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Dec 24, 2021
This week’s theme
No el

This week’s words
skewgee
banjax
surquedry
zoophobia
mundificative

mundificative
Photo: Aurélie Troccon & Manon Mauguin / Wikimedia

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

mundificative

PRONUNCIATION:
(muhn-DIF-i-ki-tiv)

MEANING:
adjective: Having the power to cleanse.
noun: A cleansing medicine or preparation.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Middle French mondificatif, from Latin mundificare (to cleanse), from mundus (clean). Earliest documented use: 1440.

USAGE:
“‘The wound still appears hot.’
‘Then let us prepare the mundificative.’
Jamie produced a metal bowl and hung it across the flames, then added the turpentine oil and a little water.”
Simon Fairfax; A Knight and a Spy 1410; Nielsen; 2020.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Where it is a duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat. -John Morley, statesman and writer (24 Dec 1838-1923)

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