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May 4, 2016
This week’s theme
Words that appear misspelled

This week’s words
gapeseed
windrow
unwonted
angor
refect

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

unwonted

PRONUNCIATION:
(un-WON-tid)

MEANING:
adjective: Unusual or unaccustomed.

ETYMOLOGY:
From un- + Middle English woned, wont (accustomed), past participle of wonen (to be used to, to dwell). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wen- (to desire or to strive for), which is also the source of wish, win, Venus, overweening, venerate, venison, and banyan, venial, and ween. Earliest documented use: 1553.

USAGE:
“[The play] looks at why the placid-seeming Howe was driven to such unwonted ferocity.”
Michael Billington; Dead Sheep Review; The Guardian (London, UK); Apr 6, 2015.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. -William Kingdon Clifford, mathematician and philosopher (4 May 1845-1879)

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