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Word of the Day for Thursday, September 4, 2008immolate \IM-uh-layt\, transitive verb: 1. To sacrifice; to offer in sacrifice; to kill as a sacrificial victim. What have I gained, that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove, or to Neptune, or a mouse to Hecate . . . if I quake at opinion, the public opinion, as we call it; or at the threat of assault, or contumely, or bad neighbors, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the rumor of revolution, or of murder? In the city of Bhopal, police used water canon to thwart a group of Congress workers who were on the point of immolating themselves. Bowls of honey at the room's center drew random insects to immolate themselves against a nearby bug zapper. Immolate comes from the past participle of Latin immolare, "to sacrifice; originally, to sprinkle a victim with sacrificial meal," from in- + mola, "grits or grains of spelt coarsely ground and mixed with salt." | |||||||||
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