Today's Word "Ravel"
Published in Vocabulary
ravel \RAE-vehl\ (verb) - To unweave, to disentangle, to unwind or untwist; to fray.
"As Angela explained her situation, John could see his plans for a quiet domestic life with her raveling before his ears."
The etymology of today's word is something of a disappointment. We only know that English borrowed it from an obsolete Dutch verb ravelen "ravel" from ravel "a loose thread". There is a dialectal English word raffle "tangle, ravel" but it is apparently a variant of today's word and no help in tracing the origin of "ravel."
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