Today's word: xenodochy (n.) showing hospitality to strangers.

Gairlochy: A hamlet on the southern shores of Loch Lochy in the district of Lochaber, Scotland.

Ardochy: The name of a real guest house in Glengarry, Inverness-shire Scotland.

Internet examples of pronunciation of the "ochy" sound are contradictory and inconclusive. Who'd have thought? I believe all three of the words rhyme with "cocky", not "botchy", although a proper Scottish speaker would say them with a raspy sound at the back of the throat. If I'm wrong about that, I would be happy for anyone with knowledge of the Scottish accent to correct me.

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

Thanks for reading.

Image: Johannes49~enwiki at English Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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