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Permanent link for this word: frustraneous

Nov 12, 2014

This week's theme
Words that appear to be misspelled

This week's words
tegular
refection
frustraneous
wonted
ambagious

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

frustraneous

PRONUNCIATION:

(fruhs-TRAY-nee-uhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Useless; unprofitable.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin frustra (in vain). Earliest documented use: 1643.

USAGE:

"As the author of Onania expresses it, a 'frustraneous [exercise] ... center[ing] in nothing but the pleasure of sense."
Anne Elizabeth Carson; "Exquisite Torture"; Eighteenth-Century Studies; Summer 2007.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Patience is also a form of action. -Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840-1917)

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