This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
boulevardier
pachyderm
revenant
rhapsode
bon viveur

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(RAP-sohd)

MEANING:

noun: A professional reciter of poems.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin rhapsodia, from Greek rhapsoidia (recitation of epic poetry), from rhaptein (to stitch together) + aidein (to sing), from oide (song). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wed- (to speak), which also gave us parody, comedy, tragedy, melody, and ode. Earliest documented use: 1712.

USAGE:

“It may be argued that our republic is, in performance, really enacting today the grandest arts, poems, etc. by beating up the wilderness into fertile farms, and in her railroads, ships, machinery, etc. And it may be asked, Are these not better, indeed, for America, than any utterances even of greatest rhapsode, artist, or literatus?”
Walt Whitman; Democratic Vistas; 1871.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: