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Dec 14, 2016
This week’s theme
Usage examples from well-known authors

This week’s words
behoof
comminute
maffick
inhere
spavined

Mafeking, South Africa
Mahikeng, South Africa
Map: Wikimedia

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

maffick

PRONUNCIATION:
(MAF-ik)

MEANING:
verb intr.: To celebrate boisterously.

ETYMOLOGY:
Back formation from Mafeking (now Mahikeng), a town in South Africa, where a British garrison was besieged for 217 days during the Boer War. Lifting of the siege on May 17, 1900, sparked wild celebrations in London. Earliest documented use: 1900.

USAGE:
“Mother, may I go and maffick,
Tear around and hinder traffic?”
Saki aka HH Munro (1870-1916).

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Style is time's fool. Form is time's student. -Stewart Brand, writer and editor (b. 14 Dec 1938)

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