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A.Word.A.Day--primrose path
From: Wordsmith
wsmith@wordsmith.org To: Cartooncity@mail.com
Date: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 9:57 am
Wordsmith.org The Magic of Words
Jan 5, 2011
This week's theme
Words related to trees and plants
This week's words
dendroid
ligneous
primrose path
Photo: David J Glaves
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
primrose path
PRONUNCIATION:
(PRIM-rohz path)
MEANING:
noun:
1. An easy life, especially devoted to sensual pleasure.
2. A path of least resistance, especially one that ends in disaster.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin prima rosa (first rose). Earliest documented use: 1604.
NOTES:
It's not clear why "primrose" was picked for naming this metaphorical path. Perhaps Shakespeare chose the word for alliteration -- the word is first attested in his Hamlet where Ophelia says to her brother Laertes:
"Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede." [Heeds not his own counsel.]
USAGE:
"Meanwhile, Katich clung on; the primrose path is not for him. The road is strewn with rocks."
Peter Roebuck; Victory in Sight, But Punter's Job Far From Over; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Oct 5, 2010.
Explore "primrose path" in the Visual Thesaurus.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)
© 2011 Wordsmith.org
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