Word of the Day
… courtesy of Merriam Webster, with slight modifications by me:
The Word of the Day for August 05, 2009 is:
philoprogenitive • \fill-uh-proh-JEN-uh-tiv\ • adjective
*1 : tending to produce offspring : prolific
2 : of, relating to, or characterized by love of offspring
Felix’s Example Sentence:
The wild hogs of Cumberland Island, philoprogenitive to a remarkable degree, damage plant and animal life from oak trees to sea turtles with their relentless foraging.
Did you know?
“Philoprogenitive” (a combination of “phil-,” meaning “loving” or “having an affinity for,” and Latin “progenitus,” meaning “begot” or “begotten”) can refer to the production of offspring or to the loving of them. Nineteenth-century phrenologists used the word to designate the “bump” or “organ” of the brain believed to be the seat of a parent’s instinctual love for his or her children. Despite the word’s scientific look and sound, however, it appears, albeit not very frequently, in all types of writing — technical, literary, informal, and otherwise.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
