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Grand Guignol

Pronounced: grahn gee-NYOL, noun/adj Notes: This is new to me (the word Grand is pronounced nasally) Yesterday’s word The lamia is a female demon; vampire First usage Our word came into English in the mid- to late 1300s Background / Comments Our word came from Greek mythology; Lamia was a queen of Libya – one…

lamia

Pronounced: LAY-me-uh, noun Notes: I didn’t know there was a word for this Yesterday’s word The word misericord means First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1200s Background / Comments So… nothing to do with misers. Our word came from the Old French word misericord, which came from the Latin word misericordia (pity…

misericord

Pronounced: mih-ZER-ih-kord (alt: muh-ZER-ih-kord), noun Notes: I saw “miser” and thought our word was related to a miser (boy, was I wrong!) Yesterday’s word The word anchorite means “a person who lives in seclusion usually for religious reasons” First usage Our word came into English in the early 1400s Background / Comments Our word came…

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