A.Word.A.Day --affectious

A.Word.A.Day

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Nov 9, 2015

This week’s theme
Words having all five vowels

This week’s words
affectious
camelious
adventious
majestious
quodlibetal

Photo: Miguel

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Having all five vowels of the English language in a word would make it a rather unusual and uncommon word. How about all five vowels, once and only once? Wait! How about all five vowels, once and only once, and in order?

You’d think it would be something rare, but there are dozens of such words (see here and here.) in the English language. But look another way and you see that only one in 20,000 words in the language has these credentials. So only 0.005% of them make it to this ultra-exclusive language club.

On top of that you can even append the suffix -ly to these words to include the “sometime” vowel y. Still these words do not violate any of their club’s entry requirements and bylaws. This week we’ll look at five such words.

affectious

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-FEK-shuhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Affectionate or cordial.

ETYMOLOGY:

Via French, from Latin afficere (to affect or influence). Earliest documented use: 1580.

USAGE:

“Bob Bevege’s affectious manner and wry smile belie the fact that he has the power to evict people from a racecourse or withdraw the licence of a racehorse trainer or jockey.”
Protecting the Integrity of Racing; Hawkes Bay Today (Hastings, New Zealand); Jan 12, 2006.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be. -P.C. Hodgell, writer and professor (b. 1951)

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