Word of the Week is a bookish meme hosted by The Plain-Spoken Pen in which participants share a word that they find entertaining, enlightening, edifying, or just plain fun to say! Share your own word on your blog, then help us grow the meme and come share it with us!
This week's word is:
Pronunciation: /e-kwə-ˌpȯiz/
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. balance of forces or interests; 2. a counterbalance or balancing force
In Play: 1. There is in the artist's landscapes a delicate equipoise between the natural and the man-made. 2. If the evidence for and against the defendant's guilt is in equipoise, then the burden of proof is on the prosecution. Edmund Burke stated, "Our Constitution stands on a nice equipoise, with steep precipices and deep waters upon all sides of it."
Word History: From Latin aequi- (equal) + Old French pois (weight), from Latin pendere (to weigh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root (s)pen- (to draw, to spin), which is also the source of pendulum, spider, pound, pansy, pendant, ponder, appendix, penthouse, depend, and spontaneous.
This is a word that I recently put on my shortlist for my 2024 Word of the Year as I strive more balance amongst my many interests and my work as a kindergarten teacher in the New Year. I will choose my Word of the Year on 31 December.
Do you have any nifty words to share this week? Leave a comment and then share the meme on your blog!
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