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Today's Word "Lief"

Willingly or gladly on

Published in Vocabulary

lief \leef\ (adverb) - Willingly; gladly; readily. (adjective) 1 : Dear, beloved. 2 : Willing.

"Given a choice, Katherine indicated that she'd as lief be killed by an atom bomb as by a hand grenade or a flame thrower."

 

From Old English leof. A most useful word, now, alas, all but extinct. Want and love are overworked and misused to fill the hole left in the language when this word faded in 17c.


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