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Joined: Feb 2002
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OP
stranger
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I have 2 questions about this. Which is warmer: tepid or lukewarm? Also, are you aware of other word pairs with circular definitions, i.e. which only define a word with its pair-mate.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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addict
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addict
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Answers: lukewarm, and I'll get back to you.
Welcome aBoard.
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Joined: Mar 2001
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member
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member
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The terms are interchangeable.
For tepid the OED has:
Moderately or slightly warm; lukewarm. a. lit. (Usually in reference to liquids.)
For Lukewarm:
1. Moderately warm, tepid.
As you say, circular definitions. Whichever you choose depend on personal preference rather than any difference in meaning (at least here).
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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I would say that it is a matter of connotation, rather than difference in meaning. "Tepid" has, for me, quite negative connotations (possibly because of other -id words - vapid, insipiod, stupid, etc) whereas "lukewarm has, at the least, a "safe" connotation - you can't scald yourself in it. And may I extend a far from "likewarm" ( Whoops - that should be lukewarm, of course!)and definitely not "tepid" welcome to you, wordplayer. 
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
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What's up with the "luke" in lukewarm? When I first heard the word (when I was small) I couldn't figure out why someone's name was in the word.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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Also, are you aware of other word pairs with circular definitions, i.e. which only define a word with its pair-matee.g. soliloquy and monologue (the first from latin and the second from greek). By the way "tepid" is no warmer than lukewarm, but it is a lot more learned, eh, erudite  .
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Luke Warm is a member of a quartet with Mark Ettry, Matt Utinal and Jon Gleur.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Tepid is the temperature inside an Indian tepee, which is unheated. Luke lived in the Holy Land, which was warm.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The luke in lukewarm comes from ME luke, lewk; akin to OE hleow, meaning "warm," so the term means "warm warm."
I like lukewarm because it has (inevitably) led in our house to the term lukecool. [not-to-be-confused-with-Cool-Hand-Luke emoticon]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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my reputaion was made (ruined) when at 13 or so, someone thru out the insult to Cathy C. "you have a head like a seive!" Cathy was aware she was being insulted, but said, "what's a seive?" and i chimed in " a colender"
now days, i tend to think of a seive as more like a strainer, and made of wire mesh-- and a colendar as a bowl with perforations.. not quite the same thing, or quite interchangable.. (i could use a seive to drain my pasta, but i wouldn't use a colender to remove lumps bits from sugur or flour..only a seive would do that. )
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