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Mar 17, 2017
This week’s theme
Miscellaneous words

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lodestar
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appetence

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

appetence

PRONUNCIATION:
(A-puh-tuhns)

MEANING:
noun: A strong desire or inclination.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French appétence (desire), from Latin appetentia, from appetere (to seek after), ad- (to) + petere (to seek). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush or fly), which also gave us appetite, feather, petition, compete, perpetual, propitious, impetuous, petulant, pteridology, pinnate, and lepidopterology. Earliest documented use: 1610.

USAGE:
“Conservatives will now be able to test the national appetence for more individualistic solutions to social policy problems.”
James Travers; Cautious Voters Keep New PM on Tight Leash; Toronto Star (Canada); Jan 24, 2006.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him. -Bayard Rustin, civil rights activist (17 Mar 1912-1987)

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