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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--somnific This week in AWAD: assorted words. somnific (som-NIF-ik) adjective Causing sleep. [From Latin somnificus (causing sleep), from somnus (sleep) + facere (to make). Ultimately from Indo-European root swep- (to sleep) that is also the source of insomnia, hypnosis, soporific (inducing sleep) and somnambulate (to walk in sleep).] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. "Each week in Horse & Hound, the showjumper's bible, advertisements for 'natural sedatives' with somnific names - Placid, So-Kalm, Tranquillity - promise to 'soothe away your horse's competition nerves and prevent nervousness and excitability without impairing performance'." Richard McClure; Skulduggery at the Stables; The Independent (London, UK); Aug 30, 1999. X-Bonus I place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)

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