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A.Word.A.Day--suborner

Pronunciation RealAudio

suborner (sub-ORN-uhr) noun

One who suborns i.e. induces another to perform an unlawful act secretly or give false testimony.

[From Latin subornare, from sub- (secretly) + ornare (to equip). Other words that derive from the same root (ornare): adorn, ornate.]

"I am not in the least provoked at the Sight of a Lawyer, a Pick-pocket, a Colonel, a Fool, a Lord, a Gamester, a Politician, a Whore-Master, a Physician, an Evidence, a Suborner, an Attorney, a Traitor, or the like: This is all according to the due Course of Things." Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (Part IV. A Voyage to the Country of The Houyhnhnms), 1726.

This week's theme: Words from Gulliver's Travels.

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