benedict

****************************************************************
Spring fever? Watch your vocabulary grow by trying a
free 14-day subscription to Merriam-WebsterUnabridged.com!
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged_sub.pl?refr=U_wod
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for April 7 is:

benedict \BEN-uh-dikt\   noun 
   : a newly married man who has long been a bachelor 

Example sentence: 
     Tabloid reporters never tire of asking celebrity benedicts what they think 
of married life. 

Did you know? 
     "Benedick" is the chief male character in Shakespeare's play _Much Ado 
About Nothing_. Throughout the play, both Benedick and his female counterpart 
Beatrice exchange barbed comments and profess to detest the very idea of 
marriage, but the story eventually culminates in their marriage to each other. 
As a result, Benedick's name came to be applied to men who marry later in life. 
The spelling was changed to "benedict," possibly by association with a use of 
"benedict" meaning "bachelor" (although the evidence for this use is scant). 
Some early 20th-century usage commentators regarded the respelling as incorrect 
with regards to the etymology, but "benedict" has become the established 
spelling nevertheless.





You Are Subscribed As: GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe, change your e-mail address or to subscribe to the html
version of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, featuring audio
pronunciations, please visit:

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml

(c) 2006 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal Street
P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102

*mf mwt 040706 GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx mf*

---
You are currently subscribed to mw-text as: GCLW-MW-WOD7@xxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
leave-mw-text-979910Y@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx