This week’s theme
Words that aren’t what they appear to be

This week’s words
toxophily
supercargo
votive
verbigerate
recreant

This week’s comments
AWADmail 951

Next week’s theme
Shirts & pants

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(REK-ree-uhnt)

MEANING:

adjective:	1. Unfaithful to a cause, duty, person, belief, etc.
	2. Cowardly.
noun:	1. A disloyal person.
	2. A coward.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old French recreant, present participle of recroire (to yield, to surrender allegiance), from Latin recredere (to yield or pledge), from re- + credere (to believe). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kerd- (heart), which also gave us cardiac, cordial, courage, record, concord, discord, credit, credo, and accord. Earliest documented use: 1330.

USAGE:

“Here are some of the lovely closing lines of ‘Fever’ -- about a father of two young children abandoned by his recreant wife -- as he waves goodbye to a nanny who can no longer help him.”
William Giraldi; ‘This Life Is Not Easy’: The Redemption of Raymond Carver; Commonweal (New York); May 3, 2019.

See more usage examples of recreant in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: