Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EXHUME
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pronounce
EXHUME:
Say it "egg ZOOM."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
While accepting an Oscar, Viola Davis said:
"You know, there's one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered — one place, and that's the graveyard...I say, 'Exhume those bodies.' Exhume those stories — the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition. People who fell in love and lost... So here's to [the playwright] August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people."
In other words, she wants us to dig up stories that were buried along with the people who lived them: to dis_____ them, to focus attention on them after they've been hidden or forgotten.
(Could you recall that close synonym of exhume? It literally means "to take out of the earth.")
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "exhume" has Latin roots that mean "un-bury," or more literally, "unearth."
To exhume things is to dig them up after they had been buried.
In other words, if you're exhuming things literally, you're digging them up from the ground. And if you're exhuming things figuratively, you're bringing them out into the open, after people had tried to keep them secret or hidden.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Verb, the transitive kind: "They exhumed the body;" "Their secrets were exhumed."
Other forms:
Exhumed, exhuming; exhumator(s); exhumation(s) ("ECK zoo MAY shun").
how to use it:
Most of the time, we use this formal, serious word "exhume" to talk literally about exhuming bodies or remains.
But we can also get figurative and talk about exhuming objects--usually letters, documents, and other texts--or even abstract things, like stories, secrets, memories, experiences, traditions, or philosophies.
examples:
"Many museums store Native American skeletons, often exhumed without consent from burial grounds."
— Carl Zimmer, New York Times, 31 May 2018
"The quarterlies and monthlies are before me, looking as if they resented the exposure of their dusty and musty condition, and would conceal if they could the baldness of their wit. It would be cruel to exhume those antique judgments, so honest, yet so imbecile and so mistaken."
— Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Transcendentalism in New England, 1976
has this page helped you understand "exhume"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "exhume" without saying "unbury" or "disentomb."
try it out:
Because the word "exhume" usually refers to dead bodies, when we use it figuratively, we're drawing a comparison to a dead body.
For example, if I say, "He'd rather not exhume those memories of being fourteen and covered in cystic acne," then I'm comparing those memories to a dead body, one that ought to remain buried. The acne has healed. The suffering is over. It'd be best not to dwell on either.
And if I say, "In her song 'Hello,' Adele seems to exhume a painful past romance for no reason," then I'm comparing that romance to a dead body: one that, again, should be left to rest in peace. It's dead and buried, so the most respectful thing would be to leave it alone.
With these examples in mind, talk about another time someone exhumed something--or decided not to exhume something. Whatever that something is (a memory, a relationship, a secret, a worry, etc.), why is it appropriate to compare it to a dead body?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is Everyday Etymologies!
If you're in the habit of looking up the etymologies of everyday words (wait, you aren't?), then you find, occasionally, certain ones that strike you as particularly apt, cute, strange, or poetic. I'd like to share some of those finds with you this month. In each issue, I'll give you the etymology of an everyday word, and you supply the word. We'll start easy and move into some tougher ones as the month goes on, but every answer will be an everyday kind of word, one you've been familiar with since, say, adolescence at least. To see the answer, scroll to the bottom of the issue.
Try this one today: This four-syllable noun, often hyphenated, is French for "chewed paper."
review this word:
A. lay it to rest.
B. assume its truth.
C. breathe it in deeply.
2. In To Save Earth, Edward W. Ludwig wrote: "The sole planet of Sirius loomed green and blue in the ship's magni-screen. The sight of the shining planet was like a heavenly trumpet call, a signal for _____. The inhabitants stirred, rubbed their eyes, and tried to exhume forgotten hopes and memories from the lethargy of their minds."
A. rebirth
B. resurrection
C. reaffirmation
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
The word "exhume" has Latin roots that mean "un-bury," or more literally, "unearth."
Part of speech:
Most of the time, we use this formal, serious word "exhume" to talk literally about exhuming bodies or remains.
"Many museums store Native American skeletons, often exhumed without consent from burial grounds."
Explain the meaning of "exhume" without saying "unbury" or "disentomb."
Because the word "exhume" usually refers to dead bodies, when we use it figuratively, we're drawing a comparison to a dead body.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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