A.Word.A.Day --ripstaver

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Today's Word

ripstaver

PRONUNCIATION:

(RIP-stay-vuhr)

MEANING:

noun: Something or someone remarkable.

ETYMOLOGY:

From rip (to tear) + stave (to break or crush). The combination of these verbs suggests a forceful energy or a breaking of boundaries, implying something exceptional. Earliest documented use: 1828. A synonym is ripsnorter.

USAGE:

“Monty tells me you three are real ripstavers, and he doesn’t say that very often about anybody. You must have impressed him!”
Michael D. Cooper; The Runaway Asteroid; Critical Press Media; 2022.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. -Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer (4 Jul 1804-1864)

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