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Word of the Day: Gravitas

When Katie was a kid, her dad -- a journalist -- used to ask the Couric children to come to the dinner table every night with a new word.

When it was announced that Katie would have a blog here at CBS, she thought it would be a great idea to resurrect that custom. The "Couric & Co." team has been hard at work, poring over dictionaries and ancient scrolls.

And after considerable digging, we've found our first word of the day: gravitas .

gravi-tas (grav'i tas) - n. Reserved dignity; properiety and good taste in behavior and speech, as of a leader or official.
That's all well and good. But personally, I prefer Katie's own definition.

After hearing that word a few times too often this summer, and hearing naysayers carp that it was something she needed, she finally decided: "I'm convinced gravitas is just Latin for testicles."

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