (a line showing a break in sense or a change of speakers), from para- (beside) + graphein (write). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gerbh- (to scratch), which also gave us crab, crayfish, carve, crawl, grammar, anagram, program, and graphite.] Examples of paraphs (would that be paraphernalia?) : Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "This was a considerable feat in that he had recognised not only the initial upon the bedcloth, but its unique paraph in one corner." Linda Berdoll; Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife; Landmark; 2004. X-Bonus Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen. -Louis L'Amour, novelist (1908-1988)

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