Word

The >>Word of the Day<< today over at dictionary.com is >>oblation<<.

>>Oblation<< comes from the past participle form of the Latin verb* >>offerre<< meaning >>to bring<<.

So, an oblation is an offering or a gift.

__________
* A Latin verb is traditionally cited by giving four forms, in this case: offero, offerre, obtuli, oblatum.

Rotor is a fine palindrome, thought Frank Leigh Dearie as he ambled down the Lost Highway.

The web of words wraps round the whole wide world, concealing the secret numbers underneath.

1001 1001 0110 1001 1010 1001

Think how much acceptance Mary showed when she said:

»Let it be done to me according to thy word.«

Isn't it weird that words work as well as they do? Think about it.

And then some more words come along and a paragraph is born.

Which is more useful to you: a dictionary that tells you how to use a word or a dictionary that tells you how a word is used?

Spaces define which letters go together to make up a word.

A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds.

Words derive their meaning from the surrounding words, just as human beings derive their meaning from interacting with other humans around them.

LI

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

--The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
(trans. Edward Fitzgerald, 1st ed.)

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.

(John F. Kennedy)

The word is powerless yet powerful. The word can be a mere 8 bits, or the flame that burns a city to the ground. Words sting, caress, re-assure, and destruct.

We become wordsmiths innately, learning language before we learn to walk or talk. And still, we continue our development, our love affair with words, until the day we die.

I bought one of those Word-A-Day calendars to improve my vocabulary for college.

reify – to regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence.