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winsome: msg#00012

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: winsome

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Do you march to the beat of a different drummer? Discover
where this term came from in our Dictionary of Allusions.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?allusion.htm&6
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The Word of the Day for March 13 is:

winsome \WIN-sum\ adjective
*1 : generally pleasing and engaging often because of a
childlike charm and innocence
2 : cheerful, lighthearted

Example sentence:
Andrew's winsome smile and sweet personality endeared the
toddler to everyone who tended him in the hospital.

Did you know?
"Winsome" began as "wynsum" a thousand years ago. It was
formed from "wynn," the Old English word for "joy"
or "pleasure," and the suffix "-sum," an older form of the "-
some" we see today in many adjectives, such
as "awesome," "irksome," and "lonesome." "Wynn" later
became "win," meaning "pleasure," but we haven't used that noun
since the 17th century. We do, however, use another word that
has a "pleasing" connection and is related, albeit distantly,
to "winsome." "Winning" ("tending to please or delight," as
in "a winning smile" or "winning ways"), the present participle
of the familiar verb "win," is from Old English "winnan,"
meaning "to struggle." Both "winnan" and "wynn" are thought to
be related to Latin "venus," which means, among other
things, "charm."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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