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Every day I receive a "new word" from A Word a Day at www.wordsmith.org, in an effort to increase my vocabulary. It is rather fun when a word arrives thar can be put to use right away. This is today's word:
_____________________________________________________________________
"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful
tone.
"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I
always pay it extra."
Alice and Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass might
as well have been talking about this week's set of words. While these
words do not have as many meanings as the word "set" (the Oxford English
Dictionary devotes 26 pages to it), each of this week's hard-working words
has many unrelated meanings. And they are not bland, like the word set.
With these words, one could say, we get our money's worth.
malkin (MO-kin, MAL-kin) noun
1. An untidy woman; a slattern.
2. A scarecrow or a grotesque effigy.
3. A mop made of a bundle or rags fastened to a stick.
4. A cat.
5. A hare.
the name Maud or Molly/Mary.]
A related word is grimalkin, referring to an old female cat
or an ill-tempered old woman.
-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)
"And speaking o' cats, gray malkins hunt through the forest as well."
Cecilia Dart-Thornton; The Battle of Evernight; Aspect; 2003.
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