A.Word.A.Day --evanescent

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Aug 19, 2024

This week’s theme
Adjectives

This week’s words
evanescent
splendiferous
ontic
phantasmagorical
consummate

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

Previous week’s theme
Coined words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

They describe, they modify, they qualify. What are they? Adjectives, of course.

The etymology of “adjective” is fascinating. It’s from the Latin jacere (to throw). Because when we use an adjective, we are flinging it at a noun. Once you slap an adjective on a noun, they form a nice pair, ready to go on their merry way (just add a verb).

Good, bad, nice, pretty, awful... adjectives like these are as common as salt and pepper. But this week, we’re diving into the uncommon spices -- the adjectives that will add a pinch of flair to your language.

Use them as you like, but judiciously. Like spices in a dish, a well-chosen adjective elevates a noun, but over-season, and the whole meal can lose its interesting flavor.

evanescent

PRONUNCIATION:

(e-vuh-NES-uhnt)

MEANING:

adjective: Fading quickly; transitory.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin ex- (out) + vanescere (to disappear), from vanus (empty). Earliest documented use: 1708.

USAGE:

“He strolled to the large windows ... to contemplate the Eternal City lit up in a myriad of beams of evanescent sunlight.”
Elly-Royce Laurens; Bargain for Love; Trafford; 2003.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Read to children. Vote. And never buy anything from a man who's selling fear. -Mary Doria Russell, science-fiction writer (b. 19 Aug 1950)

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