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cajole: msg#00000culture.language.word-of-the-day
***************************************************************** Discover the people and events that made history ON THIS DAY. Sign up for the free daily newsletter from Britannica. http://register.britannica.com/mailinglist ***************************************************************** The Word of the Day for August 1 is: cajole \kuh-JOAL\ verb *1 : to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance : coax 2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises Example sentence: Peter's friends cajoled him into coming to the party even though he was not in the mood to go. Did you know? You might not think to associate "cajole" with "cage," but it's likely that these two words are connected. Researchers have made an association between the prattle of a caged bird and the persistent wheedling of a person attempting to get something out of someone else. "Cajole" comes from a French verb, "cajoler," which now means "coax" but at one time meant "to chatter like a jay." Some etymologists theorize that "cajoler" is from "gaiole," an Old North French word meaning "birdcage" and ancestor to our word "jail." "Gaiole" derives from a Late Latin word, "caveola," which means "little cage" and is the diminutive of the Latin "cavea" ("cage" or "cavity"). Our word "cage" derives from this noun, and "cave" is a close relative. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
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