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Aug 2, 2023
This week’s theme
Lesser-known counterparts

This week’s words
benignant
forgettery
endarken
penultimatum
presenteeism

endarken
Endarken cream, $23
enlighten
Enlighten cream, $91

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

endarken

PRONUNCIATION:
(en-DARK-uhn)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To make dark, less clear, or gloomy.

ETYMOLOGY:
From en- (to cause to) + dark, from Old English deorc (dark). Earliest documented use: 1569. Its counterpart, implying to bring light or clarity, is enlighten.

USAGE:
“There is nearly no money to be made in painting a happy picture. It doesn’t sell well; no drama. As a result, media-produced news is likely to endarken our world view.”
Bobby Kittredge; Amusings; Trafford; 2013.

“And with the rising and roaring of his voice the perspiration began to flow, pasting his hair to his forehead, endarkening his clothes yet more.”
Robert J. Begiebing; The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton; University Press of New England; 1999.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. -James Baldwin, writer (2 Aug 1924-1987)

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