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COEQUALITY

PRONUNCIATION: (koh-ee-KWAH-li-tee)

MEANING: noun: The state of being equal with one another, as in rank, power, value, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin co- (with) + aequus (level, equal). Earliest documented use: 1583.
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C.O.QUALITY - Just how good is your Commanding Officer, anyway?

COQUALITY - the essence of Roosterness (even without the French wine)

COP QUALITY - a laudable goal for the Blue Lives Matter movement

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ENUNCIATORY

PRONUNCIATION: (ee-NUHN-see-uh-toh-ree)

MEANING: adjective: Announcing; declaring; pronouncing.

ETYMOLOGY:From Latin ex- (out) + nuntiare (to announce). Ultimately from the Indo-European root neu- (to shout), which also gave us announce, denounce, pronounce, renounce, and pronunciamento. Earliest documented use: 1693.
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NUNCIATORY - serving as spokesperson or ambassador to a foreign country, as from the Pope

DENUNCIATORY - attempted shaming

ENUNCLATORY - removing my mother's brother from the Family Tree

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COVENTRY

PRONUNCIATION: (KUV-uhn-tree)

MEANING: noun: A state of ostracism.

ETYMOLOGY: After Coventry, a city in central England. It’s unclear how Coventry developed this sense. One conjecture is that Royalist prisoners were sent there during the English Civil War. Earliest documented use: 1691. Also see stellenbosch.
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COW ENTRY - Elsie's front door

COME'N'TRY - a carnival midway barker's spiel

COVEN CRY - witches sound the alarm

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ROMAN MATRON

PRONUNCIATION: (ROH-muhn may-truhn)

MEANINGnoun: A woman having a dignified bearing.

ETYMOLOGY: From the ideal of a married woman in ancient Rome. From Latin matrona (a married woman), from mater (mother). Earliest documented use: 1596.
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NOMAN MATRON - Penelope (wife of Odysseus, who called himself "Noman" when he struck the blow that blinded the Cyclops)

ROMAN MACRON - makes a Roman vowel long

ROMAN MAîTRON - chief of waiters in the Colosseum

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CANTERBURY TALE

PRONUNCIATION: (KAN-tuhr-ber-ee tayl)

MEANING:m. mnoun: A story that is long, tedious, or absurdly implausible.

ETYMOLOGY: After The Canterbury Tales c. 1400 by Geoffrey Chaucer. It’s a collection of 24 stories told in verse by a group of pilgrims as they travel from London to Canterbury. Earliest documented use: 1575.
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CANTERBURY TALC - a soft stone that was avoided in building the cathedral

CANTER BURN TALE - the story behind why the horse pulled up lame after using the wrong gait

CANTOR BURY TALE - the lost twenty-fifth chapter of Chaucer's magnum opus, about the interment of the church's vocalist; later suppressed by ecclesiastical authorities

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TROJAN HORSE

PRONUNCIATION: (TRO-juhn hors)

MEANING: noun: Something or someone placed in order to subvert from within.

ETYMOLOGY: In the legendary Trojan War, the Greeks left a large hollow wooden horse at the gates of the city of Troy. The Trojans took it inside. Greek soldiers hidden in the horse came out at night and opened the gates of the city, allowing the Greek army to enter and conquer the Trojans. Earliest documented use: 1574. In computing, a Trojan horse is a program that, while seemingly useful, steals passwords or does other damage to computers.
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TROJAN HOARSE - King Priam has been shouting from the parapets much too much

TROJAN GORSE - a kind of prickly shrub found around Troy in the old days

TROJAN HOUSE - storage place for prophylactics

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KENTISH COUSINS

PRONUNCIATION: (KEN-tish kuh-zuhns)

MEANING: noun: Distant relatives.

ETYMOLOGY: After Kent, a county in England. Since most of the county is bounded by the sea and the river Thames, its citizens were not as mobile and intermarriages were common. Earliest documented use: 1796.
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KENTISH COSINS - in another identity Superman was a trigonometry teacher

PENTISH COUSINS - very VERY distant relatives, like fifth cousins

KENNISH COUSINS - others in the Jeopardy champion's family had keen memories for all sorts of trivia

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PLOTZ

PRONUNCIATION: (plots)

MEANING: verb intr.: To faint, collapse, explode, or flop down, as from excitement, frustration, surprise, exhaustion, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish platsn (to burst), from German platzen (to burst). Earliest documented use: 1920.
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PILOTZ - people who control sea- and air-craft

POT-Z - a game city kids play on the sidewalk, similar to Hop-Scotch

SLOT Z - where you insert Tab Y

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FRUM

PRONUNCIATION: (froom) [short oo, as in book]

MEANING: adjective: Religious; observant of religious laws.

ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish frum, from Middle High German vrum (pious). Modern German fromm (pious). Earliest documented use: 1889.
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FLUM - a purple stoned fruit, from which is brewed Slivovitz

FFUM - a very loud expletive, uttered when a Giant smells blood...

FRUG - what a dancing tadpole grows up to be

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