(Adjective)Pronunciation: ['flæ-bê-lêt]

Definition: Fan-shaped

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Usage: Which had you rather be, "flabby" or "flabellate?" The good news is that they are not mutually exclusive. The bad news is that you wouldn't want to be either. Flabellation is the act of fanning, based on the verb, "flabellate" ['flæ-bê-leyt]. Don't confuse the word with "flabby" and double the [b]; remember: two [l]s, not [b]s. "Flabbergast?" It probably comes from flap "slap" + "aghast" but no one really knows.

Suggested Usage: Opportunities to use today's word in connection with flowers and vegetation abound: "During the hurricane a lovely palm with flabellate leaves fell on Mercedes' Mercedes and parted it down the middle." Don't forget that today's word has a family, too, "I found it difficult to convey my ideas amidst the flabellation of everyone else's lips."

Etymology: From Latin flabellum "fan," via the usual routes. ('Flabellum' also refers to any fan-shaped anatomical form.) The Latin word is based on PIE root *bhle- "blow," which descended to English as "blow," "bladder" (probably from the Scots' proclivities in musical instruments), and "blaze." French blasé, which we now use in a remarkably different sense, originally meant "chronically hung over" and was probably borrowed from Middle Dutch blasen "to blow up." "Flabby?" This is a corruption of "flappy" from "flap," which originally meant "slap."

ITPub博客

Word of the Day: Flabellate

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