PAW-suh-tee
The paucity of affordable housing in the city has become a growing concern for residents.
Fun Fact
“Paucity” comes from the Latin paucus, meaning “few.” It’s often used in discussions of resources, such as food shortages, a lack of evidence, or even a paucity of ideas. A fun twist? While the word describes a shortage, the English language is anything but lacking in colorful vocabulary!
EK-spee-ayt
(verb) To make amends for wrongdoing or sin through deliberate acts of reparation or atonement.
He spent the decade after the verdict quietly expiating his role in the company’s collapse — funding the employees he’d left without pensions, one by one.
Expiate derives from the Latin expiare, meaning “to atone for” — built from ex- (“completely”) and piare (“to appease” or “to make pious”), itself from pius meaning “dutiful” or “devout.” The same root gives us pious and piety. It entered English in the 16th century, used almost exclusively in religious and moral contexts to describe the deliberate, active process of making right what was done wrong — not merely feeling remorse but doing something about it.
Fun Fact
The concept of expiation sits at the heart of the ancient Jewish observance of Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Central to its original Temple-era practice was the scapegoat ritual: two goats were selected, one sacrificed and one symbolically loaded with the community’s sins and released into the wilderness. The released goat — the original “scapegoat” — carried the sins away physically, making expiation literal and visible. The ritual gave English one of its most enduring metaphors while preserving in language a practice that is over three thousand years old.
Today's Word Apocryphal uh-POK-rih-ful Definition (adjective) Of doubtful authenticity; widely...
Read MoreToday's Word Redoubtable reh-DOW-tuh-bul Definition (adjective) Inspiring fear or awe...
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