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May 16, 2012 This week's theme Words with allusions to geometrical shapes This week's words triangulate foursquare trapeze Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg trapeze PRONUNCIATION: (tra-PEEZ, truh-) MEANING: noun: An apparatus consisting of a short horizontal bar suspended by two ropes, used in gymnastics and acrobatics. ETYMOLOGY: Probably from the trapezoid shape made by the ropes, the bar, and the roof. From French trapèze (trapezoid/trapezium), from Latin trapezium, from Greek trapezion (small table), from trapeza (table), from tetra- (four) + peza (foot). Earliest documented use: 1830. USAGE: "In my last year at the university, I felt like I had finally mastered walking the trapeze of my life, work, and academics." Students in Rural Schools; The Centre Daily Times (Pennsylvania); Feb 6, 2005. "Prime Minister and his advisers were hanging themselves in a trapeze of stale and false intelligence." Peter Newman; Harper's Election to Lose; Maclean's (Canada); Jun 21, 2004. Explore "trapeze" in the Visual Thesaurus. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

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