This week’s theme
Words that have many unrelated meanings

This week’s words
columbine
raddle
mizzle
rummy
gage

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(MIZ-uhl)

MEANING:

noun:	Fine rain or drizzle.
verb intr.:	1. To rain in fine drops.
	2. To leave suddenly.
	3. To confuse.

ETYMOLOGY:

noun, verb 1:	From Middle English misellen (to drizzle). Ultimately from the Indo-European root meigh- (to urinate), which also gave us mist, thrush, mistletoe, and micturate. Earliest documented use: 1439.
verb 2:	Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1772.
verb 3:	Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1583.

USAGE:

“... cold rain that mizzled down on the sterile acres ...”
Patrick Taylor; Now and in the Hour of Our Death; Forge Books; 2014.

“She ... sprang to her feet, and exclaiming abruptly ‘I must mizzle!’ walked off quickly homeward.”
Thomas Hardy; Jude The Obscure; Osgood, McIlvaine, & Co.; 1895.

“He told Macon, ‘I looked it up on the map but evidently I was mizzled.’ ‘Mizzled?’ Muriel asked.
‘He was misled,’ Macon explained.”
Anne Tyler; The Accidental Tourist; Knopf; 1985.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: