Chrysti The Wordsmith: Ex- Words - 4

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. The useful prefix X the X gives meaning to hundreds of English terms. Lately we've been looking at a few of these in the X category expurgated extravagant and X Zorba tent among them the prefix that heads these words most often means out from or out of or simply out. Last time we examined X orbit hint an adjective that literally means out of orbit with the extended meaning of immoderate irregular or lavish. Today will flesh out the story of another word in the X family. Eccentric this term spelled E.C. c e n tr I see looks as if it's unrelated to the others we've recently been examining. But don't let that C fool you. It's just an X in disguise. Eccentric is both now and adjective an eccentric is someone peculiar in manner while eccentric behavior is odd and unusual. And now for the best part. Eccentric

literally means out of circular or out of center eccentric and astronomical term. It originally referred to planets orbits that deviate from a perfect circle. So when we extend this magnificent term to include the habits and personalities of individuals we have a word that refers to behavior that deviates from the notional ideal of a circle. The human eccentric wobbles slightly from a perfect circular orbit. I'm Christi the wordsmith. Good day verb of course Kristie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises. A high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dotcom.