Enhance your vocabulary, enrich your language, and have fun with words today! Use the daily "Word-of-the-Day at least 3 times! Merriam-Webster's Word-of-the-Day is:

scavenger \SKAV-un-jer\ noun *1 : one who collects or salvages garbage or junk 2 : an organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrion Example sentence: Scavengers took the broken lamp that I left on the curb last night. Did you know? You might guess that "scavenger" is a derivative of "scavenge," but the reverse is actually true; "scavenger" is the older word, first appearing in English in 1530, and the back-formation "scavenge" came into English in the mid-17th century. "Scavenger" is an alteration of the earlier "scavager," itself from Anglo-French "scawageour," meaning "collector of scavage." In medieval times, "scavage" was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents, in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that's how "scavenger" came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. © Brought to you by Merriam-Webster Inc. The Daily Me * 122 Number 10 Road * Dexter, Maine 04930 * 207.924.3067 12333 Copyright 1997-08 The Daily ME, All Rights Reserved * Owned & Operated by Judy Craig Consulting Updated: May 8th. Powered by Points South