Free Vocabulary Newsletter!

Get these great stories sent directly to your email!

email See more free newsletters on the subscribe page.

Type your email address:

Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.

Vocabulary Hangman:
Try our FREE ArcaMax Vocabulary Hangman Game
The Funnies:
Get free jokes, comics, and more! See them all on
our funnies page
FREE ArcaMax Toolbar:
Get free "Vocabulary" headlines on the ArcaMax Toolbar!

Today's Word "travail"

travail \truh-VAYL; TRAV-ayl\ (noun) - 1 : Painful or arduous work; severe toil or exertion. 2 : Agony; anguish. 3 : The labor of childbirth

(intransitive verb) - 1 : To work very hard; to toil. 2 : To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.

"What happened to marriage and family that it should have become a travail and a sadness, marriage till death do us part yes but long dead before the parting, home and fireside and kiddies such a travail and a deadliness as to make a man run outn into the night with his hands over his head." -- Walker Perchy, 'The Second Coming'

Travail is from Old French traveillier, travaillier, from Vulgar Latin tripalium, "a three-staked instrument of torture," from Latin tripalis, "three-staked," from tri-, "three" + palus, "a stake."



This news arrived on: 08/25/2008
Share this Story
Digg   del.icio.us   Yahoo   Facebook   Google   

Printer Friendly Version | Send this page to a friend | Post Comment


Rate This Story:

Great - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Bad




Posted Comments:


Comment archive | Comment FAQ's

Post Comment::

Author:
Subject:



Recent archives Featured news

View Vocabulary ezine stories by date or visit the complete archive

Featured Channel: Politics

The ArcaMax Politics channel is one of 70 content categories offered by ArcaMax Publishing on this ...