A.Word.A.Day --pied

A.Word.A.Day

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Feb 10, 2009

This week's theme
Words derived from birds

This week's words
columbarium
pied
roustabout
crestfallen
canard

Pied Piper

Detail of a watercolor painting made from the glass window in Market Church, Hameln/Hamelin, Germany

Photo: Wikimedia

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

pied

PRONUNCIATION:

(rhymes with pride)

MEANING:

adjective: Having patches of two or more colors; multicolored.

ETYMOLOGY:

From pie (magpie), referring to a magpie's black and white plumage, from Latin pica (jay or magpie). The Pied Piper of legend owes his moniker to his multicolored attire.

USAGE:

"The pair of women came first, one strangely dressed, in pied clothes of three or four eras."
Michael Chabon; The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; William Morrow; 1988.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It is not how old you are, but how you are old. -Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910)

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