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Feb 28, 2018
This week’s theme
Adverbs

This week’s words
deasil
tantivy
fain
piecemeal
widdershins

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

fain

PRONUNCIATION:
(fayn)

MEANING:
adverb:1. Willingly; gladly.
 2. Rather.
adjective:1. Pleased.
 2. Obliged.
 3. Eager.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English faegen (glad). Earliest documented use: 888.

USAGE:
“Now I would fain work, but am unable to.”
Henrik Ibsen (Translation: Edmund Gosse & William Archer); Hedda Gabler; Scribner; 1909.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozens. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (28 Feb 1533-1592)

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