This week’s theme
Words related to politics and elections

This week’s words
shermanesque
carpetbagger
logrolling
dog whistle
suffrage


This week’s comments
AWADmail 734

Next week’s theme
Words to describe people

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SUF-rij)

MEANING:

noun: The right to vote; also, the exercise of such a right.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French suffrage, from Latin suffragium (voting tablet, right to vote). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreg- (to break), which also gave us break, breach, fraction, fragile, fractal, infringe, irrefragable, and fractious. Suffrage? Because a broken piece of tile was used as a ballot in the past. Earliest documented use: 1380.

USAGE:

“Victoria Claflin Woodhull, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement, was the first woman to run for the US presidency, though she couldn’t even vote for herself on election day, Nov 5, 1872.”
Simon Carswell; She is a Tough Lady. She is All of Our Hero; Irish Times (Dublin); Jun 9, 2016.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: