This week’s theme
Words that sound dirty (but aren’t)

This week’s words
nudum pactum
titubation
twattle
cock of the walk
penetralia

This week’s comments
AWADmail 1039

Next week’s theme
Blend words

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(pe-nuh-TRAY-lee-uh)

MEANING:

plural noun: The innermost, secret, or hidden parts of something.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin penetralia, from penetrare (to penetrate), from penitus (interior) + intrare (to enter). Earliest documented use: 1668.

USAGE:

“It soon becomes clear that the disappearances have something to do with the caves hidden in the penetralia of the surrounding forest.”
Time-Travel Drama Weaves a Tangled Web; Financial Times (London, UK); Jun 12, 2020.

“The most absolute lawlessness exists under the shadow of the tallest temples of the law, and in the penetralia of that society which vaunts itself as the supreme civilization of the world.”
Emerson Hough; Story of the Outlaw; Grosset and Dunlap; 1906.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: