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CASTANEOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (ka-STAY-nee-uhs)

MEANING: adjective: Deep reddish-brown.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin castanea (chestnut). Earliest documented use: 1688.
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FASTANEOUS - not quite at the same moment, but almost

CASTONEOUS - being the first to blame

CAST A NEVUS - go fishing using skin spots to bait your hook

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RUBRICATE

PRONUNCIATION: (ROO-bri-kayt)

MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To color or mark with red.
2. To highlight or decorate.
3. To provide with a rubric (a guide, rule, commentary, etc.).

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin rubricare (to color red), from rubrica (rubric, red earth). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reudh- (red), which also gave us red, rouge, ruby, ruddy, rubella, robust, rambunctious, raddle, corroborate, roborant, robustious, rubicund, rufescent, and russet. Earliest documented use: 1570.

PRONUNCIATION: (ROO-bri-kayt)

MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To color or mark with red.
2. To highlight or decorate.
3. To provide with a rubric (a guide, rule, commentary, etc.).

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin rubricare (to color red), from rubrica (rubric, red earth). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reudh- (red), which also gave us red, rouge, ruby, ruddy, rubella, robust, rambunctious, raddle, corroborate, roborant, robustious, rubicund, rufescent, and russet. Earliest documented use: 1570.
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RUBBRICATE - to cover with a flexible insulating material

RUBICATE - to put an obstacle irrevocably behind you

HUBRICATE - to display overweening pride

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CERULEAN

PRONUNCIATION: (suh-ROO-lee-uhn)

MEANING: adjective: Sky blue.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin caeruleus (sky blue), from caelum (sky). Earliest documented use: 1677.
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CERN LEAN - experimental physics research lab after repeated budget cuts

ACERULEAN - like dwarf or bonsai maple trees

CHERULEAN - angelic

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BRUNNEOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (BRUH-nee-uhs)

MEANING: adjective: Dark brown.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin brunus (brown). Earliest documented use: 1815.
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HR-UNNEOUS - the Human Relations department is a one-person operation

RUNNEOUS - a high-scoring baseball game

BRUN NEONS - unusual brown-colored advertising signs outside the Folies-Bergère in Paris

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VARIEGATE

PRONUNCIAION: VAR-ee-uh-gayt, VAR-i-gayt)

MEANING: verb tr.: To diversify, enliven, or to make more interesting, especially with colors.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin variegare (to diversify with colors), from varius (various) + agere (to do). Earliest documented use: 1653.
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VARIG-GATE - a political scandal about airlines in Brazil

VARIEGAZE - don't look in the same place all the time

OVARIEGATE - egg-shaped

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GOSHEN

PRONUNCIATION: (GO-shuhn)

MEANING: noun: A place of comfort and abundance.

ETYMOLOGY: After Goshen, a fertile region in Egypt, east of the Nile delta. In the Bible, it was allotted to the Israelites. They were also spared from the plagues of flies and hail. Earliest documented use: 1625.
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GOT HEN - purchased a chicken

NOSHEN - the very idea!

GROSHEN - very small Austrian coins, paradoxically enough

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CHRISTEN

PRONUNCIATION: (KRI-suhn)

MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To name someone or something.
2. To use something for the first time.
3. To initiate a person, especially a child, into the Christian church, by baptizing and giving a name.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old English cristen (Christian), from Latin Christus, from Greek Khristos (anointed), from khriein (to anoint). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghrei- (to rub), which also gave us cream, grime, and grisly. Earliest documented use: c. 450 CE.
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CHRISTEEN - artist Jan's unheralded younger brother

CHRISTEIN - a vessel to contain sacramental beer

CHARISTEN - plural form in German of "charist," an old word meaning "a cook who always burns the meat"

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SODOM

PRONUNCIATION: (SAHD/SOD-uhm)

MEANING: noun: A place considered to be full of wickedness and sin.

ETYMOLOGY: After the biblical city of Sodom. In the biblical account, Sodom and Gomorrah were sinful places, so Yahweh rained fire and brimstone (sulfur) upon them. Earliest documented use: 1550.
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ODOM - 1970s baseball pitcher for the Oakland As, the likes of whom you see only once in a Blue Moon

SODAM - before "hot," a common summertime complaint

S.O. DOME - Canadian sports arena, named for an oil company

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RECHABITE

PRONUNCIATION: (REK-uh-byt)

MEANING: noun:
1. One who abstains from intoxicating drinks.
2. One who lives in tents.

ETYMOLOGY: After Rechabites, a biblical clan named after the patriarch Rechab, whose members were commanded to not drink, not live in houses (instead live in tents), and not cultivate fields. Earliest documented use: 1382.
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REHABITE - one devoted to returning to their former state

RECHABYTE - an amount of computer data so large it'll make you sick to your stomach

RE: HABITE - now, about residing in France...

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TOWER OF BABEL

PRONUNCIATION: (TOU-uhr ov BAY-buhl)

MEANINGnoun:
1. A scene of noise or confusion.
2. An ambitious or impractical plan.

ETYMOLOGY: From Hebrew Babhel (Babylon). According to the Bible, at one time everyone on Earth spoke the same language (though earlier it says that they spoke different languages). When people got together to build a city with a tower that reached the heavens, God was not happy and halted the project by confounding their speech, making them unable to understand one another. Earliest documented use: 1718.
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TOWER OF BABE - 714 home runs, which stood for years until topped by Aaron

TOWEL OF BABEL - for when you've worked up a sweat trying to understand other people's language

TOPER OF BABEL - little-known fact that the calamity of Babel came because they drank too much to understand each other

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