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troglodyte: msg#00001culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Word game lovers! Enjoy a free trial subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged and try our new brainteasers! http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged_sub.pl?refr=U_wod **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for May 2 is: troglodyte \TRAHG-luh-dyte\ noun 1 : a member of any of various peoples (as in antiquity) who lived or were reputed to live chiefly in caves *2 : a person characterized by reclusive habits or outmoded or reactionary attitudes Example sentence: Eva regarded her parents as troglodytes because of their dislike for modern music. Did you know? Peer into the etymological cave of "troglodyte" and you'll find a "trogle." But don't be afraid. "Trogle" may sound like a scary cave-dwelling ogre, but it's actually just a perfectly unintimidating Greek root that means "hole" or "cave." Is "troglodyte" the only English word to have descended from "trogle"? Not exactly. "Troglodyte" and its related adjective "troglodytic" (meaning "of, related to, or being a troglodyte") are the only "trogle" offspring that are widely used in general English contexts, but another "trogle" progeny, the prefix "troglo-," meaning "cave-dwelling," is used in scientific contexts to form words like "troglobiont" ("an animal living in or restricted to caves"). *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
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