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Today's Word "albatross"

A constant, worrisome burden on

Published in Vocabulary

albatross \AL-buh-tros\ (noun) plural albatross or albatrosses - 1 : Any of several large, web-footed birds constituting the family Diomedeidae, chiefly of the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere, and having a hooked beak and long, narrow wings. 2 : A constant, worrisome burden. An obstacle to success.

"Getting the albatross that is Jacobs off of the company's proverbial neck would make the company more attractive to future investors."

 

Probably alteration (influenced by Latin albus, white), of alcatras, pelican, from Portuguese, or Spanish alcatraz, from Arabic al-gattas : al, the + gattas, white-tailed sea eagle. Sense 2, after the albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which the mariner killed and had to wear around his neck as a penance.


 

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