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Jun 14, 2017
This week’s theme
Words borrowed from Persian

This week’s words
satrap
dervish
baksheesh
ayatollah
pasha

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

baksheesh

PRONUNCIATION:
(BAK-sheesh)

MEANING:
noun: A payment, such as a tip or bribe.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Persian bakhshish, from bakhshidan, from baksh (to give). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhag- (to share) that is also the source of nebbish, Sanskrit bhagya (good fortune), and words related to -phagy (eating), such as onychophagia (the biting of one’s nails) and xerophagy (the eating of dry food). Earliest documented use: 1686.

USAGE:
“She scattered baksheesh like manna from the heavens: she bestowed her bounty on everyone.”
Sally Beauman; The Visitors; Harper; 2014.

See more usage examples of baksheesh in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The longest day must have its close -- the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning. An eternal, inexorable lapse of moments is ever hurrying the day of the evil to an eternal night, and the night of the just to an eternal day. -Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and novelist (14 Jun 1811-1896)

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