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A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg
A.Word.A.Day subscribers read this newsletter for many different reasons. For some, it's the joy of learning fascinating stories about the origins of words (their etymologies). For others, it's discovering unusual words, whether it's their meanings or sounds or spelling.
Many, especially students, read it to increase their vocabulary for one of the many standardized tests or for personal enrichment. Those readers sometimes write back to say, "OK, so this word resistentialism is interesting, but I'd like to see words that I can use more often in my daily life."
Each word featured in AWAD includes examples taken from newspapers, magazines, and books to illustrate it and to show that it has been used in the real world.
Still, we take their point. This week we present words you might encounter in your next test.
MEANING:adjective: Talkative; wordy.
ETYMOLOGY:From Latin loqui (to speak). The word loquacious has a negative sense, but a positive word to come out of the same Latin root is eloquent.
USAGE:"Arguably the most loquacious Speaker in the Lok Sabha's* history, [Somnath] Chatterjee kept up a steady commentary."
Manini Chatterjee Firm in Chair; The Telegraph (Calcutta, India); Jul 22, 2008.
*lower house in the Parliament of India
[The above quotation is priceless. Mr. Chatterjee is supposed to be a Speaker. What else would you expect him to be if not loquacious? And a parliament is a place where you are supposed to speak: the word is derived from the French word parler (to speak).]
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right. -Carl Schurz, revolutionary, statesman and reformer (1829-1906)