Thursday, June 14, 2007

"I dehort you.... "

No, you have not just been knighted into the circle of royal degenerates. If successful, you have just been dissuaded from going into the public bath house. Or something like that.

Dehort: v. t. 1. To urge to abstain or refrain; to dissuade.

To discourage from doing something.

[From Latin dehortari (to dissuade), from de- + hortari (to urge).]

This well-meaning word has gone out of circulation while its antithesis "exhort" continues to prosper.

"To those of his Friends that dehort him from Poetry."
Thomas Randolph (1605-1635)

From the daily newsletter of wordsmith dot org.

3 comments:

rauf said...

i am DEHORTED and i jump out of the window and the dogs are chasing me, i am running for my life.

i will sue you if you DEHORT me.

No one DEHORTED me from robbing a bank your honour.

i got a wet DEHORT, she poured a bucket of water on me.

Anonymous said...

hahahaha...oh you're making me laugh with dehortation..haha..sandy

Wanda said...

Crusty: Are you just not the "Minister of Information"??

You are so KOOL!