anent

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2007 is: anent • \uh-NENT\  • preposition : about, concerning Examples: "Anent the article about the recent political scandal: we've heard enough already!" began Jamil's letter to the editor. Did you know? "Anent" looks like a rather old-fashioned word. It is, in fact, very old (an earlier sense of the word can be found in Beowulf, from approximately 800 A.D.), and at one point it was almost obsolete. It had nearly died out by the 17th century, but it was revived in the 19th century. Various usage commentators have decried "anent" as "affected" and "archaic." It is not archaic, however. Although "anent" is rarely found in speech, plenty of examples of current use can be found in written sources. Dead words do occasionally rise from the grave, and "anent" is one of them. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.