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Dec 6, 2012
This week's theme
Words derived from numbers

This week's words
septentrional
decimate
hebdomad
doyen
dubious

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

doyen

PRONUNCIATION:
(doi-EN, DOI-uhn)

MEANING:
noun: The senior member of a group, profession, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French doyen (most senior member), from Latin decanus (chief of ten), from decem (ten). Earliest documented use: 1422.

USAGE:
"[The financial sector's] doyens have gained powerful positions in government, although this may be down to the modern assumption that if people are rich they must be smart."
The War on Finance; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 4, 2012.

See more usage examples of doyen in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same. -Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997)

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