Saturday, May 9, 2009

Word of the Day

aliment \AL-uh-muhnt\, noun:
1. Something that nourishes or feeds; nutriment.
2. Something that sustains a state of mind or body; sustenance.
3. To give nourishment to; to nourish or sustain.

This looks alarmingly close to "ailment", n'est-ce pas? I have to enunciate clearly (and not be a lazy Kiwi) to differentiate from "element". It's a cold, cold, crisp beautiful Saturday morning, friends; the snow on top of the hills coruscating in the morning sun. (Yeah, it doesn't roll off my tongue yet.) I need some aliment in the form of a fresh, hot coffee with low-fat (not my extremely low fat) milk.

A great start to the weekend and I hope yours will be lovely, too.

2 comments:

  1. "aliment" is French! It's used here as the equivalent of "food", basically. It comes from the Latin "alimentum", which also meant "food". Despite its similarity, "ailment" has an entirely different etymology: http://www.myetymology.com/english/ailment.html

    (I'm a professional translator and as fascinated by the unique paths words take as I'm fascinated by textiles!)

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  2. Gotta say the former wannabe Sociolinguist always wins over the former translator/interpretor; I find folk etymology fascinating.

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