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superjacent: msg#00026culture.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 October 28 is: superjacent \soo-per-JAY-sunt\ adjective : lying above or upon : overlying Example sentence: "Foreign states enjoy the right of overflight in the airspace superjacent to a coastal state's 200-mile exclusive economic zone...." (James C. Hsiung, _The New York Times_, April 14, 2001) Did you know? You're probably familiar with "adjacent," and if you guessed that it's a relative of "superjacent," you're right. Both derive from the Latin verb "jacere," meaning "to lie." "Adjacent," which is both the more popular and the earlier word (it first appeared in print in the 15th century, while "superjacent" turned up in 1610), comes from "jacere" and the prefix "ad-," meaning "near." "Superjacent," on the other hand, was formed by combining "jacere" with the prefix "super-," meaning "over," "above," or "on top of." In case you were wondering, "jacere" descendants are also available for other possible configurations -- "subjacent" means "lying below," and "circumjacent" means "lying near on all sides" or "surrounding." |
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