This week’s theme
Self-referential words

This week’s words
monosemous
double-barreled
exolete
pentasyllabic
back-form

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(EK-suh-leet, ek-suh-LEET)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Obsolete.
2. Stale.
3. Faded.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin exoletus , past participle of exolescere (to be obsolete), from ex- (out) + -olescere (to grow). Earliest documented use: 1611.

NOTES:

The latest usage of this word we were able to find is from 1689, more than 300 years ago. The word exolete is exolete. Save the word! Put it to use in your letters, blogs, memos, contracts, and novels.

USAGE:

“I have declaimed so vehemently against the use of exolete and interpolated repetitions of old fables in poetry.”
Abraham Cowley (Translation: Nahum Tate); Six Books of Plants; Charles Harper; 1689.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: