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Nov 9, 2020
This week’s themeWords having all five vowels and in order This week’s words anemious acedious adventitious caesious annelidous 
Vowels by Bernard Johnson
Photo: Feathering the Nest Previous week’s theme Borrowed words 
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargAll present; everyone in order. We are not talking about some school assembly or a military drill. It’s about vowels, a, e, i, o, u, all of them present and in order. This week we’ve picked five such words. To many of these words you can add the suffix -ly to introduce the sometime-vowel y and still keep them all in order. What everyday phrases can you think of that have all the five vowels in order? Share them below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Here are two to get you started: “trade-discount” and “have it out”. anemious
PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-NEE-mi-uhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Growing in windy conditions.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek anemos (wind). Earliest documented use: 1879.
USAGE:
“By late afternoon the light that washed over the garden turned it into
a lake of gold, with islands of shadow; the blown lilies, the long
tendrils of roses and the anemious grasses streamed like plants that
grow in water.” Edith Pope; River in the Wind; Scribner; 1954. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers
of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and
triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of
this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other
corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill
one another, how fervent their hatreds. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer
(9 Nov 1934-1996)
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