Ó A word a day
rote
PRONUNCIATION:
(roht)
MEANING:
noun:
1. A mechanical or unthinking way of doing something.
2. The sound of surf.
3. A medieval stringed instrument or Celtic origin. Also known as crowd or crwth.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: Of obscure origin. Earliest documented use: 1325.
For 2: Perhaps of Scandinavian origin. Earliest documented use: 1610.
For 3: From Middle French rote. Earliest documented use: 1330.
USAGE:
"From learning by rote they graduated to living by rote."
Ashwini Bhatnagar; Dina Nath (MBA); 2014.
"The dull mist immediately broke, blossomed with marvelous colors, all kinds of sounds burst forth -- the rote of the sea, the clapping of the wind, human cries."
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov; Knopf; 1995.
"One played the harp; another a viol;
another, the flute; another, a fife;
one played a rebeck; another, a rote."
E.D. Blodgett, translator; Romance of Flamenca; Routledge; 1995.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy. -Ivan Illich, philosopher and priest (1926-2002)
