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May 20, 2016
This week’s theme
Miscellaneous words

This week’s words
factious
repudiate
blandishment
ignominious
fractious

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AWADmail 725

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

fractious

PRONUNCIATION:
(FRAK-shuhs)

MEANING:
adjective: 1. Irritable; cranky. 2. Unruly.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin fractus, past participle of frangere (to break). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreg- (to break), which also gave us break, breach, fraction, and fragile. Earliest documented use: 1725.

USAGE:
“This is a tie that could bring an ignominious end to Mourinho’s fractious reign in Madrid.”
Oliver Holt; Thanks to Sir Alex, Jose Will Be Judged at Old Trafford; The Daily Mirror (London, UK); Feb 14, 2013.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (20 May 1799-1850)

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