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Permanent link for this word: quoz

Dec 21, 2015

This week’s theme
Yours to discover

This week’s words
quoz
vidimus
pinchbeck
jayhawker
expergefacient

Photo: Novak Greenlee

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Those of you who have been receiving A.Word.A.Day for a while know how we select words for this time of the year. For those who joined recently, well, see if you can figure out the rhyme or reason behind this week’s words. Here’s a hint: it’s nothing to do with the meanings of the words.

quoz

PRONUNCIATION:

(kwaz)

MEANING:

noun: An odd person or thing.

ETYMOLOGY:

Of uncertain origin. Perhaps it’s a variant of the word quiz which has a similar meaning. Or maybe the word quiz is a variant of quoz. It’s all very quizzical. Or quozzical. Earliest documented use: 1780.

USAGE:

“That juggling trick of yours is growing older than a floorboard split under the weight of countless eager feet, and rendering you a quoz to the ears.”
Neil Baker; G Day: Please God, Get Me Off the Hook; AuthorHouse; 2010.

“While everything that exists is a potential quoz for somebody, one must embrace the mystery for it to open itself.”
William Least Heat-Moon; Roads to Quoz; Little, Brown and Company; 2008.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or prostitute. -Rebecca West, author and journalist (21 Dec 1892-1983)

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