This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
Machiavellianism
Don Quixote
thespian
epicure
Momus

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(EP-i-kyoor)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A person with refined taste, especially in food or wine.
2. A person devoted to sensual pleasure.

ETYMOLOGY:

After the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BCE), who advocated simple pleasures and a calm mind (ataraxia). With time, his teachings were distorted as focusing on sensual pleasures. Earliest documented use: 1450.

USAGE:

“On a recent Sunday at Angel Indian, a new, mostly Punjabi restaurant in Jackson Heights, where the bill of fare happens to be meat-free, an epicure I had brought along for lunch declared that he didn’t much care for vegetarian Indian food. An hour and a half-dozen dishes later, I watched him jump up from the table to chase down a pair of women who had studied the menu taped to the front door before walking away, so he could urge them to return.”
Hannah Goldfield; Angel Indian; The New Yorker; Dec 9, 2019.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: