Today's word: lickpenny (n.) a costly enterprise; something demanding great expenditure.

On this day (March 30) 1867, American Secretary of State William H Seward and Russian diplomat Edouard de Stoeckl reached an agreement that the United States would purchase Alaska from Russia, at a cost of two cents an acre. The deal mostly met with approval, but some were not happy, believing the price was too high.

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

Thanks for reading.

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