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dundrearies: msg#00014

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: dundrearies

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Announcing the new Merriam-Webster's Learner's Word
of the Day--perfect for ESL students. It's free!
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The Word of the Day for May 15 is:

dundrearies \dun-DREER-eez\ noun plural, often capitalized
: long flowing sideburns

Example sentence:
In order to play the title character in a dramatization of _Martin
Chuzzlewit_, Philip donned false dundrearies that made him look a lot older.

Did you know?
In the United States, _Our American Cousin_ by Tom Taylor is often best
remembered as the play Abraham Lincoln was watching at Ford's Theatre in
Washington, D.C., when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Word lovers
may also recall that the show gave us "dundrearies," a name for the long, bushy
sideburns (called "Piccadilly weepers" in England). The term for that
particular men's hair fashion, which was popular between 1840 and 1870, comes
from the name of Lord Dundreary, a character in the play who sported those
elegant whiskers. The name can also be used in the attributive form "dundreary
whiskers."







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