A.Word.A.Day --eclat

A.Word.A.Day

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Mar 10, 2025

This week’s theme
Five-letter words

This week’s words
eclat
bosky

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

Previous week’s theme
Words having nautical origins

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

31 YEARS OF WORDSMITHERY

On Mar 14, 1994, 31 years ago, I set a tiny linguistic snowball rolling down a hill. It grew, gathered words and wordlovers, and morphed into Wordsmith.org, a haven for people in 170+ countries, united by their love of words.

Dictionaries are mum on what to call a 31st anniversary, but we can call it a untricennial or untricennary, from unus (one) + tricies (thirty times) + annus (year). Or, since we love words, we could just say supercalifragilisticexpialitriennial and call it a day.

Thank you for being part of this community. Without you, it would be just me, shouting etymologies into the void, and frankly, that’s a bit void-y.

CONTEST

To celebrate the untricennial, we’re holding a contest. The challenge? Write a biographical poem using only 31-letter words.

Just kidding. Even the Germans haven’t gone that far. Instead, let’s make it a Wordle Poem Contest -- your poem must use only five-letter words. Your tale can be about yourself, someone you know, or a public figure.

Need inspiration? This week’s A.Word.A.Day emails are all five-letter words. Though you don’t have to use them in your poem.

Barbara Wallraff, language columnist for The Boston Globe and acclaimed author, will judge the entries.

PRIZES

Selected entries will win their choice of:

A copy of any of my books
The word game One Up!

HOW TO ENTER

Email your entries to contest@wordsmith.org by Fri.
Include your location (city, state).
Enter as many times as you like.

And just to get the ball rolling, here’s my entry (though I’m told I’m disqualified from entering).

GARG’S STORY
(Words Smith)

Probe words’ lives
Trace their roots
Write tales
Share
Email whole world.

Inbox (chaos?)

eclat or éclat

PRONUNCIATION:

(ay-KLAH)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Enthusiastic approval or praise.
2. A strikingly brilliant display or effect.
3. Notable success.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French éclat (splinter, brilliance), from éclater (to burst out), which also gave us slat and eclair. Earliest documented use: 1676.

USAGE:

“Angry Penguins published the work with great eclat.”
Michael McGirr; New Twist on 80-Year-Old Literary Hoax; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jul 3, 2021.

See more usage examples of eclat in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

All that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome. -Kate Sheppard, suffragist (10 Mar 1847-1934)

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