This week’s theme
Clothes (or lack of them)

This week’s words
defrock
divest
travesty
revet
investiture

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(TRAV-uh-stee)

MEANING:

noun:	1. Mockery.
	2. A debased or grotesque imitation.
verb tr.:	1. To represent in a false or absurd manner.
	2. To caricature or parody.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French travesti (in disguise), past participle of travestir (to disguise, to cross-dress), from Italian travestire, from tra- (across), from Latin trans- + vestire (to dress). Earliest documented use: 1664.

NOTES:

The word is typically seen in the phrase “travesty of justice”, which is sometimes shortened to just “travesty”. Thus, the word “travesty” could also mean “injustice” as shown in the usage examples below.

USAGE:

“’Drive My Car’ unfolds [into] a grand, simmering story of love and regret. It’d be a travesty if it didn’t earn a nomination here.”
Glenn Whipp; Oscar Predictions; Los Angeles Times; Feb 7, 2022.

“I have to think it’s a travesty. That they arrested him because he’s Japanese.”
David Guterson; Snow Falling on Cedars; Harcourt Brace; 1994.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: