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May 24, 2019
This week’s theme
Tosspot words borrowed from other languages

This week’s words
amuse-gueule
skitterbrook
cache-sexe
scaldabanco
gainpain

gainpain
Photo: Jörg Sigma / Met
This week’s comments
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Next week’s theme
Words originating in shoes
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

gainpain

PRONUNCIATION:
(GAYN-payn)

MEANING:
noun:
1. A long thick glove: gauntlet.
2. A hired soldier: mercenary.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French gaignepain (literally, wins the bread), from gagner (to win or earn) + pain (bread). Earliest documented use: 1430.

USAGE:
“The gainpain was a glove, at first of steel and later of leather, for the right hand.”
The Connoisseur; Nat Mags; 1928.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do. -Bob Dylan, singer-songwriter (b. 24 May 1941)

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