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Mar 17, 2023
This week’s theme
Words related to the number 29

This week’s words
aderation
saturnalian
bissextile
lunation
occiput

occiput
Saint Francis in Prayer, c. 1602-1604
Art: Caravaggio

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Toponyms
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

occiput

PRONUNCIATION:
(OK-suh-puht)

MEANING:
noun: The back part of the head or skull.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin occipit, from oc- (against) + caput (head). Earliest documented use: 1398. The human head has 29 bones.

USAGE:
“Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.)
Is planning a ban on smut.
Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut.
And his reverend occiput.
Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut.,
Grit your molars and do your dut.,
Gird up your l--ns,
Smite h-p and th-gh,
We’ll all be Kansas
By and by.
Ogden Nash; Invocation; 1931.

Note: This is the opening stanza of Ogden Nash’s poem on Senator Reed Smoot of Utah whose anti-porn stance led to a newspaper headline “Smoot Smites Smut”.

See more usage examples of occiput in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him. -Bayard Rustin, civil rights activist (17 Mar 1912-1987)

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