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May 25, 2026
This week’s themeA lexical daisy chain This week’s words 
“Francisco Franco, caudillo de España por la gracia de Dios”
(Francisco Franco, Leader of Spain by the grace of God) Coin: Spain, 1963 Image: Numista Previous week’s theme Toponyms Wordsmith Games
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargThis week’s words are linked, but not by etymology, pronunciation, or meaning. The connection is hiding in plain sight. Each day’s usage example contains another word from the week. Follow the trail and by Fri the circle should close. It’s a lexical ouroboros, but with better diction and fewer scales. caudillo
PRONUNCIATION:
(kaw-DEEL/DEE-yoh)
MEANING:
noun: A leader, especially a military dictator.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Spanish caudillo, from Latin capitellum, diminutive of Latin caput
(head). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kaput- (head), which also
gave us head, captain, chef, chapter, cadet, cattle, chattel, achieve,
mischief, biceps,
occiput,
capitation,
capitulate,
recapitulate, and
precipitous.
Earliest documented use: 1852.
NOTES:
A caudillo is literally a little head by ancestry, though
historically the little head often grew a very large hat.
USAGE:
“In a region not known for it, [José Mujica, Uruguayan president] was
self-deprecating. ‘I dedicated myself to changing the world and I
didn’t change anything, but it was amusing and gave sense to my life,’
he said last year in one of his final interviews. His lasting legacy
to the Latin American left was that he became the antithesis of a
caudillo.” Man of the Uruguayan People; The Economist (London, UK); May 17, 2025. See more usage examples of caudillo in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and
refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy,
not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart;
to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions,
hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common -- this is my symphony. -William Henry Channing,
clergyman and reformer (25 May 1810-1884)
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