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Jul 11, 2022
This week’s theme
Words that appear to be misspelled

This week’s words
staddle
dragoon
specie
navvy
compromis

staddle
Staddle stones are mushroom-shaped stones on which granaries are rested. This helps keep the grain dry and stops rodents from climbing in.
Photo: Anguskirk

Previous week’s theme
Blend words
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

At first glance this week’s words may appear to be misspelled. Some words might make you wonder: Is a letter missing? Others: Is there an extra letter here?

The answer in each case is: None of the above.

Each word we feature this week has exactly as many letters as it needs. Nothing to add. Nothing to remove.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said, “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Going by that definition, these words are perfect, even though there was no designer who made them. Sometimes there’s no need for a designer (intelligent or not).

Can we call a word a “little print”? If so, these little prints are perfect as they are. Tame them and add them to your wordstock. You become responsible, however, for what you have tamed. Use them judiciously.

This week we’ll feature five words that appear to be misspelled.

staddle

PRONUNCIATION:
(STAD-uhl)

MEANING:
noun: A base, support, or supporting framework.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English stathol (base, support, or tree trunk). Earliest documented use: 900.

USAGE:
“When Donald Frazier set his mind on marrying a Catholic, the staddle on which his mother’s church was built had already begun to crumble.”
John Gardner; Stillness & Shadows; Knopf; 1986.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I hold one share in the corporate earth and am uneasy about the management. -E.B. White, writer (11 Jul 1899-1985)

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