hare

[email protected] 2 Nov 2007 09:59:26 -0000
Newsgroups gmane.culture.language.word-of-the-day
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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The Word of the Day for November 2 is:=20

hare   \HAIR\   verb
          : to go swiftly : tear

Example sentence:
          =E2=80=9CI found myself, at three a.m. on a dark November nigh=
t, haring in a rented car through the Irish countryside....=E2=80=9D (Re=
nata Adler, _Pitch Dark_)

Did you know?
          No doubt you've heard the Aesop's fable about the speedy hare =
and the plodding tortoise. The hare may have lost that race due to a tac=
tical error (stopping to take a nap before reaching the finish line), bu=
t the long-eared mammal's overall reputation for swiftness remains intac=
t. It's no surprise, then, that "hare" is used as a verb meaning "to mov=
e quickly." The noun "hare" (which refers, in its most specific zoologic=
al sense, to a member of the genus _Lepus_ whose young are usually able =
to hop a few minutes after birth) is a very old word. It first appeared =
as "hara" in a Latin-Old English glossary around the year 700. The verb =
was in use by 1719, and people have been "haring off" and "haring about"=
 ever since.





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