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Mar 10, 2020
This week’s themeYours to discover
This week’s words
quidditative
microcephalic
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with Anu Gargmicrocephalic
PRONUNCIATION:
(my-kro-suh-FA-lik) 
MEANING:
adjective:
1. Having an abnormally small head.
2. Small-minded.
1. Having an abnormally small head.
2. Small-minded.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek micro- (small) + -cephalic (having a head), from kephale (head). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghebh-el- (head), which also gave us the word gable. Earliest documented use: 1857. The opposite of today’s word is macrocephalic.
USAGE:
“The dwarves weren’t infants, they had beards, though that one -- Sleepy? Dopey? -- seemed microcephalic, with a tiny pointed head and huge ears.”
Tama Janowitz; They Is Us; HarperCollins; 2016.
“Olga was amazed. What imbeciles men were! A country at the mercy of this microcephalic uncle of hers.”
Rufino Blanco-Fombona (Translation from Spanish by Isaac Goldberg); The Man of Gold; Brentano’s; 1920.
“Mr Hay’s letter today is symptomatic of the microcephalic xenophobia which characterises the debate (or lack of it) on entry to the EEC.”
Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland); May 20, 1971.
See more usage examples of microcephalic in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.
Tama Janowitz; They Is Us; HarperCollins; 2016.
“Olga was amazed. What imbeciles men were! A country at the mercy of this microcephalic uncle of hers.”
Rufino Blanco-Fombona (Translation from Spanish by Isaac Goldberg); The Man of Gold; Brentano’s; 1920.
“Mr Hay’s letter today is symptomatic of the microcephalic xenophobia which characterises the debate (or lack of it) on entry to the EEC.”
Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland); May 20, 1971.
See more usage examples of microcephalic in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
All that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome. -Kate Sheppard, suffragist (10 Mar 1847-1934)
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