It's the Word of the Day podcast for June 30th.

Today's word is bereft, spelled B-E-R-E-F-T.

Bereft is an adjective.

To be bereft is to be deprived or robbed of something or to lack

something that you need, want, or expect. Burreft is also used as a synonym of the word bereaved.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Daily Gazette of Schenectady.

This morning, when I was going out to play in the gardens,

I went to put on my favorite baseball cap since the sun was hot, and, being bereft of my own

natural covering, I wished to avoid a sun-scorched scalp. In old English, the verb Berafian meant to deprive of something. The modern equivalent and

descendant of Barathean is bereave, a verb used to say that one has deprived or stripped

someone of something, often suddenly and unexpectedly, and sometimes by force. Berft comes from the past participle of Bereave.

Shakespeare uses the participle in the Merchant of Venice, when Basanio tells Portia,

Madam, you have bereft me of all words.

But by Shakespeare's day, bereft was also being used as an adjective.

The bard uses it in the taming of the shrew as a newly obedient and docile Catherinea declares,

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, muddy, thick, bereft of beauty.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski.

Thank you. reft of beauty. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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