Word of the Day: Lugubrious
lu-gu-bri-ous / lu̇-ˈgü-brē-əs
adjective
1. mournful, usually in an exaggerated manner
Westervelt said little to her during these days; he only looked, and his doleful gestures, his lugubrious grimaces, were comic.
From ‘The Light of the Star’ by Hamlin Garland, 1860-1940
2. dismal; dreary; gloomy
[The cello] has such a lugubrious sound, like someone reading a will.
Irene Thomas, 1919-2001
Etymology
The first recorded use of this word was c. 1600, at which time it had an alternate spelling, lugubrous. The word comes from the Latin lugubris, ‘pertaining to mourning’, which can be traced from the word lugere, ‘to mourn’. The Latin word uses the root leug, meaning ‘to break or cause pain’.
Thank you for including the Dictionary Project in the good work you do in your club. In my club, we have provided Dictionaries for third-grade students for enough years that now we are having former students help us to present dictionaries each year. They are often returning to the same classrooms that they were third-grade students. Teachers plead every year for us to NEVER quit this valuable project. They tell us that students NEED paper books to learn to read, to learn to do research and to do independent study. Please send me pictures of your presentations and tell me about your visits to the schools to give dictionaries to the students. To be included in our newsletter you can send me your stories at DG.2019@5630mail.org.
