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Mar 16, 2011
This week's themeSeventeen-letter words to mark Wordsmith.org's septendecennial This week's words predestinarianism triskaidekaphobia contradistinguish laryngopharyngeal perspicaciousness 
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with Anu Gargcontradistinguish
PRONUNCIATION:
(kon-truh-di-STING-gwish)
MEANING:
verb tr.:
To distinguish (one thing from another) by contrasting qualities.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin contra- (against) + distinguish, from Middle/Old French
distinguer, from Latin distinguere (to pick or separate). Ultimately
from the Indo-European root steig- (to stick; pointed), which is also
the source of ticket, etiquette, instinct, stigma, thistle, tiger,
and steak. Earliest documented use: 1622.
USAGE:
"Avni successfully contradistinguished the character of Menachem from the
other men in uniform he has played."Dan Williams; Aki Avni's Stellar Sincerity; The Jerusalem Post (Israel); Nov 29, 2000. See more usage examples of contradistinguish in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There is nothing like desire for preventing the things one says from bearing any resemblance to what one has in one's mind. -Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)
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