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The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Friday 24 August 2018

Word To Use Today: nomarch.

A nomarch, my Collins dictionary tells me, is the head of an ancient Egyptian nome.

Ah well, I suppose it's rather healthy to come across a completely unhelpful definition from time to time. 

It makes it so hard to be prejudiced.

Word To Use Today: nomarch. (You say it NOmark.) A nome is an administrative area of ancient Egypt or recent Greece. I found this rather a disappointment because I was hoping the head of a nome would be something with an enormous nose and flapping ears.

Come to think about it, though, the faces of how many administrative leaders would you want decorating the wall of your living room? There were probably hundreds of nomarchs with enormous noses and flapping ears.

I feel a lot better, now.

(The Greek word nomos means region or pasture. -arch at the end of a word means ruler. (And it means more or less the same at the beginning of a word, too.))



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