This week's theme: words related to shoes. gumshoe (GUM-shoo) noun
1. A detective. 2. A rubber overshoe. [The word is an allusion to the quiet snooping that a detective is supposed to do. Wearing rubber shoes, one can move around without making much noise.] The word is an example of the figure of speech called synecdoche in which a part is used for the whole or vice versa. Another example is the use of the word crown to refer to a king. Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=gumshoe -Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org) "So far, the entertainment industry's approach to peer-to-peer file sharing has been to hire gumshoes to bang on teenagers' doors at midnight and haul them off to court -- an act akin to trying to beat back a tsunami with a tennis racquet." Staunching a Tide of Piracy; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); May 18, 2006. Sponsored by: A cure for brain flab! One brain-building, at-a-glance email a day helps keep unsightly ignorance away. http://knowledgenews.net/s?s=aw062806 And you? Get your message about your business, products, or services to more than half-million readers in this space. Contact us at sponsorsATwordsmith.org (replace AT with @). ............................................................................ For God's sake don't say yes until I've finished talking. -Darryl F. Zanuck, movie producer, director, and actor (1902-1979) Send your comments to (words AT wordsmith.org). To unsubscribe, update address send gift subscription, etc., visit http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/gumshoe.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/gumshoe.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/gumshoe.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
