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Jun 27, 2012
This week's theme
Words with variant spellings

This week's words
durance
suasion
versal
monish
complice

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

versal

PRONUNCIATION:
(VUHR-suhl)

MEANING:
adjective: Universal; whole.

ETYMOLOGY:
Shortening of universal, from Latin universum (universe). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend), also the source of wring, weird, writhe, worth, revert, universe, verso, versicolor, and animadvert. Earliest documented use: 1590s, in Romeo & Juliet.

USAGE:
"She looks as pale as any clout in the versal world."
William Shakespeare; Romeo & Juliet; 1590s.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday. -Thornton Wilder, writer (1897-1975)

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