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Tuesday April 29, 2003

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lacuna \luh-KYOO-nuh\ , noun;
plural lacunae \luh-KYOO-nee\ or lacunas::
1. A blank space; a missing part; a gap.
2. (Biology) A small opening, depression, or cavity in an anatomical structure.

Like most other writers of his generation, he was a profoundly apolitical being, not from any lacuna in his education but as a matter of principle.
-- Walter Laqueur, "The Artist in Politics", New York Times, May 15, 1983

Between the time of my first memory . . . and my second and third memories, I remember nothing. The lacunae of these years I've been able to fill sketchily from the entries in my baby book, which notes such incidents as my first smile.
-- Jaime Manrique, Eminent Maricones

The exodus of wives, relatives, friends and hangers-on had left a big howlinglacuna which wrapped the homestead in webs of glorious nostalgia.
-- Moses Isegawa, Abyssinian Chronicles

Lacuna is from the Latin lacuna, "a cavity, a hollow," from lacus, "a hollow."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for lacuna

 

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