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Jan 8, 2014
This week's theme
Miscellaneous words

This week's words
repletion
ponderous
quondam
inimical
ignominy

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

quondam

PRONUNCIATION:
(KWON-duhm)

MEANING:
adjective: Former; onetime.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin quondam (formerly). Earliest documented use: 1535.

USAGE:
"One of the assumptions Madison and others labored under was that Britain would be too preoccupied with beating Napoleon to pay much attention to its quondam colonies."
Joyce Appleby; The Washington Post; A Stumbling, Fiery End to War of 1812; May 5, 2013.

See more usage examples of quondam in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
To be capable of embarrassment is the beginning of moral consciousness. Honor grows from qualms. -John Leonard, critic (1939-2008)

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