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A.Word.A.Day--firmament

Pronunciation Sound Clip RealAudio

This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be.

firmament (FUR-muh-ment) noun

The sky; the heavens.

[From Latin firmamentum (sky) from firmare (to support). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dher- (to hold firmly or support) that is also the source of firm, affirm, confirm, farm, and fermata.]

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

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"The brightest stars in the goss mag firmament have fallen cripplingly to earth." Jacqueline Maley; What the Gossip Mags Say; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jan 11, 2005.

X-Bonus

I often pass a farm with cows grazing in the field and I think to myself how terrible it is that human beings grow other animals just to kill them and eat them. Most of us think of vegetarians as nuts and I'm not a vegetarian but I wouldn't be surprised if we came to a time in 50 or 100 years when civilized people everywhere refused to eat animals. -Andy Rooney, journalist (1919- )

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