ab ovo: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 4 is:

ab ovo \ab-OH-voh\ adverb
: from the beginning

Example sentence:
"Would you live your life differently if you could start again ab ovo?" Rachel asked.

Did you know?
"Ab ovo usque ad mala." That phrase translates as "from the egg to the apples," and it was penned by the Roman poet Horace. He was alluding to the Roman tradition of starting a meal with eggs and finishing it with apples. Horace also applied "ab ovo" in an account of the Trojan War that begins with the mythical egg of Leda from which Helen (whose beauty sparked the war) was born. In both cases, Horace used "ab ovo" to allude to a literal egg while figuratively suggesting the meaning "from the beginning." It was this figurative meaning that found its way into English in the 16th century, when Sir Philip Sidney wrote: "If [the dramatic poets] wil represent an history, they must not (as Horace saith) beginne Ab ouo: but they must come to the principall poynt of that one action."

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