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Sep 14, 2021
This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
felix culpa
glossolalia
sinisterity
sympatric
spuddle

glossolalia
Trump’s spiritual advisor Paula White in a glossolalia performance.
Also see, a man and a child. How they do it.

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

glossolalia

PRONUNCIATION:
(glos-uh-LAY-lee-uh)

MEANING:
noun: Unintelligible utterances occurring during religious excitation, schizophrenia, etc. Also known as speaking in tongues.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek glosso- (tongue, language) + -lalia (chatter, babbling), from lalein (to babble). Earliest documented use: 1879. A related term is coprolalia.

USAGE:
“He gave Traycee-Lay a quick, irritated look because her glossolalia, which came out something like: ‘Oh my Guhd, oh my Guhd... yasyas yas, yasyas yas... in-nin-nin’ ... her glossolalia was interfering with his delivery.”
John Eppel; Hatchings; Ama Books; 2006.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil", it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil. -Sydney J. Harris, journalist (14 Sep 1917-1986)

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