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 Dec 5, 2024 
This week’s themeIllustrated words This week’s words mimetic gobbledygook berserk kindler fairy-tale  
Illustration: Leah Palmer Preiss 
A.Word.A.Day 
with Anu Gargkindler
 PRONUNCIATION: 
MEANING: 
noun: 1. A person or thing that starts a fire. 2. A person or thing that inspires, incites, or arouses. ETYMOLOGY: 
Probably from Old Norse kynda (to ignite). Earliest documented use: 1439.
 USAGE: 
“Dispatchers informed the officers that they had received information
from Christopher Kindler that Jason Kindler had burned down his house.” Meredith Tho; Amherst Man Faces Arson Charge for Blaze at Own Home; Stevens Point Journal (Wisconsin); Dec 23, 2008. [See nominative determinism.] “But sport gives a nation heroes and role models and exhilaration. It is a source of health and fitness. It moves youth from the streets to the soccer fields and the baseball diamonds. It is a kindler of dreams.” Lawrence Martin; The Politicization of Professional Sports Is a Home Run for Society; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Apr 15, 2021. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: 
Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.
-Christina Rossetti, poet (5 Dec 1830-1894)
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