A.Word.A.Day--pneumatic

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msesheta

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Jan 15, 2012, 9:56:11 AM1/15/12

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The Magic of Words

Jan 6, 2012

This week's theme
"New" words

This week's words
numinous
noosphere
nutate
newspeak
pneumatic

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

pneumatic

PRONUNCIATION:

(noo-MAT-ik, nyoo-)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Of or relating to air, wind, or gases.
2. Spiritual.
3. Buxom, zaftig.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek pneuma (breath, wind, spirit). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pneu- (to breathe), which is also the source of pneumatic, pneumonia, apnea, sneer, sneeze, snort, snore, and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Earliest documented use: 1624.

USAGE:

"The Greyhound from Toronto pulled up and with a sucking pneumatic hiss."
James Bartleman; As Long as the Rivers Flow; Knopf; 2011.

"This in itself set up a kind of suspicion about pneumatic claims that is, if someone said, 'The Spirit told me.'"
Ben Witherington; Is There a Doctor in the House?; Zondervan; 2011.

"Uncorseted, her friendly bust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss."
T.S. Eliot; Whispers of Immortality; 1920.

Explore "pneumatic" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)