Pronounced: DEF-luh-grate, verb
Notes: I thought this might be putting out a fire (I was wrong)
Yesterday’s word
The word scaramouch means “a boastful coward, buffoon, or rascal”
Background / Comments
This is another word from the Italian commedia dell’arte (Italian comic theater popular in the 1500s to 1700s). The character is Scaramouche – he was often beaten up by Harlequin.
First usage
The word showed up in the mid-1600s.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 