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Apr 4, 2017
This week’s theme
Words with irregular plurals

This week’s words
chrysalis
imago
tour de force
bourgeois
oxymoron

imago
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

imago

PRONUNCIATION:
(i-MAY-go, -MAH-)
plural imagoes or imagines (i-MAY-guh-neez)

MEANING:
noun:
1. The final or adult stage of an insect.
2. An idealized image of someone, formed in childhood and persisting in later life.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin imago (image). Ultimately from the Indo-European root aim- (copy), which also gave us emulate, imitate, image, imagine, and emulous. Earliest documented use: 1787.

USAGE:
“In my dream I was joined by the cybernetic imago of Katia, my wife.”
Alastair Reynolds; Galactic North; Ace; 2007.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. -Maya Angelou, poet (4 Apr 1928-2014)

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