Words Each Day

I've been a big fan of Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day emails for a long time. Sometimes I delete but frequently I put them in a special folder to savor later. Today I read it and remembered.

When I was in high school (click here for a link to the school's Centennial. All the other links to the school bear no resemblance to my memories), I studied Latin with an amazing teacher, Mrs. Garrett. We chanted our Latin declensions. (Amo! Amas! Amat!) That I can remember this and can't remember a friend's phone number puzzles me. 

So when today's Wordsmith word was CIRCA it brought back a lot of memories. Mrs. Garrett taught us to recognize and decipher many English words by considering their Latin roots. Something that's served me well. And circa is just one of those fun words to say. Covers a lot of ground. Makes up for incomplete knowledge.

Earlier in the week, the word of the day was MAUGRE/ Mauger. Despite its supposed Latin roots, I had no clue to its meaning. You really do learn something new every day.