Pronounced: ef-luh-RESS, verb
Notes: Another word you may be able to guess
Yesterday’s word
The word analphabetic, as a noun, means “an illiterate person”. As an adjective, it can mean “illiterate” or “not alphabetical”
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
Background / Comments
Not a hard word to get, if you are able to properly parse the word; it comes from the Greek word analphabetos (not knowing the alphabet); it was created from an- (not) and alphabetos (alphabet). You may know alphabet comes from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. Anyway, if one don’t know the alphabet, one is illiterate. Apparently, the other adjective’s meaning probably came about later from the literal meaning of “not alphabetic”.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 