A.Word.A.Day --durance

A.Word.A.Day

Home

Jun 25, 2012

This week's theme
Words with variant spellings

This week's words
durance
suasion
versal
monish
complice

Roll the dice
Get a random word from
A.Word.A.Day archives

Discuss

Feedback

RSS/XML

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

I wasn't born with the sports gene, but I love swimming. Last week, when I went to the pool I saw that a letter had fallen off the sign on the wall. Instead of "NO DIVING", now it said "O DIVING". As I swam laps, the thought came to me that the sign still made sense. It simply said there's to be zero diving.

This week's words are selected in a similar vein. It appears a letter or two has fallen off the front of these words, but that doesn't make much of a difference. These words still float well. They still mean the same, more or less.

durance

PRONUNCIATION:

(DOO-ruhns, DYOO-)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Endurance.
2. Imprisonment or confinement, especially a long one. (Often used in the phrase 'durance vile')

ETYMOLOGY:

From French durance (duration), from durer (to last), from Latin durare (to last), from durus (hard). Earliest documented use: 1513.

USAGE:

"The durance of a granite ledge."
Ralph Waldo Emerson; 1847.

"And from that durance he is still waiting for release."
John Banville; Athena; Knopf; 1995.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring. -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)

What they say

“A trawl through the site’s archive yields all kinds of delights.”
Read more

More articles

Anu Garg on words

“There are exotic species of words jumping out inviting me to play. I weave them into a theme, a garland of words.”

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise