Word Woman

Welcome to another astonishing episode of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! It's chilly outside, so warm up those neural synapses with some mental exercises such as learning new words. Here's the Word of the Week to get you started:

Nemesis: Nemesis was the Greek goddess of justice or revenge, her name deriving from the Greek for vengeance; thus nemesis means anyone who avenges or punishes. Shakespeare used the term in Henry VI, Part I, but it is first recorded a few years earlier in 1576. -- "The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins", Robert Hendrickson, Checkmark Books, New York, 1997.

Example: After Ted stole cookies from Larry's desk at the office, Larry became his nemesis, gleefully finding some obscure corner of the staff lunchroom to hide Ted's lunch in every Friday.