This week's theme
Words coined after baddies

This week's words
Ponzi scheme
quisling
burke
Potemkin village
Typhoid Mary

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(po-TEM-kin VIL-ij)

MEANING:

noun: An impressive showy facade designed to mask undesirable facts.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Prince Grigory Potemkin, who erected cardboard villages to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Ukraine and Crimea in 1787. Earliest documented use: 1904.

USAGE:

"In Berlin, Lindbergh's wife, Anne, was blinded by the glittering façade of a Potemkin village."
Susan Dunn; The Debate Behind U.S. Intervention in World War II; The Atlantic (Boston); Jul 8, 2013.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: