A.Word.A.Day--venial

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msesheta

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Jan 20, 2012, 1:15:12 PM1/20/12

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The Magic of Words

Jan 19, 2012

This week's theme
Miscellaneous words

This week's words
sagacity
stochastic
immanent
venial

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

venial

PRONUNCIATION:

(VEE-nee-uhl, VEEN-yuhl)

MEANING:

adjective: Minor; easily excused.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin venia (forgiveness). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wen- (to desire or to strive for), which is also the source of wish, win, ween, overweening, venerate, venison, Venus, and banyan. Earliest documented use: before 1300.

USAGE:

"Wealthy fraudsters are given chieftaincy titles and venerated, and their nefarious deeds are euphemistically tagged venial."
Chiedu Uche Okoye; Victims of Illusion; Daily Independent (Nigeria); Jun 27, 2011.

"The production takes a few venial liberties with the text."
Ben Brantley; Railing at a Money-Mad World; The New York Times; Jul 1, 2010.

Explore "venial" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends imprisoned by an enchanter in paper and leathern boxes. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)