selma
/ˈsɛlmə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.15 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "So when King – who had been in Atlanta for “Bloody Sunday” – telegrammed Parks about returning to Alabama to take part in a third mass march from Selma to Montgomery, her immediate answer was “Why, of course.”"
- "Eventually, our place and response may be viewed as a historic turning point, another Selma for the nation and world."
- "Shelby County has become the new Selma."
- ""I don't know how many Selmas you have in your memory," she said. "I have a lot in mine.""
- "How Many Selmas? Still another city in the south Is learning the hard way that the Negro will settle for nothing less than first class citizenship."
Etymology
Taken to use in the 19th century when similar-sounding names, Elma, Thelma, Alma, Wilma, etc. were in vogue. Perhaps a shortening of Anselma, or from the name of a place in the James Macpherson's Ossian cycle of epic poems, itself from Scottish Gaelic sealladh + math (“good vision”). In some cases perhaps borrowed from Turkish Selma, from Arabic سَلْمَى (salmā).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sealladh, Selma, سَلْمَى, س ل م
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage