Saturday, August 13, 2011

Holus-bolus

Holus-bolus \HOH-luhs-BOH-luhs\ , adverb;
1. All at once; altogether

Dating to the mid-1800's, this dialectal word is probably a mock-latinization of the phrase 'whole bolus.' It could also be from holus bholus ("whole lump"). Bolus ultimately derives from Greek bholus ("clod, lump of earth") and means "pill."

Side note: My dog jumped on the keyboard, she would like to add the following to this post: AQM6 ,8

Today's word and the first definition were both taken from Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' for Saturday, August 13
Etymologies come from the Oxford English Dictionary and/or Etymonline.com

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