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Jun 18, 2015
This week’s theme
Random words

This week’s words
tenebrous
swidden
turbid
prolegomenon
fructuous

How to Build a Person: A Prolegomenon
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

prolegomenon

PRONUNCIATION:
(pro-li-GOM-uh-non, -nuhn)

MEANING:
noun: A critical, introductory discussion, especially an introduction to a text.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek prolegómenon, from prolegein (to say beforehand), from pro- (before) + legein (to say). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leg- (to collect, speak), which is also the source of other words such as lexicon, lesson, lecture, legible, legal, legend, select, alexia, cull, lection, ligneous, lignify, subintelligitur, and syllogistic. Earliest documented use: 1600.

USAGE:
“With a witty and intriguing prolegomenon by Ashis Nandy, the book includes 76 poems that are travelogues of exile, identity, and adolescent fantasy of belonging and abandonment, portraying everyday struggles of existence.”
A Lyrical Celebration; Financial Express (New Delhi, India); Dec 28, 2014.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney, singer-songwriter, composer, poet, and activist (b. 18 Jun 1942)

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