A.Word.A.Day --sass

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sass

PRONUNCIATION:

(sas)

MEANING:

noun: Impudent talk; back talk.
verb tr.: To talk disrespectfully, especially to someone older or in authority.

ETYMOLOGY:

Back-formation from sassy, alteration of saucy, from sauce, from Latin salsa, from sallere (to salt), from sal (salt). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sal- (salt) that is also the source of silt, sausage, salad, salami, salary, and salmagundi.

USAGE:

"Madea ran to the edge of the stage with a gun after thinking someone in the audience was sassing her."
Kevin C. Johnson; Love Him or Hate Him, Tyler Perry Is All Over the Place; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Apr 18, 2010.

"I raised you so you wouldn't talk back to me or sass me."
Lawanda Randall; Telling Tales: The Tree of Love; The World & I (Washington, DC); Feb 1995.

See more usage examples of sass in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep. -Fran Lebowitz, author (b. 1950)

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