What does the 'lute' of a musician have in common with the Norwegian sea monster 'kraken' and 'lariat' of a cowboy? All three words come with a built-in definite article. The word lute is from Arabic al lud (the wood), kraken has the suffixed Norwegian definite article (-en), and lariat is from Spanish la reata (the rope).
Words are buried civilizations. Begin digging and you come across layers of history. Passage of time muddies the original form of words and when we borrow them from another language, we don't realize that they're already hitched to an article before we add a new one. Well, you don't have to hop across languages or travel through time to see this kind of redundancy in action. We have the ATM machine and VAT tax and AC current in the English language. This week we feature five more words that come with a packaged definite article. lagniappe (lan-YAP, LAN-yap) noun An unexpected benefit, especially a small gift a customer receives with a purchase. [From Louisiana French, from American Spanish la ñapa (the gift), from Quechua yapa (something added).] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=lagniappe -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Of little consequence, a tiny lagniappe and a green salad came compliments of the house." M.H. Reed; In Ossining, a Restaurant With a Past; The New York Times; Sep 23, 2001. Sponsored by: Discover new *super magnetic* Thinking Putty. It's the perfect stocking stuffer! Find out more: http://puttyworld.com?a=awad Get revenge on Scrabble nerds and their silly short odd words. Play WildWords. Win with long words and creative thinking. See how at: http://www.wildwords.us Learn to think productively and creatively with "Think Better". One of the best creative thinking books ever: http://amazon.com/o/asin/0071494936 ............................................................................ Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) Discuss this week's words on our bulletin board: http://wordsmith.org/board Remove, change address, gift subs: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/lagniappe.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/lagniappe.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/lagniappe.html This message was sent to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]".
