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paste: msg#00027

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: paste

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Bee a winner with our Unabridged Dictionary--the official
reference of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?w3.htm&1
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The Word of the Day for May 28 is:

paste \PAIST\ verb
1 : to strike hard at
*2 : to beat or defeat soundly

Example sentence:
The school's football team pasted their rivals by 35 points in the
championship game.

Did you know?
"Paste" came to be as an alteration of the word "baste," which means "to
beat severely or soundly." The exact origin of "baste" is uncertain, but it
probably comes from the Old Norse word "beysta," meaning "to bruise, thrash, or
flog." "Baste" was first seen in the 16th century, but "paste" didn't turn up
in print until 1846, and it only recently acquired its "defeat" sense. "Baste"
is now less popular than "paste" (the two "baste" homographs that mean "to sew
with long stitches" and "to moisten while cooking" are distinct terms not
related to this "baste"), though its relative "lambaste" ("to beat" or "to
censure") is prevalent.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.






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