Dictionary.com Word Of The Day
Feb. 05, 2017
juggernaut\JUHG-er-nawt, -not\noun
1. any large, overpowering, destructive force or object, as war, a
giant battleship, or a powerful football team.
2. anything requiring blind devotion or cruel sacrifice.
Quotes... big-time sports was "a juggernaut" that "Rolls over people"
who criticize it, he said, making the faculty a silent, fearful,
impotent majority.
-- Robert Lipsyte, "Backtalk; Critics' Corner Still Tackling 'A
Juggernaut,'" New York Times, November 26, 2000
Origin of juggernautJuggernaut, Jagernaut, Jaggarnat, Jagannat are
some of the English approximations of the pronunciation of Hindi
JagannÄth and Sanskrit JagannÄtha. In Sanskrit and Hindi short a is
pronounced like the u in but, which explains the choice of u over a.
This also explains the English spelling punch âthe beverage composed
of five ingredientsâ from Hindi and Sanskrit pañca âfiveâ.) The
English gg is to insure the âhardâ pronunciation of the English g,
as in get, and not the âsoftâ one as in gem. The English er and ar
are misguided attempts to render the same Hindi and Sanskrit a. It also
unintentionally shows the nonrhotic, or r-less pronunciation of British
English. The final syllable naut is a fanciful association or mistake
of using the English combining form -naut âsailor,â as
inArgonaut,â to represent the long a of Hindi and Sanskrit (it is
pronounced like theGerman long a as in Staat âstate.â) The last
form, Jagannat, represents Hindi and Sanskrit pronunciation pretty
well. Juggernaut entered English in the mid-17th century.More From
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