Ese Bot
Jan 11, 2010, 07:53 PM
Word of the Day for January 11, 2010 is:
http://condor.eb.com/word/podcast/wd20100111.mp3
pied-à-terre • \pee-ay-duh-TAIR\ • noun
: a temporary or second lodging
Example sentence:
The couple owns a home in San Francisco and a pied-à-terre in Greenwich Village.
Did you know?
In French, "mettre pied à terre" means "to dismount." In the cavalry, dismounting at the end of the day meant occupying whatever temporary quarters were available. French speakers began using "pied-à-terre" (literally, "foot to the ground") for a temporary lodging of any sort back in the 1700s. English speakers adopted the term in the early 1800s, using it, as the French did, for a home away from home. Depending on who you are, a pied-à-terre can be anything from a sprawling villa in Naples to a one-room cabin on the Snake River, but nowadays it most frequently refers to an apartment maintained in the city.
Source (http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Jan.11.2010)
http://condor.eb.com/word/podcast/wd20100111.mp3
pied-à-terre • \pee-ay-duh-TAIR\ • noun
: a temporary or second lodging
Example sentence:
The couple owns a home in San Francisco and a pied-à-terre in Greenwich Village.
Did you know?
In French, "mettre pied à terre" means "to dismount." In the cavalry, dismounting at the end of the day meant occupying whatever temporary quarters were available. French speakers began using "pied-à-terre" (literally, "foot to the ground") for a temporary lodging of any sort back in the 1700s. English speakers adopted the term in the early 1800s, using it, as the French did, for a home away from home. Depending on who you are, a pied-à-terre can be anything from a sprawling villa in Naples to a one-room cabin on the Snake River, but nowadays it most frequently refers to an apartment maintained in the city.
Source (http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Jan.11.2010)