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Dec 10, 2013
This week's theme
Words coined from body parts

This week's words
inoculate
palpable
cullet
skint
pratfall

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

palpable

PRONUNCIATION:
(PAL-puh-buhl)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Easily perceived; obvious.
2. Capable of being touched or felt; tangible.
3. Capable of being discerned by touching (as an illness or a disease).

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin palpare (to touch, caress), from palpus (palm, stroke, caress). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pal- (to touch, feel, or shake), which also gave us palpate, palpitate, feel, and sprachgefuhl. Earliest documented use: 1395.

USAGE:
"And with that peace has come a palpable prosperity: last year GDP grew by over 7%."
Not Quite the Usual Walkover; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 13, 2013.

See more usage examples of palpable in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Learning is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily. -Chinese proverb

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