Pronounced: CAN-ban, noun
Notes: Not a word I’ve run across
Yesterday’s word
The word letimotif is “a recurrent theme in a piece of music or literature, situation, etc”
First usage
Our word came into English in the 1930s
Background / Comments
A humorist defined leitmotif (or leitmotiv) as “a signature tune”. Our word came from the Germain word Lietmotiv (lead motif), which comes from leit- (leading) and Motiv (motive).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 