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Jan 9, 2018
This week’s theme
Long words with short definitions

This week’s words
senectitude
weltanschauung
infundibuliform
floccinaucinihilipilification
pneumonoultramicrosco- picsilicovolcanoconiosis

weltanschauung
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

weltanschauung

PRONUNCIATION:
(VELT-ahn-shou-oong)

MEANING:
noun: World view.

ETYMOLOGY:
From German Weltanschauung (world view), from Welt (world) + Anschauung (perception). Earliest documented use: 1868.

NOTES:
When we bring in a word from another language, sometimes we borrow it as it is and at other times make a literal translation, also known as a loan translation. The word weltanschauung appears so useful that English has borrowed the original form and also made a loan translation: world view.

USAGE:
“By the end of the decade he had reeled off a dozen more hits ... which tapped into the teenage weltanschauung, articulating adolescent passions.”
Chuck Berry (obituary); The Times (London, UK); Mar 20, 2017.

See more usage examples of weltanschauung in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth -- and truth rewarded me. -Simone de Beauvoir, author and philosopher (9 Jan 1908-1986)

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