peculate | Word of the Day

March 05, 2018 peculate [pek-yuh-leyt] verb 1. to steal or take dishonestly (money, especially public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle. word facts Strange Idioms With Bizarre Origin Rumors word facts The Top Words of the 70s WORD OF THE DAY peculate continued... QUOTES The neglect of the Treasurer and the supineness of the President gave him the opportunity to peculate. -- , "A Defaulting Secretary," New York Times, October 14, 1884 ORIGIN Peculate derives from the Latin past participle and noun pecūlātus "embezzled, embezzlement," derivative of the verb pecūlārī "to embezzle," and itself a derivative of pecūlium "wealth in cattle, private property." Latin suffers from an embarras de richesses of terms relating to misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, and peculation. The Latin root noun behind all the corruption is pecu "cattle, large cattle," the source of pecūnia "movable property, riches, wealth, money." Latin pecu comes all but unchanged from Proto-Indo-European pek-, peku- "wealth, livestock, movable property." Peku- becomes fehu- in Germanic, feoh "cattle, goods, money" in Old English, and fee in English. Peculate entered English in the 18th century. OTHERS ARE READING 1 Cuddle Up With Cozy Words For A Cold Day These words will warm up your day. 2 Don't Be Accident Porn & Other Funny Typos Writing comes with inherent risks: spelling errors! 3 Words That Were Inspired By Animals You won't believe where burrito came from. 4 The Oldest Memes in History Memes have been around longer than Kermit sipping tea 5 Beyond Ridiculous Hairstyles in the 1700s Every Day Was Wacky Hair Day In The 1700s © 2018 Dictionary.com, LLC. ABOUT CONTACT You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: matzom229@gmail.com Subscriber since: September 06, 2017 Unsubscribe Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Manage your subscription Terms & Privacy