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Mar 12, 2014
This week's theme
20-letter words

This week's words
polyphiloprogenitive
Little Lord Fauntleroy
anthropomorphization
silk-stocking district
secret of Polichinelle

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

anthropomorphization

PRONUNCIATION:
(an-thruh-puh-mor-fy-ZAY-shuhn)

MEANING:
noun: Attribution of human qualities to things not human.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek anthropo- (human) + morph (form). Earliest documented use: 1880.

USAGE:
"But for the most part she simply relished the anthropomorphization. That the word pencil was masculine lent each pencil a boyish mischievousness. That flower was feminine endowed flowers with a maternal dignity."
Craig Boyko; Blackouts; McClelland & Stewart; 2008.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

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