A word a day for advanced students - and another for beginners

A few weeks ago I signed up for a Word of the Day I am truly enjoying. The daily definition hits my mailbox compliments of www.elcastellano.org. El Castellano's words come complete with history and etymology. Here's a sample, from the Palabra del Día for October 20:

Rambla

En su sentido primigenio, esta palabra designa el lecho natural de las aguas de lluvia, cuando caen en forma abundante. En la Argentina y el Uruguay, se usa para designar las avenidas que bordean la costa del Río de la Plata o del océano Atlántico, mientras que en Cataluña y Valencia se usa para denominar avenidas amplias y arborizadas, que en otros lugares se llaman bulevar.

Rambla proviene del árabe hispánico ramla y éste del árabe clásico ramlah, que en esa lengua significa "arenal".

As much as it delights me daily, El Castellano's palabra del día is aimed at native speakers and likely not a good bet for beginners. If you've yet to discover don Quijote's palabra del día, it's published daily on the website, or you can link to the week's words from the Weekly Lesson free e-mail lesson sent out to don Quijote web members.

don Quijote's Spanish word of the day is definitely designed for students of the language, and includes an audio file so you can hear the word spoken, a definition in English, and a literary excert in which the word is used.

We've been learning animal words lately in don Quijote's palabra del día. Today's word is lombriz.

Can't say I knew that when I got up this morning.