A Word A Day with Anu Garg

By Nancy, on September 9th, 2013

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

One of my favorite daily reads (and I like to share my finds), it’s entertaining, educational, and free, too. What could be better than that? Each week there is a theme (love themes) and five new words that fit the theme (sometimes serious, sometimes flat out funny), including pronunciation, etymology, usage, and, of course, meaning. Take it from someone who used to read the dictionary for fun, this is a better way to build your vocabulary. And there is a book, too, who knew? A Word A Day, The Book.

Oh, and there is always a thought for the day. Today’s I especially love.(see below)

This week’s theme – What to call people at work

This week’s words factotum

From A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Are you still calling people around you in the workplace with worn-out words? Terms such as colleague, employee, boss, and intern are so passé. Here’s a fresh supply of words to bring some variety at work.

factotum

PRONUNCIATION:

(fak-TOH-tuhm)

MEANING:

noun: A servant or a low-level employee tasked with many things. I am decidedly a factotum and I will be employing this word all week. Really. All week.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin factotum, from facere (to do) + totus (all). Earliest documented use: 1573.

USAGE:

“Now, a reporter trying to interview a business source is confronted by a phalanx of factotums.”
David Carr; The Puppetry of Quotation Approval; The New York Times; Sep 16, 2012.

Explore “factotum” in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)

Capability : Mom

A Word A Day with Anu Garg