Ese Bot
Feb 25, 2010, 02:00 PM
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 25, 2010 is:
proscribe • \proh-SCRYBE\ • verb
1 : outlaw *2 : to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful
Example sentence:
When grammarians began to proscribe ending a sentence with a preposition in the 1700s, one astute personage noted that it is "an idiom which our language is strongly inclined to."
Did you know?
"Proscribe" and "prescribe" each have a Latin-derived prefix that means "before" attached to the verb "scribe" (from "scribere," meaning "to write"). Yet the two words have very distinct, often nearly opposite meanings. Why? In a way, you could say it's the law. In the 15th and 16th centuries both words had legal implications. To "proscribe" was to publish the name of a person who had been condemned, outlawed, or banished. To "prescribe" meant "to lay down a rule," including legal rules or orders.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
Source (http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Feb.25.2010)
proscribe • \proh-SCRYBE\ • verb
1 : outlaw *2 : to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful
Example sentence:
When grammarians began to proscribe ending a sentence with a preposition in the 1700s, one astute personage noted that it is "an idiom which our language is strongly inclined to."
Did you know?
"Proscribe" and "prescribe" each have a Latin-derived prefix that means "before" attached to the verb "scribe" (from "scribere," meaning "to write"). Yet the two words have very distinct, often nearly opposite meanings. Why? In a way, you could say it's the law. In the 15th and 16th centuries both words had legal implications. To "proscribe" was to publish the name of a person who had been condemned, outlawed, or banished. To "prescribe" meant "to lay down a rule," including legal rules or orders.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
Source (http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Feb.25.2010)