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May 31, 2019
This week’s theme
Words originating in shoes

This week’s words
sabotage
roughshod
old shoe
vamp
shoehorn

shoehorn
Shoehorn by Robert Mindum, 1600
Photo: Legviiii/Wikimedia

This week’s comments
AWADmail 883

Next week’s theme
Weird plurals
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

shoehorn

PRONUNCIATION:
(SHOO-horn)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To force something into an insufficient or unsuitable space.
noun: A tool to help slide one’s heel into a shoe.

ETYMOLOGY:
Originally, shoehorns were made of the horns of animals. Earliest documented use: 1589.

USAGE:
“A bull-headed Maltese prime minister shoehorned a chapter on Mediterranean security into the Helsinki Accords.”
The Cruel Sea; The Economist (London, UK); Jan 14, 2017.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. -Walt Whitman, poet (31 May 1819-1892)

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