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14 April 2014

gratuitous

[gruh-too-i-tuhs, -tyoo-]

adjective

1. given, done, bestowed, or obtained without charge or payment; free; voluntary.
2. being without apparent reason, cause, or justification: a gratuitous insult.
3. Law. given without receiving any return value.

Origin:
1650–60; < Latin grātuītus free, freely given, spontaneous, derivative of grātus thankful, received with thanks (for formation cf. fortuitous); see -ous

Related forms
gra·tu·i·tous·ly, adverb
gra·tu·i·tous·ness, noun
non·gra·tu·i·tous, adjective
non·gra·tu·i·tous·ly, adverb
non·gra·tu·i·tous·ness, noun

Can be confused: gracious, gratis, gratuitous.

Synonyms
2. unnecessary, superfluous, redundant; causeless, unreasonable, groundless, unprovoked, unjustified.

Anagram

guitars out
August trio
ragout suit
go tutu sari

Today’s aphorism

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

– Abraham Lincoln (attributed to Lincoln, although there is evidence to suggest it may have been Denis Diderot or Jacques Abbadie)

On this day

14 April 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater, Washington DC. Lincoln died the following day.

14 April 1912 – the RMS Titanic strikes an ice-berg just before midnight in the north Atlantic ocean as it sailed on its maiden voyage from Southampton UK to New York City USA , resulting in the deaths of 1,502 of the 3,372 people onboard.

14 April 1988 – Soviet Union begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan after nine years of occupation.