Make Your Point > Archived Issues > TRYST

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connect today's word to others: The word tryst originally meant "an agreement, a covenant," which might explain why it looks like "trust." Although it can still mean "a pact or a pledge," today it most often means "a secret meeting between lovers." Speaking of meanings that morph, see if you can recall these words: 1. It originally meant "lying in shadow," but today it means "unclear or hard to understand." It's o______. 2. It originally meant "to banish," but today it means "to move people or things down to a less important role." It's r_______. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) make your point with... "TRYST" A tryst is a sneaky, secret meeting, usually between lovers. Figuratively, a tryst is any brief encounter or meeting that reminds you of a sneaky, secret meeting between lovers. (Also, because a tryst originally was an agreement or a covenant, we sometimes still use the word that way. So, a tryst can also be a pact, a pledge, or an agreement.) Pronunciation: TRIST (rhymes with "kissed") Part of speech: Noun, the countable kind: "a tryst," "the tryst," "this tryst," "those trysts." Other forms: The plural is "trysts." It's rare, but "tryst" is a verb, too: you can tryst someone, or tryst with someone; the other forms are "trysted," "trysting," and "tryster(s)." How to use it: Talk about someone's tryst with someone else, or a tryst between two people. You can make a tryst, arrange a tryst, keep a tryst, break a tryst, expose a tryst, etc. Used figuratively, "tryst" is a fun, quirky alternative to "affair" that suggests a single short encounter. That is, talk about your tryst with whatever item, event, or idea seems to be meeting with you and sweeping you off your feet. For example, while writing about cooking, Salon's Nikhita Venugopal talked about his "tryst with eggs." You can also talk about groups, companies, countries and so on having trysts with each other. examples: I snuck off to the poetry shelves for a tryst with Robert Burns. "A piece of bone unearthed in a Siberian cave in Russia is providing the most direct evidence of a tryst between extinct human species."    — Frankie Schembri, Science Magazine, 24 August 2018 study it now: Look away from the screen to define "tryst" without saying "rendezvous" or "encounter." try it out: Fill in the blanks: "It's (romantic, surprising, unsettling, or sordid): (someone or something's) tryst with (someone or something else)." Example: "It's unsettling: the Oreo's tryst with pumpkin spice." before you review: Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first. Our game this month is "A Doodad Named After a Thingamajig." If I give you two categories, X and Y, can you think of an X that was named after a Y? We'll start off easy--these first few questions will have lots of correct answers each that you might think up--and we'll work our way toward harder questions that, as far as I know, have only one correct answer each. From the previous issue: Can you think of a style of facial hair named after a food? The only answer I know of is mutton chops. (If you know more, please share them!) Try this one today: Can you think of a piece of furniture named after a mountain? review today's word: 1. A near opposite of TRYST is A. FACT. B. SPLIT. C. AMNESIA. 2. In his speech titled "Tryst with Destiny," Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about _____. A. India's congressional rifts B. India's pledge to ascend to freedom C. India's sympathies during World War I Answers are below. a final word: Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From Liesl's 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. Answers to review questions: 1. B 2. B