WOTD - Apodictic - Jan. 19

The Word of the Day for January 19, 2008 is:

apodictic • \ap-uh-DIK-tik\ • adjective
: expressing or of the nature of necessary truth or absolute certainty

Example Sentence:
The apodictic tone of Liza's writing reflects her complete confidence in the correctness of her statements.

Did you know?
There's something remarkable about a word which, when periodically dusted off, proves to have retained its freshness over 350 years -- and that's the case with "apodictic." It's a handy word that can describe a conclusive concept, a conclusive person, or even that conclusive person's conclusive remarks. A well-known close relative of "apodictic" is "paradigm" ("an outstandingly clear or typical example"); both words are built on Greek "deiknynai," meaning "to show." More distant relatives (from Latin "dicere," a relative of "deiknynai" that means "to say") include "diction," "dictate," "edict," and "predict."