thew

Pronounced: thoo, noun

Notes: I didn’t recognize this word by itself

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Yesterday’s word

The word eviscerate means

• to remove the entrails; to disembowel
• to deprive of essential parts; to weaken or to destroy

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

I seem to remember reading or hearing the word in some mystery story (or show); it may have been a Sherlock Holmes, but I think it one of the shows about Jack the Ripper, with a theoretical explanation. After reading the definition, I think I have run across the second definition, which clearly is a metaphorical extension of the first definition. Our word came from the Latin word eviscerare (to disembowel), which is made of ex- (out) and viscera (internal organs); the latter is the plural of the Latin word viscus (flesh; internal organ).