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May 29, 2015
This week’s theme
Terms borrowed from French

This week’s words
politesse
laissez-faire
de rigueur
soi-disant
laissez-aller

This week's comments
AWADmail 674

Next week's theme
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

laissez-aller or laisser-aller

PRONUNCIATION:
(les-ay-ah-LAY)

MEANING:
noun: Unrestrained freedom.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French laisser-aller (to allow to go). Earliest documented use: 1842.

USAGE:
“Throughout the concert, O’Carroll struck a delicate balance between order and laissez-aller that yielded crisp ensembles.”
Reviews; Irish Times (Dublin); Jul 8, 2005.

“In the laissez-aller atmosphere of 1960s’ Manhattan, an MBA or a five-year plan was hardly required.”
Guy Trebay; A Man of Another, Cooler City; The New York Times; Aug 4, 2013.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. -John F. Kennedy, 35th US president (29 May 1917-1963)

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