This week’s theme
No el

This week’s words
frowze
pipsqueak

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PIP-skweek)

MEANING:

noun: Something or someone small or insignificant.

ETYMOLOGY:

From pip (to peep or chirp), from peep + squeak, both of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1900.

NOTES:

Imagine a tiny bird peeping away and it’s easy to see how chirpy noises became shorthand for “small fry”. In WWI, pipsqueak referred to certain German artillery shells (their sound was said to be more squeak than boom). The British cartoon Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred (1919-1956) boosted the term’s popularity, and during WWII the RAF used a radio-tracking system dubbed Pip-squeak.

USAGE:

“’Look at you!’ he said. ‘You were a pipsqueak when I saw you last, and now you’re a grown woman.’”
Joan Silber; Evolution; The New Yorker; Sep 12, 2022.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: