Pronounced: SIM-fih-sis, noun
Notes: I knew part of the word
Yesterday’s word
The word dalles means “the rapids of a river running between the walls of a canyon or gorge”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
The reason that our word is one that I didn’t know that I knew is because our word has an alternate spelling (and pronunciation) “dells”. I grew up in northern Illinois, and the Wisconsin Dells were well-known. Even before seeing the definition, that was the idea I had in mind for the meaning of “dells” (but I was thinking more of waterfalls than rapids). This word is primarily found in America (another Americanism). It came from Canadian French, where it is the plural of the French word dial, which came from the Normandy word dalles (sink).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 