A.Word.A.Day --guesstimate

A.Word.A.Day

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Jan 10, 2019

This week’s theme
Portmanteaux (blend words)

This week’s words
rurban
squiggle
palimony
guesstimate
contraption

The Drake equation guesstimates the number of intelligent, communicative civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.

Image: Kevin Gill

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

guesstimate

PRONUNCIATION:

(GES-ti-mayt for verb; -muht for noun)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To make an estimate based on guesswork.
noun: An estimate based on guesswork.

ETYMOLOGY:

A blend of guess + estimate. Earliest documented use: 1936.

USAGE:

“When the measuring cap that comes with the medicine bottle gets gooey and gummed up, the temptation is to grab a kitchen spoon to guesstimate a teaspoon’s worth of liquid medicine. It doesn’t really work.”
Roni Caryn Rabin; Health; International Herald Tribune (Paris, France); Jan 14, 2010.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity. -Lord Acton, historian (10 Jan 1834-1902)

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