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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

Today's words

 


 The verb debilitate (and its adjective form debilitating) comes from the Latin word for "weak," debilis.

 Winsome comes from Old English wynn, meaning "joy" or "pleasure," which was altered in spelling to win (with the same meaning). That win is obsolete and is unrelated to today's win—referring to victory and coming from Old English winnan, "to struggle, suffer, or acquire." The adjective winning, meaning "tending to please or delight," as in "a winning smile" or "winning ways," is believed to be from the victorious win.

 Cherub From Latin cherubim, from Greek kheroubin, from Hebrew kerubim. Ultimately from the Semitic root krb (to praise).

The plural is cherubs or cherubim. Cherubim are the second highest order of angels.

The Order of Angels

angels

archangels

principalities

powers

virtues

dominions

thrones

cherubim

seraphim

 Sanguine is the name of one of the temperaments that ancient and medieval scholars believed was caused by an abundance of one of the four humors. It comes from sanguineus—Latin for "of or relating to blood" or "bloody"—and over centuries has had meanings ranging from "bloodthirsty" and "bloodred" to "confidently optimistic."

 

 Euphemism comes from Greek eúphēmos, which means "uttering sounds of good omen," "fair-sounding," or "auspicious." The first part of that root is the prefix eu-, meaning "good."  The second part is phēmos, a Greek word for "speech."

 

Gloss, referring to a brief explanation, comes from Greek glôssa, meaning "tongue," "language," or "obscure word." There is also the familiar phrase gloss over, meaning "to deal with (something) too lightly or not at all." That gloss is related to Germanic glosen, "to glow or shine," and comes from the noun gloss, which in English can refer to a shine on a surface or to a superficial attractiveness that is easily dismissed.

 Stir-crazy originated as a word to describe a prisoner who became distraught after prolonged confinement. Stir is a 19th-century slang word for "prison" that some word historians have suspected to be from Romani stariben, of the same meaning. But a convincing argument of that origin has yet been made. Today, stir-crazy describes any person who has become restless, agitated, or anxious from being or feeling entrapped in some place.