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Aug 22, 2016
This week’s themeThere’s an antonym for it This week’s words estivate diurnal ultimogeniture distributary dissensus 
Snails estivating on fence posts
Photo: Vladimir Menkov / Wikimedia
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargWhat is a synonym for the word synonym? That may be a tough question, but it’s easy to answer this: What is the antonym of the word antonym? Why, it is: synonym. Last month we had a week of synonyms. Synonyms for words that you’d never think had a synonym. Now we’ll see words that will make you say: There’s an antonym for it. In this week’s words we’ll see the antonyms of hibernate, nocturnal, primogeniture, tributary, and consensus. estivate/aestivate
PRONUNCIATION:
(ES-tuh-vayt)
MEANING:
verb: To pass the summer in a dormant state.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin aestivare (to spend the summer). Earliest documented use: 1623.
USAGE:
“Unlike aquatic species, the turtles have the ability to travel upland and
estivate for the remainder of the summer.” Marta Yamamoto; Popular Berkeley Lake Reduced to a Puddle; The Mercury News (San Jose, California); Sep 17, 2015. See more usage examples of estivate in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people
no longer reading. ... You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture.
Just get people to stop reading them. -Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer
(22 Aug 1920-2012)
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