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Apr 17, 2014 This week's theme Words coined after Shakespearean characters This week's words dogberry portia timon romeo prospero Detail from The Last Kiss of Romeo and Juliet Art: Francesco Hayez, 1823 Photo: Wikimedia A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg Romeo PRONUNCIATION: (RO-mee-o) MEANING: noun: A man who is a passionate lover or seducer. ETYMOLOGY: After Romeo, the hero in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. While Shakespeare's play popularized it, the story itself originated in folklore and is much older. Earliest documented use: 1566. USAGE: "The square's scribes were once famous as stand-in Romeos, writing love letters. Sometimes, the same scribe would find himself handling both sides of the correspondence for a courting pair." The Scribes' Lament; The Economist (London, UK); Nov 20, 2008. See more usage examples of romeo in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages. -Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (1885-1962)

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