Today's Word "Nosopoetic"
Published in Vocabulary
nosopoetic \no-seh-po-ET-ik\ (adjective) - You have probably seen people whose noses are sheer poetry. Well, only runny noses are related to today's word, which means "disease-causing, disease producing, infectious."
According to Peter Bowler in 'The Superior Person's Book of Words,' however, "Ah, how perfectly nosopoetic!" is the proper exclamation to employ when a wealthy acquaintance, of whose possessions you are insanely jealous, proudly shows off his or her new fishpond or sunken garden.
Today's word comes to us, courtesy of Latin and French, from Greek nosopoi(etik)os "causing illness," which consists of nosos "illness" + poi(etik)os "making, producing." It is related to nosophobia "the fear of disease," nosology "the classification of diseases," nosotrophy "the promotion of disease," and nosography "the description of diseases."
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