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A.Word.A.Day--jarvey

Pronunciation Sound Clip RealAudio

This week's theme: eponyms.

jarvey (JAR-vee) noun

1. A hackney-coach driver.

2. A hackney coach.

[After Jarvey, a variant of the name Jarvis. Who Jarvey/Jarvis was is unknown.]

The word hackney is a toponym, after Hackney, a borough of London, UK, and that's where the term hack (as in a hack writer) comes from.

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"The empty vehicle was waiting without a fare or a jarvey." James Joyce; Ulysses; 1922.

X-Bonus

The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal. -Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and author (1900-1980)

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