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# The BFD Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-bfd-word-of-the-day-1378/
- Published: 2023-11-07T17:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2023-09-03T19:01:44.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-16 22:07

The word for today is…

embargo (noun, verb):

*noun*  
1: an order of a government prohibiting the departure of commercial ships from its ports  
2: a legal prohibition on commerce  
3: stoppage, impediment, especially : prohibition  
4: an order by a common carrier or public regulatory agency prohibiting or restricting freight transportation

*verb*  
: to place an embargo on

Source : [Merriam -Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embargo?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology :English speakers got *embargo*—both the word and the concept, it seems—from the Spanish in the early 17th century. The word first referred specifically to a government order prohibiting commercial ships from entering or leaving that country’s ports. (The Spanish word comes from *embargar*, “[to bar](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bar?ref=goodoil.news#dictionary-entry-2).”) By the middle of the 17th century *embargo* was being used more broadly to refer to any government order that limits trade in some way. Today, the word is applied more broadly still to refer to various prohibitions. Publishers, for example, often place an embargo on a book to prevent stores from selling it before its official release date. And in Jane Austen’s novel *Persuasion*, Anne Elliot says “I lay no embargo on anybody’s words.” We feel similarly.

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