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Feb 23, 2022
This week’s theme
Words borrowed from German & Hawaiian

This week’s words
Sehnsucht
lei
verstehen
kapu
wissenschaft

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.” ~Beecher
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

verstehen

PRONUNCIATION:
(fuhr-SHTAY-uhn)

MEANING:
noun: The use of empathy in understanding human actions and behavior, especially in interpreting sociological or historical events.

ETYMOLOGY:
From German verstehen (to understand). Earliest documented use: 1934.

USAGE:
“As a statistician, she had no background or interest in verstehen, and Waldemar had little interest in her.”
Werner Cohn; Early Companions; iUniverse; 2005.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves. -Robert Neelly Bellah, sociologist and author (23 Feb 1927-2013)

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