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Aug 12, 2026
This week’s themeIs it a noun or a verb? Both! This week’s words rapture skirr
Two Geese in Flight and Full Moon, 1900s
Art: Ohara Koson Wordsmith Games
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargskirr
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
verb intr.: To move rapidly, especially away. verb tr.: To range rapidly over an area, especially in search of something. noun: A whirring or grating sound. ETYMOLOGY:
Perhaps a variant of scour (to move rapidly or search), itself perhaps
from Old Norse skur (shower). Earliest documented use: 1548 for the verb
and c. 1870 for the noun.
USAGE:
“The gamine Griffiths skirrs around her set, fuelled by four cups of
coffee and the energy of being not even 30 years old.” Lauren Martin; Death and the Maiden; The Sydney Morning Herald; Mar 18, 1998. “The name [Rumi] is an expedient wrapped in an approximation. It spares the American votary the trouble of negotiating the throaty skirr of ‘Jelaluddin’ or ‘Jalal al-Din’, not to mention bushwhacking through all that thorny spelling.” David Barber; Rumi Nation; Parnassus: Poetry in Review (New York); 2001. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The power of good is shown not by triumphantly conquering evil, but by
continuing to resist evil while facing certain defeat. -Edith Hamilton,
educator and writer (12 Aug 1867-1963)
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