This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. firmament (FUR-muh-ment) noun
The sky; the heavens. [From Latin firmamentum (sky) from firmare (to support). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dher- (to hold firmly or support) that is also the source of firm, affirm, confirm, farm, and fermata.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=firmament -Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org) "The brightest stars in the goss mag firmament have fallen cripplingly to earth." Jacqueline Maley; What the Gossip Mags Say; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jan 11, 2005. Sponsors' Messages: Elegant Salt & Pepper Mills handcrafted from tropical hardwoods. Much more: http://www.pepper-passion.com/ Good books in small packages! On-the-go audiobook chips for PC, Mac, PDAs. Plus, save 10% with coupon code AWADSP06 at checkout. http://audiofy.com/ ............................................................................ I often pass a farm with cows grazing in the field and I think to myself how terrible it is that human beings grow other animals just to kill them and eat them. Most of us think of vegetarians as nuts and I'm not a vegetarian but I wouldn't be surprised if we came to a time in 50 or 100 years when civilized people everywhere refused to eat animals. -Andy Rooney, journalist (1919- ) 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/firmament.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/firmament.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/firmament.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
