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Sep 30, 2020
This week’s theme
Words originating in rivers

This week’s words
Pactolian
Jedburgh justice
derwenter
palouser
scamander

derwenter
Hobart Town on the river Derwent
Art by convict-artist Alan Carswell, 1821

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

Derwenter

PRONUNCIATION:
(DUHR-wuhnt-uhr)

MEANING:
noun: An ex-convict.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Derwent, a river in Tasmania. There used to be a convict settlement on its banks. Earliest documented use: 1853.

USAGE:
“A visitor to the tent of a pair of newlyweds at Forest Creek found the digger’s wife ... barely sober enough to utter these memorable words, ‘I’m a Derwenter, and I don’t care who knows it.’”
Robyn Annear; Nothing But Gold; Text Publishing; 1999.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
No human being is illegal. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (30 Sep 1928-2016)

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