Sunday Rest: plaudit. Word Not To Use Today.

All languages are interesting, and some are bizarre (Russian, for instance, always sounds to me as if it's being spoken backwards). I even like non-human and alien languages.

And the word plaudit must surely have been borrowed from an alien language. I mean, it's so plainly the sound a robot makes as it engages its translation program.

"Plaudit! Is this the planet Sol?"

"Plaudit! Why do you have only one nose?"

"Plaudit! Why do you keep that bipedal hairless creature on a lead?"

The great shame is that plaudit means great approval or applause. A plaudit is a thing a joy and pride: 

So why on earth does it have to sound like a love-sick frog, that's what I want to know.

Well, it was the clever-clever Latin speakers of the 1600s who first started using it.

Huh.

And I bet a lot of them were robots or frogs, too.

Word Not To Use Today: plaudit. This word comes from the Latin plaudere, to applaud.