Sunday Rest: mensal. Word Not To Use Today.

There are worse things than ghastly, knobbly, horrific, awkward, tongue-twisting and harsh.

Yes: worse than any of those is dull.

Mensal.

Mensal means monthly, and, as you know, things that happen monthly are nearly always dull. Monthly is too frequent to be special, and too seldom for anyone to have had any enthusiasm for the matter.

As if that's not boring enough, mensal also means to do with tables.

So, if one for some strange reason should have the impulse, one could describe one's cutlery as mensal implements...

...except that the person you're talking to will probably have dozed off before you get to the end of the sentence.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=14661&picture=table-setting


Word Not To Use Today: mensal. The monthly word comes from the Latin mensis, month, and the table word comes from mensa, table.

See? Even the derivations are dull.