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Aug 19, 2022
This week’s theme
Words that aren’t what they appear to be

This week’s words
plutography
miniate
irredentist
recurse
decalcomania

decalcomania
A car decal

This week’s comments
AWADmail 1051

Next week’s theme
Movies that became words
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

decalcomania

PRONUNCIATION:
(de-kal-kuh-MAY-nee-uh)

MEANING:
noun:
1. The process of transferring a design from a specially prepared paper onto another surface.
2. A decal: a design on a specially prepared paper made to be transferred onto another surface.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French décalcomanie, from décalquer (to transfer a tracing), from de- (from) calquer (to trace), from manie (craze). Earliest documented use: 1864.

NOTES:
Today the word decalcomania is simply the longer spelling for what we call a decal or a transfer, but it was a mania at one time. A craze for decorating things with transfers swept France in the late 1860s which eventually made its way to Britain, the US, and other places.

USAGE:
“He put wet theatrical-quality decalcomania tattoos onto his right upper arm.”
Anthony Wolff; The Case of the Monja Blanca; AuthorHouse; 2014.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Errors like straws upon the surface flow: / Who would search for pearls must dive below. -John Dryden, poet and dramatist (19 Aug 1631-1700)

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