Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday July 20, 2010
impedimenta \im-ped-uh-MEN-tuh\
, noun:
Baggage or other things that retard one's progress.
With the ladies, therefore, matters soon assumed vivid and definite shape; they became clearly and irrefutably materialized; they stood stripped of all doubt and other impedimenta.
-- Nikolaĭ Gogol, Dead Souls
Amid all the usual impedimenta of a life, he came upon an unexpected treasure."When I was going through my father's chest of drawers, I found a little book that turned out to be a diary of my mother," Rodriguez told The Times.
-- Elizabeth Ogus, "Mi Diario,"The Montclair Times, July 2010.
Impedimenta relates to the Latin impedire, literally "to shackle one's feet."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for impedimenta