Word of the Day for Monday, March 26, 2012
catechize \KAT-i-kahyz\,
verb:
1. To question closely.
2. To instruct orally by means of questions and answers, especially in Christian doctrine.
3. To question with reference to belief.
He sent her off when the dial made it five o'clock every fourth Sunday—for we had service only once a month, the parson having a church at Brampton, where he lived, and another as well, which made it the more wicked of us to play truant—but whether she got there early or late, or got there at all, he'd never ask, let alone catechize her about the sermon.
-- Mary Webb, "Precious Bane"
Aunt Bessie tried to catechize her about Erik's disappearance, and it was Kennicott who silenced the woman…
-- Sinclair Lewis, "Main Street"
Catechize stems from the Greek word katēchízein meaning "to teach orally." It was first used in the sense of "to question" by Shakespeare in Othello.
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