Vocabulary - Today's Word "extraneous"

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Today's Word "extraneous"

extraneous \ek-STRAY-nee-uhs\ (adjective) - 1 : Coming from or existing on the outside. 2 : Introduced from an outside source. 3 : Not essential or intrinsic; foreign. 4 : Not pertinent to the matter at hand; irrelevant.

"That is what I have been seeking to do -- clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth - the naked shining truth." -- Agatha Christie, 'Death on the Nile'

Extraneous comes from Latin extraneus, "that is outside," hence "foreign, strange," from extra, "outside," from ex, "out of." The word strange is derived from the same Latin root as extraneous, but it came into English via Old French estrange (modern French étrange) rather than directly from the Latin. Stranger and estrange share the same origin.

This news arrived on: 11/17/2009

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