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Word of the Day : April 19, 2018
headlong \HED-LAWNG\ adverb
Definition
1 : with the head foremost
2 : without deliberation : recklessly
3 : without pause or delay
Did You Know?
Headlong appeared in Middle English as hedlong, an alteration of the older hedling. Hedling is a combination of the Middle English hed ("head") and -ling, an adverb suffix which means "in such a direction or manner." Thus, hedling originally meant "with the head foremost" or, if you will, "in the direction of the head." By the late 1400s, influenced by its use in the compound word endlong, the adjective long began to be regarded as a suffix and a variant of -ling. It was this substitution of -ling with -long that led to the replacement of words like sideling and headling with the now more familiar sidelong and headlong.
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Aired April 19, 2018
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