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Apr 2, 2021
This week’s themePlaces that have given us multiple toponyms This week’s words coventrate Roman holiday canter Trojan Kentish fire Next week Spring Contributing Membership Drive ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargKentish fire
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: Prolonged cheering.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the prolonged derisive cheering in opposition to meetings held in
Kent, England, during 1828-29 regarding the Catholic Relief Bill which sought
to remove discrimination against Catholics. Earliest documented use: 1834.
USAGE:
“Then Kim would join the Kentish-fire of good wishes and bad jokes,
wishing the couple a hundred sons and no daughters, as the saying is.” Rudyard Kipling; Kim; Macmillan; 1901. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To
put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only
by answering such questions does the conscience truly define itself.
-Kenneth Tynan, theater critic and author (2 Apr 1927-1980)
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