This week's theme: unusual words used in famous quotations.

dictatress (dik-TAY-tres) noun

   A female dictator.

[From Latin dictator, from dictare (to dictate), frequentative of dicere
(to say). Ultimately from the Indo-European root deik- (to show, to pronounce
solemnly) that is also the source of other words such as judge, verdict,
vendetta, revenge, indicate, dictate, and paradigm.]

  "America ... might become dictatress of the world. She would be no
   longer the ruler of her own spirit."
   John Quincy Adams; Address; Jul 4, 1821; quoted in The Yale Book of
   Quotations.

Sponsored by:

Always find the right word with the Visual Thesaurus. Wordsmith readers
save 10%. Try it free! http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?ad=aw&code=p17

Perfect your fluency in French, German, Spanish or Italian with
Champs-Elysees audio magazines. http://ads.champs-elysees.com/wsmith7

............................................................................
The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The
children are now working as if I did not exist." -Maria Montessori,
educator (1870-1952)

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/dictatress.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/dictatress.ram

Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/dictatress.html

This message was sent to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]".

Reply via email to