This week’s theme
Places that have given us multiple toponyms

This week’s words
coventry
Roman matron
Canterbury tale

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(KAN-tuhr-ber-ee tayl)

MEANING:

noun: 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.

USAGE:

“If someone had told a Canterbury tale in hopes of getting his part of the bounty -- well, I’m sure Mrs. d’Aubigny’s brother would pay just as well for the truth.”
Madeleine E. Robins; Petty Treason; Tor; 2006.

“What he had forgotten was whatever Canterbury tale he had spun to achieve his objective.”
Elisabeth Kidd; For Love of Celia; Walker & Co.; 1988.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: