{UAH} WORD OF THE DAY March 17, 2019-----smithereens

WORD OF THE DAY March 17, 2019

smithereens    plural noun | smih-thuh-REENZ     Definition   : fragments, bits   Scroll down for more about smithereens      TRENDING NOW: non sequitur sequitur trope self-made SEE ALL      PEOPLE ARE READING   'Two-bit' — Video Word of the Day 3/15/2019       Can 'Exponential' Mean 'Lots'?     Playing the 'Wild Card'       'Animadversion' — Video Word of the Day 3/14/2019         WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE   A Green Quiz   How many questions can you answer about the word "green"?     PLAY NOW     Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try!  TAKE ME THERE         Did You Know?   Despite its American sound and its common use by the fiery animated cartoon character Yosemite Sam, smithereens did not originate in American slang. Although no one is entirely positive about its precise origins, scholars think that smithereens likely developed from the Irish word smidiríní, which means "little bits." That Irish word is the diminutive of smiodar, meaning "fragment." According to print evidence, the plural form smithereens first appears in English in the late 18th century; use of singular smithereen then follows.     Examples of SMITHEREENS   "For the Soviet Union, it didn't matter that Luna 2, which became the first spacecraft to reach the moon, had been smashed into smithereens. The point was to get there first—to mark territory." — Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2019   "Diagnosed at around age 5 with optic nerve atrophy, an incurable and often progressive disease that damages the nerve connecting the eyes to the brain, Terri doesn't just defy conventional images of blindness. She smashes them to smithereens. She's the married mom of two grade-schoolers, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Nevada and a dedicated camper who navigates the woods with a long white cane. "I can do just about anything except drive," she says. — Peg Rosen, Good Housekeeping, October 2018   Test Your Vocabulary   Brogue can refer to an Irish accent, but what type of item that you can wear also has the name brogue?   VIEW THE ANSWER           WORD OF THE YEAR 2018     Justice + 10 more   Read why justice is our Word of the Year, plus lodestar, epiphany, pansexual, and 7 more top words!   SEE THE FULL LIST            MORE WORD FUN:     WORD GAMES          TRENDING NOW          WORDS AT PLAY      FOLLOW US:

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