A.Word.A.Day		About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us

Home Today's Word Yesterday's Word Archives FAQ

Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--druthers Could the word fugetaboutit -- a contraction of "forget about it" -- find its way into dictionaries some day? It sounds unlikely, but that sort of thing happens all the time in languages. The everyday word "goodbye" was earlier "God be with you". By association with greetings such as "good day", God morphed into good and the whole phrase became goodbye. Another such term is the informal greeting "Howdy" which in its former life was known as "How do ye?" or "How do you do?" This week we'll look at five terms that were once longer phrases but are now condensed. druthers (DRUTH-uhrz) noun One's own way; preference. [Plural of druther, contraction of "'d rather", as in "I/he/etc. would rather ..."] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "If I had my druthers I would go, but I don't think I would a) be able to get my innings over there that I would be able to get here, and b) get the treatment I need." Rob Bradford; Road Back Unfamiliar; Boston Globe; Mar 18, 2008. X-Bonus All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible. -George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)

Subscribe: Sign up to receive A.Word.A.Day in your mailbox every day. "The most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace." -The New York Times Sponsored by: Give the Gift of Words Share the magic of words. Send a gift subscription of A.Word.A.Day. Anu on Words: Writer Magazine SF Gate SF Gate Globe & Mail Interact: Bulletin board Wordsmith Talk Moderated Chat Wordsmith Chat Readers' Voice AWADmail