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Fw: Wordsmith (4/10/2025); A.Word.A.Day -- Siberianize


 



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Apr 10, 2025
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Prisoners on a ship being sent away
c. 1903
Photo from Sakhalin by Vlas Doroshevich

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

siberianize

PRONUNCIATION:
(sy-BEE-ree-uh-nyz)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To send to a remote location as a form of punishment.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Siberia, Russia, the place where those who had fallen out of favor were sent. Earliest documented use: 1864.

NOTES:
After Siberia, that frosty expanse of central and eastern Russia not known for its hospitality. Historically used by tsars and the USSR as the ultimate time-out spot, but with fewer juice boxes and a lot more . Talk about getting ice-olated. No re-runs of Frozen here -- only the kind of cold that really won’t let it go.
Also see: and .

USAGE:
“As if, for instance, I were ... to be siberianized for flagrant delight of opinion.”
Christine Brooke-Rose; Amalgamemnon; Carcanet Press; 1984.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Joy is the best makeup. -Anne Lamott, writer (b. 10 Apr 1954)


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