Monday, July 14, 2008

A Date NOT to go on

If someone says they want to lapidate you, do not think they want to date you on their lap. In fact, you should probably run away as they are thinking about stoning you to death.


Lapidate (verb)
Pronunciation: ['læp-ê-deyt]
Definition: To stone, to throw stones at, to stone to death.

Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin lapidare "to throw stones," derived from lapis, lapidis "stone," a relative of Greek lepas "crag, rock." The word "lapis" itself occurs in the name of the translucent, blue, semiprecious stone, "lapis lazuli." A dilapidated house might have originally been run down from loss of stones, for the word comes from Latin dilapidare "to throw away, squander" from dis- "away" + lapidare "throw stones." It is interesting that with metathesis of the [l] and [a], we get alpis "high mountain" in Latin, which many believe was borrowed from Celtic. No certain evidence for a link between these two words, however, has been found.
-Yourdictionary.com

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