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Nov 18, 2011
This week's theme
Words with unusual arrangements of letters

This week's words
verisimilitude
syzygy
yob
kine
spendthrift

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Words borrowed from languages that are now extinct
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

spendthrift

PRONUNCIATION:
(SPEND-thrift)

MEANING:
noun: A person who spends money wastefully.
adjective: Wasteful with money.

ETYMOLOGY:
A spendthrift is, literally, one who spends his wealth, from Middle English thrift (prosperity), from Old Norse thrifast (to thrive), from thrifa (to grasp). Earliest documented use: 1601.

NOTES:
Spendthrift is the longest word whose phonetic and normal spellings are the same. Two colorful synonyms of this word are dingthrift and scattergood.

USAGE:
"A Saudi judge has told a seminar on domestic violence that it is okay for a man to slap his wife for lavish spending."
Saudi Judge Says OK to Slap Spendthrift Wife; Agence France Presse (Paris); May 10, 2009.

See more usage examples of spendthrift in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. -Bill Hicks, comedian and social critic (1961-1994)

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