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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--inveterate inveterate (in-VET-ehr-it) adjective Firmly established; habitual. [From Middle English, from Latin inveteratus, past participle of inveterare (to grow old), in-, + vetus, stem of veter- (old). Ultimately from Indo-European root wet- (year) that is also the source of such words as veteran, veal (in the sense of yearling), and veterinary (relating to the beasts of burden, perhaps alluding to old cattle).] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. "Men met each other with erected look, The steps were higher that they took; Friends to congratulate their friends made haste, And long inveterate foes saluted as they pass'd." John Dryden; Threnodia Augustalis; 1685. This week's theme: words to describe people. X-Bonus The first man to see an illusion by which men have flourished for centuries surely stands in a lonely place. -Gary Zukav, author (1942- )

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