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Feb 4, 2020
This week’s themeWell-traveled words This week’s words Moloch bezoar cavalcade saber-rattling calash
Bezoar from unknown animal
Photo: Science Museum, London
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargbezoar
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: A stone-like mass formed in the stomach or intestines of some animals, formerly believed to be a remedy for poison.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French bezahar/bezoard, from Arabic bazahr, from Persian padzahr
(antidote), from pad- (protector) + zahr (poison). Earliest documented use:
1597.
USAGE:
“Other objects will seem familiar to readers: a bezoar, a stone taken from
an animal’s stomach, like the one Harry used after Ron was poisoned; an
18th-century orrery, a model of the solar system, with tiny, movable
planets, ...” Jennifer E. Smith; Even Harry Potter Has a Past; The New York Times; Oct 5, 2018. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is
also to answer to his own conscience. -Hartley Shawcross, barrister,
politician, and prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal (4 Feb
1902-2003)
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