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May 5, 2010
This week's theme
Verbally speaking

This week's words
asseverate
scarper
imbricate
batten
vellicate

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

imbricate

PRONUNCIATION:
(adj: IM-bri-kit, -kayt; verb: IM-bri-kayt)

MEANING:
adjective: Having overlapping edges, as tiles on a roof or scales on a fish.
verb tr., intr.: To overlap as roof tiles or fish scales.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin imbricare (to cover with pantiles: semicylindrical tiles), from imbrex (pantile), from imber (rain).

USAGE:
"In that region [Skopje], yesterday as today, allegiance to the Church was more than a merely confessional matter. It was, and is, imbricated with a series of loyalties to nation, region, and even party."
Christopher Hitchens; The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice; Verso Books; 1995.

See more usage examples of imbricate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives, and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)

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