Today's Word "encumbrance"
Published in Vocabulary
encumbrance \en-KUHM-brun(t)s\ (noun) - 1 : A burden, impediment, or hindrance. 2 : A lien, mortgage, or other financial claim against a property.
"Miss Twinkleton, madam, I have had a most satisfactory conversation with my ward, and I will now release you from the encumbrance of my presence." -- Charles Dickens, 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'
Encumbrance is from Old French encombrance, from encombrer, "to block up," from en-, "in" (here used intensively) + combre, "dam, weir, hence hindrance."
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