[Loch-Ruadh] another word for the day

Jane Sitton lymadelina at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 5 08:30:24 PDT 2002


Your daily vocabulary lesson:

The Word of the Day for September 5 is: vanguard •
\VAN-gard\ • (noun) 1 : the troops moving at the head
of an army *2 : the forefront of an action or movement

Example sentence:
The artists and gallery owners in Joel's clique
consider themselves to be in the vanguard of the art
world, setting trends for others to follow.

Did you know?
People who think they are in the vanguard often feel
that they are avant-garde, which is reasonable given
that "vanguard" derives from the Middle French
"avant-garde."  Both terms were created by combining
the Old French words "avant," meaning "fore-," and
"garde," meaning "guard."  In the days of Middle
French, "avant-garde" referred to the troops that
marched at the head
of the army.  English speakers retained that meaning
when they adopted "vanguard" in the 15th century.
"Avant-garde" didn't make its own English debut until
1910.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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