|
Word of the day June 16
The Word of the Day for June 16 is:
hew • \HYOO\ • (verb) 1. to cut or fell with blows (as of an ax); 2. to give shape to with or as if with an ax; 3. to conform, adhere
A little more information about today’s word:
"Hew" is a strong, simple word of Anglo-Saxon descent. It can suggest actual ax-wielding, or it can be figurative: "If . . . our ambition hews and shapes [our] new relations, their virtue escapes, as strawberries lose their flavor in garden-beds" (Ralph Waldo Emerson). It's easy to see how the figurative "shape" sense of "hew" developed from the literal hacking sense, but what does chopping have to do with adhering and conforming? That sense first appeared in the late 1800s in the phrase "hew to the line." The "hew line" is a line marked along the length of a log indicating where to chop in order to shape a beam. "Hewing to the line," literally, is cutting along the mark—adhering to it—until the side of the log is squared.
My sentence (using definition #3):
It was simpler and cheaper to hew to tradition when it came to a wedding dress, Sylvia found out, and finally she gave up on the pale green satin gown she'd dreamed of.
Based on Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 10th Edition.
Next sentence?
|