A.Word.A.Day --mooncalf

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Today's Word

mooncalf

PRONUNCIATION:

(MOON-kaf)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A daydreamer or absent-minded person.
2. A fool or simpleton.
3. A congenitally deformed person.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the earlier belief that a misshapen birth was a result of the effects of the moon. Earliest documented use: 1565.

USAGE:

“I’ll have to stand about on the sidelines, leaning on my crutches like a poor, pathetic mooncalf.”
Elizabeth Mansfield; An Encounter with Venus; Open Road; 2014.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. -J.M. Barrie, novelist and playwright (9 May 1860-1937)

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