Apedia

Evanescent Latin Root October Adjective Ev Uh Ness Unt Fragile Airy

Evanescent describes something that tends to vanish like vapor, emphasizing its fleeting or ephemeral nature.

Evanescent describes something that tends to vanish like vapor, emphasizing its fleeting or ephemeral nature.

Word evanescent
Date October 21, 2016
Type adjective
Syllables ev-uh-NESS-unt
Etymology The fragile, airy quality of things evanescent reflects the etymology of the word evanescent itself. It derives from a form of the Latin verb evanescere, which means "to evaporate" or "to vanish." Given the similarity in spelling between the two words, you might expect evaporate to come from the same Latin root, but it actually grew out of another steamy Latin root, evaporare. Evanescere did give us vanish, however, by way of Anglo-French and Vulgar Latin.
Examples "As stunning as his dishes could be, in the end, the maestro understood its evanescent nature. Furstenberg remembers Richard telling him, 'It's supposed to be food.'" — Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2016

"I think because we are young, issues we encounter with mental health are often excused as evanescent, and therefore not something to be taken seriously." — Morgan Hughes, The Marquette Tribune (Marquette University), 6 Sept. 2016
Definition : tending to vanish like vapor

Tags: wordoftheday::adjective

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