epizootic (adj.): affecting many animals of one kind at the same time. compare EPIDEMIC Doesn’t this word sound made up? I saw it for the first time ever in this week’s New Yorker, in a Talk of the Town piece by John Cassidy, in which he described the recent rash of Wall Street calamities as [...]

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meatus (n.): a natural body passage Unfortunately, this word is pronounced /mi’etəs/ (à la Merriam-Webster, mE-’A-t&s) and not /’mitəs/ (M-W: ‘mE-t&s), the way it would if I were king, or alternatively, if the world was a South Park cartoon. “Meatus” comes from the same root as “permeate,” the Latin meare, meaning go, pass, etc., and [...]

Tags: orthography
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