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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2009 is:
flyting \FLY-ting\ noun
: a dispute or exchange of personal abuse in verse form
Examples:
In the first flyting in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice wittily responds to Benedick's line "What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?" with "Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet / food to feed it as Signior Benedick?"
Did you know?
Flyting in 15th- and 16th-century Scotland is analogous to a modern-day rap competition during which rappers improvise clever disses and put-downs against their opponents. Similarly, the makars (a Scottish word for "poets") engaged in verbal duels in which they voiced extravagant invectives in verse against their rivals. The base of "flyting" is the ancient verb "flyte" (also spelled "flite"), meaning "to contend" or "to quarrel."
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