Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Wednesday Word: Chary

chary |ˈ ch e(ə)rē|adjective ( charier chariest )cautious; wary most people are chary of allowing themselves to be photographed.• cautious about the amount one gives or reveals he was chary with specifics about the script.DERIVATIVEScharily  ch e(ə)rəlē| adverbORIGIN Old English cearig [sorrowful, anxious] ; related to care . The current sense arose in the mid16th cent.

I bagged this beauty reading Diana Gabaldon's Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. I couldn't care less about the rest of the Outlander series, but Lord John stole my heart.

5 comments:

  1. I knew this one, but have never used it.

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    1. There are just too many useful synonyms. Sometimes I think there's an overabundance of words that mean the same thing. Then there is "spatula" that describes half a dozen similar but not identical cooking implement all by itself.

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  2. I thought of you when I saw this post:
    http://mentalfloss.com/article/58036/50-words-sound-rude-actually-arent

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    1. Then next time someone pisses me off I'll call them clatterfart.

      Cockapert sounds like short for cock-expert and that's not contradictory to "saucy fellow".

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