A.Word.A.Day --predial

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Oct 22, 2012

This week's theme
Words that aren't what they appear to be

This week's words
predial
hibernian
histrionics
blousy
redoubtable

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

A guinea pig is not a pig, nor is it from Guinea. It's a rodent from South America. Sweetbread is neither sweet nor bread. It's the pancreas or thymus of an animal used for food. The movie director Norman Jewison is neither a Norman nor a Jew. He's a Canadian Christian. Nobody said names for people or things have to make sense.

This week we'll feature five terms that do not mean what you might think they mean.

predial or praedial

PRONUNCIATION:

(PREE-dee-uhl)

MEANING:

adjective: Of or relating to land, farming, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin praedium (estate), from praes (bondsman), from prae- (before) + vas (surety). Earliest documented use: 1461.

USAGE:

"Agrarian outbreaks, in many places, assumed the aspect of a predial war."
Johnson Rossiter; The Great Events by Famous Historians; 1905.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Where the light is brightest, the shadows are deepest. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

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