Daily Words from Other Days: September 2020

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31st August

And the word was...  bossy /bɑsi:/ from Human Being
Look at these examples, then choose the correct definition below:


  • "If you weren`t so bossy, maybe other people would offer their ideas about how we could do things better."
  • "She's always got some advice to give you, but I wouldn't call her bossy."
  • "The problem with bossy people is that they don't ask for anyone else's opinion, and rarely admit to their own mistakes."
A) always telling people what to do
B) very responsible
C) keen to be involved in other people’s situations

Answer: A) If someone is bossy, they are always telling other people what to do.

Lukey Tip: Check example sentences to see if you can discover anything more about a new word or expression, apart from just the meaning. Maybe a word like ‘bossy’ could be considered positive in some cultures, but if we look at the example sentences above, we can see that in English ‘bossy’ has a negative sense.

1st September

And the word was...  launch /lɔ:ntʃ/ from Celebrations
Look at these examples, then choose the correct definition below:


  • "So we've planned for the book launch to coincide with the publication of the story by all the major newspapers."
  • "Do you fancy coming to the launch of the new L'Oréal line of makeup? I've got a spare ticket, and I hear it's the last time Jean Paul will be making a public appearance before his retirement."
  • "Bad news I'm afraid. The launch is going to have to be three weeks earlier than we'd planned. We've found out that Carneson plan on going public with their version at the end of next month."
A) event at which something is presented to the public for the first time
B) formal lunch held for important or famous guests
C) party to celebrate the commercial success of a product

Answer: A) A launch is an event at which something is presented to the public for the first time

Lukey Tip: To remember new words more easily, try connecting them with similar words you already know. As the vowel sound in ‘launch’ is pronounced in the same way as ‘aw’ in ‘law’ or ‘lawn’, connecting the words in your mind can help if you forget the correct pronunciation.

2nd September

And the word was...  daft /da:ft/ from Funny Business
Look at these examples, then choose the correct definition below:


  • "Don't listen to a word John says– he's daft in the head!"
  • "Oh, it was just some daft joke about a talking dog. Made me laugh though!"
  • "It seemed daft at the time, but turned out to be a really good idea."
A) without meaning, or impossible to understand
B) painful and continuous
C) silly, stupid, or impractical

Answer: C) A daft comment is silly or stupid, while a daft idea is impractical

Lukey Tip: Generally speaking, to avoid causing personal offence, avoid using words like ‘daft’ when talking to someone about their comment or idea, unless you know them very well, and are saying it in a fun way!

3rd September

And the word was...  brand new /bræ'nju:/ from House and Home
Look at these examples, then choose the correct definition below:


  • "Careful! It's brand new and I don't want to replace it before I've even got it out of the box!"
  • "We were thinking of getting a brand new sofa, but then we saw the prices and decided a decent secondhand one would be just fine."
  • "I was really lucky to get the job. They'd just created a brand new position in the company, and they decided I was the best person they had on the team to fill it. "
A) new within a range of products
B) not completely new, but desirable because of something’s high quality
C) totally new and unused

Answer: C) If something is brand new, it is still in its original packaging, or has not been used yet.

Lukey Tip: As the sounds ‘ndn’ that connect ‘brand‘ with ‘new’ are not easy to pronounce in natural speech, the sound ‘d’ disappears. And instead of pronouncing ‘n’ twice, we simply join the words together as bræ’nju:

4th September

And the word was...  enable /ɪ'neɪbəl/ from Creativity and Invention
Look at these examples, then choose the correct definition below:


  • "Insect farms like this will enable us to manufacture high protein food without the high costs associated with meat production."
  • "And this little control enables me to alter the temperature to a hundredth of a degree."
  • "Having three extra weeks to finish the project enabled us to deal with a few technical issues we were still having."
A) support or assist in the development of something
B) make something possible, or give the necessary things to do something
C) convert something imagined into something real

Answer: B) ‘enable’ is like ‘allow’ or ‘permit’, but without the sense of giving permission. Literally the word is made from ‘en’ (French, from Latin ‘in’: put into or onto something) + ‘able’, and means to give the necessary thing(s) to make something possible

Lukey Tip: When you see a possible prefix like ‘-en’ before a word you already know, see what the original meaning was in French, Latin or sometimes further back to Greek. Although the sense may have changed, knowing prefixes and suffixes (also called affixes) can help us predict the meaning of some words, and get a feel for how English adds them to modify the meaning of words. Other similar words to ‘enable’ are ‘encourage’, ‘enrich’ and ‘entrust’. Also note how we pronounce ‘en’ as ‘in’.

5th/6th September

And the word was...  boundary /'baʊndri:/ from Universe
Look at these examples, then choose the correct definition below:


  • "A galaxy has no real boundary, but its limits are defined by the gas, dust, stars and their solar systems that are held together by gravity. "
  • "The children are at that age where they're continuously testing the boundaries and seeing how we react."
  • "As there is no clear boundary separating the campsite from the owner's property, our clients had no idea their tents and caravans were in fact on private land."
A) a line that marks the edge or limit of something
B) a group of things tied together to form a single unit
C) the distance between two objects at rest

Answer: A) a boundary is a real or imaginary line that marks the edge or limit of something

Lukey Tip: Noice the suffix ‘-ary’, meaning: belonging to, connected with, or engaged in. Other common words with this suffix are ‘imaginary’, ‘ordinary’ and ‘elementary’. We don’t pronounce the ‘a’ in this suffix, so ‘boundary‘ becomes ‘baʊndri:

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