In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
TILDE
tilde
(noun) a diacritical mark (~) placed over the letter n in Spanish to indicate a palatal nasal sound or over a vowel in Portuguese to indicate nasalization
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
tilde (plural tildes)
The grapheme of character ~.
A diacritical mark (˜) placed above a letter to modify its pronunciation, such as by palatalization in Spanish words or nasalization in Portuguese words.
A punctuation mark that indicates range (from a number to another number).
May be used to represent approximation (mathematics).
(logic) The character used to represent negation, usually ~ or ¬.
Usage notes
Commonly used for these letters: ã and õ (Portuguese), and ñ (Spanish); Vietnamese, Guaranà etc. use it for several other letters.
Synonyms
• squiggle, twiddle
Anagrams
• lited, tiled
Source: Wiktionary
Til"de, n. Etym: [Sp., fr. L. titulus a superscription, title, token, sign. See Title, n.]
Definition: The accentual mark placed over n, and sometimes over l, in Spanish words [thus, ñ, l], indicating that, in pronunciation, the sound of the following vowel is to be preceded by that of the initial, or consonantal, y.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
22 February 2025
ANALYSIS
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
Coffee Trivia
