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emote: msg#00003culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Happy New Edition! Ring in the New Year with Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?c11.htm&1 **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for January 4 is: emote \ih-MOHT\ verb : to give expression to emotion especially in acting Example sentence: The actor in the movie's lead role seemed to be trying too hard to emote, and as a result his character was not very believable. Did you know? "Emote" is an example of what linguists call a back- formation -- that is, a word formed by trimming down an existing word (in this case, "emotion"). From the time "emote" was coined in the early 20th century, its use has tended to be less than entirely serious. It most often appears in humorous or deprecating descriptions of the work of actors. It is similarly used to describe theatrical behavior by nonactors, as in this passage by Russell Baker: "Remember, this is politics; it doesn't have to make sense so long as you emote instead of asking questions." (_The New York Times_, May 8, 1976) |
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