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imbricate: msg#00026

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Subject: imbricate

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The Word of the Day for June 27 is:

imbricate \IM-bruh-kayt\ verb
: overlap; especially : to overlap like roof tiles

Example sentence:
"Fine-spun and see-through, the cotton... acts as canvas and writing
paper, pierced and covered by the imbricated stitches that decorate it."
(Frances Richard, _Artforum International_, January 1, 2005)

Did you know?
The ancient Romans knew how to keep the interior of their villas dry when
it rained. They tiled their roofs with overlapping curved tiles so the "imber"
(Latin for "rain") couldn't seep in. The tiles were, in effect, "rain tiles,"
so the Romans called them "imbrices" (singular "imbrex"). The verb for
installing the tiles was "imbricare." The "imbr-" root has never really been
put to use in English rain-related words (though scientists have made use of
the closely-related Greek "ombros"; for example, "ombriphilous" describes a
plant that loves heavy rainfall). English speakers used the past participle of
"imbricare" -- "imbricatus" -- to create "imbricate," which was first used as
adjective meaning "overlapping (like roof tiles)" and later became a verb
meaning "to overlap."







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