This week’s theme
Toponyms

This week’s words
alsatia
Carthaginian peace
Cathay
siberianize
Botany Bay

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(sy-BEE-ree-uh-nyz)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To send to a remote location as a form of punishment.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Siberia, Russia, the place where those who had fallen out of favor were sent. Earliest documented use: 1864.

NOTES:

After Siberia, that frosty expanse of central and eastern Russia not known for its hospitality. Historically used by tsars and the USSR as the ultimate time-out spot, but with fewer juice boxes and a lot more gulags. Talk about getting ice-olated. No re-runs of Frozen here -- only the kind of cold that really won’t let it go.
Also see: Coventry and stellenbosch.

USAGE:

“As if, for instance, I were ... to be siberianized for flagrant delight of opinion.”
Christine Brooke-Rose; Amalgamemnon; Carcanet Press; 1984.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: