sábado, mayo 06, 2006

El Rijkaard que hay en mí

Today's Word: Eruct (Verb)

Pronunciation: [ê-'rêkt]

Definition 1: To noisily release gases from the stomach via the mouth.

Usage 1: The act of eructing is "eruction" and the pitiful creature committingthe act is an "eructator." The words are rarely used for obvious reasons. One could conceivably speak eructively, meaning belching out words; however, dictionaries do not list "eructive" yet.

Suggested Usage: Today we have a literary form more dissonant than the commonterm, "belch." However, since the activity itself is dissonant, "eruct" is a bitmore onomatopoetic: "Because he does it so often, I find it difficult to believe that Milo eructs involuntarily." It is difficult to use this word away from itsliteral meaning, "He was visited by a plague of eruction in punishment foreating so many burritos." It is possible, though, if you aren't averse to alaugh: "Our current problem represents but a small eruction at the feast oflife. Tomorrow we will have forgotten it."

Etymology: Latin eruct-are from ex- "out" + ructare "to belch, emit," origin ofItalian "eruttare" and Spanish "eructar" and frequentative form of Latin "erugare." Akin to Old English rocettan "to belch" and Greek "ereugesthai." ThePIE root *reug-, from which the original Latin rugo derived, also gave English"reek" and German rauchen "smoke." (For a larger slice of PIE, read "How is a Hippo like a Feather?" in yourDictionary.com's library.) —Dr. Language,
yourDictionary.com

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