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A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. [1] Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its definition and numerous attempts to find specific criteria of the concept remain controversial. [2]
Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. [1]While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 19th century, that meaning became increasingly common by the mid-20th century. [2]
Some English speakers alter the word's initial /ts/ to an /s/ by dropping the "t," since English does not natively permit /ts/ at the beginning of words, though the original Japanese pronunciation is /ts/. The term has become commonly accepted in English, although its literal Japanese meaning is not necessarily descriptive of the waves, which ...
For instance, the English word laboratory is stressed on the second syllable in British English (labóratory often pronounced "labóratry", the second o being silent), but the first syllable in American English, with a secondary stress on the "tor" syllable (láboratory often pronounced "lábratory").
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term bitch comes from the Old English word bicce or bicge, meaning "female dog", which dates to around 1000 CE. It may have derived from the earlier Old Norse word bikkja, also meaning "female dog". [8] [9] "Dog" has long been used as an insult toward both women and men.
Saudade is a word in Portuguese and Galician that claims no direct translation in English. However, a close translation in English would be "desiderium." Desiderium is defined as an ardent desire or longing, especially a feeling of loss or grief for something lost. Desiderium comes from the word desiderare, meaning to long for.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary transliterates the Greek μετάνοια into metanoia and borrowing it as an English word with a definition that matches the Greek: "a transformative change of heart; especially: a spiritual conversion", augmented by an explanation of metanoia's Greek source: "from metanoiein to change one's mind, repent, from ...
An antonym is one of a pair of words with opposite meanings. Each word in the pair is the antithesis of the other. A word may have more than one antonym. There are three categories of antonyms identified by the nature of the relationship between the opposed meanings.