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Apr 28, 2025
This week¡¯s theme
Words that aren¡¯t what they appear to be
This week¡¯s words
Illustration: Anu Garg + AI
Previous week¡¯s theme
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
Have you ever stopped to think that some words are cleverly disguised?
A pineapple is neither pine nor is it an apple.
Rush hour is the slowest time to be on the road.
Fireflies are not flies (they are beetles), and koala bears are not
bears (they are marsupials).
San Francisco¡¯s Main Street is not the main street (it¡¯s named after
Charles Main, a .)
Most words give us clues about what they mean. Some don¡¯t.
Most of the time we can get a sense of a term by its spelling, but
not always. This week¡¯s words are like that. For example, in today¡¯s
word windlass there¡¯s no wind (and certainly no lass. And no ). Same with the
remaining four words this week: no monopoly, no lust, no city, and no
pies, though at first glance you might think otherwise.
windlass
PRONUNCIATION:
(WIHND-luhs)
MEANING:
noun: A device for lifting or hauling, using a rope or cable wound around a cylinder.
verb tr.: To extract, lift, or bring forth with deliberate, steady effort.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old Norse vindass, from vinda (to wind) + ass (pole). Earliest documented use: 1294.
USAGE:
¡°We talk about our lives, dreams we had, and what we want to do in the
future. It is as if the round tower is windlassing stories out of us.¡±
Rosita Boland; The Martello Tower and the Magic Carpet of the Irish Sea;
Irish Times (Dublin); Jul 13, 2015.
¡°As though the words were being windlassed out of him.¡±
Rudyard Kipling; Captains Courageous; Doubleday; 1897.
See more usage examples of in Vocabulary.com¡¯s .
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist
on coming along and trying to put things in it. -Terry Pratchett, novelist
(Apr 28 1948-2015)
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