|
woebegone: msg#00013culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Put the whole realm of human knowledge on Dad's desktop with Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia. http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?collency.htm&9 **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for June 14 is: woebegone \WOH-bih-gahn\ adjective 1 : strongly afflicted with woe : woeful *2 : exhibiting great woe, sorrow, or misery 3 : being in a sorry state Example sentence: Jerry's face had the woebegone expression of a man who had just lost a beloved pet. Did you know? At first glance, "woebegone" looks like a word that has its meaning backwards; after all, if "begone" means "go away," shouldn't "woebegone" mean "devoid of woe," or "happy"? Not exactly. The word derives from the Middle English phrase "wo begon." The "wo" in this phrase simply means "woe," but "begon" (deriving from Old English "began") is a past participle meaning "beset." Someone who is "woebegone," therefore, is literally beset with woe. Since the early 19th century, the word has also been used to describe things that appear to express sadness, as in "a woebegone face." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
|
| <Prev in Thread] | Current Thread | [Next in Thread> |
|---|---|---|
| Previous by Date: | allege: 00013, word |
|---|---|
| Next by Date: | unctuous: 00013, word |
| Previous by Thread: | allegei: 00013, word |
| Next by Thread: | unctuous: 00013, word |
| Indexes: | [Date] [Thread] [Top] [All Lists] |
| News | FAQ | advertise |