A Word A Day
One of the few mailing lists that I subscribe to is “A Word A Day” from wordsmith.org. Every day a new word with description, history, audio pronunciation and other interesting information appears in my inbox.
For example, today’s word is degringolade:
The great humorist Mark Twain once said, “In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.” Well, that’s the pitfall of learning a foreign language away from its natural habitat. We might become proficient in the grammar but there is never a certainty about the nuances of the language.
No matter. Some of the terms we borrow from French have become an integral part of the English language. They often help us convey a whole idea succinctly, in just a word or two. This week let’s see five such terms from French.
degringolade (day-grang-guh-LAYD) noun: A rapid decline, deterioration, or collapse (of a situation).
Most weeks, the words have a theme, making each days’ gem an interesting learning exercise.
I look forward to them every day.
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