Word of the Day, July 5

[Uadzit]

palmy • PAH-mee • adjective

*1 : marked by prosperity : flourishing

2 : abounding in or bearing palms

Example Sentence:
"In Beaufort Road was a house, occupied in its palmier days, by Mr Shorthouse, a manufacturer of acids." (J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter, July 1964)

Did you know?
The palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory. It is no wonder then that the word "palm" came to mean "victory" or "triumph" in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Centuries later, Shakespeare would employ "palm" to create a new synonym for "triumphant" or "flourishing." His coinage is found in the tragedy Hamlet when the character Horatio speaks of the "palmy state of Rome / A little ere the mightiest Julius fell."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.  

[Eggy-Egg]

mrgreen  

[engineer-of-doom]

I knew about palms being a symbol of victory... but I had no idea something could be palmy  

[..Ue-chan..]

mrgreen  

[necrophagette]

My friend just took a History of the English Language class, and she likes to talk about how many slang words Shakespeare invented that are now actual words. biggrin And then we usually get in a fight over weather the past tense of "text" is "text" or "texted". rolleyes