Word of the Day
proselyte
noun
a person who has changed from one opinion, religious belief, sect, or the like, to another; convert.
More about proselyte
The English noun proselyte comes via Old French and Late Latin prosēlytus “sojourner, foreigner, stranger, a convert from paganism to Judaism.” Prosēlytus first occurs in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible, prepared chiefly by Saint Jerome at the end of the 4th century a.d. Prosēlytus comes from Greek prosḗlytos “one who has arrived, stranger, sojourner.” Prosḗlytos and its kindred terms occur in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible dating from the 3rd century b.c.) and the Greek New Testament. Prosḗlytos is equivalent to an unrecorded prosḗlythos, a derivative of the verb prosérchesthai “to come forward, go, approach.” Proselyte entered English in the 14th century.
how is proselyte used?
… I began to believe that if he did not make a proselyte of me, I should certainly make one of him ….
Still, proselytes often find that being Paleo quickly becomes a round-the-clock duty.
overmorrow
noun
the day after tomorrow: I’ve heard that tomorrow and overmorrow may bring exceptionally high waves.
More about overmorrow
Overmorrow had a brief history, first recorded in the first half of the 16th century and lasting into the second half of that same century. The rare word occurred in the phrase “today, tomorrow, and overmorrow.”
how is overmorrow used?
It comes round on the overmorrow— / Then why we wake we know aright.
“Do ye stop in tha cove over ‘morrow, Ralph?” she asked, with a sanguine intonation.
self-possessed
adjective
having or showing control of one's feelings, behavior, etc.; composed; poised.
More about self-possessed
The adjective self-possessed, which entered English in the mid-18th century, is a derivative of the earlier noun self-possession, which appeared a hundred years earlier.
how is self-possessed used?
There was an occasional copied page of her diary in which she appeared contented, and self-possessed: autonomous in a way I could not imagine for myself.
Unburdening himself his coat, he was not self-possessed enough to find in his pocket the scroll of resolutions which every one saw protruding from it …