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Mar 1, 2012
This week's theme
Words with hidden animals

This week's words
capricious
bucolic
cuckold
lyceum
jubilee

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

lyceum

PRONUNCIATION:
(ly-SEE-uhm)

MEANING:
noun
1. A lecture hall or an institution that provides public lectures, discussions, concerts, etc.
2. A secondary school.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin lyceum, from Greek Lykeion, an epithet of Apollo meaning wolf-slayer, from lykos (wolf) which also gave us words such as lupine (like a wolf) and lycanthropy (the delusion of being a wolf). In ancient Greece lyceum was a gymnasium so named because it was near a temple of Apollo. Aristotle established his school here. Earliest documented use: 1579.

USAGE:
"Liberty Hall served as a lyceum for reading and speaking engagements."
Steve Urbon; A Tale of One City; The Standard-Times (New Bedford, Massachusetts); Dec 25, 2011.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, -- quieter, warmer. -Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel laureate (1905-1961)

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