|
Home
|
Sep 27, 2021
This week’s themeHand to mouth This week’s words handmaiden snoutfair sticky-fingered gobsmacked hardfisted 
Photo: Paul & Kathy Becker Previous week’s theme Coined words 
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargWhat does a surgeon have in common with a palmer (also known as a pilgrim)? Maybe some surgeons pray before a surgery (we’d rather they spent that time double-checking everything so we don’t have to hear about yet another doctor who removed the good kidney), but that’s not the commonality we are talking about. A surgeon works with hands, literally speaking, so does a palmer. The word surgeon is another spelling for chirurgeon, from Greek cheir (hand). In Medieval Europe, a pilgrim brought back a palm branch as a token of their pilgrimage and hence was known as a palmer. A palm tree is called so because of the resemblance of the shape of its frond to the palm of a hand. What’s common between Boca Raton, Florida, and Oral, South Dakota? Both are named after the mouth. Boca Raton is Spanish for a mouse’s mouth. Well, this week we’re living hand-to-mouth, etymologically speaking. We’ll feature words relating to the hand and the mouth. handmaiden
PRONUNCIATION:
(HAND-may-duhn)
MEANING:
noun: 1. Someone or something that is subservient to another. 2. A personal maid. ETYMOLOGY:
From hand + maiden, referring to a young woman who was ready at hand to
serve her lady. Earliest documented use: 1350.
USAGE:
For years the legal case in Bangladesh had gone nowhere. The country’s
criminal justice system, slow and the handmaiden of the executive of
the day, stood still.” Delayed Detonations; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 7, 2014. See more usage examples of handmaiden in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The central function of imaginative literature is to make you realize that
other people act on moral convictions different from your own. -William
Empson, literary critic and poet (27 Sep 1906-1984)
|
|
Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
© 1994-2024 Wordsmith