Today's Word "Circumspect"
Published in Vocabulary
circumspect \SEHR-kehm-spekt\ (adjective) - Judicious, cautious, prudent, aware of surrounding circumstances and the implications of one's act(s).
"Had Butch been a bit more circumspect about the money he embezzled from the company, he might be kickin' in the Caribbean right now."
Today's word comes from Latin circumspectus, past participle of circumspicere "to take heed," based on circum "(all) around "+ specere "to look." We have talked about the root spec- on several other occasions, so today let's take a look at the preposition "circum." It goes back to a root *kirk- in Proto-Indo-European that also appears in Latin circus "ring, circle," borrowed from Greek kirkos "circle." An interesting fact about the meaning of "round, around" is that it almost always takes on the second meaning of "approximately." In other words, "around 5" means somewhere in a circle around 5 but not directly in the middle, where 5 itself stands. English "around," German "um," and Russian "okolo" share these same two meanings. In Latin, the related word "circa" was also used in this sense, as circa 1855 "about 1855."
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