Friday, June 8, 2012

Word of the Day for Friday, June 8, 2012

divulse \dahy-VUHLS\,
verb:
To tear away or apart.

A perforation having been so made, it is safer to divulse the opening rather than to enlarge it by cutting in order to avoid the possibility of opening a blood vessel in an inaccessible region. -- Eugene Fuller, M.D., "The Journal of the American Medical Association"

Even if you are the kooper of the winkel over measure never lost a license. Nor a duckindonche divulse from bath and breakfast. -- James Joyce, "Finnegans Wake"

Divulse comes from the Latin root vellere meaning "plucked". The prefix di- is a variation of dis- before the letter v meaning "apart" or "away", as in disown.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day