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Jul 11, 2024
This week’s themeMisleading words This week’s words adulterate metromania sexennial placer psychrophobia ![]() ![]() Illustration: Anu Garg + AI
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with Anu Gargplacer
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: 1. A deposit of valuable minerals found in sand or gravel. 2. A place where such a deposit is washed to extract the valuable minerals. 3. One who finishes in a particular place in a contest. 4. One who arranges something. ETYMOLOGY:
For 1 & 2: From Spanish placer (sandbank), from Catalan placer (shoal),
from Latin platea (street), from Greek plateia hodos (broad street).
Earliest documented use: 1829. For 3 & 4: From place, from Latin platea (street), from Greek plateia hodos (broad street). Earliest documented use: 1578. USAGE:
“In a rich placer I've heard that men have washed $50 worth in one pan.” Pat Miller; Emily; Xulon Press; 2005. “Placer mining sounds like a strange hobby for a guy who’s already got money.” Paul Garmisch; Couchwife; First Edition Design; 2015. See more usage examples of placer in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We grow tyrannical fighting tyranny. The most alarming spectacle today is
not the spectacle of the atomic bomb in an unfederated world, it is the
spectacle of the Americans beginning to accept the device of loyalty oaths
and witchhunts, beginning to call anybody they don't like a Communist.
-E.B. White, writer (11 Jul 1899-1985)
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