Pronounced: MAHR-ay, noun
Notes: When I saw the word, I thought that of course I knew it was an adult, female horse, but then I saw the pronunciation, and I didn’t know that this word means
Yesterday’s word
The word palmer is
- a pilgrim
- an itinerant monk
- one who conceals a card or another object in a magic trick or in cheating in a game
First usage
Our word came into English around 1300
Background / Comments
I have heard of “palming” cards (or other objects), so the third definition I could have guessed at. In medieval Europe, pilgrims brought back a palm branch as a token of their pilgrimage. I’m not really sure how our word came to mean the second definition. Our word came from the Latin word palma (palm tree; palm of the hand). Note that the palm tree is named because of the resemblance of the “leaves” to the palm of a hand.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 