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minatory: msg#00023

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: minatory


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The Word of the Day for November 24 is:

minatory \MIN-uh-tor-ee\ adjective
: having a menacing quality : threatening

Example sentence:
Jordan wanted to tell the teacher who had written the note, but the
class bully’s minatory glare convinced her it would be safer to keep quiet.

Did you know?
Knowing that "minatory" means "threatening," can you take a guess at
a related word? If you're familiar with mythology, perhaps you guessed
"Minotaur," the name of the bull-headed, people-eating monster of Crete.
"Minotaur" is a good guess, but as terrifying as the monster sounds, its name
isn't related to today's word. The relative we're searching for is actually
"menace." "Minatory" and "menace" both come from derivatives of the Latin verb
"minari," which means "to threaten." "Minatory" was borrowed directly from Late
Latin "minatorius." "Menace" came to English via Anglo-French "manace, menace,"
which came from Latin "minac-, minax," meaning "threatening."





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