## Word of the Day ASCERTAIN Who put the certain in ascertain? Thank the collective unconscious of English spellers, who had already decided on the decidedly unfriendly spelling of certain and decided to do themselves a favor by making the related verb similar, despite different stress. The root of both words in Latin certus. Developments in French introduced vowel havoc, as it so often has done. Courtesy Visual Thesaurus
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 06:39:20 +0000