purlieu: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Have an iPhone or iPod touch? Leave that heavy book on the shelf. Get Dictionary.com's app
Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 3, 2011 purlieu \PUR-loo\, noun: 1. A place where one may range at large; confines or bounds. 2. A person's haunt or resort. 3. An outlying district or region, as of a town or city. 4. A piece of land on the edge of a forest, originally land that, after having been included in a royal forest, was restored to private ownership, though still subject, in some respects, to the operation of the forest laws. "A purlieu is an area at the edge of a royal forest that used to be under forest law but isn't any more." -- Edward Rutherfurd, The Forest "She thought of the strange operation of a simple-minded man's ruling passion, that it should have led Jude, who loved her and the children so tenderly, to place them here in this depressing purlieu." -- Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure: Volume 1896, Part 1 Purlieu is an alteration (simulating French lieu, "place") of earlier parlewe, "of a forest." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom? Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges Check out the Quote of the Day ››
Man discovers priceless book in his attic. Why is it called a "chronicle?" Imagine this: your beloved great uncle bequeaths to you an old book; so old that it is literally coming apart at the seams. You tuck away the tattered tome in the attic, where it will stay for decades. One day you decide to unearth the inherited manuscript and have it appraised. To your astonishment, your... Read more ››
Dictionary.com Word of the Day http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/ You are currently subscribed to Dictionary.com Word of the Day as: anujshailgupt@gmail.com Unsubscribe To subscribe to Word of the Day by email, please send a blank message to: join-wordoftheday@lists.lexico.com ©2011 by Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Subscriptions to The Word of the Day can be turned on and off via the Web at http://www.dictionary.com/help/faq/wordoftheday/   Tell a friend about The Word of the Day!