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Word of the day June 6
The Word of the Day for June 6 is:
betwixt • \bih-TWIKST\ • (adverb or preposition) between
A little more information about today’s word:
In the nursery rhyme used as today's sentence, perhaps you've always said "and so between the two of them." That's fine. When the nursery rhyme was created (probably in the 1600s in reference to Charles I of England and his wife Henrietta Maria), "betwixt" and "between" were apparently equal. "Twixt," like "tween," is closely related to "two" (and the "be-" prefix is Old English for "by"). A couple hundred years ago, the phrase "betwixt and between" took on a life of its own to mean "neither one thing nor the other." At about this same time, "betwixt" fell out of favor. But "betwixt" is not archaic. Nowadays it's simply used more consciously than "between."
My sentence:
Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean; and so betwixt the two of them, they licked the platter clean.
Based on Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 10th Edition.
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