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Jan 8, 2001
This week's theme
Yours to discover

This week's words
dekko
ait
bijou
horst
dotty
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

Rorschach test, named after Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922), aims to discover the personality of a person which can't be found by the usual questions. The subject is shown random inkblot designs and asked to interpret them. The same inkblot may appear as clouds to one person, an elephant to another, while a third person may see a face of a woman.

Well, this week's AWAD may seem quite like this test, but it isn't. The words for the next five days may appear to be selected with no design, but they do have a common theme. There is a definite property that a word has to fulfill before making an appearance this week. And your mission is to identify that common trait. The first one to figure it out gets worldwide fame by having his/her name circulated in nearly 200 countries. Send your interpretations to (contest at wordsmith.org). One answer per person, please.

dekko

Pronunciation Sound Clip RealAudio

(DEK-oh)

noun: A look or glance.

[From Hindi dekho look (imperative).]

"This week, and for the next three months, if you desire, you can go and take a dekko (or a gander, a butcher's or a shufti) at a pair of trousers I wore 18 years ago, when I was barely out of my teens."
Dylan Jones; Men's style; The Independent (London, UK); Oct 16, 2000.

"Many restaurants, bars, businesses and shops in downtown Napier are located in historic art deco buildings."
Take a Dekko at All This Art; The Dominion (Wellington, New Zealand); Apr 13, 2000.

X-Bonus

Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way. -E.L. Doctorow, writer (b. 1931)

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