This week's theme
Words from diseases

This week's words
measly
anemic
sclerotic
cancerous
pestilent

This week's comments
AWADmail 590

Next week's theme
Miscellaneous words

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PES-tl-uhnt)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Deadly.
2. Infectious.
3. Harming peace, morals, etc.
4. Annoying.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin pestis (plague). Earliest documented use: 1613.

NOTES::

Here's a word that has a full range of meanings from merely annoying to deadly. But that's usually not a problem. In language, context is king.

USAGE:

"All the while, I stayed away from the pestilent Win8 and clunked along on my terminally-ill Pavilion laptop with Vista."
Darrell Norman; Cry for Help From Behind Enemy Lines; The Gadsden Times (Alabama); Sep 13, 2013.

"Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how I hate them!"
Albert Einstein; The World As I See It; 1949.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: