Another
Word A Day
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Also by Anu Garg
A Word A Day: A Romp through Some of the Most
Unusual and Intriguing Words in English
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Another
Word A Day
An All-New Romp
through Some of the Most
Unusual and Intriguing
Words in English
Anu Garg
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Copyright © 2005 by Anu Garg. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
Composition by Navta Associates, Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise,
except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without
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appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive,Danvers, MA
01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to
the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online
at />Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty:While the publisher and the author have used their best
efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the

ENRY WARD BEECHER
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Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 Words to Describe People I 5
opsimath
●
agelast
●
losel
●
nebbish
●
cruciverbalist
2 Earls Who Became Words
(or Places That Became Words) 9
orrery
●
cadogan
●
Oxfordian
●
derby
●
Yarborough
3 Words Having Origins in Chess 14
zugzwang
●
checkmate

Pax Romana
●
Gibraltar
●
seltzer
●
Kilkenny cats
vii
Contents
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7 Words about Books and Writing 28
roman à clef
●
orihon
●
amphigory
●
conspectus
●
magnum opus
8 Words Borrowed from Yiddish 31
chutzpah
●
mensch
●
zaftig
●
kvetch
●
schlep

talisman
12 Words Formed Erroneously 48
niddering
●
obsidian
●
helpmeet
●
zenith
●
derring-do
13 What’s in a Name? 52
randy
●
tony
●
ted
●
bobby
●
brad
14 Words from Poetry 56
cataract
●
dreary
●
nosegay
●
collyrium
●

Dutch auction
18 Words with Double Connections 75
diplopia
●
double entendre
●
ambsace
●
satchel
●
doppelgänger
viii CONTENTS
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19 Words Related to the Calendar 79
ides
●
bissextile
●
Greek calends
●
menology
●
fin de siècle
20 False Friends 83
sacrilegious
●
scission
●
oust
●

monopsony
●
chandler
24 Miscellaneous Words 98
astrobleme
●
pudency
●
aporia
●
remontant
●
loricate
25 Words That Have Changed Meaning with Time 101
demagogue
●
decimate
●
feisty
●
egregious
●
officious
26 Words about Words 107
hapax legomenon
●
metaphor
●
vulgat
●

placebo
●
nyctalopia
30 Numeric Terms 123
sixty-four-dollar question
●
eighty-six
●
twenty-twenty
●
deep-six
●
catch-22
CONTENTS ix
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