This week’s theme
Usage examples from well-known authors

This week’s words
behoof
comminute
maffick
inhere
spavined

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(KOM-uh-noot, -nyoot)

MEANING:

verb tr. and intr.: To pulverize.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin comminuere, from com- (intensive prefix) + minuere (to lessen). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mei- (small) that also gave us minor, minister, diminish, minimum, menu, mystery, and mince. Earliest documented use: 1626.

USAGE:

“I ask you to pronounce s-o-w, and you ask me what kind of one. If we had a sane, determinate alphabet, instead of a hospital of comminuted eunuchs, you would know whether one referred to the act of a man casting the seed over the ploughed land or whether one wished to recall the lady hog and the future ham.”
Mark Twain in a Speech in New York City; Dec 9, 1907.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: