Pronounced: SCREW-tate, verb
Notes: Not a word I know
Yesterday’s word
The word mare is “any of several mostly flat dark areas of considerable extent on the surface of the moon or Mars”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
The idea that the dark areas of the moon might be seas is an ancient idea; in more “modern” times (here meaning the mid-1500s to the mid-1600s), the idea was brought up again by Galileo. Other writers in the 1600s used our word to describe these “seas”. Our word has two possible plurals: “maria” (MAR-ee-uh) is preferred, but “mares” (MAR-aze) is also possible. Our word came from the Latin word mare (sea).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 