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rambunctious: msg#00003culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Attention word gurus: try WORD SWEEP!, the first board game to feature Merriam-Webster definitions! Available at Borders Bookstores. http://www.wordsweep.com **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for December 4 is: rambunctious \ram-BUNK-shuss\ adjective : marked by uncontrollable exuberance : unruly Example sentence: By the time she finally got the three rambunctious children to bed, the babysitter was exhausted. Did you know? "Rambunctious" first appeared in print in 1830, at a time when the fast-growing United States was forging its identity and indulging in a fashion for colorful new coinages suggestive of the young nation's optimism and exuberance. "Rip-roaring," "scalawag," "hornswoggle," and "skedaddle" are other examples of the lively language of that era. Did Americans alter the largely British "rumbustious" because it sounded, well, British? That could be. "Rumbustious," which first appeared in Britain in the late 1700s, was probably based on "robustious," a much older adjective that meant both "robust" and "boisterous." You Are Subscribed As: gclw-mw-wod7@xxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, please click here: http://www.drhinternet.net/mw/u/966408/568f14b4ab4f050b/N303L6 To 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://mw.drhinternet.net/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml (c) 2007 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated Merriam-Webster, Inc. 47 Federal Street P.O. Box 281 Springfield, MA 01102 |
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