Today's Word "immolate"
To destroy by fire
on
Published in Vocabulary
immolate \IM-uh-layt\ (transitive verb) - 1 : To sacrifice; to offer in sacrifice; to kill as a sacrificial victim. 2 : To kill or destroy, often by fire.
"What have I gained, that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove, or to Neptune, or a mouse to Hecate . . . if I quake at opinion, the public opinion, as we call it; or at the threat of assault, or contumely, or bad neighbors, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the rumor of revolution, or of murder?" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'Essays and English traits'
Immolate comes from the past participle of Latin immolare, "to sacrifice; originally, to sprinkle a victim with sacrificial meal," from in- + mola, "grits or grains of spelt coarsely ground and mixed with salt."
Comments