Word of the Day

Friday, June 25, 2004

ab ovo

\ab-OH-voh\ , adverb;

From the beginning.

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Quotes:

I will begin ab ovo -- at the very beginning.

-- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The performers do not have to discover these techniques and processes ab ovo; they learn them from the previous generation, who learned them from their predecessors, and so on.

-- William L. Benzon, Beethoven's Anvil

Origin:

Ab ovo is from Latin, literally, "from the egg."