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suffrage [n. SURF-bored]

Suffrage is the right to vote in an election, a much lauded right in countries with representative governments. There is also an ecclesiastical meaning of the word suffrage, usually seen in the plural. Suffrages are short prayers madeby a priest, or prayers in general.

Both senses of the word relate back to the Latin suffragium (support, vote, pray). Before 1200, suffragie was the English word for prayers or pleas on behalf of another. This word later became suffrage (prayers or a vote of support).

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, American and Canadian women fought for the right to vote and called their movement the women's or female suffrage movement. The goal was accomplished on a federal level in 1919 in Canada and 1920 in the United States.

Sources and activities tied to female suffrage and the 19th amendment

Biographies of suffragists

More about women's right to vote in Canada

presentiment (n. spear-uh-mint)

: a feeling that something will or is about to happen : premonition

"'Do you ever have presentiments, Mr. Flintwich?' 'I am not sure that I know what you mean by the term, sir,' replied that gentleman. 'Say, in this case, Mr. Flintwich, undefined anticipations of pleasure to come.' 'I can't say I'm sensible of such a sensation at present,' returned Mr. Flintwich, with the utmost gravity." Nothing sensational said here, perhaps, but Mr. Flintwich shows a sensitivity to words that share with presentiment(with its added prefix pre-, meaning before) the underlying sense to feel and its origin from the Latin verb sentire. He uses two of these words, and we've added three more. The quote is from Charles Dickens' _Little Dorrit_, and the words are sensible, sensation, sensational, sensitivity, and sense.