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Jul 10, 2018
This week’s theme
Words relating to fruit

This week’s words
apple-polish
fig leaf
grapevine
top banana
plummy

fig leaf
Philippe d'Orléans and his mistress Marie Madeleine de la Vieuville (as Adam and Eve)
Art: Jean-Baptiste Santerre, 1717

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

fig leaf

PRONUNCIATION:
(FIG leef)

MEANING:
noun: Something used to cover, usually inadequately, what may be shameful or embarrassing.

ETYMOLOGY:
From the Biblical story (Genesis 3:7) in which Adam and Eve sew fig leaves to cover their nakedness. Earliest documented use: 1535.

USAGE:
“The austerity agenda has been seized by the Tories as the fig leaf behind which to progressively underfund health and social care, creating today’s crisis.”
Phil Whitaker; Health Matters; New Statesman (London, UK); Feb 2, 2018.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If I could be sure of doing with my books as much as my [doctor] father did for the sick! -Marcel Proust, novelist (10 Jul 1871-1922)

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