A.Word.A.Day --A word from the archives

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Permanent link for this word: acritochromacy

May 10, 2008

This week's theme
14-letter words, 14-letter definitions

This week's words
acritochromacy
tintinnabulate
tinctumutation
brobdingnagian
circumbendibus

“All words are pegs to hang ideas on.” ~Beecher
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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Back in 1994, when I founded Wordsmith.org on a Pi Day (March 14), I had no idea that one day we'd be celebrating its quadridecennial. Here's what the last 14 years look like in numbers:

So far we have sent out 3,782 unique words and 297 AWADmail compilations to 640,000 present subscribers in 200 countries, that is more than 1.6 billion pieces of email.

Well, this week we're seeing all things 14. We'll feature words that are 14 letters long, and define each of them in 14 letters.

acritochromacy

(uh-KRIT-o-kro-muh-see)

noun: Color blindness.

[From Greek akritos (undistinguishing) + chroma (color).]

"'But why should the chronicle of a lovely lady's catastrophic impact upon Oxford be likely to illuminate this affair of bedaubed busts and pulverising meteorites? And why--acritochromacy,' said a voice almost in Appleby's ear."
Michael Innes; The Weight of the Evidence; HarperCollins; 1983.

X-Bonus

The knife disappears with sharpening. -James Richardson, poet, professor (b. 1950)

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