Today's Word "prestidigitation"
Skill in or performance of tricks
on
Published in Vocabulary
prestidigitation \pres-tuh-dij-uh-TAY-shuhn\ (noun) - Skill in or performance of tricks; sleight of hand.
"He was the man who had sat alone in a room for hundreds and hundreds of hours, his fingers manipulating cards and coins until he had learned and could perfectly reproduce every form of prestidigitation found in books of magic lore." -- Brian Moore, 'The Magician's Wife'
Prestidigitation was adopted from French, from preste, "nimble, quick" (from Italian presto, from Late Latin praestus, "ready at hand") + Latin digitus, "finger." One skilled in sleight of hand is a prestidigitator.
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