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Dec 26, 2012
This week's theme
Words from various languages that built the English language

This week's words
behoove
ugsome
abjure
purlieu
cumshaw

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

abjure

PRONUNCIATION:
(ab-JOOR)

MEANING:
verb tr.:
1. To avoid or abstain from.
2. To renounce under oath.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin abjurare (to deny on oath), from ab- (away) + jurare (to swear). Earliest documented use: 1430.

USAGE:
"Many modern writers abjure the power of stories in their work, banish them to the suburbs of literature, drive them out toward the lower pastures of the lesser moons."
Pat Conroy; Interpreting the World Through Story; The Writer (Waukesha, Wisconsin); Jun 2012.

See more usage examples of abjure in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)

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