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Mar 23, 2016
This week’s theme
Words with unusual plurals

This week’s words
bema
quale
starets
genus
paries

starets
Sergius of Radonezh (detail)
Image: Wikimedia
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

starets

PRONUNCIATION:
(STAHR-its, -yits)
plural startsy

MEANING:
noun: A religious teacher or adviser.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Russian starets (elder). In the Eastern Orthodox Church a starets is a spiritual adviser who is not necessarily a priest. Earliest documented use: 1923.

USAGE:
“Grigori Rasputin was neither mad nor a monk, but an unconventional starets.”
Cecilia Rasmussen; Shadowed by Rasputin’s Evil Reputation; Los Angeles Times; Oct 10, 1999.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Understanding a person does not mean condoning; it only means that one does not accuse him as if one were God or a judge placed above him. -Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and author (23 Mar 1900-1980)

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