This week's theme
Terms with connections to the number 19

This week's words
nineteenth hole
suffragist
bromide
tinnient
extraterritoriality

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SUHF-ruh-jist)

MEANING:

noun: An advocate of extending the right to vote, especially to women.

ETYMOLOGY:

Via French from Latin suffragium (voting tablet, right to vote). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreg- (to break) that also gave us break, breach, fraction, fragile, fractal, infringe, irrefragable, and fractious. Suffrage? Remember, a broken piece of tile was used as a ballot in the past. Earliest documented use: 1822.

NOTES:

While we have come a long way in treating people equally regarding the right to vote, there are still places where a woman is not considered fit to vote or to run for an office, for example Saudi Arabia and the Vatican.

USAGE:

"Women had not won the right to vote; one suffragist slapped Song Jiaoren in the face for not taking up their cause."
The Song of Song; The Economist (London, UK); Dec 22, 2012.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: