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Aug 26, 2015
This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
lorelei
Paul Pry
boycott
chauvinism
lovelace

Charles C. Boycott
Charles C. Boycott
Vanity Fair, Jan 29, 1881

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

boycott

PRONUNCIATION:
(BOI-kot)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To protest by refusing to buy a product or to deal with a person, organization, nation, etc.
noun: The practice or an instance of this.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897), an English land agent in Ireland, who was ostracized for refusing to lower rents during a time of poor harvest. Earliest documented use: 1880.

USAGE:
“Despite pressure to boycott state elections, voters in the disputed region of Kashmir are flocking to the polls.”
A Shift in the Mountains; The Economist (London, UK); Dec 10, 2014.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We can pay our debt to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves. -John Buchan, poet, novelist, and politician (26 Aug 1875-1940)

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