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Nov 23, 2021
This week’s theme
Toponyms from England

This week’s words
Piltdowner
Devonshire
kersey
Halifax
Aldermaston

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

Devonshire

PRONUNCIATION:
(DEV-uhn-shur)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To clear land by burning turf, stubble, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Devonshire, a county in SW England. It’s not clear how the place came to be associated with the clearing of land. Earliest documented use: 1607.

USAGE:
“The Devonshired land came to no more than ten of the two thousand acres that comprised Walton’s commons.”
Ineke Murakami; Winstanley’s “Righteous Actors”; Theatre Survey (New York); Sep 2021.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
To seek understanding before taking action, yet to trust my instincts when action is called for. Never to avoid danger from fear, never to seek out danger for its own sake. Never to conform to fashion from fear of eccentricity, never to be eccentric from fear of conformity. -Steven Brust, novelist (b. 23 Nov 1955)

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