Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 26, 2024 is: herald • \HAIR-uld\  • verb Herald is a verb meaning "to give notice of"; it is synonymous with announce, publicize, and foreshadow. Herald may also mean "to greet especially with enthusiasm." // The appearance of robins heralded the advent of spring. // She is being heralded as the year's best new author. See the entry > Examples: "Trumpets herald the arrival of the players at the arena." — Simon Webster, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2023 Did you know? While herald the verb is more common today, herald the noun is older. When the word was first welcomed into English in the early 14th century, it referred to an official at a tournament (one of those knightly sporting events the Middle Ages are famous for). The herald's duties included making announcements, hence the word's uses relating to announcements both literal and metaphorical. The word is ultimately Germanic in origin, though like so many words of 14th century vintage, it came to English by way of Anglo-French. The resemblance between herald and the name Harold is not coincidental: Harold is a modern form of Chariovalda, the name of a 1st century C.E. leader of the Batavi, a tribe who lived on the lower Rhine. The Germanic source of Chariovalda, haria-, is also the source of herald.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 25, 2024 is: fealty • \FEE-ul-tee\  • noun Fealty is an old-fashioned and somewhat literary word that refers to intense loyalty or fidelity to a person, group, etc. More narrowly, fealty refers to the fidelity of a vassal or feudal tenant to their lord. // Authors who inspire such fealty can guarantee a publisher good sales, no matter the quality of the books they write. // Kneeling before the entire court, the knight pledged his fealty to the king. See the entry > Examples: “[Director, Denis] Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ movies deserve admiration if only for their fealty and ambition; the filmmaker’s respect for [Frank] Herbert’s source material radiates from every frame of movies that feel as massive as they are minutely orchestrated.” — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2024 Did you know? In The Use of Law, published posthumously in 1629, Francis Bacon wrote, “Fealty is to take an oath upon a book, that he will be a faithful Tenant to the King.” That’s a pretty accurate summary of the early meaning of fealty. Early forms of the term were used in Middle English in the early 14th century, when they specifically designated the loyalty of a vassal to a lord. Eventually, the meaning of the word broadened. Fealty can be paid to a country, a principle, or a leader of any kind, though the synonyms fidelity and loyalty are more commonly used. Fealty comes from the Anglo-French word feelté, or fealté, which comes from the Latin noun fidēlitās, meaning “fidelity.” These words come ultimately from fidēs, the Latin word for “faith.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 24, 2024 is: sanctimonious • \sank-tuh-MOH-nee-us\  • adjective Someone described as sanctimonious behaves as though they are morally superior to others. Language or behavior that suggests the same kind of moral superiority can also be described as sanctimonious. // While the subject matter was interesting, I found the presenter’s sanctimonious tone rather distracting. See the entry > Examples: “Smart and sincere but never sanctimonious, the awareness-raising drama doubles as a public service message of sorts.” — Peter Debruge, Variety, 13 Mar. 2024 Did you know? There’s nothing sacred about sanctimonious—at least not anymore. But in the early 1600s, the English adjective was still sometimes used to describe someone truly holy or pious, a sense at an important remove from today’s use describing someone who acts or behaves as though they are morally superior to others. (The now-obsolete “pious” sense recalls the meaning of the word’s Latin parent, sanctimonia, meaning “holiness” or “sanctity.”) Shakespeare used both the “holy” and “holier-than-thou” senses of sanctimonious in his work, referring in The Tempest to the “sanctimonious” (that is, “holy”) ceremonies of marriage, and in Measure for Measure to “the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments but scraped one out of the table.” (Apparently, the pirate found the restriction on stealing inconvenient.)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 23, 2024 is: catastrophe • \kuh-TASS-truh-fee\  • noun A catastrophe is never a good thing. Catastrophe can refer to a momentous tragic event, an utter failure, a violent and sudden change in a feature of the earth, or a violent usually destructive natural event. // Despite her careful planning, the party turned out to be a catastrophe. See the entry > Examples: "In the event of a major catastrophe like a hurricane, the agency would have a funding reserve set aside for initial response and recovery operations." — Ella Nilsen, CNN, 10 June 2024 Did you know? When catastrophe was borrowed from Greek in the 1500s it was a term for tearjerkers: the catastrophe was the conclusion or final event of a usually tragic dramatic work. (Greek katastrophē, which means the same thing, comes from katastrephein, meaning "to overturn.") From there, the word moved on to occupy other territory relating to tragic happenings, utter failures, and the worst sort of natural disasters. Just as disaster can range from a calamitous event to one that is merely unsuccessful, catastrophe can refer to what is truly devastating as well as to what is simply deeply disheartening. In Henry IV, Part 2, Shakespeare opted to steer the word away from disaster entirely and plant it squarely in the world of burlesque: "You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe!" May all our catastrophes be of such a comic variety.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 22, 2024 is: extenuate • \ik-STEN-yuh-wayt\  • verb Extenuate is a formal word that is most often used to mean “to lessen the strength or effect of something, such as a risk.” In legal use, to extenuate a crime, offense, etc., is to lessen or to try to lessen its seriousness or extent by making partial excuses. // Developers are trying to extenuate the various risks associated with the product. See the entry > Examples: “Oedipus, paragon of problem-solvers, discovers by the end of the play the limits of his own keen intellect. In trying to outrun his fate, he learns that he is part of a design that is larger than his understanding. But it is as a victim of fate that he finds the freedom to assume a courageous responsibility for deeds committed in ignorance. ... Nothing can extenuate the horror of acts he spent his adult life trying to avoid.” — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Sept. 2022 Did you know? Extenuate is most familiar in the phrase “extenuating circumstances,” which refers to situations or facts that provide a partial justification or excuse for something. The word extenuate can, however, also be used all on its own. Its most typical use is with the meaning “to lessen the strength or effect of something, such as a risk,” but it also has legal use closely related to the meaning of “extenuating circumstances”; to extenuate a crime, offense, etc., is to lessen or to try to lessen its seriousness or extent by making partial excuses. Extenuate didn’t get its start in this semantic territory, however. It was borrowed into English in the 1500s with a now-archaic meaning it took directly from its Latin forebear, extenuare: “to make light of; to treat as unimportant.” Extenuate is today mostly at home in technical and legal contexts, but it occasionally appears in general writing with what may be a developing meaning: “to prolong, worsen, or exaggerate.” This meaning, which is likely influenced by the words extend and accentuate, is not yet fully established.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 21, 2024 is: visage • \VIZ-ij\  • noun Visage is a formal word that refers to someone’s face or facial expression, or to the general appearance of something. // Manny was surprised to see the smiling visage of his childhood friend, now running for the state senate, beaming down from a billboard. // Don’t be intimidated by the rugged visage of the mountain; it’s accessible to climbers of all skill levels. See the entry > Examples: “[Keri] Russell was 22 when she was cast in the title role of Felicity. At the beginning of the series, her character was 17 years old, but thanks to Russell’s preternaturally youthful visage (and that glorious head of hair!), she pulled it off believably.” — Jessica Sager, Parade, 7 Jan. 2024 Did you know? In “Ozymandias,” Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem, a traveller tells of a colossal statue’s “shattered visage” lying half sunk in desert sands, going on to describe its “frown / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command…” Now, Shelley could have simply chosen face over the more highfalutin synonym visage, but not only would face shatter the sonnet’s iambic pentameter, but a formal-sounding word is sometimes preferable to a basic one for all kinds of reasons, including sound, tone, or simply the cut of its jib. Physiognomy, for instance, refers to facial features thought to reveal qualities of temperament or character, as when Emily Brontë writes in Wuthering Heights, “I thought I could detect in his physiognomy a mind owning better qualities than his father ever possessed.” Countenance, meanwhile, is often used to refer to the face as an indication of mood or emotion, as in Bram Stoker’s Dracula: “Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance.” As all of these quotes attest, when it comes to wordsmithery, sometimes you’ve just got to vamp.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 20, 2024 is: amiable • \AY-mee-uh-bul\  • adjective Someone or something described as amiable is friendly and agreeable. // Both children have amiable dispositions, which makes them easy to travel with. See the entry > Examples: "An amiable, Honda Civic–driving, bird-watching Everyman in shorts and glasses, Gary somehow turns out to be the perfect fake assassin." — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 24 May 2024 Did you know? Amiable has its roots in amīcus the Latin word for "friend," and can ultimately be traced back to the verb amare, meaning "to love." English has been friendly with amiable since the 14th century, at which time it meant "pleasing" or "admirable" (a sense that is now obsolete). The current, familiar senses of "generally agreeable" and "friendly and sociable" came centuries later. Amare has also given English speakers such words as amative and amorous (both meaning "strongly moved by love"), amour ("a usually illicit love affair"), and even amateur (which originally meant "admirer"). And that’s just the tip of the amare iceberg: its influence on Romance languages is nothing short of integral. The Spanish word for "friendship" is amistad, the French word for "friend" is ami, and the Italian word for "love"? That’s amore.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2024 is: nonplus • \nahn-PLUS\  • verb To nonplus someone is to perplex them, or in other words, to cause them to be at a loss as to what to say, think, or do. // The stranger's odd question about the town where my grandfather was born nonplussed me. See the entry > Examples: "Motherhood is only somewhat less likely to nonplus the reader than How Should a Person Be? On one level, it's a feminist disputation over art versus maternity—whether a female writer must be a mother or whether she can get away with being just (just!) a writer. But this is also a book about life with a capital L." — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 10 Feb. 2022 Did you know? Does nonplus perplex you? You aren't alone. Some people believe the non in nonplus means "not," and assume that to be nonplussed is to be calm and poised, but in fact the opposite is true. If you are among the baffled, the word's history may clarify things. In Latin, non plus means "no more." When nonplus debuted in English in the 16th century, it was used as a noun synonymous with quandary. Someone brought to a nonplus had reached an impasse in an argument and could say no more. In short time, people began applying nonplus as a verb, and today it is often used in participial form with the meaning "perplexed" (as in "Joellen's strange remark left us utterly nonplussed").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2024 is: tomfoolery • \tahm-FOO-luh-ree\  • noun Tomfoolery is a word with an old-fashioned sound to it that refers to playful or silly behavior. // The antics in the play itself apparently inspired tomfoolery behind the scenes as well, as cast members constantly played practical jokes on one another. See the entry > Examples: “Children aged seven and older are invited to be part of some musical mischief with the BBC Concert Orchestra and star percussionist Colin Currie, not to mention the world premiere of the Beano Concerto for percussion and orchestra. Actors and animation will also play a part and there’s plenty of audience participation too. Prepare for charming tomfoolery and the perfect first foray into classical music.” — Martha Alexander, The Evening Standard (London), 30 May 2023 Did you know? The word tomfoolery owes a debt to one Thome Fole, but just who that Mr. Fole was is unclear. A court jester identified as Thome Fole was employed at Durham Abbey in the 14th century, but the record is unclear about whether Thome Fole was the given name of this particular performer, or if the name was applied as a generic moniker to jesters. Regardless, Thome Fole eventually evolved into tomfool, which was in use as a noun referring to any notable fool by the early 17th century, and as an adjective describing such fools by the mid-18th century. Tomfoolery as a term for playful or foolish behavior didn’t come into use until the early 19th century, but it’s proven to be of far more use to English speakers than tomfool.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2024 is: otiose • \OH-shee-ohss\  • adjective Otiose is a formal word typically used to describe either something that serves no useful purpose, or something that has no use or effect. // I enjoyed the storyline, but was bothered by the otiose punctuation. // The new zoning regulations rendered their proposal for the empty lot otiose. See the entry > Examples: "Christian Tetzlaff has only begun to play the concerto recently, but it was a masterly performance. The concentrated tension, always the hallmark of Tetzlaff’s playing, never flagged.... In other hands, an encore might have been otiose after all that. But Tetzlaff’s playing of the andante from Bach’s A minor solo sonata proved just as magical, and seemed to draw the entire hall into its hushed meditations." — Martin Kettle, The Guardian (London), 25 Aug. 2023 Did you know? In this life, some pursuits seem destined to set the world on fire while others simply aren’t worth the candle. That’s where otiose comes in. The adjective traces back to the Latin noun otium meaning “leisure.” When otiose was first used in the late-18th century it described things that, like leisure (at least according to some), are pointless or otherwise produce no useful result, as in “it would be otiose to ask you about the book since you haven’t read it yet.” By the mid-19th century it was also being used to describe people who indulge a bit too much in leisure and idleness—your loafers, layabouts, and lazybones—and thus need a fire lit under them. Both otiose and the noun otiosity (which predates the adjective by several centuries) are usually found in formal writing, but should you have a burning desire to do so, feel free to drop either into casual contexts at your leisure.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2024 is: harry • \HAIR-ee\  • verb To harry someone or something is to harass or torment them by or as if by constant attack. // The visiting team harried the home team relentlessly during the first quarter. See the entry > Examples: “His side played like a team who understood the magnitude of a fixture laced with bitterness. They hassled and harried their opponents from the first minute and were rewarded with the biggest margin of victory in this fixture since 1956.” — Henry Clark, The Mail on Sunday (London, UK), 4 Feb. 2024 Did you know? Harry has been a part of English for as long as there has been anything that could be called English. It took the form hergian (“to make predatory raids, ravage, wage war”) in Old English and harien (“to plunder, ravage, torment, pursue, drag”) in Middle English, passing through numerous variations before finally settling into its modern spelling. While its oldest senses were violent indeed (and harry can still be used today to mean “to make a pillaging or destructive raid upon”) one is just as likely today to encounter the word in less martial, though still fraught, contexts that involve someone or something being troubled or worried. Holiday travelers may be harried, for example, by numerous stresses (traffic, flight delays, lost baggage, etc.), while sports teams are often said to harry one another while vying for control of the ball, puck, or what-have-you.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2024 is: harry • \HAIR-ee\  • verb To harry someone or something is to harass or torment them by or as if by constant attack. // The visiting team harried the home team relentlessly during the first quarter. See the entry > Examples: “His side played like a team who understood the magnitude of a fixture laced with bitterness. They hassled and harried their opponents from the first minute and were rewarded with the biggest margin of victory in this fixture since 1956.” — Henry Clark, The Mail on Sunday (London, UK), 4 Feb. 2024 Did you know? Harry has been a part of English for as long as there has been anything that could be called English. It took the form hergian (“to make predatory raids, ravage, wage war”) in Old English and harien (“to plunder, ravage, torment, pursue, drag”) in Middle English, passing through numerous variations before finally settling into its modern spelling. While its oldest senses were violent indeed (and harry can still be used today to mean “to make a pillaging or destructive raid upon”) one is just as likely today to encounter the word in less martial, though still fraught, contexts that involve someone or something being troubled or worried. Holiday travelers may be harried, for example, by numerous stresses (traffic, flight delays, lost baggage, etc.), while sports teams are often said to harry one another while vying for control of the ball, puck, or what-have-you.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2024 is: limpid • \LIM-pid\  • adjective Limpid describes things that are perfectly transparent or clear, or that are simple in style. // Though the stream was deep, flecks and shimmers in the sand shone up through its limpid water. // The author is known for her limpid, exacting prose. See the entry > Examples: "The movie’s opulent sets and Giuseppe Rotunno’s limpid cinematography transmit a palpable yearning for the gilded palaces and gala balls of a bygone era." — Mark Olsen, The Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2024 Did you know? Let's clarify a few things about limpid. Since the early 1600s, this word has been used in English to describe things that have the soft clearness of pure water. The aquatic connection is not incidental; language scholars believe that limpid probably traces to lympha, a Latin word meaning "water." (That same Latin root is also the source of the English word lymph, the term for the pale liquid that helps maintain the body's fluid balance and that removes bacteria from tissues.) While limpid was used originally to describe liquids free of visible, cloudy material, it didn't take long for the word to gain its figurative sense of "clear and simple in style." And despite its similarity to the unrelated adjective limp—which can be used to describe writing, for example, that lacks spirit or oomph—limpid carries no such negative connotations.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2024 is: coterie • \KOH-tuh-ree\  • noun Coterie refers to an intimate and often exclusive group of people with a unifying common interest or purpose. // The mayor arrived at the meeting with a coterie of advisors. See the entry > Examples: "By day I was exposed to third-wave-feminist texts—lots of talk about claiming my power and rejecting gender roles. But on evenings and weekends, the small coterie of Latino students enrolled in my predominantly white college would gather and dance. The chasm between the bodily autonomy I was being empowered to have intellectually and the physical pliability to a partner’s will that salsa required was simply too wide for my teenage brain to bridge." — Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic, 15 Jan. 2024 Did you know? A coterie today is, in essence, a clique—that is, a tight-knit group sharing interests in common. Historically, however, coteries hung around agricultural fields, not garden parties. In medieval France, coterie referred to a group of feudal peasants who together held a parcel of land (that coterie comes from the Old French word for a singular peasant, cotier). Such associations of country people inspired later French speakers to use coterie more broadly and apply it to other kinds of clubs and societies. By the time the word began appearing in English texts in the early 1700s, its meaning had been extended to refer to any circle of people who spent a great deal of time together, who shared the same basic attitudes, and who held a passion for some particular topic. Coterie mostly appears now in formal speech and writing, and tends also to imply a bit of exclusivity—if you’re thinking of joining your local coterie, you may need to learn the secret handshake, or perhaps bone up on the latest techniques for harvesting barley.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2024 is: coterie • \KOH-tuh-ree\  • noun Coterie refers to an intimate and often exclusive group of people with a unifying common interest or purpose. // The mayor arrived at the meeting with a coterie of advisors. See the entry > Examples: "By day I was exposed to third-wave-feminist texts—lots of talk about claiming my power and rejecting gender roles. But on evenings and weekends, the small coterie of Latino students enrolled in my predominantly white college would gather and dance. The chasm between the bodily autonomy I was being empowered to have intellectually and the physical pliability to a partner’s will that salsa required was simply too wide for my teenage brain to bridge." — Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic, 15 Jan. 2024 Did you know? A coterie today is, in essence, a clique—that is, a tight-knit group sharing interests in common. Historically, however, coteries hung around agricultural fields, not garden parties. In medieval France, coterie referred to a group of feudal peasants who together held a parcel of land (that coterie comes from the Old French word for a single peasant, cotier). Such associations of country people inspired later French speakers to use coterie more broadly and apply it to other kinds of clubs and societies. By the time the word began appearing in English texts in the early 1700s, its meaning had been extended to refer to any circle of people who spent a great deal of time together, who shared the same basic attitudes, and who held a passion for some particular topic. Coterie mostly appears now in formal speech and writing, and tends also to imply a bit of exclusivity—if you’re thinking of joining your local coterie, you may need to learn the secret handshake, or perhaps bone up on the latest techniques for harvesting barley.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 13, 2024 is: eclectic • \ih-KLEK-tik\  • adjective Something described as eclectic, such as a collection or a person's tastes, includes things taken from many different sources. // The collection includes an eclectic mix of historical artifacts. See the entry > Examples: “Known for its eclectic, international flavor and its status as a bar crawl destination, this neighborhood has landed some of the city’s most respected restaurants in recent years. Go to Keren for Eritrean breakfast, Lucky Buns for top-notch burgers, Lapis for refined Afghan dishes, the Game for Filipino bar food, Green Zone for Middle Eastern-flavored cocktails, and Tail Up Goat for Mediterranean toasts and fresh pasta.” — Eater.com (Washington, D.C.), 21 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Eclectic comes from the Greek adjective eklektikos, meaning “picking out, selecting what appears to be best,” which in turn comes from the verb eklegein, meaning “to select.” Eclectic was originally applied to ancient philosophers who were not committed to any single system of philosophy but instead selected whichever doctrines pleased them from every school of thought. Later, the word’s use broadened to cover other selective natures, as well as the use of elements drawn from different sources. For instance, a museum with an eclectic collection may showcase pieces from a variety of styles and periods and in different media. Similarly, a person may be said to have eclectic tastes if they enjoy a broad range, rather than a single genre, of film, music, literature, etc.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 12, 2024 is: bilk • \BILK\  • verb Bilk is typically applied in contexts relating to fraud and deceit. It can mean "to cheat out of something valuable," or "to evade payment of or to," or "to obtain something by defrauding someone." // Prosecutors contend that the defendant bilked hundreds of investors out of their life savings. // Some vendors accuse the company of bilking its creditors. // The organization's treasurer had bilked thousands of dollars from the nonprofit over the course of one year. See the entry > Examples: "In a scheme revealed in February, Arlington was bilked out of nearly a half-million dollars by international hackers impersonating a vendor working to rebuild the community's high school." — John Hilliard, The Boston Globe, 11 June 2024 Did you know? Initially, bilking wasn't considered cheating—just good strategy for cribbage players. Language historians aren't sure where bilk originated, but they have noticed that its earliest uses occur in contexts relating to the game of cribbage. Part of the scoring in cribbage involves each player adding cards from their hand to a pile of discards called the "crib." At the end of a hand, the dealer gets any points in the crib. Strategically, then, it's wisest for the dealer's opponents to discard the cards most likely to "balk," or put a check on, the dealer's score (or in other words, the ones least likely to contribute to point-making combinations). Etymologists theorize that bilk may have originated as an alteration of that card-game balk.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 11, 2024 is: fountainhead • \FOUN-tun-hed\  • noun Fountainhead is a word usually encountered in literary contexts that refers to the origin or source of something. // Ragtime, popularized by such performers as Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake, is considered one of the musical fountainheads of jazz. See the entry > Examples: “In Marbury, in 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall proclaimed, ‘It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.’ There, the Supreme Court, for the first time, declared an act of Congress unconstitutional and ‘entirely void.’ Because the Court implied that its own authority to interpret the Constitution is superior to that of the other branches, the case is the fountainhead of judicial supremacy.” — Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2023 Did you know? In Walden, widely considered Henry David Thoreau’s masterwork, the poet-philosopher extolled one major—nay, transcendent—perk of being an early bird: “Morning air! If men will not drink of this at the fountainhead of the day, why, then, we must even bottle up some and sell it in the shops, for the benefit of those who have lost their subscription ticket to morning time in this world.” Thoreau was using fountainhead in its figurative sense—referring to morning as the “origin” of the day to follow—while also paying homage to its literal meaning, “the source of a stream” (the earliest sense of fountain being “a natural spring”). As someone who spent two years living, writing, and meditating in a cabin, Thoreau was nothing, after all, if not thorough.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 10, 2024 is: ungainly • \un-GAYN-lee\  • adjective Ungainly usually describes someone or something moving in an awkward or clumsy way, or the awkward, clumsy movements themselves. It can also describe an object that is difficult to handle (especially because of being large or heavy), or someone or something that has an awkward appearance. // While seals are ungainly on land, they are beautifully agile swimmers. // Getting the ungainly couch up the stairs was a real chore. // The creature is large and ungainly. See the entry > Examples: "[Composer, Gioachino] Rossini, who was just 25 at the time, and his librettist Jacopo Feretti turned this 'Cinderella' into a comedy. It contains all kinds of farcical elements, including hidden identities and the wonderfully exaggerated stepsisters, who are delightfully mean, self-involved and ungainly." — Kyle MacMillan, The Chicago Sun Times, 22 Jan. 2024 Did you know? What do you have to gain by knowing the root of ungainly? Plenty. The gain in ungainly is an obsolete English adjective meaning "direct" that ultimately comes from the Old Norse preposition gegn, meaning "against." (It is unrelated to the noun in "economic gains" or the verb in "gain an advantage"; those came to English by way of Anglo-French.) Ungainly can describe someone who is clumsy, as in "a tall, ungainly man"; or something that causes you to feel clumsy when you try to handle it, as in "a car with ungainly controls"; or something that simply looks awkward and out of place, as in "an ungainly strip mall."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 9, 2024 is: respite • \RESS-pit\  • noun Respite refers to a short period of time when someone is able to stop doing something that is difficult or unpleasant, or when something difficult or unpleasant stops or is delayed. // The long weekend provided a nice respite from the pressures of her job. // The station's meteorologist had predicted that the bad weather would continue through the week without respite. See the entry > Examples: "Shaded spots are necessary for a respite from the North Texas sun. If your deck or patio isn't covered, add a stylish umbrella to the mix." — Ryan Conner and Mary Grace Granados, The Dallas Morning News, 13 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Everyone needs a little R & R from time to time. That's where respite comes in handy: this word was first used in the 14th century to refer to a delay or extension asked for or granted for a specific reason, such as to give someone time to deliberate on a proposal. This kind of respite offered an opportunity for the kind of consideration inherent in this word's etymology: respite traces from the Latin term respectus (also the source of English's respect), which comes from respicere, a verb with both concrete and abstract meanings: "to turn around to look at" or "to regard." Within a few decades of its earliest known use, English speakers had granted respite the sense we use most often today—"a welcome break."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 8, 2024 is: dicker • \DIK-er\  • verb To dicker is to talk or argue with someone about the conditions of a purchase, agreement, or contract. // My favorite thing about flea markets is dickering over prices. See the entry > Examples: “They haggled and dickered and bargained through a good number of dealerships.” — Terry Woster, Tri-State Neighbor (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), 7 Dec. 2023 Did you know? The origins of the verb dicker likely lie in an older dicker, the noun referring to a quantity of ten animal hides or skins. The idea is that the verb arose from the bartering of, and haggling over, animal hides on the American frontier. The noun dicker comes from decuria, the Latin word for a bundle of ten hides, and ultimately from the Latin word decem, meaning "ten." The word entered Middle English as dyker and by the 14th century had evolved to dicker.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 7, 2024 is: swole • \SWOHL\  • adjective Someone described as swole is extremely muscular. In other words, they have a physique enhanced by bodybuilding exercises. // Her New Year’s resolution was to get swole, so she signed up with a personal trainer and committed to working out every day. See the entry > Examples: “It’s possible to build muscle in a couple of half-hour workouts a week, provided you train both smart and hard. Building muscle has a lot more benefits than just making you look swole, though, for both men and women. Having more muscle and strength makes everyday activities, be that carrying shopping loads or lifting your suitcase into an overhead compartment, easier.” — Rachel Hosie, Business Insider, 25 Mar. 2024 Did you know? If someone said you were swole, would you know how to respond? If you’re unfamiliar with the word, you might think your face is swollen or check yourself for signs of puffiness. If you know the word, however, you’d know you’re in fact looking quite fit and muscular and might respond with a simple “Thank you for noticing.” Often used on social media, swole has come to be a complimentary term for those with a physique enhanced by weightlifting and bodybuilding exercises. The word isn’t exactly new—swole goes back to Middle English as a past tense and past participle of swell meaning “to enlarge,” “to bulge,” or “to puff out” (literally and figuratively). In the late 1980s the sense of “having well-defined muscles” emerged as a regional variant of swollen in African American English. Rapper Ice-T used the adjective in his 1991 song “The Tower”: “And hit the weight pile / The brothers was swole.” In addition, it was applied as a verb to describe becoming ripped or cut, as when the late Tupac Shakur applied it in his 1997 song “When I Get Free”: “… did push-ups till I swole up.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 6, 2024 is: mogul • \MOH-gul\  • noun A mogul is a powerful and influential person. // The music mogul's latest album has been nominated for several awards. See the entry > Examples: "Kenyan media mogul and businesswoman Betty Kyallo has been the center of attention for as long as anybody can remember, thanks to her many accomplishments in the public eye and her glamorous personal life." — Garvin Patrick, Mpasho (Kenya), 15 May 2024 Did you know? Started by Bābur, a descendant of Genghis Khan, the Muslim Mogul dynasty ruled much of India from the early 16th century to the mid-18th century. The Moguls (whose name is also spelled Moghul or Mughal) were known for their talented and powerful rulers, called "Great Moguls"; English speakers borrowed the word for other powerful persons, as in today's familiar references to "media moguls." Skiers might wonder if such power moguls have anything to do with the name they use for a bump in a ski run, but that hilly homonym is of Germanic origin and has nothing to do with Asian Mogul dynasties.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 5, 2024 is: castigate • \KASS-tuh-gayt\  • verb Castigate is a formal word that means "to criticize harshly." // He was widely castigated for earning millions of dollars in bonuses as the company he was leading slid into insolvency. See the entry > Examples: "At key moments throughout the animated feature, which takes her from age 7 through her 20s, she’s bombarded with the song stylings of three Mythology Sirens, harmonizing scolds who take different forms, depending on the circumstances. They reinforce Zelma’s self-doubt and castigate her whenever she breaks or questions the old-school rules of the boy-girl game …" — Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Castigate has a synonym in chastise: both verbs mean "to punish or to censure (someone)." They both also happen to come from the same Latin root, the verb castīgāre, meaning "to discipline for a fault or lapse; reprove, censure." Castīgāre is also the source of chasten, which can also mean "to discipline by punishment" but more commonly means "to subdue or make humble," as in "chastened by my foolish error." Castigate is the newest of the three verbs; current evidence dates it to the early 17th century, while chasten dates to the early 16th century, and chastise has been found in use as far back as the 14th.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 4, 2024 is: patriot • \PAY-tree-ut\  • noun Patriot refers to a person who loves and strongly supports or fights for their country. // Addy enjoyed looking at old photographs of her grandmother, a patriot who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II, in uniform. See the entry > Examples: “Today’s National Poll Worker Recruitment Day was established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to address the critical shortage of poll workers by encouraging people to be a patriot and sign up to be a poll worker.” — The North Port (Florida) Sun, 23 Aug. 2023 Did you know? To be called a patriot is today considered an honor, but it wasn’t always this way. For much of the 17th century, to be deemed a “good patriot” was to be a lover of one’s country who agreed on political and/or religious matters with whoever was doing the deeming. British loyalists applied the word like a badge to supporters of the ruling monarchy, but then the word took on negative connotations as it was applied first to hypocritical patriots—those who espoused loyalty to the Crown but whose actions said otherwise, and then to outright anti-royalists. But in the 18th century, American writers, including Benjamin Franklin, embraced patriot to refer to colonists who took action against British control. After the American Revolutionary War, patriot settled back into more neutral use, but to this day writers of all and various political stripes grapple over who is deserving of the word.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 3, 2024 is: insuperable • \in-SOO-puh-ruh-bul\  • adjective Something described as insuperable is impossible to gain control of, solve, or overcome. // The book tells the inspiring story of a group of people who achieved a great deal despite nearly insuperable obstacles. See the entry > Examples: "A love story comes into meteoric focus in this musical [The Lonely Few], which features a book by Rachel Bonds and a score by Zoe Sarnak. Two women who are attached to their cultural roots yet alienated by the conservative values of their communities hold for each other the answer to problems that until now have seemed insuperable." — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Insuperable is a super word: that is, it belongs to a family of English terms that come from the Latin word super, meaning "over." It first appeared in print in the 14th century, and as a close synonym of insurmountable, it still essentially means what it did then. Insuperable comes directly from the Latin word insuperabilis, which was formed by combining the negative prefix in- with the verb superare (which comes from super and means "to surmount, overcome, or excel") and the adjective abilis (meaning "able"). Hence, insuperabilis means "unable to be surmounted, overcome, or passed over," or more simply, "insurmountable." The word can describe physical barriers that cannot be scaled (such as walls or mountains) as well as more figurative obstacles.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 2, 2024 is: glade • \GLAYD\  • noun A glade is a grassy open space in a forest. // She felt the most at ease outdoors, often taking delight in the peaceful glades she came across on her hikes. See the entry > Examples: “[Elsie] Reford was no professional gardener, just a very stubborn Ontarian with a lot of money, and although she started in 1926, before the road arrived, she somehow transformed a spruce forest into a glade of delights—in a part of the world where it often snows as late as May.” — Nina Caplan, Travel + Leisure, 28 Oct. 2023 Did you know? In his poem “After the Winter,” Jamaican-born poet and novelist Claude McKay writes of a “summer isle / Where bamboos spire to shafted grove / And wide-mouthed orchids smile,” declaring that “… we will build a cottage there / Beside an open glade …” It’s a serene, joyous vision offered to the speaker’s beloved, and it may shine a bit of light on the etymological connection between glade and the adjective glad, besides. Glade, which has been part of the English language since the early 1500s, was originally used not just to indicate a clearing in the woods but often specifically to refer to one filled with sunlight (note that McKay specifies that his glade is “open,” as glades can be in full or partial shade). It’s this sunniness that has led some etymologists over the years to suggest a connection with glad, which in Middle English also meant “shining.” To further the intrigue, a now-obsolete sense of glade once referred to a clear or bright space in the sky, or to a flash of light or lightning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2024 is: abhor • \ub-HOR\  • verb Abhor is synonymous with loathe. Something or someone who is abhorred is regarded with extreme disgust or hatred. // Mariah is an animal rights activist who abhors any and all mistreatment of animals. See the entry > Examples: "While Anne's embarrassed by the slightest bit of conflict, disruptive Jenny abhors obedience—she's a roll of Mentos dropped into her sister's placid Diet Coke life." — Peter Debruge, Variety, 1 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Those who shudder to think about having to clean dirty carpets might fairly be said to abhor a vacuum. Nature is often said to abhor a vacuum as well, albeit a different one—according to plenists, there is always some matter or material floating around ready to fill a void. Interior designers afflicted with horror vacui abhor vacuums as well, being unable to tolerate empty spaces in artistic designs. In each of these cases, abhor implies strong feelings of disgust and aversion, a degree of distaste embedded in the word's history: the word's Latin source, the verb abhorrēre, comes from the prefix ab- ("from, away") and the verb horrēre ("to bristle, shiver, or shudder"). Horrēre is also the source of the English words horror, horrify, and horrible.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 30, 2024 is: kudos • \KOO-dahss\  • noun Kudos refers to praise someone receives because of an act or achievement, or to fame and renown that results from an act or achievement. // Kudos to everyone who helped clean up the community garden. // The company has received kudos for responding so quickly to customers’ concerns. See the entry > Examples: “[Sydney] Sweeney is not the first actor to smartly partner up with a studio, but kudos to her for being so transparent. Indeed, her self-branding as a wheeler-dealer is yet another step in her savvy journey up the industry ladder.” — David Sims, The Atlantic, 22 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Kudos looks like it means “more than one kudo,” but it didn’t begin that way. Kudos is one of a number of Greek-derived English nouns ending in -os; like pathos, ethos, and mythos, kudos is a mass noun. There are no subdivisions in the idea of kudos, and the term is used with some, not a. What separates kudos from pathos and the rest, however, is that it is often interpreted as plural, with its -s getting clipped off and kudo being applied as a singular noun, as in “a kudo to anyone who remembers that kudos is not a plural noun.” It makes some sense really: other nouns for things you receive as praise—such as congratulations, accolades, awards, and honors—are plural. Kudos the mass noun was adopted as British university slang in the early 1800s with its still-current pronunciation of \KOO-dahss\, but by the 1920s kudo was being used as a count noun, with kudos, pronounced as \KOO-dohz\, as its plural. (We now enter this count noun in our dictionaries.) This isn’t the first time English speakers have reinterpreted a mass noun as a plural. In Middle English one could only put “some pease” on a plate the way we put “some butter” on bread; eventually the mass noun pease was understood to be plural, and one pea could be enjoyed all on its own.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 29, 2024 is: fecund • \FEK-und\  • adjective Fecund is a formal word that typically describes a person, animal, or plant that is producing or able to produce many offspring. It is synonymous with fertile and fruitful. Fecund is also used figuratively to describe something especially intellectually productive or inventive, as in "a fecund source of ideas." // The farm’s fecund fields abounded with produce. // The Franklin stove, bifocals, and the lightning rod are just a few of the inventions that we owe to the fecund creativity of Benjamin Franklin. See the entry > Examples: "By 2020, Sarai had started to resent her bucolic upbringing, but the pandemic forced her to become reacquainted with the landscape of El Llano. In several of the book's photographs, she appears engulfed by it almost entirely—submerged from the nose down in deep turquoise water or climbing up into the dense foliage of a tree. Others omit her altogether, capturing the natural realm unblemished by human presence, a fecund environment dotted with snakes and birds and fungi." — Ana Karina Zatarain, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2024 Did you know? Fecund has been flourishing in the English language and describing fructuous things since the 15th century. It ultimately made its way into the English lexicon through the Latin adjective fecundus, meaning "fruitful." Fecund applies to things that yield offspring or fruit or results in abundance or with rapidity, as in "a fecund herd" or "a fecund imagination." Its synonyms fruitful and fertile also describe things that produce or are capable of producing offspring or fruit, literally or figuratively. Fruitful emphasizes abundance, too, often with the added implication that the results attained are desirable or useful ("fruitful plains," "a fruitful discussion"), while fertile implies the power to reproduce ("a fertile egg") or the power to assist in reproduction, growth, or development ("fertile soil," "a fertile climate for artists"). Fecund is a tad more literary and formal than either of these synonyms.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2024 is: deference • \DEF-uh-runss\  • noun Deference refers to respect and esteem that is appropriate to show to someone, such as a superior or elder. Something done in deference to, or out of deference to, someone or something is done in order to show respect for the opinions or influence of that person or thing. // The children were taught to show proper deference to their elders. // In deference to those who voted against the change, we'll be having another meeting to discuss how we can mitigate people's concerns. See the entry > Examples: "The new bridge over the Colorado River linking Bullhead City and Laughlin officially has a name. It will be called Silver Copper Crossing.... The formal name was chosen in deference to the two states the bridge connects: Nevada is the Silver State and Arizona is the Copper State." — Bill McMillen, Mohave Valley Daily News (Bullhead City, Arizona), 21 May 2024 Did you know? As you might have guessed, deference is related to the verb defer, meaning "to delegate" or "to submit to another's wishes." But we need to be specific when we tell you that both these words come from the Medieval Latin verb dēferre, which means "to convey, show respect, or submit to a decision," because there are two defers in the English language. The defer related to deference is typically used with to in contexts having to do either with allowing someone else to decide or choose something, as in "I'll defer to the dictionary," or with agreeing to follow someone else's decision, wish, etc., as when a court defers to precedent. The other defer traces to the Latin verb differre, meaning "to carry away in varying directions, spread abroad, postpone, delay, be unlike or distinct." That defer is typically used in contexts having to do with delaying or postponing something, as in "a willingness to defer the decision until next month."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 27, 2024 is: cardinal • \KAHRD-nul\  • adjective Cardinal is an adjective used to describe things—usually abstract things such as rules or principles—that are of basic or main importance. The word is also used, especially in the phrase “cardinal sin,” with the meaning “very serious or grave.” // “Seek out multiple sources” is a cardinal rule of good news reporting. // The four cardinal points on a compass are North, South, East, and West. See the entry > Examples: “The cardinal rule of stargazing is going somewhere dark—the darker the skies, the better the view.” — Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 11 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Mathematics, religion, ornithology—everything seems to hinge on cardinal. As a noun, cardinal has important uses in all three of the aforementioned realms of human inquiry; as an adjective cardinal describes things of basic or main importance, suggesting that outcomes turn or depend on them. Both adjective and noun trace back to the Latin adjective cardinalis, meaning “serving as a hinge,” and further to the noun cardo, meaning “hinge.” Since the 12th century, cardinal has been used as a noun referring to a fundamentally important clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church, ranking only below the pope. (The clergyman's red robes gave the familiar North American songbird its name.) By the 1300s cardinal was also being used as the adjective we know today, to describe abstract things such as principles or rules (as opposed to, say, red wheelbarrows) upon which so much depends.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2024 is: zero-sum • \ZEER-oh-SUM\  • adjective Zero-sum describes something, such as a game, mentality, or situation, in which any gain corresponds directly with an equivalent loss. // Dividing up the budget is a zero-sum game. See the entry > Examples: “Domestic migration is zero-sum, meaning a loss of college graduates prized by local officials and tax collectors in Washington or San Francisco can be a gain for Kansas City or Orlando.” — Josh Katz, The New York Times, 15 May 2023 Did you know? Does game theory sound like fun? It can be—if you are a mathematician or economist who needs to analyze a competitive situation in which the outcome is determined by the choices of the players and chance. Game theory was introduced by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern in their 1944 book The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In game theory, a zero-sum game is one, such as chess or checkers, where each player has a clear purpose that is completely opposed to that of the opponent. In economics, a situation is zero-sum if the gains of one party are exactly balanced by the losses of another and no net gain or loss is created; however, such situations in real life are rare.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2024 is: remuneration • \rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun\  • noun Remuneration is a formal word that refers to an amount of money paid to someone for a service, loss, or expense, or to the act of paying such an amount. It is synonymous with recompense and pay. // The actor was offered a modest speaking fee by the host as remuneration for giving her speech at the awards ceremony. See the entry > Examples: "Workers are paid per task, with remuneration ranging from a cent to a few dollars—although the upper end is considered something of a rare gem, workers say." — Niamh Rowe, Wired, 15 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Our evidence shows remuneration to be most at home in writing that concerns financial matters, especially when large amounts of money or forms of compensation are involved. Whether it's because money is often expressed in numerals, or simply because the n and m are adjacent to each other on our keyboards, reMUNeration often appears misspelled as reNUMeration. It pays to know, however, that in fact, renumeration is a distinct term, a rare word meaning "the act of enumerating again" (enumerate means "to list" or "to count").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2024 is: clandestine • \klan-DESS-tun\  • adjective Clandestine describes something done secretly, or in a private place or way. // The wedding was a clandestine affair in Las Vegas. See the entry > Examples: "On the surface, it uses the traditional tropes of the spy movie—a secret intelligence network, cryptic codenames, clandestine meetings in public places—but Ghost Trail isn’t exactly thrilling, certainly not in the manner of a John le Carré novel." — Damon Wise, Deadline, 15 May 2024 Did you know? Psst!—if your first instinct, upon being asked what you’ve been up to, is to clam up, your querier may suspect you’ve been involved in some clandestine activities. Clandestine often substitutes for secret and covert, and it is commonly applied to actions that involve secrecy maintained for an evil, illicit, or unauthorized purpose, as in "clandestine activities pursued under cover of night." It comes to English by way of Middle French, from the Latin word clandestinus, which is itself from the Latin adverb clam, meaning "secretly." Note that this clam is not the ancestor of the English word clam, despite how tightly sealed and thus secretive the bivalves may seem.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23, 2024 is: polemic • \puh-LEM-ik\  • noun A polemic is a strong written or spoken attack against someone else’s opinions, beliefs, practices, etc. // Her book is a fierce polemic against societal inequalities. See the entry > Examples: “That winter of 1774-1775 could be considered the nadir of the entire American patriot movement. After the closing of the First Continental Congress, North Americans ‘turned upon one another as never before.’ The colonists had never had a single view of Britain or how to respond to the measures it was trying to impose on the American colonies. … Strong polemics against further resistance to the British government spouted from printing presses across the colonies.” — Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, The Age of Revolutions, 2024 Did you know? Diatribe, jeremiad, philippic … the English language sure has a lot of formal words for the things we say or write when we are—to use a decidedly less formal term—big mad. We will refrain from going on a tirade about it, however, especially since it’s good to have options with subtle differences in tone and meaning. Polemic, which traces back ultimately to the Greek word for war, polemos, is the word you want to refer specifically to an aggressive attack on someone’s ideas or principles. Someone who is cheesed off because they don’t like cheese, for example, wouldn’t write a polemic about it. A turophile upset about the gustatory philosophy behind their local cheesemonger’s recent offerings just might.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2024 is: supersede • \soo-per-SEED\  • verb Supersede is a verb meaning "to take the place of (someone or something that is considered old, inferior, or no longer useful)." It is used synonymously with replace and displace. // This edition of the manual supersedes the previous one. See the entry > Examples: "The passive-aggressive signals to wind our gatherings down were replaced by point-blank requests to make less noise, have less fun, do our living somewhere else, even though these rooms belonged to us, too. … In those moments, I felt hot with shame and anger, yet unable to articulate why. It took me years to understand that, in demanding my friends and I quiet down, these students were implying that their comfort superseded our joy." — Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic, 1 Aug. 2022 Did you know? Language is constantly evolving, with old spellings and meanings superseded by new ones over time. Naturally, supersede itself has its share of predecessors. Supersede ultimately comes from the Latin verb supersedēre, meaning "to sit on top of" (sedēre means "to sit"), "to be superior to," or "to refrain from," but it came to English through Scots Middle English, where it was rendered superceden and used synonymously with defer. Modern English speakers are often confused about how to spell supersede—it sometimes turns up as supercede. In fact, some of the earliest records of the word in English show it spelled with a c. Though both spellings can be etymologically justified, over time supersede won out as the "correct" version.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 21, 2024 is: vulnerable • \VUL-nuh-ruh-bul\  • adjective A person described as vulnerable in a general way is someone who is easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally. Vulnerable can also describe a person, group, or thing that is open to attack, harm, or damage. Both senses of vulnerable are often followed by the preposition to. // It is common to feel especially vulnerable in the wake of major change. // The patient will be most vulnerable to infection immediately after surgery. // Your computer is vulnerable to viruses without the proper antivirus software. See the entry > Examples: “A pilot study found the area is particularly vulnerable to dangerous temperatures. The study found an abundance of asphalt and concrete, coupled with a lack of greenery, was leading to an urban heat island effect, which traps heat and can ratchet up temperatures more than 10 degrees.” — Michaela Mulligan, The Tampa Bay (Florida) Times, 19 Apr. 2024 Did you know? Superheroes are often depicted in comic books and movies as all-powerful, deflecting boulders and missiles in mid-air with a flick of the wrist, walking through walls, and having indestructible skeletons and whatnot. Fans know, however, that even the mightiest, meatiest protagonist is vulnerable to something, be it kryptonite or forgetting the whereabouts of one’s hammer. Vulnerable ultimately comes from the Latin noun vulnus, meaning “wound,” by way of the Late Latin adjective vulnerabilis, which English speakers adopted as vulnerable in the early 1600s. Vulnerable continues to carry its original meaning of “capable of being physically wounded,” but since the late 1600s it has also been used figuratively to suggest a defenselessness against non-physical attacks. In other words, someone (or something) can be vulnerable to criticism or failure as well as to literal wounding—even superheroes. So don’t go breaking their hearts, even if you can’t break their bones.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2024 is: hue and cry • \HYOO-und-KRYE\  • noun Hue and cry refers to a clamor of alarm or protest in response to something. It can also be used as a synonym of hubbub to refer to general noise or uproar. // After the popular professor was fired by the college, there was such a hue and cry from students that the administration was forced to reconsider its decision. See the entry > Examples: “Bedazzled by the lucrative allures of STEM and the popularity of business degrees, universities have been defunding their humanities programs and transforming themselves into vocational training centers with five-star gyms. … The hue and cry over this benighted movement, in which institutions of higher learning are turning their backs on their fundamental mission, will likely not be enough to stop the forces operating under the cover of budgetary necessity.” — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Let’s say it’s the Middle Ages in England and a villainous highwayman has just made off with your purse of gold. What do you do? You can’t call the police, because in medieval England there is no organized police force, much less telephones; indeed, 911 is even less than a joke in your town—it doesn’t exist! Instead, the job of fighting crime belongs to ordinary citizens. The first step is to raise a stink—victims of or witnesses to a crime are expected to yell something like “stop thief!” so that anyone who hears the “hue and cry” will be legally bound to join in the pursuit of the perfidious pilferer. Fast-forwarding to today, although hue and cry (hue comes from an Old French word meaning “noise” or “outcry”; cry comes from the synonymous Anglo-French cri) was used in legal contexts upon entering English in the 15th century, it now more often refers to general alarm, complaint, or protest.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2024 is: jubilee • \JOO-buh-lee\  • noun Jubilee usually refers to a special anniversary or a celebration of such an anniversary. It can also refer generally to a season of celebration or act of rejoicing, or to a religious song of African Americans referring to a time of future happiness. // My grandparents will be celebrating their golden jubilee this year—as Grandpa puts it, "50 years of wedded bliss and occasional blisters." // The town is planning a year-long jubilee in celebration of its founding 200 years ago. See the entry > Examples: "The Juneteenth Freedom Day Festival … will celebrate the date the remaining 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, first heard news of the Emancipation Proclamation. The commemoration of that event has spread from Texas and now is observed nationally as a day of jubilee and freedom." — Patrick Murfin, The Chicago Daily Herald, 16 June 2023 Did you know? Juneteenth, a holiday observed in the United States on June 19 in commemoration of the end of slavery, has several other names as well, including Juneteenth National Independence Day, Freedom Day, Black Independence Day, and Jubilee Day. The word jubilee here is of special significance; while jubilee is often used generally to refer to an anniversary or celebration of an anniversary, its history is intertwined with the idea of emancipation. According to the biblical book of Leviticus, every fifty years Hebrew slaves were to be set free, lands given back to their former owners, and the fields left unharvested. This year of liberty was announced when a ram’s horn was blown. In Hebrew, that ceremonial horn was called a yōbhēl, and the celebratory year took its name from that of the horn. As the Bible was translated into other languages, the concept of the yōbhēl spread around the world, as did its name (albeit with spelling modifications). It eventually entered English via the Anglo-French word jubilé in the 14th century. Since then, jubilee has not only kept its original, biblical sense, but has gained others, including one referring to a traditional African American spiritual that looks forward to a time of future happiness and deliverance from oppression.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18, 2024 is: brainiac • \BRAY-nee-ak\  • noun A brainiac is a very intelligent person. // Her ability to solve almost any puzzle within minutes secured her place as the brainiac of the family. See the entry > Examples: "In this modern, adult-oriented take on the classic 'Scooby-Doo' franchise, the series follows the origin story of Velma Dinkley (Kaling), the brainiac of the Mystery Inc. gang. After a corpse is found in her high school, Velma teams up with Daphne (Constance Wu), Shaggy (Sam Richardson) and Fred (Glenn Howerton) to solve the murder." — Michaela Zee, Variety, 21 Dec. 2022 Did you know? As Superman fans know, Brainiac was the superintelligent villain in the Action Comics series and its spin-offs. His name is a portmanteau of brain and maniac. You don't need x-ray vision to see the connection here—etymologists think Superman's brainy adversary is the likely inspiration for the common noun brainiac. The term was not coined right away though. The comic-book series was launched in 1938 and the character Brainiac debuted in 1958, but current evidence doesn't show general use of brainiac to refer to a superintelligent person until the 1970s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 17, 2024 is: apocryphal • \uh-PAH-kruh-ful\  • adjective Something described as apocryphal is of doubtful authenticity; the term is often applied to stories or legends that are often repeated but likely not true. Apocryphal can also describe something resembling or relating to the Apocrypha, the ancient Jewish books that are not part of the Hebrew Bible but are considered canonical in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. In the biblical use, the word is often capitalized. // The legend of how the song was fully composed while the singer was in a deep fever state is probably apocryphal. See the entry > Examples: "There is a likely apocryphal story about how Michelangelo, upon getting criticism about David's nose being too big, climbed a ladder and pretended to chisel it." — Rita Bullwinkel, The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024 Did you know? In biblical study, Apocrypha refers to books outside an accepted canon of scripture. In modern use, the term refers specifically to a group of ancient Jewish books that are not part of the Hebrew Bible but are considered canonical in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches; Protestant churches follow Jewish tradition in considering these books noncanonical. Both apocrypha and apocryphal come, via Latin, from the Greek word apokrýptein, meaning "to hide (from), keep hidden (from)," which in turn comes from krýptein, "to conceal, hide." Both words entered English in the 16th century with their nonbiblical meanings, apocrypha referring to writings or statements of dubious authenticity, and apocryphal describing such things. Apocryphal is now the more common word. It most often describes an oft-repeated tale that is almost certainly not true.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2024 is: paradigm • \PAIR-uh-dyme\  • noun Paradigm is a formal word that refers to a pattern or example, and especially to an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype. It can also refer to a theory or group of ideas about how something should be done, made, or thought about. // Her latest book provides us with a new paradigm for modern biography. // Several speakers at the conference focused their presentations on challenging what has been a dominant educational paradigm. See the entry > Examples: “In a music paradigm that’s increasingly focused on individual tracks, artists still have a chance to make a bigger statement about the world, and themselves, through larger collections that can explore a variety of styles and emotions.” — Tom Roland, Billboard, 23 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Paradigm comes from the Greek verb paradeiknynai, meaning “to show side by side.” It has been used in English to mean “example” or “pattern” since the 15th century. There is debate, however, about what kind of example qualifies as a paradigm. Some people say it’s a typical example, while others insist it must be an outstanding or perfect example. The scientific community has added to the confusion by using paradigm to mean “a theoretical framework,” a sense popularized by American scientist Thomas S. Kuhn in the second edition of his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, published in 1970. Some usage commentators now advise avoiding the term entirely on the grounds that it is overused, but we contend that it can sometimes make a useful, conversation-enriching replacement for idea, theory, or concept, as in “an article about sandwiches that shifts the paradigm by including hot dogs.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2024 is: unbeknownst • \un-bih-NOHNST\  • adjective Unbeknownst means “without being known about by (a specified person or group of people).” // Unbeknownst to the students, the teacher had entered the room. See the entry > Examples: “Unbeknownst to many tenants across the city, an obscure city rule requires some newly built rental properties to be put under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, commonly referred to as rent control.” — Andre Khouri, The Los Angeles Times, 29 Apr. 2024 Did you know? For reasons unbeknownst to perhaps all of us, unbeknownst is a word in good standing. It has the ring of a true archaism, what with that -st ending we know from such Shakespearean gems as “thou dost snore distinctly,” and yet it is not what it seems; unbeknownst may resemble archaic verb forms like dost and canst, but it’s just playing dress-up. To authentically use dost and canst one has to be addressing someone else, and no one has ever said “thou unbeknownst,” or even “thou beknownst.” Beknown, which had some meager use between the 16th and 19th centuries, was a form of the verb beknow (in use between the 14th and 16th centuries) but was mostly used as an adjective meaning “known, familiar.” If anything would get the -st ending, it would be beknow, and the form would be beknowst or beknowest. All this to say, when unbeknownst started cropping up in fictional dialogue in the early decades of the 19th century, the word did not please everyone. By the early 20th century, it was being disparaged as “a vulgar provincialism” and a term “out of use except in dialect or uneducated speech.” The slander has done no good whatsoever. Unbeknownst is perfectly standard today, even in formal prose. Note that speakers of British English prefer unbeknown, which lacks that unjustified -st and is 200 years older. Perhaps our friends across the pond beknow more than we do.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2024 is: rebuff • \rih-BUFF\  • verb To rebuff something, such as an offer or suggestion, is to reject or criticize it sharply. One can also rebuff a person by rudely rejecting or refusing them. // When their request was immediately rebuffed by upper management, the staff was left frustrated yet also more determined. See the entry > Examples: “The state rebuffed the lawyers’ efforts to use the fees as seed money for a new technology system.” — Robert T. Garrett, The Dallas (Texas) Morning News, 15 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Many English verbs begin with the prefix re-, meaning “again” or “backward,” so we wouldn’t criticize you for drawing a connection between rebuff and buff, a verb meaning “to polish or shine.” But rebuff would beg to differ: this word comes to us from the Middle French verb rebuffer, which traces back to the Old Italian ribuffare, meaning “to reprimand.” (Buff, in contrast, comes from the Middle French noun buffle, meaning “wild ox”). A similar word, rebuke, shares the “criticize” sense of rebuff, but not the “reject” sense; one can rebuke another’s actions or policies, but one does not rebuke the advances of another, for example. Like rebuke, rebuff can also be used as a noun, as in “The proposal was met with a stern rebuff from the Board of Trustees.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2024 is: lodestone • \LOHD-stohn\  • noun When used literally, lodestone refers to the mineral magnetite, a magnetic iron ore. Lodestone is also used figuratively to refer to something that, like a magnet, strongly attracts things. // The city is a lodestone for aspiring musicians of all genres. See the entry > Examples: “Her [Britney Spears’] quest to please a growing constituency was a savvy balancing act; she understood what was expected of a teen star at the time: family-friendly entertainment that didn’t rock anyone’s boat. … Spears handled this feat impressively well in those years. She became a vessel for our intense emotions, but in the process, she would also become a lodestone for criticism of an entire generation’s tastes and habits.” — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 17 Feb. 2021 Did you know? The word lodestone is sometimes confused, understandably, with the similar-sounding lodestar. Both combine lode, which comes from the Old English noun lād, meaning “course,” with another word with ancient Old English roots: stone (from stān) and star (from steorra), respectively. Both lodestone and lodestar also refer to things—both literal and figurative—with the power to inspire or compel movement. But while a lodestar is something that leads the way (e.g., a moral principle that guides a person through life), a lodestone draws things toward itself. Sometimes lodestone refers to an actual magnet; indeed, its original use in the early 16th century was as a synonym for magnetite. But it didn’t take long for lodestone to attract a metaphorical sense. Today a business district might be a lodestone for entrepreneurs, or a lottery-playing friend (with the promise of riches as their lodestar) a lodestone—they hope—for good luck.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 12, 2024 is: efficacious • \ef-uh-KAY-shus\  • adjective Efficacious is a formal word used to describe something—often a treatment, medicine, or remedy—that has the power to produce a desired result or effect. // Companies like to tout the number of efficacious natural ingredients in their beauty products. See the entry > Examples: “Baking soda is commonly used alongside detergent to fix stinky loads ... but washing soda is the typical go-to for most tough laundry jobs. Baking soda is gentler than washing soda, so it won’t be as efficacious.” — Leslie Corona, Real Simple Magazine, 29 Dec. 2023 Did you know? If you guesstimate that efficacious is the effect of combining effective with the suffix -ious, you’re on the right track. Efficacious came to English from the Middle French word efficace (or that word’s Latin source, efficāc- or efficāx), meaning “effective.” (These words ultimately trace back to the Latin verb efficere, “to make, bring about, produce, carry out.”) English speakers added -ious to effectively create the word we know today. Efficacious is one of many, er, eff words that mean “producing or capable of producing a result.” Among its synonyms are the familiar adjectives effective and efficient. Efficacious is more formal than either of these; it’s often encountered in medical writing where it describes treatments, therapies, and drugs that produce their desired and intended effects in patients.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2024 is: foment • \FOH-ment\  • verb To foment something, such as hostility or opposition, is to cause it, or try to cause it, to grow or develop. Foment is used synonymously with incite. // Rumors that the will was a fake fomented distrust between the two families. See the entry > Examples: "For this prequel to The Witcher, we go back, back, back to 1,200 years before the time of Geralt of Rivia—and if you don’t know who that is, it matters not. Slide right into the self-contained story of a continent where elves, dwarves and other often-warring peoples are living in uneasy proximity, until the arrival of one vicious dictatorship to rule them all makes everyone even less relaxed. Out in the sticks, soldier turned travelling bard Éile (Sophia Brown) is already fomenting revolutionary solidarity by singing rousing folk songs in pubs…" — Jack Seale, The Guardian (London), 25 Dec. 2022 Did you know? If you had sore muscles in the 1600s, your doctor might have advised you to foment the injury, perhaps with heated lotions or warm wax. Does this sound like an odd prescription? It's less so if you know that foment traces to the Latin verb fovēre, which means "to heat or warm" or "to soothe." The earliest documented English uses of foment appear in medical texts offering advice on how to soothe various aches and pains by the application of moist heat. In time, the idea of applying heat became a metaphor for stimulating or rousing to action. Foment then started being used in political contexts to mean "to stir up" or "to call to action."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2024 is: tractable • \TRAK-tuh-bul\  • adjective Tractable is used to describe someone or something that is easily led, managed, taught, or controlled. // This new approach should make the problem more tractable. // The horse’s tractable temperament made her especially popular with new riders. See the entry > Examples: “… Kawasaki’s popular KLR650 … only makes about 40 horsepower, yet it has launched untold numbers of epic rides due to its reliable, tractable and manageable output.” — William Roberson, Forbes, 30 Sept. 2022 Did you know? A frequentative is a form of a verb that indicates repeated action. The frequentative of the word sniff, for example, is sniffle, meaning “to sniff repeatedly.” Some English words come from a frequentative in another language, and tractable is one. Tractable, meaning “easily led or managed,” comes from the Latin adjective tractabilis, which in turn comes from the verb tractare, which has various meanings including “to drag about,” “to handle,” “to deal with,” and “to treat.” Not to drag on too much about Latin, but tractare is the frequentative of another Latin verb, trahere, meaning “to drag or pull.” Now, one can pull or tug a draft animal on a lead, for example, whether or not that animal is willing or compliant. But if one can pull, handle, or otherwise deal with that animal repeatedly or continuously with ease (by treating it well, we presume)? Well, you can see where this is leading—in English we would call our helpful animal friend tractable. Speaking of farms, despite its resemblance, tractor did not pass through the frequentative tractare but it does come from trahere.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 9, 2024 is: consternation • \kahn-ster-NAY-shun\  • noun Consternation is a formal word that refers to a strong feeling of surprise or sudden disappointment that causes confusion. // The candidate caused consternation among his supporters by changing positions on a key issue. See the entry > Examples: “The incarcerated [Freedom] Riders’ new freedom song, which they sang incessantly to the consternation of their guards, was ‘Buses Are a Comin’,’ and the freedom buses continued to roll into Mississippi until mid-August.” — Raymond Arsenault, John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community, 2024 Did you know? If you’ve ever been flummoxed, befuddled, or even fuddled, you know a thing or two about consternation—but perhaps not all of it. Consternation and confusion are not synonymous, though it’s understandable that they are sometimes confused. Consternation refers not to confusion, but to a feeling of amazement or dismay that can lead to confusion, or otherwise hinder or stop someone in their tracks. And much like dismay, consternation is often used in constructions starting with “much to,” as in “much to their consternation, their teacher announced a pop quiz as soon as class started.” People also often “express” or “show” their consternation in various ways, whether with furrowed brow, mouth agog, or assorted mumblings and grumblings—visual and audible clues that they are working out just what to do next after being consternated.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2024 is: incognito • \in-kahg-NEE-toh\  • adjective or adverb When you go incognito, your true identity is kept secret (as through the use of a different name or a disguise). Incognito can be used either as an adverb or an adjective with the same meaning. // The food critic made an incognito visit to the restaurant. // The pop star travels incognito as much as possible, using a fake name and wearing a wig and heavy makeup to avoid the paparazzi. See the entry > Examples: "Though legitimate reasons exist for sailing incognito, the researchers point to a number of suspicious sites of activity. These include a region in North Korean waters that the authors suggest corresponds to illegal fishing, having briefly boasted the world's highest density of fishing vessels between 2017 and 2019. Meanwhile the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, off the eastern coast of Australia, was visited by an average of three fishing vessels a day, suggesting possible unobserved environmental damage." — The Economist, 6 Jan. 2024 Did you know? The ancient Romans knew that there are times when you don't want to be recognized. For example, a story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells how Jupiter and Mercury visited a village incognito and asked for lodging. The supposedly penniless travelers were turned away from every household except that of a poor elderly couple named Baucis and Philemon; the pair provided a room and a feast for the visitors despite their own poverty. The Romans had a word that described someone or something unknown, like the gods in the tale: incognitus, a term that is the ancestor of our modern incognito. Cognitus is a form of the Latin verb cognoscere, which means "to know" and which also gives us recognize and cognizance, among other words.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 7, 2024 is: gossip • \GAH-sup\  • verb To gossip is to talk about the personal lives of other people. // The two siblings often gossip with each other about their neighbors via texting. See the entry > Examples: “Not all gossip is bad, [psychologist, Miriam] Kirmayer said, nor does it always mean someone who talks about others will talk about you. ‘Sometimes, our friends are gossiping as a need to secure support or to set out our perspectives and experiences,’ she said. It can be a way to work through a problem or grow closer via shared values.” — Julia Pugachevsky, Business Insider, 26 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Merriam-Webster here, your one and only source for the juicy history of the English lexicon (including gossip, girl). It’s no secret that gossiping often involves discussing the intimate details of other people’s lives, but did you know that the origins of gossip are a bit more chummy, and even a tad divine? Word on the street is that the Old English word sibb, meaning “relative” or “kinsman,” long ago combined with the word god (meaning, well, “god”) to form godsibb, which referred to a person who was spiritually related to another, specifically by being a baptismal sponsor. Today we call such a person a godparent. Over the centuries, godsibb changed both in form and in meaning. In Middle English, gossib came to be used for a close friend or chum as well as for a godparent. From there it was only a short step to gossip, a word for anyone—not just a friend, relative, or sponsor—known for spilling the tea. By the early 17th century, gossip had expanded into the verb use that has been the talk of the town ever since.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2024 is: moxie • \MAHK-see\  • noun Moxie can refer to courage and determination (aka nerve), energy and pep (aka verve), or know-how (as, say, reflected in one’s oeuvre). // They showed a lot of moxie in questioning their company’s policy. // She clearly doesn’t need coffee to start her day full of moxie. // The lead actor’s musical moxie inspired the addition of a serenade at the close of the play’s first act. See the entry > Examples: “When your journalistic beat consists of providing helpful tips on how to win games, people naturally assume that you are an expert at playing them. That’s not always true, but I like to think that I make up for it with moxie and a reasonably consistent positive attitude.” — Deb Amlen, The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2024 Did you know? If the idea of a carbonated bevvy flavored with gentian root makes you thirsty to wet your whistle, then you’ve got some moxie, friend! Lowercase moxie—which today is a synonym of both nerve and verve—originated as uppercase Moxie, as in Moxie Nerve Food, a patent medicine and tonic invented by Dr. Augustin Thompson and sold in New England in the 1870s. Within a decade, when it was clear his drink wasn’t really medicinal, he carbonated Moxie and marketed it as a kind of 19th-century energy drink with a “delicious blend of the bitter and the sweet.” The soft drink and its advertising slogans (among them Make Mine Moxie!) eventually caught on around the country. The beverage was even a favorite of Charlotte’s Web author E. B. White, who wrote, “Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life.” The semantic jump from “a drink that gives you energy” to “energy” itself is as natural as a good advertising campaign. By 1930, moxie had acquired its earliest modern sense referring to vim and pep.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 5, 2024 is: affluent • \AF-loo-unt\  • adjective Someone described as affluent has a large amount of money and owns many expensive things. Something, such as a place or institution, described as affluent is similarly rich or wealthy. // The affluent suburb sports some of the finest public schools in the county owing to its considerable tax base. See the entry > Examples: "Princeton packs many charms into its 18.4 square miles. Halfway between New York and Philadelphia, it has long attracted affluent professionals, many enduring commutes of more than an hour in return for roomy, historic houses, old-growth trees that burst into flower in spring and the cultural riches of Princeton University." — Julie Lasky, The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2021 Did you know? Visualize with us: coffers overflowing, a cash flow more than adequate, assets that are fluid, an elderly duck in a top hat diving into a pool of gold coins. The images conjured reflect the essence of the word affluent. Based on the Latin verb fluere, meaning "to flow," affluent is all about flow. (The same image is echoed in other fluere descendants, such as confluence, fluctuate, fluid, influence, mellifluous, and superfluous.) The flowing of goods or riches wasn't the word's first concern, however; 16th century print examples of affluent tend to be about the abundance of such intangibles as "goodness" and "spirit." In the 17th century, the flow suggested by affluent varied greatly: streams, poisons, estates, and blood were all described with the word. In modern use, affluent most often describes wealthy people (or ducks), or places where wealthy people live.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 4, 2024 is: meliorism • \MEE-lee-uh-riz-um\  • noun Meliorism refers to the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment. // Her belief in meliorism has given her a positive outlook on life. See the entry > Examples: "'Encanto' has been praised for its cultural accuracy. And many Colombians and Colombian Americans loved the film—but it has also started a debate: What can and can't one movie capture about a country? … 'I found it charming,' the writer and editor Camilo Garzón said in an interview. 'I found it beautiful. At the same time, it fell short in terms of what representation for representation’s sake can be.' He explained, 'In the spirit of American meliorism, the criticism is to make things better, not necessarily because I didn’t like it.'" — Laura Zornosa, The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2022 Did you know? In 1877, British novelist George Eliot believed she had coined meliorist when she wrote, "I don't know that I ever heard anybody use the word 'meliorist' except myself." Her contemporaries credited her with coining both meliorist and meliorism, and one of her letters contains an early documented use of meliorism; however, there is evidence that meliorist had been around decades before she started using it. Whoever coined it did so by drawing on the Latin word melior, meaning "better." It is likely that the English coinages were also influenced by another melior descendant, meliorate, a synonym of ameliorate ("to make better or more tolerable") that was introduced to English in the 1500s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2024 is: deride • \dih-RYDE\  • verb To deride someone or something is to subject them to usually harsh and bitter insults or criticism. // Although derided by classmates for his insistence that he would be a millionaire by the age of 25, he achieved his goal when his Internet startup went public. See the entry > Examples: “Founded in 2012, this Redwood City brewery stands out for its British-style cask ales.... It's a traditional way of making beer without adding carbon dioxide. Often derided as resulting in beers that are flat and warm, that's not actually the case.” — Jay R. Brooks, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 12 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Laughter may or may not be the best medicine—your mileage may vary—but it’s essential to understanding the verb deride. To deride someone or something is not merely to criticize or insult them, but to lower them (or attempt to lower them) in others’ esteem by making them appear ridiculous or worthy of mockery. This meaning is reflected in the word’s origins: deride comes from the Latin verb deridēre, a combination of the prefix de- (“to reduce or make lower”) and ridēre, meaning “to laugh.” Ridēre echoes in other English words as well, including ridicule and ridiculous. Ridicule functions as both verb (“to make fun of”) and noun (“the act of making fun of”), while ridiculous describes what arouses or deserves ridicule or mockery. More obscure than either of these ridēre descendants is the medical term risorius, which refers to a narrow band of muscle fibers in the face that reach to the corners of the mouth to make smiling possible. One does not necessarily need one’s risorius to deride something—people in the act of deriding may appear quite angry, even—but inspiring the bitter, contemptuous laughter of those within earshot is often the goal.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2024 is: incidence • \IN-suh-dunss\  • noun Incidence refers to the number of times something happens or develops—in other words, the rate at which something occurs. // The neighborhood boasts excellent schools and a low incidence of crime. See the entry > Examples: "Pickleball, which is played with a perforated plastic ball and wooden paddles on a badminton-sized court, is the fastest growing sport in the U.S., with the number of players rising from 4.8 million in 2021 to 8.9 million in 2023, according to USA Pickleball. … A study co-authored by [Dr. Eric] Bowman that has not yet been published finds that between 2017 and 2022, the incidence of pickleball-related injuries rose faster than the growth of the sport’s popularity." — Linda Carroll, NBC News, 12 Feb. 2024 Did you know? The words incident, incidence, and instance may seem similar (and, in fact, incident and incidence are closely related), but they are applied in different ways. In current use, incidence usually means "rate of occurrence" and is often qualified in some way ("a high incidence of bear sightings"). Incident usually refers to a particular event, often something unusual or unpleasant ("many such incidents go unreported"). Instance suggests a particular occurrence that is offered as an example ("another instance of a simple change bringing real improvement"); it can also be synonymous with case ("many instances/cases in which the wrong form was submitted"). The plural incidences sometimes occurs in such contexts as "several recent incidences of bear sightings," but this use is often criticized as incorrect.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2024 is: svelte • \SVELT\  • adjective Someone described as svelte is considered slender or thin in an attractive or graceful way. Svelte can also be used to describe something sleek, such as a vehicle or an article of clothing. // The svelte dancer seemed to float across the stage. See the entry > Examples: “There’s more plastic than some would prefer, but it’s otherwise an attractive, functional cockpit with comfy seats and room enough for three adults in the rear, as long as all are relatively svelte.” — Josh Max, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024 Did you know? In Death on the Rocks, a 2013 mystery novel by Deryn Lake, the hero John Rawlings is described as having “svelte eyebrows” (he raises them also in 1995’s Death at the Beggar’s Opera). Lake’s oeuvre notwithstanding, svelte is not an adjective commonly applied to eyebrows, though it’s perfectly appropriate to do so—one of the word’s meanings is “sleek,” and it is often used to describe such disparate things as gowns and sports cars having clean lines. But “svelte eyebrows” also makes etymological sense; svelte came to English (by way of French) from the Italian adjective svelto, which itself comes from the verb svellere, meaning “to pluck out.” Since its debut in English in the early 19th century, however, svelte has more often been used with its original meaning to describe a person’s body—not just the tufts of hair above their eyes—as slender, graceful, or lithe.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2024 is: foist • \FOIST\  • verb Foist, which is almost always used with on or upon, is used when someone forces another person to accept something, usually something that is not good or is not wanted. Foist can also mean “to pass off as genuine or worthy.” // I don’t want to foist anything on you, but if you like this old quilt you’re welcome to have it. // Faulty parts have been foisted on unwitting car owners. See the entry > Examples: “Since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act during the New Deal era, employers have had to pay most of their workers for 40 hours of work even when business was slow. That was just the cost of doing business, a risk capitalists bore in exchange for the upside potential of profit. Now, however, employers foist that risk onto their lowest-paid workers: Part-time employees, not shareholders, have to pay the price when sale volumes fluctuate.” — Adelle Waldman, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2024 Did you know? That the word foist is commonly used today to mean “to force another to accept by stealth or deceit” makes sense given its original—now obsolete—use in talking about a bit of literal sleight of hand. When it first rolled into English in the mid-1500s, foist was all about dice, dice, baby, referring to palming—that is, concealing in one’s hand a phony die so as to secretly introduce it into a game at a convenient time. The action involved in this cheating tactic reflects the etymology of foist: the word is believed to have come from the obsolete Dutch verb vuisten, meaning “to take into one’s hand.” Vuisten in turn comes from vuyst, the Middle Dutch word for “fist,” which itself is distantly related to the Old English ancestor of fist. By the late 16th century, foist was being used in English to mean “to insert surreptitiously,” and it quickly acquired the “force to accept” meaning that is most familiar today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2024 is: dynasty • \DYE-nuh-stee\  • noun Dynasty refers to a group (such as a team, family, etc.) that is very powerful or successful for a long period of time. It is also often used for a family of rulers who rule over a country for a long period of time, as well as the period of time when a particular dynasty is in power. // The team’s draft picks reflected the ownership’s strategy of building a long-term football dynasty. See the entry > Examples: “The Vanderberg dynasty was in steel, railroads and textiles as well as munitions. Their money was so old that it underlay the United States like geology. Before there had been a United States, in fact, there had been Vanderbergs and they had already been rich.” — Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz: A Novel, 2024 Did you know? Dynasty has had quite the run in English. For over 600 years it’s been used to refer to a ruling family that maintains power generation after generation. At the time dynasty was first used in English, for example, England was in the midst of rule by the Plantagenet dynasty, whose line of succession provided 14 kings, from Henry II to Richard III. Around the beginning of the 19th century, the word developed the figurative sense “a group or family that dominates a particular field for generations.” Nowadays, this sense of dynasty is often applied to sports franchises that have prolonged runs of successful seasons, divine right not required. Technically, any team is capable of becoming this type of dynasty, including not only Kings and Royals, but also Ducks.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2024 is: obstreperous • \ub-STREP-uh-rus\  • adjective Obstreperous is a formal word that describes people or things that stubbornly resist control; in this use it’s a synonym of unruly. A person or thing described as obstreperous may also be defiantly or aggressively noisy. // The moment the paper airplane landed, the instructor addressed the unruly class, telling them in the harshest tone that obstreperous conduct would not be tolerated. See the entry > Examples: “In the 1887 essay ‘Silent People as Misjudged by the Noisy,’ an Atlantic contributor proposed an economical approach to talking: ‘As we get on in life past the period of obstreperous youth, we incline to talk less and write less, especially on the topics which we have most at heart,’ the writer noted. ‘We are beginning to realize the uselessness of perpetually talking … If there is a thing to be said, we prefer to wait and say it only when and where it will hit something or somebody.’” — Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2024 Did you know? Imagine walking a dog down a sidewalk in a neighborhood full of delicious smells and other temptations—it’s easy to picture your pooch barking and straining at the leash to chase a squirrel, or dragging you toward something enticingly (to them) stinky, right? But can you imagine saying to your doggo in response, “Quit being so obstreperous!” Probably not. Obstreperous has a much more formal flair than words, such as stubborn or unruly, used to describe similar behavior. As such it’s unlikely to be used in casual speech or contexts like the one above. The word comes from a combination of the handy Latin prefix ob- (meaning “against”) and strepere, a verb meaning “to make a noise”; someone who is obstreperous can be thought of as literally making noise to rebel against something, much like a protesting crowd or an unruly child. Strepere has made little noise in the English lexicon, however; in addition to obstreperous it seems only to have contributed to the rarely encountered strepitous and its synonym strepitant, which mean “characterized or accompanied by much noise”—that is, “noisy.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2024 is: gadfly • \GAD-flye\  • noun In literal use, gadfly refers to any of various flies (such as a horsefly, botfly, or warble fly) that bite or annoy livestock. Gadfly is most popular in figurative use, however, where it refers to someone who provokes or annoys other people especially by persistent criticism. // The journalist was known as a gadfly for exposing hypocrisy in politics. See the entry > Examples: "For years, the [L.A. County Board of Supervisors] has regularly had a 'performance evaluation' scheduled for closed session on its agenda. Any reporter or gadfly worth their salt knew this was actually just a time for the board to call a department head onto the carpet and scream at them behind closed doors." — Jaclyn Cosgrove, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2023 Did you know? It's easy to guess what puts the fly in gadfly: in its oldest meaning, fly refers to a winged insect. But (gadzooks!) what about the gad? As a standalone English word, gad means "chisel," but it once could be used for a spike, spear, or rod for goading cattle. It was in the 16th century that gad was joined with fly to refer to any of several insects that bother livestock. Before too long, English speakers began applying gadfly to people who annoy or provoke others. One of history's most famous gadflies was the philosopher Socrates, who was known for his constant questioning of his fellow Athenians' ethics, misconceptions, and assumptions. In his Apology, Plato describes Socrates' characterization of Athens as a large and sluggish horse and of Socrates himself as the fly that bites and rouses it. Many translations use gadfly in this portion of the Apology, and Socrates is sometimes referred to as the "gadfly of Athens."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2024 is: glean • \GLEEN\  • verb To glean is to gather or collect something bit by bit, or in a gradual way. Glean can also be used to mean “to search (something) carefully” and “to find out.” // Neil has a collection of antique tools gleaned from flea markets and garage sales. // They spent days gleaning the files for information. // The police used old-fashioned detective work to glean his whereabouts. See the entry > Examples: “Not only did procuring money to maintain her company figure in Graham’s acceptance of the occasional theater job during the 1930s; perhaps, too, she thought that being associated with a successful play could bring new audiences to her dance performances. There can be no doubt that she gleaned something from each experience outside the rigorous and profoundly idiosyncratic works she created for her company, even if she learned that there were some projects she would prefer never to undertake again.” — Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze: The Life and Works of Martha Graham, 2024 Did you know? While it is certainly true that one must reap what one sows (that is, harvest the crops that one plants), what should be done about the grain and other produce left over that the reapers missed? Well, friends, that must be gleaned—waste not, want not, after all. It’s a finicky business, too, picking through stalks and under leaves and whatnot. When it was first used in English in the 14th century, glean carried both the sense of “to gather grain or other produce left by reapers” and the more figurative meaning of “to gather information or material bit by bit,” reflecting the slow, gradual, painstaking work of scouring the fields. Over the years, and especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, glean has also come to be used frequently with the meaning “to find out, learn, ascertain.” This sense has been criticized by folks who think glean should always imply the drudgery involved in the literal grain-gathering sense, but it is well established and perfectly valid.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2024 is: symposium • \sim-POH-zee-um\  • noun Symposium can refer either to a formal meeting at which experts discuss a particular topic, or to a collection of articles on a particular subject. Symposium has two plural forms: symposia and symposiums. // Professors and graduate students attended a three-day symposium on climate change. // The organization will be publishing a symposium on genetic research. See the entry > Examples: “In 1966, at a meeting remembered in anthropological lore as the beginning of hunter-gatherer studies, seventy-five experts assembled in Chicago to synthesize our knowledge about foraging peoples. More than ninety-nine per cent of human history was spent without agriculture, the organizers figured, so it was worth documenting that way of life before it disappeared altogether. The symposium—and an associated volume that appeared two years later, both titled ‘Man the Hunter’—exemplified an obsession with hunting, meat-eating, and maleness.” — Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 25 Sept. 2023 Did you know? When you hear the word symposium, you may—quite understandably—envision conferences full of intellectuals giving heady presentations on various arcana. But it was drinking, more than thinking, that drew people to the original symposia and gave us the word. Symposium (symposia or symposiums in plural form) comes from the Greek noun symposion, the word ancient Greeks used for a drinking party that follows a banquet. Symposion in turn comes from sympinein, a verb that combines pinein, meaning “to drink,” with the prefix syn-, meaning “together.” Originally, English speakers only used symposium to refer to such an ancient Greek party, but in the 18th century British gentlemen’s clubs started using the word for confabs in which conversation was fueled by drinking. By the end of the 18th century, symposium had gained the more sober sense we know today, referring to meetings in which the focus is more on imbibing ideas and less on imbibing, say, mead.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2024 is: countermand • \KOUNT-er-mand\  • verb To countermand an order is to revoke it, especially by giving a new order. // Orders to blow up the bridge were countermanded by local officials. See the entry > Examples: "He [rugby player Lewis Jones] almost missed his 1950 Welsh debut as he was about to board an aircraft carrier for Hong Kong before the orders were countermanded." — The Daily Telegraph (London), 9 Mar. 2024 Did you know? In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it's simply mandatory. The Latin verb mandare, meaning "to entrust" or "to order," is the authority behind countermand. It's also behind the words mandate, command, demand, commend (which can mean "to entrust" as well as "to praise"), and mandatory. Countermand came to English via Anglo French, where the prefix cuntre- ("against") was combined with the verb mander ("to command"). It has been a part of English since the 1400s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2024 is: ebullient • \ih-BULL-yunt\  • adjective If someone or something is appealingly lively and enthusiastic, they may also be described as ebullient. // Akua's ebullient personality made her the life of the party. See the entry > Examples: "[Les] McCann, who would later serve as a drummer and horn player in his high-school marching band, soon developed a love for the great symphonies and for distinctive rhythm and blues vocal stylists such as Bullmoose Jackson, Billy Eckstine and Louis Jordan. But it was the ebullient gospel music he heard at his local Baptist church that touched him the deepest. 'That was the foundation, the basis for all of my knowledge,' says McCann, whose rollicking piano work still bears a strong gospel tinge." — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that ebullient comes from the Latin verb ebullire, which means "to bubble out." When ebullient was first used in the late 1500s its meaning hewed closely to its Latin source: ebullient meant "boiling" or "bubbling," and described things like boiling water and boiling oil instead of someone's bubbly personality. Only later did the word's meaning broaden beyond describing the liveliness of a boiling liquid to encompass emotional liveliness and enthusiasm.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2024 is: panoply • \PAN-uh-plee\  • noun Panoply is a formal word that refers to a group or collection that is impressive either because of its size or because it includes so many different kinds of people or things. // The new website offers shoppers a panoply of snack foods, soft drinks, and other treats from around the world. See the entry > Examples: “Given that all of us, in our daily lives, are constantly confronted by a limitless confusion of knowledge … one can say that all of us are being educated all the while, and that education is in its essence the business of any transmission of knowledge from one party to another. … No part of this vast panoply of knowledge diffusion is more important for the future of human society than that which passes in one direction, downward across the generations, from the older members of a society to the younger.” — Simon Winchester, Knowing What We Know, 2023 Did you know? Despite having Greek origins and similar sounds, panoply is not related—etymologically or semantically—to monopoly; its history has more to do with Mediterranean warfare than Mediterranean Avenue. Panoply comes from the Greek word panoplia, which referred to the full suit of armor worn by hoplites, heavily armed infantry soldiers of ancient Greece. Panoplia is a blend of the prefix pan-, meaning “all,” and hopla, meaning “arms” or “armor.” (As you may have guessed, hopla is also an ancestor of hoplite.) Panoply entered English in the early 17th century with its Greek use intact: it referred to a full set of armor—an impressive array, you might say, of protective bits and bobs, from breastplates to brassards. Over time, panoply developed its figurative sense referring to an impressive, extensive collection or array of things, as in “She won the game by bankrupting her opponents with a panoply of properties built up with houses and hotels.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2024 is: belie • \bih-LYE\  • verb To belie something is to give a false idea or impression of it. Belie can also mean "to show (something) to be false or wrong." // Martin's easy banter and relaxed attitude belied his nervousness. // Their actions belie their claim of innocence. See the entry > Examples: "But his humble presence belies the adventurous life that brought him through World War II and multiple attempts at sailing around the world." — Alejandra Garcia, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 21 Dec. 2020 Did you know? "What is a lie?" asks Lord Byron in Don Juan. He then answers himself: "'Tis but the truth in masquerade...." The history of belie illustrates a certain connection between lying and masquerading as something other than one is. In Old English, belie meant "to deceive by lying," but in time, it came to mean "to tell lies about," taking on a sense similar to that of the modern word slander. Eventually, its meaning softened, shifting from an act of outright lying to one of mere misrepresentation; by the 1700s, the word was being used in the sense "to disguise or conceal." Nowadays, belie is typically applied when someone or something gives an impression that is in disagreement with the facts, rather than in contexts where there is an intentional untruth. A happy face put on to set others at ease, for example, may belie an internal disgruntlement.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2024 is: neophyte • \NEE-uh-fyte\  • noun A neophyte is a person who has just started learning or doing something. // As an acting neophyte, Femi took a while to adjust to his newfound Hollywood fame. See the entry > Examples: "First premiering in 2006, Ugly Betty … built up a devoted fanbase. The series, which is now streaming on Netflix, starred Ferrera as the titular 'Ugly' Betty Suarez, a braces-wearing 22-year-old fashion neophyte from Queens." — Alec Bojalad, Den of Geek, 4 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Neophyte is hardly a new addition to the English language—it's been part of the English vocabulary since the 14th century. It traces back through Late Latin to the Greek word neophytos, meaning "newly planted" or "newly converted." These Greek and Latin roots were directly transplanted into the early English uses of neophyte, which first referred to a person newly converted to a religion or cause. By the 1600s, neophyte had gained a more general sense of "a beginner or novice." Today you might consider it a formal elder sibling of such recent informal coinages as newbie and noob.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 20, 2024 is: futile • \FYOO-tul\  • adjective An effort, action, or emotion described as futile has no result or effect, and therefore serves no useful purpose. // City officials attempted to stifle the scandal, but their efforts were futile. See the entry > Examples: “... when resolve is wearing thin and hope feels futile, sometimes the only thing left to do is laugh.” — Cassidy George, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Attempts to pinpoint the first use of the phrase “resistance is futile” may ultimately be futile—that is, pointless or in vain—but that hasn’t stopped folks from trying. Popular in movies and television series from Star Trek to Stargate, Veronica Mars to Napoleon Dynamite, the slogan is often uttered by an antagonist who wants to make it clear in no uncertain terms that they will be the one to prevail in the onscreen struggle. Some people point to a 1976 episode of Doctor Who in which a character called The Master says “Resistance is futile now,” while others prefer the quote without the now, holding up a 1977 episode of Space: 1999 as being the first to feature it. However, author Randall Garrett had both shows beat in his 1961 short story “The Highest Treason,” in which a character says “Not if they … can prove that resistance is futile.” Despite its clear importance to futuristic science fiction, however, the word futile has ancient roots. It comes from the Latin adjective fūtilis/futtilis, which was used to describe things that are brittle or fragile and, by extension, serve no purpose. These meanings survive in the English word futile, which denotes ineffectiveness.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 19, 2024 is: sequester • \sih-KWESS-ter\  • verb To sequester a person or group is to keep them separate or apart from other people. Sequester is also often used to mean “to bind or absorb (carbon dioxide) as part of a larger chemical process or compound.” // The jury was sequestered until a verdict was reached. See the entry > Examples: “When sea otters were reintroduced to an Alaskan island, they … led to the return of offshore kelp. As well as harboring hundreds of biodiverse species, these towering algal forests also sequester carbon.” — Lucy Cooke, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Sequester is a word that has important legal and scientific uses, and a long history besides. In fact, it can be traced back to the Latin preposition secus, meaning, well, “beside” or “alongside.” Setting someone or something apart (figuratively “to the side”) from the rest is sequester’s raison d’être. We frequently hear it in the context of the courtroom, as juries are sometimes sequestered for the safety of their members or to prevent the influence of outside sources on a verdict. It is also possible, legally speaking, to sequester property—sequester can mean both “to seize” and “to deposit” property by a writ of sequestration. The scientific sense of sequester most often encountered these days has to do with the binding or absorption of carbon. Kelp forests, for example, sequester massive amounts of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, keeping it “apart” from the atmosphere—by some estimates doing so twenty times as much as terrestrial forests. You might even say kelp’s got this sequestering thing locked up.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 18, 2024 is: artifice • \AHR-tuh-fus\  • noun Artifice refers to dishonest or insincere behavior or speech that is meant to deceive someone. It can also be used to mean "clever or artful skill." // We found ourselves tremendously moved by his apology, which he made without artifice or pretense. See the entry > Examples: "At the time, almost every comedy on air was filmed live in front of a studio audience—or at least pretended to be. Pretty much all of the biggest shows used a laugh track—The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres. Savvy viewers might have figured out that not all of the giggles and guffaws were real, but few people outside the industry understood the extent of the artifice." — Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 15 Apr. 2024 Did you know? Do great actors display artifice or art? Sometimes a bit of both. Artifice stresses creative skill or intelligence, but it also implies a sense of falseness and trickery. Art generally rises above such falseness, suggesting instead an unanalyzable creative force. Actors may rely on some of each, but the personae they display in their roles are usually artificial creations. Therein lies a lexical connection between art and artifice. Artifice comes from artificium, Latin for "artistry, craftmanship, craft, craftiness, and cunning." (That root also gave us the English word artificial.) Artificium, in turn, developed from ars, the Latin root underlying the word art (and related terms such as artist and artisan).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 17, 2024 is: lucrative • \LOO-kruh-tiv\  • adjective Something described as lucrative produces money or wealth. // The author parlayed the success of her books into a lucrative second career as a public speaker.    See the entry > Examples: "A vibrant commercial Off Broadway sector existed decades ago, but it shrank as the nonprofit theater movement grew, providing a home for adventurous art. It also contracted as Broadway surged, providing the temptation of bigger audiences and higher profits, and as some venues were lost for more lucrative real estate uses." — Michael Paulson, The New York Times, 11 Apr. 2024 Did you know? Paying, gainful, remunerative, and lucrative are all used to describe ways to bring home the bacon, but each term suggests a different amount of bacon being brought in. Paying is the word for jobs that yield the smallest potatoes—a paying job should provide satisfactory compensation, but you're not going to get rich by it. Gainful employment might offer a bit more cash, and gainful certainly suggests that an individual is motivated by a desire for gain. Remunerative implies that a job provides more than the usual rewards, but a lucrative position is really the one you want—that's the kind that goes beyond your initial hopes or expectations to really bring in the lucre (both lucrative and lucre come from the Latin noun lucrum, meaning "gain" or "profit").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 16, 2024 is: debacle • \dee-BAH-kul\  • noun Debacle is usually used synonymously with fiasco to mean “a complete failure.” It can also refer to a great disaster (though typically not one that causes significant suffering or loss). // After the debacle of his first novel, he had trouble getting a publisher for his next book. // The state has made a great deal of progress in recovering from its economic debacle. See the entry > Examples: “Earlier this year, on an Amtrak train from Northern Virginia to Sanford, Florida, passengers repeatedly called the police during the train’s 20-hour delay. ‘For those of you that are calling the police,’ the conductor had to announce, ‘we are not holding you hostage.’ That debacle was caused by a freight train ahead of them, which had crashed into an empty car parked on the tracks in rural South Carolina. Nothing you can do about that. A train just has to wait until whatever’s in front of it is gone.” — Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 21 Nov. 2023 Did you know? If you need an icebreaker in some social setting, why not recount the history of debacle? After all, when it was first used in English, debacle referred to the literal breaking up of ice (such as the kind that occurs in a river after a long, cold winter), as well as to the rush of ice or water that follows such an event. Eventually, it was also used to mean “a violent, destructive flood.” If that’s not enough to make some fast friends, you could let loose the fact that debacle comes from the French noun débâcle, which in turn comes from the verb débâcler, meaning “to clear, unbolt, or unbar.” You might then add, to your listeners’ grateful appreciation, that these uses led naturally to such meanings as “a breaking up,” “collapse,” and finally the familiar “disaster” and “fiasco.” We can feel the silence thawing already.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 15, 2024 is: wane • \WAYN\  • verb To wane is to become smaller or less, or in other words, to decrease in size, extent, or degree. // The national scandal caused her popularity to wane. See the entry > Examples: “In 2023, Royal Caribbean's bookings hit an all-time high ahead of the launch of its newest ship, the Icon of the Seas. Interest has yet to wane: The three strongest booking weeks in the company’s history were at the start of 2024 and ‘wave season,’ when cruise lines typically roll out flashy discounts to incentivize reservations.” — Brittany Chang, Business Insider, 20 Mar. 2024 Did you know? In her book Braiding Sweetgrass, scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, recounts some of the stories of her people surrounding Windigos, fearsome, shrieking monsters that prey on human flesh: “The Windigo is most powerful in the Hungry Times. With the warm breezes his power wanes.” Wane is a verb used when something—such as strength, power, or influence—decreases or diminishes, usually with the implication that the lessening is gradual, natural, or—as in the case of the Windigo—seasonal. Daylight wanes, as does summer. In a classroom, one’s attention may be said to wane if, minute by minute, one becomes more interested in watching birds through the window than following the points of the professor’s lecture. For centuries, wane has also been called upon to describe the seeming decrease in the size of the moon in the later phases of the lunar cycle. The traditional opposite of wane is wax, a once common but now rare synonym of grow. Wane and wax have been partnered in references to the moon since the Middle Ages.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2024 is: caveat • \KAV-ee-aht\  • noun A caveat is an explanation or warning that should be remembered when you are doing or thinking about something. In legal contexts, caveat refers to a notice to a court or judicial officer to suspend a proceeding until the opposition can be heard. // All investment advice should come with a caveat: the stock market is impossible to predict with absolute accuracy. See the entry > Examples: "The report details the percentage of students who graduate within four years from when they first enroll in ninth grade. Still, there are caveats to the numbers. For one, students who leave the district after their freshman year to be home-schooled or enroll in private schools aren't included in the calculation." — Sommer Brugal, The Treasure Coast News (Palm Beach, Florida), 7 Jan. 2021 Did you know? You may be familiar with the old saying caveat emptor, nowadays loosely translated as "let the buyer beware." In the 16th century, this adage was imparted as a safeguard for the seller: allow the buyer to examine the item (for example, a horse) before the sale is completed so that the seller can't be blamed if the item turns out to be unsatisfactory. Caveat in Latin means "let him beware" and comes from the verb cavēre, meaning "to be on guard." Perhaps you've also heard the phrase caveat lector; translated as "let the reader beware," it's a warning to take what one reads with a grain of salt. English retained caveat itself as a noun for something that serves to warn, explain, or caution. The word caution, by the way (no salt needed), is also a descendant of cavēre.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2024 is: instigate • \IN-stuh-gayt\  • verb To instigate something is to cause it to happen or begin by urging or goading others. Instigate is a synonym of provoke. // The pair was accused of instigating a plot to oust the newly elected mayor. See the entry > Examples: "The image of John, Paul, George and Ringo waving from the top steps of Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 at 1.20pm on 7 February 1964 is among the most iconic in rock'n'roll history. … That aeroplane steps photo was pivotal in instigating a dynamic in rock music whereby boys played guitars to the wild adulation of girls, a misguided social 'norm' that became so deeply embedded in the music industry that we're only now beginning to untangle it." — Mark Beaumont, The Independent (London), 7 Feb. 2024 Did you know? It's time to investigate the true meaning of instigate. Instigate is often used as a synonym of incite (as in "siblings instigating a fight"), but the two words differ slightly in their overall usage. Incite usually stresses an act of stirring something up that one did not necessarily initiate ("the court's decision incited riots"), while instigate implies responsibility for initiating or encouraging someone else's action, and usually suggests dubious or underhanded intent ("he was charged with instigating a conspiracy"). Coming from a form of the Latin verb instigare ("to urge on or provoke"), instigate stepped into English in the 1500s, roughly a century after incite.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2024 is: torrid • \TOR-id\  • adjective Torrid can be used to describe something that is literally hot (such as a region near the Earth’s equator) or figuratively hot (such as a romance). // The tabloids were relentless in covering every minor detail of the celebrity couple’s torrid affair. See the entry > Examples: “Chinese cities such as Chongqing, a southwestern metropolis known for its torrid summers, have for years used their air raid tunnels as public cooling centers.” — The Associated Press, 7 July 2023 Did you know? Hot, steamy, sultry: English is full of words that do double-duty in describing thirst traps both literal (as in the tropics) and figurative (as in, well, thirst traps). Torrid comes from the Latin verb torrēre, which means “to burn” or “to parch” and is an ancestor of our word toast. (Despite its dry implications, torrēre is also an ancestor of torrent, as in “a torrent of rain.”) Torrid first appeared in English in the 16th century and was originally used to describe something burned or scorched by exposure to the sun, but it has since taken on an extended meaning similar to the “sexy” sense of hot: “showing fiery passion,” as in “torrid love letters” or “a torrid affair.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2024 is: zhuzh • \ZHUZH (the U is as in PUSH)\  • verb To zhuzh something up is to improve its flavor or appearance by way of a small improvement, adjustment, or addition. // He likes to zhuzh up his outfits with brightly-colored ties. See the entry > Examples: “Ever since my sister introduced me to this life-changing condiment, I’ve slathered [chili crisp] on pretty much everything I could think of—from roasted vegetables and noodles to seafood and popcorn. … That deep savory flavor comes from ingredients like fermented black bean, shallots, mushroom powder, ginger, and seaweed, so it’s no wonder it’s become my go-to pantry staple when I want to zhuzh up my dinner in a matter of seconds.” — Britt Ross, quoted on BuzzFeed, 17 Feb. 2024 Did you know? Zhuzh (alternatively spelled zhoosh) has an onomatopoetic ring to it: it resembles other sound-effect words, such as whoosh or zoom, that suggest dynamic movement, or perhaps more appropriately, a ruffling of hair or fabric. The earliest evidence of zhuzh shows that it is part of Polari, a kind of slang known especially for its use in 20th century British gay culture. The word has been in use since at least the 1970s, and gained wild popularity during the 2018 reboot of Queer Eye, a television series in which a fellow needing help in the areas of fashion, grooming, living space, food, and social grace gets a makeover courtesy of five talented gay men. While often used as a verb (usually paired with up), zhuzh is also a noun that refers to a small improvement or adjustment, as in “my hair just needs a quick zhuzh and I’ll be ready to go.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2024 is: bogart • \BOH-gahrt\  • verb To bogart something is to use or consume it without sharing. // Nelson advised his friends not to bogart all the snacks before the rest of the party guests arrived. See the entry > Examples: "Producers of individual shows should not be allowed to shape any content but their own; otherwise, the telecast winds up being hijacked by beamed-in celebrities singing songs from terrible musicals no one’s yet seen. And as for those stage-swarming investors? Let’s ban them too. The awards they bogart belong to the authors." — Jesse Green, The New York Times, 2 June 2021 Did you know? The legendary film actor Humphrey Bogart was known for playing a range of tough characters in a series of films throughout the 1940s and 1950s, including The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The African Queen. The men he portrayed often possessed a cool, hardened exterior that occasionally let forth a suggestion of romantic or idealistic sentimentality. Bogart also had a unique method of smoking cigarettes in these pictures—letting the butt dangle from his mouth without removing it until it was almost entirely consumed. It is believed that this habit inspired the current meaning of bogart, which was once limited to the phrase "Don't bogart that joint," as popularized by a song on the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider. Today, bogart can be applied to hogging almost anything.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2024 is: grudging • \GRUH-jing\  • adjective Grudging is an adjective used to describe something that is said, done, or given unwillingly or reluctantly. It can also describe someone who is unwilling or reluctant to do something. // Her theories have begun to win grudging acceptance in the scientific community. // A number of his former critics have become grudging admirers. See the entry > Examples: “‘I’m impressed,’ said Mati, grudging admiration in her tone. ‘It isn’t just a pretty name and expensive ingredients. I can never make something this tasty.’” — Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne, 2022 Did you know? The English language has been carrying a grudge for a long time—since the 13th century to be exact, when it took the Anglo-French verb grucher/grucer and made it grucchen/grudgen. Both words meant “to grumble and complain” (and if their shared definition, combined with their spelling and pronunciation, reminds you of a certain furry green Muppet who lives in a trash can, you’re onto something: grouch is thought to be a grucchen descendant). Over time grucchen/grudgen became grudge, which picked up the additional, closely related meanings of “to be unwilling to give or allow” and “to allow with reluctance or resentment,” as when Virginia Woolf wrote “if you come to grudge even the sun for shining … fruit does not ripen.” Grudging, which developed from grudge, made its English debut in the 1530s, and has been used ever since to describe someone who is unwilling or reluctant (“a grudging supporter”) or something done or given reluctantly or sparingly (“grudging respect”).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2024 is: reputation • \rep-yuh-TAY-shun\  • noun A reputation is the common opinion that people have about someone or something. Reputation can also refer to a positive position that someone or something has in public esteem or regard. // She's earned a reputation as a first-class playwright. // Investors feared that the scandal had damaged the company's reputation beyond repair. See the entry > Examples: "Menton [France] was once a leading lemon-growing region in Europe, with a global reputation and exports as far as the United States and Russia in the 18th century." — Barbara Surk and Daniel Cole, Quartz, 2 Apr. 2024 Did you know? An esteemed word in English, reputation rose to fame during the 14th century and ultimately traces back to the Latin verb reputare, meaning "to take into consideration" or "to think over." Reputare is itself a coupling of the well-known "again" prefix re- and the verb putare, "to reckon." Renowned celebrities of the putare family are the verb repute ("to believe or consider"), the identical noun (synonymous with reputation), the adjectives reputable and reputed, and the adverb reputedly. Other putare cousins of notoriety include dispute, disreputable, imputation, and putative, along with their kin.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2024 is: extemporize • \ik-STEM-puh-ryze\  • verb To extemporize means to do something extemporaneously—in other words, to improvise. // A good talk show host must be able to extemporize when interviews don’t go as planned. See the entry > Examples: “The president was fast on his feet. Sensing an opportunity to extemporize, he looked around the chamber, pleased.” — Robin Abcarian, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Let’s dive into the essence of extemporize by exploring its origins. (We’ll try not to bore you with too many extraneous details.) To extemporize is to say or do something off-the-cuff; extemporize was coined by adding the suffix -ize to the Latin phrase ex tempore, meaning “on impulse” or “on the spur of the moment.” (Incidentally, ex tempore was also borrowed wholesale into English with the meaning “in an extemporaneous manner.”) Other descendants of ex tempore include the now rare extemporal and extemporary—both synonyms of extemporaneous—and as you have no doubt guessed by now, extemporaneous itself.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2024 is: plangent • \PLAN-junt\  • adjective Something, such as a sound, that is described as plangent is loud, deep, and often expressive of sadness or suffering. The word is a synonym of plaintive. // The campers were awoken by the plangent howl of a coyote off in the distance. See the entry > Examples: “Adjuah sings in a keening, plangent tone, but at one point he pauses to offer a spoken invitation: ‘Listen to the wind,’ he says. ‘The voices calling to you from yesterday.’” — Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times, 30 June 2023 Did you know? Plangent adds power to our poetry and prose: the pounding of waves, the beat of wings, the tolling of a bell, the throbbing of the human heart, a lover’s knocking at the door—all have been described as plangent. The word plangent traces back to the Latin verb plangere, which has two meanings. The first of those meanings, “to strike or beat,” was sometimes used by Latin speakers in reference to striking one’s breast in grief. This led to the verb’s second meaning, “to lament.” The sense division carried over to the Latin adjective plangens and then into English, giving us two distinct meanings of plangent: “pounding” (as in “the plangent roar of waves”) and “expressive of woe, grief, or melancholy.” Like its synonym plaintive, plangent is often used to describe sounds, from bittersweet melodies to the wails of mourners, evoking deep and heartfelt sadness.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2024 is: proliferate • \pruh-LIF-uh-rayt\  • verb To proliferate is to increase quickly in number or amount. // Problems have proliferated in recent months; every day seems to present a new challenge that needs sorting out. See the entry > Examples: “Patches of scrub continue to emerge and then fall away as the canopy of young self-sown trees begins to shade them out. The beavers have created hectares of new open water and channel complexes. Deadwood is ubiquitous. Topsoil continues to grow, and fungi proliferate.” — Isabella Tree, The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small, 2023 Did you know? Proliferate is a back-formation of proliferation. That means that proliferation came first (we borrowed it from French in the 1700s), and was later shortened to form the verb. Proliferation originally referred to the botanical phenomenon of some plants having buds, flowers, or other parts that are adventitious—that is, that arise or occur sporadically or in other than the usual location (e.g. pitch pines’ ability to sprout new trees directly from their stumps after a fire). With advances in the study of biology in the 1800s, proliferation came to be used to refer to the rapid and repeated production of cells by division. That sense in turn begat the verb proliferate, which eventually came to be used when anything—whether living (such as yeast) or nonliving (such as data)—quickly increases or multiplies.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 4, 2024 is: agrarian • \uh-GRAIR-ee-un\  • adjective Something described as agrarian has to do with farms and farming. // Joan hopes to leave city life behind and move to a more agrarian region where she plans to raise lambs and grow heirloom vegetables. See the entry > Examples: "In an interview, [cultural studies researcher, Toni] Smith said fantasizing about agrarian life is nothing new. History presents cyclical 'back-to-the-land' movements, from America’s early West-settling pioneers to the homesteaders of the Great Depression." — Hannah Macready, Ambrook Research, 17 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Today, an acre is generally considered to be a unit of land measuring 43,560 square feet (4,047 square meters). Before that standard was set, it's believed that an acre represented a rougher measurement: the amount of land that could be plowed in one day with a yoke of oxen. Both acre and agrarian come from the Latin noun ager and the Greek noun agrós, meaning "piece of land; field." (You can probably guess that agriculture is another descendant.) Agrarian, first used in English in the 16th century, describes things pertaining to the cultivation of fields, as well as to the farmers who cultivate them.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 3, 2024 is: melee • \MAY-lay\  • noun Melee refers to a confused fight or struggle, especially one involving hand-to-hand combat. // What started as a verbal disagreement at the football game soon turned into a general melee involving scores of spectators. See the entry > Examples: "The battle scenes are a Hollywood mishmash of medieval melees, meaningless cannonades, and World War I-style infantry advances." — Franz-Stefan Gady, Foreign Policy, 2 Dec. 2023 Did you know? English has no shortage of words for confused and noisy fights, some (fray, brawl, scrap) more common than others (donnybrook, fracas). Melee tends to be encountered more often in written rather than spoken English, but it is far from obscure, and has seen increasing use especially in the context of video games featuring some form of hand-to-hand combat. Such games allow players to mix it up with all manner of rivals and baddies from the comfort and safety of their home, with mix being an especially apt word alongside melee: the latter comes from the French word mêlée, which in turn comes from the Old French verb mesler, meaning "to mix."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2024 is: forfend • \for-FEND\  • verb Forfend is used in contexts relating to some kind of real or pretended danger or other unpleasantness. In humorous and ironic use, forfend typically appears in the phrase “heaven forfend,” and, like “heaven forbid,” expresses a usually ironic desire that something not happen or be done. In general use, if you forfend something unwanted or undesirable, you ward it off or prevent it; and if you forfend yourself from or against something, you protect or preserve yourself from it. // Heaven forfend that people actually pick up dictionaries and read them! // By studying your dictionary, you may forfend any risk of not knowing the meaning of a word. // To forfend against the prospect of being at a loss for words, we recommend you read the Word of the Day daily. See the entry > Examples: “Cigarette companies financed armies of letter and op-ed writers, think tank reports, and ‘expert’ testimony promoting the return of DDT. … Big Tobacco fought for the return of DDT, [Elena] Conis argues, because the pesticide made for such ‘a helpful scientific parable, one that, told just right, illustrated the problem of government regulation of private industry gone wrong.’ It was private companies, and not politicians—or, heaven forfend, the people—who should decide what products should be produced, and how.” — Scott W. Stern, The New Republic, 31 May 2022 Did you know? Forfend is an unusual word in that its most commonly used sense is considered archaic, meaning it survives in English chiefly in specialized uses. When forfend was first used in the 14th century, it meant “to forbid.” It still does but only in phrases, like “heaven forfend” or “God forfend,” that have an exaggeratedly old-timey ring to them. (The use is also typically humorous and/or ironic.) Put another way, substituting forfend for forbid in any other context would sound strange, as in “students are forfended from using cell phones in the classroom.” Other senses of forfend, including “to protect or preserve” and “to ward off or prevent,” are current, though much less common. The fend part of the word comes from the same Latin source as defend.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 1, 2024 is: cohesive • \koh-HEE-siv\  • adjective Something described as cohesive sticks together and forms something closely united. The word is usually used with abstract terms in phrases like "a cohesive social unit" or "a cohesive look/aesthetic." Cohesive can also be used to describe something, such as the design of a room or the plot of a movie, that is coherent—in other words, logically or consistently ordered. // The couple chose their wedding colors and designs carefully to make sure everything had a cohesive look. // The customer service department is a small but cohesive team. See the entry > Examples: "The collection showcases a harmonious blend of modern aesthetics and classic craftsmanship, allowing customers to create cohesive outdoor environments that enhance the beauty of their surroundings." — Business Insider, 16 Mar. 2024 Did you know? The Latin verb haerēre has shown remarkable stick-to-itiveness in influencing the English lexicon, which is fitting for a word that means "to be closely attached; to stick." Among its descendants are adhere (literally meaning "to stick"), adhere’s relative adhesive (a word for sticky substances), inhere (meaning "to belong by nature or habit"), and even hesitate (which implies remaining stuck in place before taking action). In Latin, haerēre teamed up with the prefix co- to form cohaerēre, which means "to stick together." Cohaerēre is the ancestor of cohesive, a word borrowed into English in the early 18th century to describe something that sticks together literally (such as dough or mud) or figuratively (such as a society or sports team).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2024 is: demagogue • \DEM-uh-gahg\  • noun A demagogue is a political leader who tries to get support by making use of popular prejudices, as well as by making false claims and promises and using arguments based on emotion rather than reason. // His opponent called him a bigoted demagogue for demonizing those who don't intend to vote for him. See the entry > Examples: “You need an internal guidance system for making decisions. Without one, your choices become heavily influenced by external forces such as peers, television, and demagogues.” — Tom Muha, The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland), 2 Oct. 2021 Did you know? When the ancient Greeks used dēmagōgós (from dêmos, meaning “people,” and -agōgos, “leading”) they meant someone good—a leader who used outstanding oratorical skills to further the interests of the common people. The first known use of demagogue in English comes from the introduction to Thomas Hobbes’s 1629 translation of a text by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides: “It need not be doubted, but from such a master Thucydides was sufficiently qualified, to have become a great demagogue, and of great authority with the people.” Alas, the word quickly took a negative turn; within decades it was being used to refer to someone who uses powers of persuasion to sway and mislead.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 29, 2024 is: inviolable • \in-VYE-uh-luh-bul\  • adjective Inviolable is a formal term that is used to describe something too important to be ignored or treated with disrespect. // She considers herself a person with inviolable moral standards. See the entry > Examples: "Under international law, humans possess an inviolable right to freedom of thought. As part of this, governments have a duty to create an environment where people can think freely." — Simon McCarthy-Jones, The Conversation, 27 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Inviolable is a venerable word that has been with us since the 15th century. Its opposite, violable ("capable of being or likely to be violated"), appeared in the following century. The 17th century English playwright Shackerley Marmion made good use of violable in A Fine Companion, writing, "Alas, my heart is Tender and violable with the least weapon Sorrow can dart at me." But English speakers have never warmed up to that word the way we have to inviolable, and it continues to be used much less frequently. Both terms descend from the Latin verb violare, which both shares the meaning with, and is an ancestor of, the English word violate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2024 is: ken • \KEN\  • noun Ken refers to someone’s range of perception, knowledge, or understanding, and is most often used in phrases like “beyond/outside/within one’s ken.” // The author advised the aspiring writers in the crowd to develop an authoritative voice by sticking to subjects within their ken. See the entry > Examples: “… I’m still pretty much an amateur when it comes to gardening. Creating showy displays of florals along a pathway or verdant plots of perennials in shady backyard nooks—well, much of that is still beyond my ken. I don’t know my spurges from my woodruffs.” — Larry Cornies, The London (Ontario) Free Press, 3 June 2023 Did you know? Need a word that can encompass all that one perceives, understands, or knows? It’s just ken. Of course, whether someone is a president, writer, physicist, diplomat, journalist, or even a stereotypical Barbie, everyone has their own personal ken. So when someone says something is “beyond” it, they’re not admitting to being a gosling, only that the topic or question at hand is beyond their particular range of knowledge or expertise. Ken appeared on the English horizon in the 16th century referring to the distance bounding the range of ordinary vision at sea (about 20 miles), and would thus have been familiar to skippers in particular. Its meaning soon broadened, however, to mean “range of vision” or “sight” on land or sea. Today ken rarely suggests literal sight, but rather the extent of what one can metaphorically “see.” And that, as they say, is enough.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 27, 2024 is: assail • \uh-SAIL\  • verb Assail has a number of meanings relating to violent or powerful confrontations. It can be a straightforward synonym of assault, as in "assailed by armed robbers," or it can mean "to oppose, challenge, or criticize harshly and forcefully," as in "citizens assailing the proposed changes." It can also mean "to trouble or afflict in a way that threatens to overwhelm," as in "assailed by fears." Assail can also apply to powerful perceptions: a smell that assails you, for example, is strongly noticeable and usually unpleasant. Occasionally, assail is used to mean "to encounter, undertake, or confront energetically," as in "with a deadline fast approaching, we assailed the project with renewed vigor." // Most worthwhile achievements require that one persevere even when assailed by doubts. See the entry > Examples: "What does it even mean to be good in a world as complex as ours, when great inequity remains unaddressed and often seems too daunting to assail, and when seemingly benign choices—which shoes to buy, which fruit to eat—can come with the moral baggage of large carbon footprints or the undercompensated labor of migrant workers?" — Nancy Kaffer, The Detroit (Michigan) Free Press, 9 Jan. 2020 Did you know? If you're assailed by doubts about the word assail, allow us to set your mind at ease by providing some surety. Assail comes, by way of Anglo-French, from the Latin verb assilire ("to leap upon"), which in turn comes from the Latin verb salire, meaning "to leap." (Salire is the root of a number of English words related to jumping and leaping, such as somersault and sally, as well as assault, a synonym of assail.) When assail was first used in the 13th century, it meant "to make a violent physical attack upon." By the early 15th century, English speakers were using the term to mean "to attack with words or arguments." Now the verb can apply to any kind of aggressive encounter, even if it is not necessarily violent or quarrelsome, as in "Upon entering the room, we were assailed by a horrible odor."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2024 is: homage • \AH-mij\  • noun An homage is something that is done to honor someone or something. It is often used with the word pay (as in “pay homage”) to mean “to respect or honor.” // Her latest book is an homage to her favorite city. // The paintings in the new art gallery pay homage to women artists of the past. See the entry > Examples: “The series also pays homage to Detroit with its brutal winters, chicken spots and fur-draped residents. It’s a city grounded in Black culture, which is only now beginning to reemerge after years of negligence.” — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 21 Mar. 2024 Did you know? In medieval times, a person could officially become a vassal of a king or lord by publicly announcing allegiance to him in a formal ceremony. In that ritual, known as homage (from the Latin root homo-, meaning “man”), the subject (who was usually but not always a man) knelt and placed his hands between those of his lord, symbolically surrendering himself and putting himself at the lord’s disposal and under his jurisdiction. A bond was thus forged between the two; the vassal’s part was to revere and serve his lord, and the lord’s role was to protect and provide for the vassal and his family. The symbolism attached to the word proved irresistible, and homage quickly broadened to apply with the meaning “respect or honor” in a variety of contexts. Today, a singer can pay homage to someone who influenced their career, and a recipe can be an homage to a chef’s hometown.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2024 is: tendentious • \ten-DEN-shus\  • adjective Tendentious is a formal word used disapprovingly to describe someone or something expressing a strongly biased point of view in a way that may cause argument. // The book proved to be a tendentious account of the town's history, written to rescue the reputation of one of its less scrupulous founders. See the entry > Examples: “Polls can have their own politics, and media polls are often accused of being tendentious.” — Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal, 26 Oct. 2021 Did you know? Tendentious is one of several words English speakers can choose when they want to suggest that someone has made up their mind in advance. You may be partial to predisposed or prone to favor partisan, but whatever your leanings, we’re inclined to think you’ll benefit from adding tendentious to your repertoire. Tendentious is a relatively recent arrival to English, considering its Latin roots. In the latter half of the 19th century, English users took the Latinate stem tendenti- (from tendentia, meaning “tendency”) and combined it with the familiar adjective suffix -ious to form a word describing someone with a tendency to favor a particular point of view, motivated by an intent to promote a particular cause.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2024 is: burgeon • \BER-jun\  • verb To burgeon is to grow or develop quickly—in other words to flourish, blossom or sprout. // The trout population in the stream has burgeoned since the town implemented its laws against overfishing. See the entry > Examples: "From the quaint charm of its historic downtown to the dynamic energy of its burgeoning Arts District, Gilbert [Arizona] offers something for everyone." — Lux Butler, The Arizona Republic, 7 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Burgeon arrived in Middle English as burjonen, a borrowing from the Anglo-French verb burjuner, meaning "to bud or sprout." Burgeon is often used figuratively, as when writer Ta-Nehisi Coates used it in his 2008 memoir The Beautiful Struggle: "… I was in the burgeoning class of kids whose families made too much for financial aid but not enough to make tuition payments anything less than a war." Usage commentators have objected to the use of burgeon to mean "to flourish" or "to grow rapidly," insisting that any figurative use should stay true to the word's earliest literal meaning and distinguish budding or sprouting from subsequent growing. But the sense of burgeon that indicates growing or expanding and prospering (as in "the burgeoning music scene" or "the burgeoning international market") has been in established use for decades and is, in fact, the most common use of burgeon today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2024 is: exodus • \EK-suh-dus\  • noun An exodus is a situation in which many people leave a place at the same time—in other words a mass departure or emigration. // The resort town eagerly anticipated the mass exodus from the cities to its beaches as summer approached. See the entry > Examples: “Experts link lower rents to a possible drop in demand after population losses during a recent exodus from parts of Southern California. As the state’s population has stagnated, some believe demand may cool and dampen rent growth.” — Anthony de Leon, The Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2024 Did you know? The Biblical book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, so it's no surprise that the word exodus, uncapitalized, has come to refer more generally to any mass departure. Exodus was adopted into English (via Latin) from the Greek word Exodos, which literally means “the road out.” Exodos was formed by combining the prefix ex-, meaning “out of,” and hodos, meaning “road” or “way.” Indeed, many roads led out of hodos into English; other hodos descendants include episode, method, odometer, and period. While exodus is occasionally encountered in reference to an individual’s leaving (e.g., “his/her/their exodus”), such usage is likely to raise the eyebrows of editors who feel it should only refer to the departure en masse of a large group of people, as when novelist Nnedi Okorafor writes in her science fiction novel Lagoon (2015): “Everyone was trying to get somewhere, be it a church, a bar, home or out of Lagos. Then there was the exodus of people … to the parts of the city that had the least chance of flooding if the water rose too high.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2024 is: palpable • \PAL-puh-bul\  • adjective Something described as palpable is obvious and notable. Palpable may also be used as a synonym of tangible to describe something that can be perceived by one's sense of touch. // The tension in the courtroom was palpable as the jury foreman stood to announce the verdict. See the entry > Examples: "The power of the ancestral people who built Cliff Palace feels palpable as I stand inside the cliff hollow, marvelling at towers and rooms that slot together perfectly." — Linda Barnard, The Toronto Star, 16 Sept. 2023 Did you know? If you find it fascinating how English speakers push words with concrete meanings into figurative use, we feel you. By which we mean we understand you, of course, not that we are patting your head or poking you in the shoulder. Palpable, which has since the 14th century described things that can be literally felt through the skin (such as a person’s pulse), has undergone an expansion similar to that of feel over the centuries, and is now more frequently used to describe things that cannot be touched but are still so easy to perceive that it is as though they could be—such as "a palpable tension in the air."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 21, 2024 is: noblesse oblige • \noh-BLESS-uh-BLEEZH\  • noun Noblesse oblige refers to the idea that people who have high social rank or wealth should be helpful and generous to people of lower rank or to people who are poor. // As the inheritor of a great fortune, he was raised to have a strong sense of noblesse oblige, not only volunteering and donating to charity, but advocating for structural change to address inequality. See the entry > Examples: “As is usually the case, actual research reveals that the pair bond of the cardinal is not really sacrosanct. The ostensibly quaint couples we see regularly have a 20% divorce rate, which is of course better than our own, but they are not exactly swans. And while they are mated, they are generally monogamous, but polygyny is known. It is, however, usually observed in cases where the male of an adjacent territory goes missing or because an unmated female persists in foraging and remaining in a male’s territory. A strange form of noblesse oblige. It has not been determined whether these second pairings produce any offspring.” — Bill Chaisson, The Eagle Times (Claremont, New Hampshire), 20 Jan. 2024 Did you know? In a tale collected in 16th-century Germany, a noblewoman wonders why the hungry poor don’t simply eat Krosem (a sweet bread), her cluelessness prefiguring the later, much more famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette: “let them eat cake.” The queen never actually said that, but we can think of the sentiment behind noblesse oblige as the quote’s opposite—something more like “let us bake them a cake since we own all the eggs/flour/sugar/etc.” In French, noblesse oblige means literally “nobility obligates.” It was first quoted in English in the early 19th century, before being used as a noun referring to the unwritten obligation of aristocrats to act honorably and generously to others. Later, by extension, it also came to refer to the obligation of anyone who is in a better position than others—due, for example, to high office or celebrity—to act respectably and responsibly.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2024 is: gingerly • \JIN-jer-lee\  • adjective An act or manner described as gingerly is very cautious or careful. // It’s a delicate subject, and we need to approach it with gingerly care and tact. // The antelope moved with a gingerly gait that suggested it was hurt. See the entry > Examples: “Note: bears do not in a gingerly manner put their paws against each stem of a lovely ripe pear and gently pull upward against the branch, the proper harvesting method. ‘Picked’ in bear-lingo means tearing down carefully constructed tree cages and knocking as many branches to the ground as needed; then taking several bites out of each luscious pear, leaving scattered remnants all over the ground ...” — Cate Gable, The Chinook Observer (Long Beach, Washington), 14 Oct. 2020 Did you know? Though more common as an adverb meaning “very cautiously and carefully,” as in “moving gingerly across the icy pond,” gingerly has for more than four centuries functioned both as an adverb and as an adjective. Etymologists take a gingerly approach to assigning any particular origins to gingerly. While it might have come from the name of the spice, there’s nothing concrete to back up that idea. Another theory is that it’s related to an Old French word, gençor, meaning “prettier” or “more beautiful,” with evidence being that in 16th century English an earlier sense of gingerly often described dancing or walking done with dainty steps. It wasn’t until the 17th century that gingerly was applied to movements done with caution in order to avoid being noisy or causing injury, and to a wary manner in handling or presenting ideas.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2024 is: underwhelm • \un-der-WELM\  • verb To underwhelm someone is to fail to impress or excite them. // Despite the hype, the movie underwhelmed most reviewers, who criticized its slow pace and poor special effects. See the entry > Examples: "Wake me up when NBA All-Star Weekend ends. Let’s start with the Dunk Contest, which is supposed to be the most exciting event. It wasn’t. Most of the dunks, and the judging of said dunks, underwhelmed." — Zachary Pereles, CBS Sports, 19 Feb. 2024 Did you know? Overwhelm and its rare synonym whelm have both been around since the Middle Ages, but underwhelm is a 20th-century coinage. Both overwhelm and whelm come from the Middle English whelmen, meaning "to turn over" or "to cover up." Underwhelm is a playful overturning of overwhelm that is well suited for contexts in which something fails to excite. As is often the case with younger words, there is a certain amount of misinformation regarding where underwhelm came from. We have seen reports that the playwright George S. Kaufman coined it, and also that the famed sportswriter Red Smith claimed to have used it first. Neither of these is likely to be accurate, for the simple fact that there is evidence that underwhelming was used, albeit as an adjective, before either of these men was born.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2024 is: qua • \KWAH\  • preposition Qua is a preposition used in formal speech or writing that means “in the capacity or character of (someone or something).” It is used synonymously with as to indicate that someone or something is being referred to or thought about in a particular way. // The artist qua artist is less interesting to me than the artist as a human being. See the entry > Examples: “He [Charlie Chaplin] financed his own films; he wrote them; he took music credit; he even choreographed. Most of the cast and crew were on his payroll. He even co-owned his distribution company. The box-office take went straight into his pocket. He was not beholden to anyone, but he was not indispensable, either. Losing the Chaplin studio had a negligible impact on the movie business qua business.” — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 Did you know? A preposition is a word—and almost always a very small, very common word—that shows direction (to in “a letter to you”), location (at in “at the door”), or time (by in “by noon”), or that introduces an object (of in “a basket of apples”) or a capacity or role (as in “works as an editor”). As such, prepositions tend not to attract as much attention as other parts of speech (unless there is some foofaraw about whether or not it’s okay to end a sentence with one). Qua, however, though very small is not very common—at least in everyday speech or writing. As one 20th-century usage writer commented, “Qua is sometimes thought affected or pretentious, but it does convey meaning economically.” Qua’s meaning is quite specific—it can substitute for the phrase “in the capacity or character of” or the preposition as in the right context, as in “they wanted to enjoy the wine qua wine, not as a status symbol.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2024 is: circumlocution • \ser-kum-loh-KYOO-shun\  • noun Circumlocution refers to the use of many words to say something that could be said more clearly and directly with fewer words. Usually encountered in formal speech and writing, circumlocution can also refer to speech that is intentionally evasive. // The judge coughed and pointed to her watch, clearly impatient with the attorney's tiresome circumlocutions in defense of his client. See the entry > Examples: “The slight stiltedness of her … English merges with the circumlocution of business-school lingo to produce phrases like ‘the most important aspect is to embrace a learning mind-set’ and ‘I believe we’re going to move forward in a positive way.’” — Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, 1 Oct. 2023 Did you know? In The King’s English (1906), lexicographers H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler advised, “Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.” It’s good advice: using more words than necessary to convey a point can confuse and annoy one’s audience. Circumlocution itself combines two Latin elements: the prefix circum-, meaning “around,” and locutio, meaning “speech.” In essence, circumlocution may be thought of as “roundabout speech.” Since at least the early 16th century, English writers have used circumlocution with disdain, naming a thing to stop, or better yet, to avoid altogether. Charles Dickens used the word to satirize political runarounds in the 1857 novel Little Dorrit with the creation of the fictional Circumlocution Office, a government department that delayed the dissemination of information and just about everything else.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 16, 2024 is: inalienable • \in-AY-lee-uh-nuh-bul\  • adjective Something considered inalienable is impossible to take away or give up. // The American ethos is built on the belief that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights. See the entry > Examples: "Despite the hurdles, comedians continue to negotiate their inalienable need to do stand-up to the point that money comes as a secondary concern." — Jake Kroeger, The Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2023 Did you know? Alien, alienable, inalienable—it's easy enough to see the Latin word alius, meaning "other," at the root of these three words. Alien joined our language in the 14th century, and one of its earliest meanings was "belonging to another." By the early 1600s that sense of alien had led to alienable, an adjective describing something you can give away or transfer to another owner. The word unalienable came about as its opposite, but so did inalienable, a word most likely borrowed into English on its own from French. Inalienable is the more common form today, and although we often see both forms used to modify "rights," it was unalienable that was used in the Declaration of Independence to describe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2024 is: purloin • \per-LOYN\  • verb To purloin is to take something that belongs to someone else—that is, to steal it. Purloin is much more formal-sounding than steal, but is often—though not always—encountered in humorous contexts, suggesting that the theft is not serious. // The puppy managed to purloin a few cookies from the plate when no one was looking. // The studio stepped up security, fearing that someone might attempt to purloin a copy of the script for the show’s season finale. See the entry > Examples: “The pitch for every tax scam is the same: ‘We will help you avoid paying the IRS.’ While there are hundreds of legitimate ways to reduce your federal income tax bill, fraud merchants purloin millions through what the IRS calls its ‘Dirty Dozen.’ Most of the swindles involve bogus tax breaks.” — John F. Wasik, Forbes, 5 May 2023 Did you know? Picture a pie cooling on a windowsill. Peach, possibly, or perhaps plum—with perfect perfumed plumes puffing out from the holes poked in its crust. And then, suddenly, the pie is gone (as is our alliteration, at least for now). Those familiar with the classic pie-windowsill thievery of cartoons and comics know that the dessert has not been merely stolen, or even swiped, but purloined! Purloin comes from the Anglo-French verb purluigner, meaning “to prolong, postpone, or set aside.” English speakers of the 15th century borrowed purloin to use it in much the same way, applying it when someone sets something aside, concealing it so that it cannot be used by someone else. The sense meaning “to steal” developed not long after in the same century. The whiff of unseriousness often carried by purloin is not a constant; even today, it is common to read reports of people purloining large sums of money, not just delicious plum pies. But purloin does tend to carry the same particular piquancy as pinch and pilfer.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2024 is: furlong • \FER-lawng\  • noun A furlong is a unit of distance equal to 220 yards (about 201 meters), and is used chiefly in horse racing. // To win the Kentucky Derby, a Thoroughbred must run 10 furlongs, or one and 1/4 miles. See the entry > Examples: “My battle with this monster began a decade ago when a wayward seedling popped up in my perennial bed. It subsequently flowered so gloriously that, like a common dolt, I left it there. What I didn’t realize is that every bloom drops lots of seeds. Even worse, after the plant’s foliage withers in summer, spreading roots grow by the furlong in every direction. A pink primrose tsunami swept over my garden the following spring, choking the phlox and drowning the daylilies.” — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 26 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Furlong is an English original that can be traced back to Old English furlang, a combination of the noun furh (“furrow”) and the adjective lang (“long”). Though now standardized as a length of 220 yards (or 1/8th of a mile), the furlong was originally defined less precisely as the length of a furrow—a trench in the earth made by a plow—in a cultivated field. This length was equal to the long side of an acre—an area originally defined as the amount of arable land that could be plowed by a yoke of oxen in a day, but later standardized as an area measuring 220 yards (one furlong) by 22 yards, and now defined as any area measuring 4,840 square yards. In contemporary usage, furlong is often encountered in references to horse racing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2024 is: brusque • \BRUSK\  • adjective A person may be described as brusque when they are talking or behaving in a very direct, brief, and unfriendly way. Brusque can also describe speech that is noticeably short and abrupt. // We knew something was wrong when our normally easygoing professor was brusque and impatient with our class. // She asked for a cup of coffee and received a brusque reply: “We don't have any.” See the entry > Examples: “Archaeologists look down on him because of his working-class background, and his brusque manner hasn't won him many friends. He doesn't argue with those he disagrees with; he just walks away.” — Dan Lybarger, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 19 Feb. 2021 Did you know? If you’ve ever felt swept aside by someone with a brusque manner, that makes a certain amount of etymological sense. Brusque, you see, comes ultimately from bruscus, the Medieval Latin name for butcher’s broom, a shrub whose bristly, leaf-like twigs have long been used for making brooms. Bruscus was modified to the adjective brusco in Italian, where it meant “sour” or “tart.” French, in turn, changed brusco to brusque, and the word in that form entered English in the 1600s. English speakers initially applied brusque to tartness in wine, but the word soon came to describe a harsh and stiff manner, which is just what you might expect of a word bristling with associations to stiff, scratchy brooms.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 12, 2024 is: surfeit • \SER-fut\  • noun Surfeit is a formal word that refers to an amount or supply that is too much or more than you need. It is synonymous with the word excess. // The organization ended up with a surfeit of volunteers who simply got in each other's way. See the entry > Examples: "Pet owners can have a tougher time finding apartments because of the surfeit of landlords who don't allow dogs, cats or other animals in their buildings." — Andrew J. Campa, The Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2024 Did you know? There is an abundance—you could almost say a surfeit—of English words that come from the Latin verb facere, meaning "to do." The connection to facere is fairly obvious for words spelled with "fic," "fac," or "fec," such as sacrifice, fact, and infect. For words like stupefy (a modification of the Latin word stupefacere) and hacienda (originally, in Old Spanish and Latin, facienda) the facere relation is not so apparent. As for surfeit, a "c" was dropped along the path that led from Latin through Anglo-French, where facere became faire ("to do") and sur- was added to make the verb surfaire, meaning "to overdo." It is the Anglo-French noun surfet ("excess"), however, that Middle English borrowed, eventually settling on the spelling surfeit.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11, 2024 is: discomfit • \diss-KUM-fit\  • verb To discomfit someone is to make them confused or upset. Discomfit is a formal synonym of the also formal (but slightly less so) disconcert. // Jacob was discomfited by the new employee’s forward, probing questions. See the entry > Examples: “Bosley Crowther, chief film critic for The New York Times, didn’t quite know what to make of Dr. Strangelove at the time of its release in January 1964. … What exactly was Kubrick’s point? ‘…I want to know what this picture proves.’ We may find it odd for an influential critic to expect a movie to ‘prove’ anything. Kubrick’s aim was manifestly not to prove, but to subvert and discomfit.” — Andrew J. Bacevich, The Nation, 23 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Disconcerted by discomfit and discomfort? While the two look similar and share some semantic territory, they’re etymologically unrelated. Unlike discomfort, discomfit has no connection to comfort, which comes ultimately from the Latin adjective fortis, meaning “strong.” Instead, discomfit was borrowed from Anglo-French in the 13th century with the meaning “to defeat in battle.” Within a couple centuries, discomfit had expanded beyond the battlefield to mean “to thwart,” a meaning that eventually softened into the now-common “to disconcert or confuse” use—one quite close to the uneasiness and annoyance communicated by discomfort. For a time, usage commentators were keen to keep a greater distance between discomfit and discomfort; they recommended that discomfit be limited to its original “to defeat” meaning, but they’ve largely given up now, and the “disconcert or confuse” meaning is fully established. There is one major difference between discomfit and discomfort, though: discomfit is used almost exclusively as a verb, while discomfort is much more commonly used as a noun than a verb.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 10, 2024 is: vicarious • \vye-KAIR-ee-us\  • adjective A vicarious emotion or experience is one felt by watching, hearing about, or reading about someone else rather than by doing something yourself. // He felt a vicarious thrill as his daughter crossed the stage to accept her diploma. See the entry > Examples: “That Jagger can still sing and dance up a storm, at 80, is a triumph for him and should provide a vicarious thrill for anyone who attends a concert by the Rolling Stones next year.” — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2023 Did you know? If you love to read adventure tales from the comfort of home, you’re already a pro at living vicariously, so throw on those readers and let us paint a picture. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to study language and share what you’ve learned with the world. You wake up and pour yourself a strong cup of coffee, and then the work begins. Today, you are tasked with understanding the history of vicarious. Your research confirms that this word originally described something having the function of a substitute—that is, something that serves instead of another thing—and that it comes from the Latin noun vicis, which means “change” or “stead.” What’s more, you learn that vicis is also the source of the English prefix vice- (as in “vice president”), meaning “one that takes the place of.” Keeping in mind the most common meaning of vicarious (“experienced through imaginative or sympathetic participation”), you write it all down so others can share in your experience. Mission accomplished!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 9, 2024 is: aegis • \EE-jus\  • noun Aegis is a formal word that refers to the power to protect, control, or support something or someone. It is often used in the phrase under the aegis of. // The issue will be decided under the aegis of an international organization. See the entry > Examples: “French President Emmanuel Macron visited Notre Dame Cathedral on Friday, one year before its scheduled reopening in 2024. … During his visit, Macron paid homage to Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, who oversaw the reconstruction and died in August. Wearing a hardhat, Macron was given a tool to assist as Georgelin’s name was inscribed in the wood of the spire under the aegis of an artisan, memorializing the general’s contribution to the cathedral.” — Thomas Adamson and Sylvie Corbet, The Associated Press, 8 Dec. 2023 Did you know? English borrowed aegis from Latin, but the word ultimately comes from the Greek noun aigís, meaning “goatskin.” In ancient Greek mythology, an aegis was something that offered physical protection. It has been depicted in various ways, including as a magical protective cloak made from the skin of the goat that suckled Zeus as an infant, and as a shield fashioned by Hephaestus that bore the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. The word first entered English in the 15th century as a noun referring to the shield or breastplate associated with Zeus or Athena. It later took on a more general sense of “protection” and, by the late-19th century, it had acquired the extended senses of “auspices” and “sponsorship.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 8, 2024 is: fatuous • \FATCH-oo-us\  • adjective To describe something, such as an idea or remark, as fatuous is to say that it is foolish or silly rather than sensible or logical. // Our hopes for an apology and a reasonable explanation for the error were met with fatuous platitudes. See the entry > Examples: "... when I was first admitted to the emergency room at Swedish's hospital in Edmonds, a doctor asked me whether I was right- or left-handed, and when I said left, he said, 'That's lucky'—a remark I took to be verging on the fatuous. But since then I've read that a considerable portion of left-handed people ... have their verbal and cognitive facilities located in the right hemisphere of the brain, which would explain my relative ease in talking, thinking, and remembering, despite my hemiplegia ..." — Jonathan Raban, Father and Son: A Memoir, 2023 Did you know? "I am two fools, I know, / For loving, and for saying so / In whining Poetry," wrote John Donne, simultaneously confessing to both infatuation and fatuousness. As any love-struck fool can attest, infatuation can make buffoons of the best of us, and so it is reasonable that the words fatuous and infatuation share the same Latin root, fatuus, meaning "foolish." Both terms have been part of English since the 17th century, though infatuation followed the earlier verb infatuate, a fatuus descendant that once meant "to make foolish" but that now usually means "to inspire with a foolish love or admiration."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 7, 2024 is: conjecture • \kun-JEK-cher\  • verb Conjecture is a formal synonym of the verb guess that means “to form an opinion or idea without proof or sufficient evidence.” // Some scientists have conjectured that Jupiter’s moon Europa could sustain life. See the entry > Examples: “In the week since the news of the thefts broke, the case has been the subject of heated speculation in the British news media, with daily articles conjecturing over how many artifacts had been lost, and who was responsible.” — Alex Marshall, The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Conjecturing—forming an idea or opinion with some amount of guesswork—usually involves more than simply throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks, but that’s the gist, and with good etymological reason: conjecture comes ultimately from the Latin verb conicere, which means, literally, “to throw together.” To conjecture is to make an educated guess rather than a stab in the dark; it involves piecing together bits of information to come to a plausible conclusion, as in “scientists conjecturing about the cause of the disease.” As such, conjecture tends to show up in formal contexts rather than informal ones, though we reckon one could conjecture if their spaghetti is perfectly cooked based on the amount of time it has been boiling, and on what has worked in the past. (Nota bene: throwing it at the wall doesn’t work!)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 6, 2024 is: redoubt • \rih-DOUT\  • noun Redoubt can refer specifically to a small building or area that provides soldiers with protection from attack, or more broadly to any safe or protected place, whether literal or figurative. // A massive stone redoubt at the entrance of the bay guarded the city. // The refugees gathered in a hilly redoubt several miles from the outskirts of town. See the entry > Examples: "Pittsburgh has spent decades building itself as a world mecca for robotics technology and applications. The key to Pittsburgh's development into a robotics center has been the presence of Carnegie-Mellon University, a historic redoubt of technology that continues to evolve successfully; among its current distinctives is that it offers the nation's No. 1 graduate-degree program in artificial intelligence, according to [Joel] Reed [president of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network]." — Dale Buss, Forbes 28 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Based on its spelling, you might think that redoubt shares its origin with words such as doubt and redoubtable, both of which come from the Latin verb dubitare, meaning "to be in doubt." But that's not the case. Redoubt actually comes to us (via the French word redoute and the Italian word ridotto) from a different Latin verb—reducere, meaning "to lead back," the same root that gives us reduce. How that b ended up in redoubt is a lingering question, but some etymologists have posited that the word might have been conflated with another redoubt—a now-archaic verb meaning "to regard with awe, dismay, or dread" which, unlike its twin, does indubitably come from dubitare.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 5, 2024 is: meticulous • \muh-TIK-yuh-lus\  • adjective Something or someone described as meticulous shows extreme or excessive care in the consideration or treatment of details. // He is meticulous about keeping accurate records. See the entry > Examples: "In a press release, the company touts its meticulous approach to the sandwich's creation—testing pickles with eight variations of thickness and more than 10 bun recipes with six different bakeries." — Alicia Kelso, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2021 Did you know? We're afraid we have some strange etymological news: meticulous comes from the Latin word for "fearful"—metīculōsus—and ultimately from the Latin noun metus, meaning "fear." Although meticulous currently has no "fearful" meanings, it was originally used as a synonym of "frightened" and "timid." This sense had fallen into disuse by 1700, and in the 1800s meticulous acquired a new meaning of "overly and timidly careful" (possibly due to the influence of the French word méticuleux). This meaning in turn led to the current one of "painstakingly careful," with no connotations of fear at all. The newest use was controversial for a time, but it is now by far the most common meaning; even the most meticulous (or persnickety, depending on your view) among us consider it perfectly acceptable.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 4, 2024 is: praxis • \PRAK-sis\  • noun Praxis is a formal word referring to the practical application of a theory—in other words, what one does to act on a theory (such as feminist theory) to which one is committed. Praxis is also used synonymously with action or practice to refer to the exercise of an art, science, or skill, or to customary conduct within a given sphere. // Many gardeners promote composting as being good environmental praxis. See the entry > Examples: “A disturbing trend that does not get enough attention is the continued practice of taking work, ideas, and creative genius from Black women without properly crediting or citing them as the source. … In 2017, Dr. Christen A. Smith created the Cite Black Women campaign as a way to highlight this issue and ‘push people to engage in a radical praxis of citation that acknowledges and honors Black women’s transnational intellectual production.’” — Janice Gassam Asare, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2021 Did you know? We all know that praxis makes perfect, right? Oh wait, it’s practice, not praxis, that makes perfect! Worry not about confusing the two: as part of our educational praxis (how we act on our belief in the importance of providing information about language), we’ll sort them out here. Both praxis and practice come ultimately from the Greek verb prassein (“to do” or “to practice”), and both can refer to a habit or custom—that is, a usual way of doing something or of conducting oneself. Praxis, however, is more at home in formal, and often academic, writing; a sentence like “it is my praxis to eat breakfast cereal every morning” might make sense, but it’s not idiomatic. Praxis also has two meanings that are more specific; it can refer to the practice of an art, science, or skill, and it can also refer to the practical application of a theory, as in “democratic praxis” or “revolutionary praxis.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3, 2024 is: lambaste • \lam-BAYST\  • verb To lambaste something or someone is to criticize them very harshly. Lambaste is also sometimes used as a synonym of beat meaning “to assault.” // The coach lambasted the team for its poor play. See the entry > Examples: “They come and go like pop songs and can make your head spin. Boiled down, though, most diet longevity studies lambaste the ‘Standard American Diet’ (SAD), which contributes to inflammation that may trigger diabetes, heart disease, strokes and possibly Alzheimer’s disease.” — John F. Wasik, Market Watch, 5 Dec. 2023 Did you know? The origins of lambaste (which can also be spelled lambast) are somewhat uncertain, but the word was most likely formed by combining the verbs lam and baste, both of which mean “to beat severely.” (This baste is unrelated to either the sewing or cooking one.) Although lambaste started out in the 1600s meaning “to assault violently,” English speakers were by the 1800s applying it in cases involving harsh attacks made with words rather than fists. This new sense clearly struck a chord; after fighting its way into the lexicon, lambaste has held fast ever since.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 2, 2024 is: ethereal • \ih-THEER-ee-ul\  • adjective Ethereal means "of or relating to the regions beyond the earth" or "of or resembling heaven." It can also mean "lacking material substance" and "relating to, containing, or resembling a chemical ether." // The windows give the church an ethereal glow. // The images of the underwater cave show a strange world of ethereal beauty. See the entry > Examples: "R'lyeh laughs to see that Manny has brought his battle persona of King Kong to the fore again, this time directing the strategy of all the others. The beast's lower half is elsewhere, ethereal, transcending the realms again so as to minimize damage and loss of life. The upper half, however, has formed very real fists of tough, ancient Manhattan schist." — N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make: A Novel, 2022 Did you know? If you're burning to know the history of ethereal, you're in the right spirit to fully understand the word's etymology. The ancient Greeks believed that the Earth was composed of earth, air, fire, and water, but that the heavens and its denizens were made of a purer, less tangible substance known (in English transliteration) as either quintessence or ether. Ether was often described as an invisible light or fire; its name comes from the Greek verb aithein, meaning "to ignite" or "to blaze." When ethereal, the adjectival kin of ether, debuted in English in the 1500s, it described regions beyond the Earth or anything that seemed to originate from them.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 1, 2024 is: shambles • \SHAM-bulz\  • noun Shambles refers to a place or state in which there is great confusion, disorder, or destruction. // The house party they had over the weekend left the entire living room in shambles. See the entry > Examples: "In this film, three friends … reconnect and find themselves attempting to relive the glory days after suffering several defeats that life has thrown their way. After heading to a once-beloved ski resort, they find it in shambles." — Christopher Hinton, Digital Trends, 24 Feb. 2024 Did you know? The story of shambles appears to be a bit of a shambles: somehow, a word meaning "footstool" gave us a word meaning "mess." It all starts with the Latin word scamillum, the diminutive of scamnum, meaning "stool, bench." Modify the spelling and you get the Old English word sceamol, meaning "stool." Alter again to the Middle English word shameles (the plural of schamel), and give it a more specific meaning: "a vendor’s table." Tweak that a little and you arrive at the 15th-century term shambles, meaning "meat market." A century or so takes shambles from "meat market" to "slaughterhouse," then to figurative application as a term referring to a place of terrible slaughter or bloodshed (say, a battlefield). The grim connotations fade over time, but the messiness remains, and voilà: the modern sense of shambles meaning "mess" or "state of great confusion." Transition accomplished!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 31, 2024 is: expiate • \EK-spee-ayt\  • verb Expiate is a formal word that typically means “to atone or make amends for something, such as a sin or offense.” // Although the editorial had characterized the mayor's failure to disclose the details of the meeting as a lapse that could not be expiated, many of the city's citizens seemed ready to forgive all. See the entry > Examples: “Godzilla has long been seen as a symbolic representation of the nuclear devastation that Japan suffered, and that theme is evident here as well. But Godzilla Minus One adds a more personal dimension in the form of Koichi’s lingering trauma; the only way he thinks he’ll be able to expiate his guilt is by destroying the monster.” — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Dec. 2023 Did you know? If you need to expiate something—that is, to atone for it—it’s sure to be something you recognize you shouldn’t have done. People expiate crimes, sins, transgressions, and the like in various ways, such as by apologizing or trying to undo damage they’ve caused. The word comes from the Latin verb expiare (“to atone for”), a combination of ex- and piare, which itself means “to atone for” as well as “to appease.” (Piare comes from pius, meaning “faithful, pious.”) The current use of expiate dates to the early 1600s, and in the early 1500s expiate could mean something else entirely: “to put an end to.” Shakespeare used it this way in Sonnet 22: “But when in thee time’s furrows I behold, / Then look I death my days should expiate.” Later, expiate was a synonym of avert, as in this biblical prophecy: “Disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate” (Isaiah 47:11, RSV). Vestiges of these literary uses still cling to the word, which is most often found in formal, quasi-literary contexts.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 30, 2024 is: haphazard • \hap-HAZZ-erd\  • adjective Something haphazard has no apparent plan, order, or direction. // Considering the haphazard way you measured the ingredients, it's a wonder the cookies came out this good. See the entry > Examples: "It felt like winter for the first time that year, and Theo remembered how much she preferred the dark, the secrecy, of the season. They walked single-file up against the haphazard stone wall, wary of cars that sped up the country lane. … An owl hooted somewhere close by and they stopped to listen, sitting on a section of broken wall." — Juno Dawson, The Shadow Cabinet, 2023 Did you know? The hap in haphazard comes from an English word that means "happening," as well as "chance or fortune." Hap, in turn, comes from the Old Norse word happ, meaning "good luck." Perhaps it's no accident that hazard also has its own connotations of chance and luck: while it now refers commonly to something that presents danger, at one time it referred to a dice game similar to craps. (The name ultimately comes from the Arabic word al-zahr, meaning "the die.") Haphazard first entered English as a noun meaning "chance" in the 16th century, and soon afterward was being used as an adjective to describe things with no apparent logic or order.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 29, 2024 is: braggadocio • \brag-uh-DOH-see-oh\  • noun Braggadocio refers to brash and self-confident boasting—that is, the annoying or exaggerated talk of someone who is trying to sound very proud or brave. // His braggadocio hid the fact that he felt personally inadequate. See the entry > Examples: “In total, Lil Wayne has sold more than 120 million albums, making him one of the world's top-selling artists, and, his braggadocio aside, he's widely considered one of most influential hip-hop artists of his generation and one of the greatest rappers of all time.” — L. Kent Wolgamott, The Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star, 1 Feb. 2024 Did you know? Though Braggadocio is not as well-known as other fictional characters like Pollyanna, the Grinch, or Scrooge, in lexicography he holds a special place next to them as one of the many characters whose name has become an established word in English. The English poet Edmund Spenser originally created Braggadocio as a personification of boasting in his epic poem The Faerie Queene. As early as 1594, about four years after the poem was published, English speakers began using the name as a general term for any blustering blowhard. The now more common use of braggadocio, referring to the talk or behavior of such windy cockalorums, developed in the early 18th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 28, 2024 is: flout • \FLOUT\  • verb To flout something, such as a law or rule, is to treat it with contemptuous disregard. A teenager flouting a curfew, for example, will not hide the fact that they are out past the time they are required to be home. // The court found that the company had continued to flout the law despite multiple warnings. See the entry > Examples: "Bringing a queer sensibility and a deep understanding of Modern Orthodox Jewish tradition to novel writing, [Temim] Fruchter asks whether finding comfort in mystery is a viable alternative to standard happy endings or bleak fates. 'City of Laughter' argues that flouting convention makes space for more authentic, expansive stories and more authentic, expansive lives." — Lauren LeBlanc, The New York Times, 13 Jan. 2024 Did you know? If you flout a rule or societal norm, you ignore it without hiding what you're doing, or showing fear or shame; you flout it "out" in the open. The similar-sounding word flaunt is sometimes used in the same way, though that word's older and more common meaning is "to display ostentatiously," as in "people who flaunt their wealth." Critics have been objecting to the confusion of these two words since the early 1900s, but use of flaunt with the meaning "to treat with contemptuous disregard" is found in even polished, edited writing, and so that meaning is included in dictionaries as an established use of the word. Nonetheless, you may want to avoid it: there are still many who judge harshly those who (they feel) are flouting proper English usage.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2024 is: auxiliary • \awg-ZILL-yuh-ree\  • adjective In general use, auxiliary describes someone or something available to provide extra help, power, etc., when it is needed. In linguistics, an auxiliary verb (also called a “helping verb”) is used with another verb to do things like show a verb’s tense or form a question. In nautical contexts, auxiliary can describe a sailboat equipped with a supplementary inboard engine, or a vessel that provides supplementary assistance to other ships. // The auditorium has an auxiliary cooling system used only on particularly sweltering days. // “Are” in “They are arriving soon” is an auxiliary verb. See the entry > Examples: “The popular museum on the National Mall—and its auxiliary Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia—have hundreds of objects on display having to do with flight on Earth, but this will be the first having to do with autonomous flight on another planet.” — Roger Catlin, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Feb. 2024 Did you know? What would we do if you sang out of tune—would we stand up and walk out on you? Not likely! Instead, we would provide auxiliary harmonies, joining our voices with yours in support. And if you need a little help from your friends in understanding the meaning of auxiliary, we’re here for that, too—just lend us your ears. Auxiliary, which comes from the Latin noun auxilium, meaning “aid,” “assistance,” or “reinforcement,” is used in a wide range of capacities in English to describe a person or thing that assists another. A fire department may bring in auxiliary units, for example, to battle a tough blaze, or a sailboat may be equipped with an auxiliary engine to supply propulsion when the wind disappears. In grammar, an auxiliary verb assists another (main) verb to express person, number, mood, or tense, such as have in “They have now been informed about the meaning of auxiliary.” Isn’t auxiliary fab?

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2024 is: kismet • \KIZZ-met\  • noun Kismet refers to a power that is believed to control what happens in the future. It is synonymous with both fate and destiny. // From the moment we met, we felt connected; we knew it was kismet. See the entry > Examples: "I'd been a fan of Fantasia since she laid on that floor [on 'American Idol'] and sang 'Summertime,' because, I swear, she was singing to me. I voted for her until my finger was numb. I've always been a fan of hers—and she says the same thing about me. We always wanted to meet each other. It was kismet. So it was easy. The chemistry was natural." — Taraji P. Henson, quoted in The Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Is it your fate to tie macramé while drinking coffee and eating sherbet in a minaret? That would be an unusual destiny, but if it turns out to be your kismet, you will owe much to Turkish and Arabic. We borrowed kismet from Turkish in the 1800s, but it ultimately comes from the Arabic word qisma, meaning "portion" or "lot." Several other terms in our bizarre opening question (namely, macramé, coffee, sherbet, and minaret) have roots in those languages too. In the case of macramé and minaret, there is a little French influence as well. Coffee and macramé also have Italian relations, and sherbet has an ancestor in a Persian name for a type of cold drink.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2024 is: genuflect • \JEN-yuh-flekt\  • verb To genuflect is to kneel, or nearly kneel, on one knee and then rise again in worship or as an act of respect. In figurative use, genuflect means "to be humbly obedient or respectful." // Churchgoers genuflected before the altar. // The politician was criticized for genuflecting to corporate interests. See the entry > Examples: "Many of the people whom director Rob Reiner has throwing bouquets during this documentary—Steven Spielberg, Larry David, Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien and Sharon Stone among them—are all more famous than Mr. [Albert] Brooks, but genuflect before his comedic genius." — John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal, 9 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Today we give reverence to genuflect, which comes from the Late Latin word genuflectere, formed from the noun genu ("knee") and the verb flectere ("to bend"). Flectere appears in the etymologies of a number of more common verbs, such as reflect ("to bend or throw back light") and deflect ("to turn aside"). By comparison genu has seen little use in English, but it did give us geniculate, a word used in scientific contexts to mean "bent abruptly at an angle like a bent knee." Despite the resemblance, words such as genius and genuine are not related to genuflect; instead, they are related (genius directly, and genuine indirectly) to the Latin verb gignere, meaning "to beget."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 24, 2024 is: megillah • \muh-GHIL-uh\  • noun Megillah is slang for a long, involved story or account. Megillah can also refer to a complicated sequence of events, or it can be used as a synonym of ball of wax meaning “everything involved in what is under consideration.” All three senses of megillah are often preceded by the adjective whole. // Don’t worry about reciting the whole megillah from last night’s game; just give me the highlights. // Our grandfather always made a whole megillah out of Sundays, waking up before dawn to visit yard sales, then cooking a big meal in the afternoons for our extended family. See the entry > Examples: “What’s in a middle name? Pretty much the whole megillah, for the media scion known as Kendall Logan Roy. That middle name is more than just his father’s branding—it’s the gravitational core around which Kendall’s selfhood swings. For four seasons of ‘Succession,’ we’ve watched the mercurial magnate’s second son and occasional heir apparent strain against his birthright, sometimes plotting to overthrow his father, other times weeping submissively into his chest.” — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 25 May 2023 Did you know? Megillah comes from the Yiddish word megile, which itself comes from the Hebrew noun mĕgillāh, meaning “scroll” or “volume.” (Mĕgillāh is especially likely to be used in reference to the Book of Esther, which is read aloud at Purim celebrations.) It makes sense, then, that when megillah first appeared in English in the early 20th century, it referred to a story that was so long (and often tedious or complicated) that it was reminiscent of the length of the mĕgillāh scrolls. The Hebrew word is serious, but the Yiddish megile can be somewhat playful, and English’s megillah has also inherited that lightheartedness.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 23, 2024 is: pedantic • \pih-DAN-tik\  • adjective Pedantic describes someone or something that exhibits the characteristics of a pedant—that is, a person who often annoys other people by correcting small errors and giving too much attention to minor details. Pedantic also means “narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned.” // Their habit of reminding fellow birders that the bird is called a “Canada goose” and not a “Canadian goose” came across as pedantic rather than helpful. // Several attendees walked out of the lecture due to the pedantic nature of the presentation. See the entry > Examples: “Published ... in 1818, ‘Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus’ is a terrifying, thought-provoking novel about the nature of humanity and the consequences of bringing life into the world. The titular character, as many a pedantic fan will have you know, isn’t the monster but his creator Victor Frankenstein.” — Wilson Chapman, Indie Wire, 12 Feb. 2024 Did you know? In Shakespeare’s day, a pedant was a male schoolteacher. The word’s meaning was close to that of the Italian pedante, from which the English word was adapted. Someone who was pedantic was simply a tutor or teacher. But some instructional pedants of the day must have been pompous and dull because by the early 1600s both pedant and pedantic had gained extended senses applying to anyone who was obnoxiously and tediously devoted to their own academic acumen. When describing arguments, pedantic can be used for instances where one relies too heavily on minor details as a way to show off one’s intelligence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 22, 2024 is: dragoon • \druh-GOON\  • verb When used with into, dragoon means "to force or convince someone to do something." Without into, dragoon means "to subjugate or persecute by harsh use of troops." // Employees complained that they had been dragooned into working overtime without adequate compensation. See the entry > Examples: "Half of the workforce was laid off, but those whose roles turned out to be somewhat critical were then begged to return. Some unlucky engineers were dragooned into launching the new Twitter Blue feature, which would charge users $7.99 per month for a 'verified' check mark; the rollout was catastrophic." — Sheon Han, The New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2024 Did you know? A dragoon was a mounted European infantryman of the 17th and 18th centuries armed with a firearm called by the same name. We suspect no arm-twisting is necessary to convince you that the firearm's name, which came to English from French, comes from the fired weapon's resemblance to a fire-breathing dragon. History has recorded the dragonish nature of the dragoons who persecuted the French Protestants in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV. The persecution by means of dragoons eventually led to the use of the word dragoon as a verb.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 21, 2024 is: scurrilous • \SKUR-uh-lus\  • adjective Scurrilous is a formal adjective that most often describes language that contains obscenities, abuse, or, especially, slander—that is, a false statement that damages a person’s reputation. Scurrilous can also describe someone who uses or tends to use scurrilous language, or it can describe a person or thing as evil or vulgar. // The press secretary made a point at the briefing not to address the scurrilous rumors surrounding the senator. See the entry > Examples: “There are many interesting and surprising details about ‘Jingle Bells’ known to few of the millions of people who happily sing the beloved song every December. For one, its author—a somewhat scurrilous fellow named James Lord Pierpont—was the uncle of the legendary Gilded Age banker J.P. Morgan (the P. is for Pierpont), who reportedly thought little of his songwriting relative, once calling him ‘Good for nothing.’” — David Templeton, The Argus-Courier (Petaluma, California), 18 Dec. 2023 Did you know? Scurrilous (and its much rarer relation scurrile, which has the same meaning) comes from the Middle French word scurrile, which comes ultimately from the Latin noun scurra, meaning “buffoon” or “jester.” Fittingly, 18th-century lexicographer Samuel Johnson defined scurrilous as “using such language as only the licence of a buffoon could warrant.” Qualities traditionally associated with buffoonery—vulgarity, irreverence, and indecorousness—are qualities often invoked by the word scurrilous. Unlike the words of a jester, however, “scurrilous” language of the present day more often intends to seriously harm or slander someone than to produce a few laughs.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 20, 2024 is: flora • \FLOR-uh\  • noun Flora refers to all the plants that live in a particular area, time, period, or environment. It can also be used broadly to refer to plant, bacterial, or fungal life. // Lisa admired the aquatic flora in the pond as she gazed out at the horizon. See the entry > Examples: “South Africa is endowed with a rich wealth of flora and is often acclaimed as a biodiversity hotspot. Thousands of plants are used for traditional medicine for the management of diverse health conditions.” — Tshepiso Ndhlovu et al., The Conversation, 11 Feb. 2024 Did you know? You may be familiar with the common phrase “flora and fauna,” which broadly refers to just about every visible living thing. While fauna specifically refers to the animals of a region, flora represents the plants. Flora made its way into English from New Latin via the Latin word flōra, which comes from the name of the Roman goddess of flowers and the flowering season (the time of the year when flowers bloom). Flora, who was depicted as a beautiful young woman in a long, flowing dress with flowers in her hair, strewing flowers over the earth, was especially known for wildflowers and plants not raised for food. Her name also lives on and continues to thrive through the related words floral, floret, and flourish.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 19, 2024 is: allege • \uh-LEJ\  • verb To allege something is to assert it without proof or before proving it. // Consumer advocates allege that the company knew about the faulty switches but sold the product anyway. See the entry > Examples: "The lawsuit alleges violation of her 4th Amendment rights, false imprisonment, negligent hiring, assault and battery, among other charges." — Erin B. Logan, The Los Angeles Times, 2 Feb. 2024 Did you know? These days, someone alleges something before presenting evidence to prove it (or perhaps without evidence at all). But the word allege comes directly from the Middle English verb alleggen, meaning "to submit (something) in evidence or as justification." (Alleggen traces back to the Anglo-French word aleger, meaning "to lighten, free, or exculpate.") Our word has at times in the past carried a meaning closer to that of its ancestor's: it was once applied when bringing someone or something forward as a source or authority in court, as in "a text alleged in support of the argument." The word has also been used to mean "to bring forward as a reason or excuse," as in these lines from Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre: "I did not like to walk at this hour alone with Mr. Rochester in the shadowy orchard; but I could not find a reason to allege for leaving him."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 18, 2024 is: tawdry • \TAW-dree\  • adjective Something described as tawdry is cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality. Tawdry is also often used to describe something considered morally bad or distasteful, as in "a tawdry tale of political skulduggery." // Tawdry decorations cluttered the tiny house. See the entry > Examples: "Chicago boasts a deep bench of architectural talent to make a pedestrianized State Street a success, whether with a modernist, traditional or some new-fangled flavor. In contrast, the old pedestrian mall was tacky, aping a tawdry suburban mall." — Craig Barner, The Chicago Sun-Times, 21 Aug. 2023 Did you know? In the 7th century, Etheldreda, the queen of Northumbria, renounced her husband and her royal position in order to become a nun. She was renowned for her saintliness and is said to have died of a swelling in her throat, which she took as a judgment upon her fondness for wearing necklaces in her youth. Her shrine became a principal site of pilgrimage in England. An annual fair was held in her honor on October 17th, and her name became simplified to St. Audrey. At these fairs various kinds of cheap knickknacks were sold, along with a type of necklace called St. Audrey's lace, which by the 16th century had become altered to tawdry lace. Eventually, tawdry came to be used to describe anything cheap and gaudy that might be found at these fairs or anywhere else.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 17, 2024 is: blarney • \BLAR-nee\  • noun Blarney refers to false but charming talk that often flatters the listener. // The bartender laughingly asked her gregarious patron if anyone ever believed his blarney. See the entry > Examples: “Some tales are mundane, like the song about Molly Malone: ‘In Dublin fair city, the girls are so pretty …’ Did such a woman ever exist? There’s a record of a Mary Malone who lived (and died) in the 17th century. She was likely both a fishmonger and a lady of the night. … Some tales are blarney. Blarney Castle dates to 1446, and there’s a slab of carboniferous limestone near the top. It’s said to be the stone used by Jacob as a pillow when he dreamt of a ladder to heaven. Others say Clíodhna, Queen of the Banshees, told Cormac Laidir MacCarthy to kiss the stone so he would be eloquent when defending his home in the court of Queen Elizabeth.” — Kevin Fisher-Paulson, The San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Mar. 2023 Did you know? The village of Blarney in County Cork, Ireland, is home to Blarney Castle, and in the southern wall of that edifice lies the famous Blarney Stone. Legend has it that anyone who kisses the Blarney Stone will gain the gift of skillful flattery, but that gift must be attained at the price of some limber maneuvering—you have to lie down and hang your head over a precipice to reach and kiss the stone. One story claims the word blarney gained popularity as a word for “flattery” after Queen Elizabeth I of England used it to describe the flowery (but apparently less than honest) cajolery of McCarthy Mor, who was then the lord of Blarney Castle.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 16, 2024 is: querulous • \KWAIR-yuh-lus\  • adjective Someone described as querulous is constantly or habitually complaining. Querulous can also be used synonymously with fretful or whining when describing something, such as a person's tone of voice. // She shows an impressive amount of patience when dealing with querulous customers. See the entry > Examples: "Everyone has a theory about the decline of the Academy Awards, the sinking ratings that have led to endless Oscar reinventions. The show is too long; no, the show is too desperate to pander to short attention spans. … Hollywood makes too many superhero movies; no, the academy doesn’t nominate enough superhero movies. (A querulous voice from the back row: Why can’t they just bring back Billy Crystal?)" — Ross Douthat, The New York Times, 25 Mar. 2022 Did you know? English speakers have called fretful whiners querulous since late medieval times. The Middle English form of the word, querelose, was an adaptation of the Latin adjective, querulus, which in turn evolved from the Latin verb queri, meaning "to complain." Queri is also an ancestor of the English words quarrel and quarrelsome, but it isn't an ancestor of the noun query, meaning "question." No need to complain that we're being coy; we're happy to let you know that query descends from the Latin verb quaerere, meaning "to ask."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 15, 2024 is: hegemony • \hih-JEM-uh-nee\  • noun Hegemony refers to influence or control over another country, group of people, etc. // The two nations have for centuries struggled for regional hegemony. See the entry > Examples: “Beyond Hollywood’s scrambled economics, one of the biggest threats to its hegemony is social media—TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X-formerly-known-as-Twitter—with which it has always had an uncomfortable relationship, alternately its victim or master.” — Peter Biskind, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Hegemony refers to a kind of domination. It was borrowed in the mid-16th century from the Greek word hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai, “to lead.” At first hegemony was used specifically to refer to the control once wielded by ancient Greek states; later it was applied to domination by other political actors. By the 19th century, the word had acquired a second sense referring to the social or cultural influence wielded by a dominant entity over others of its kind, a sense employed by design scholar Joshua Langman when describing the use of found objects by French artist Marcel Duchamp (he of notorious readymade Fountain fame) as a means “to question and criticize the values of the artistic hegemony by eschewing craft entirely.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 14, 2024 is: emulate • \EM-yuh-layt\  • verb If you emulate someone or something, you try to be like that person or thing. The word is used especially when one is trying to equal or surpass someone in accomplishment or achievement. // She grew up emulating her sports heroes. // Younger children will often try to emulate the behavior of their older siblings. See the entry > Examples: “In the present era, stanning has become a regular part of pop and online culture. Online communities celebrate, praise, and emulate music stars such as Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion.” — Daric L. Cottingham, Essence, 15 Feb. 2023 Did you know? They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but we’ll posit that emulation is even more so. What’s the difference between imitating and emulating? Sometimes not a thing: emulate can be used as a synonym of imitate, as in “a painter who emulates her teacher’s style.” But more often, emulate is about trying to equal or surpass someone you admire by striving to master what they’ve accomplished. The word was adopted in the late 16th century from a form of the Latin word aemulārī, meaning “to vie with; to rival; to imitate.” Imitate was adopted about fifty years earlier from a form of the Latin word imitārī, meaning “to follow as a pattern; to copy.” Emulate emulated its success.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 13, 2024 is: cacophony • \ka-KAH-fuh-nee\  • noun A cacophony is a mixture of loud and usually harsh unpleasant sounds. Cacophony can also refer to an incongruous or chaotic mixture. // The sounds of shouting added to the cacophony on the streets. // A cacophony of aromas wafted through the air. See the entry > Examples: "In recent years, an array of findings have also revealed an expansive nonhuman soundscape, including: turtles that produce and respond to sounds to coordinate the timing of their birth from inside their eggs; coral larvae that can hear the sounds of healthy reefs; and plants that can detect the sound of running water and the munching of insect predators. Researchers have found intention and meaning in this cacophony, such as the purposeful use of different sounds to convey information." — Sonia Shah, The New York Times, 20 Sept. 2023 Did you know? If you’re hooked on phonetics, you may know that the Greek word phōnḗ has made a great deal of noise in English. Cacophony comes from a joining of phōnḗ ("sound" or "voice") with the Greek prefix kak- (from kakos, meaning "bad"), so it essentially means "bad sound." Other phat phōnḗ descendants include symphony, a word that indicates harmony or agreement in sound; polyphony, referring to a style of musical composition in which two or more independent melodies are juxtaposed in harmony; and euphony, a word for a pleasing or sweet sound. Kakos is responsible for far fewer English words, but one notable descendent is kakistocracy, meaning "government by the worst people," which, we'll be honest, doesn't sound great.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 12, 2024 is: ulterior • \ul-TEER-ee-er\  • adjective Ulterior describes things (usually motives, objectives, reasons, agendas, etc.) that are kept hidden in order to achieve a particular result. // Rory found it hard to not be suspicious of the accountant for offering these services for free; her eagerness to help suggested she has an ulterior motive. See the entry > Examples: "Disney's most recent incarnation of depravity is also one of their more sinister: the smiling nice guy who turns out to be anything but that. Frozen, in fact, received a little flack from mommy bloggers in 2013 due to this choice, with some expressing apprehension about showing children that kindly adults could be hiding ulterior motives. Yet we’d argue that is what makes Hans such an effective villain and early demonstration to children of the fact that folks may not be what they appear." — David Crow, Den of Geek, 4 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Although now usually hitched to the front of the noun motive to refer to a hidden need or desire that inspires action, ulterior began its career as an adjective in the 17th century describing something occurring at a subsequent time, such as "ulterior measures" taken after a lawful request. It then started to be used to mean both "more distant" (literally and figuratively) and "situated on the farther side." The "hidden" sense, which is most familiar today, followed after those, with the word modifying nouns like purpose, design, and consequence. Ulterior comes directly from the Latin word for "farther" or "further," itself assumed to be from ulter, meaning "situated beyond."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 11, 2024 is: refurbish • \rih-FER-bish\  • verb To refurbish something is to brighten or freshen it up, or to repair and make improvements to it. // They are refurbishing the old house with the hopes of selling it for a profit. // The store refurbishes and sells computers that can often meet the needs of those who don't need the latest technology. See the entry > Examples: "The city of San Diego is tasked with completing the building and replanting the interior plants, which are currently in storage. Meanwhile, the city’s not-for-profit partner Forever Balboa Park is responsible for financing and completing phase-two improvements. Those include remaking the exterior gardens, improving walkways, reconstructing the pergola that was on the west lawn and refurbishing the fountains." — Jennifer Van Grove, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Jan. 2024 Did you know? As seems proper given how English prefixes work, before you could refurbish something you could furbish it. That shorter word was borrowed into Middle English in the 14th century from Anglo-French as furbisshen; it shares a distant relative with the Old High German verb furben, meaning "to polish." In its earliest uses furbish also meant "to polish," but it developed an extended sense of "to renovate" shortly before English speakers created refurbish with the same meaning in the 17th century. These days refurbish is the more common of the two words, although furbish does continue to be used.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 10, 2024 is: obeisance • \oh-BEE-sunss\  • noun Obeisance is a synonym of homage that refers to an acknowledgement of another’s importance or superiority. Obeisance can also mean “a movement of the body (such as a bow) showing respect for someone or something.” // The young singer paid obeisance to Otis Redding while on tour in Memphis by singing “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” See the entry > Examples: “Supreme Court rules establish specific guidelines by which these conferences must be conducted. But compliance is rare, and they are usually held in secret and undocumented. The clandestine nature of 402 proceedings conflicts with the judiciary’s general obeisance to concepts of transparency and public accountability in criminal cases.” — Jim Dey, The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois), 3 Oct. 2023 Did you know? When it first appeared in English in the 14th century, obeisance shared the same meaning as obedience. This makes sense given that obeisance can be traced back to the Anglo-French word obeir, a verb meaning “to obey” that is also an ancestor of English’s obey. The other senses of obeisance also date from the 14th century, but they have stood the test of time whereas the “obedience” sense is now obsolete... or is it? Recent evidence suggests that obeisance is starting to be used again as an (often disparaging) synonym of obedience; for example, a politician deemed too easily swayed by others may be said to have pledged obeisance to party leaders or malign influences.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 9, 2024 is: germane • \jer-MAYN\  • adjective Germane is a formal synonym of relevant that describes something related to a subject in an appropriate way. // Her comments were not germane to the discussion. // While these facts about the witness may interest the jury, they are not in fact germane. See the entry > Examples: “Corporate retreats aren’t just for fun and games; they are for tackling germane issues that are critical to the success of any such organization.” — Abiola Salami, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2023 Did you know? “Wert thou a Leopard, thou wert Germane to the Lion.” So wrote William Shakespeare in his five-act tragedy Timon of Athens, using an old (and now-obsolete) sense of germane meaning “closely akin.” Germane comes to us from the Middle English word germain, meaning “having the same parents.” (An early noun sense of germane also referred specifically to children of the same parents.) Today, something said to be germane is figuratively “related” in that it is relevant or fitting to something else, as when music critic Amanda Petrusich wrote of an album by the Chicks: “‘Gaslighter’ is brasher and more pop-oriented than anything the band has done before. Part of this shift feels germane to our era—the idea of genre, as it applies to contemporary music, is growing less and less relevant—but it also feels like a final repudiation of country music, and of a community that mostly failed to support or to understand one of its biggest acts.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 8, 2024 is: Weltanschauung • \VELT-ahn-show-ung ("ow" as in "cow")\  • noun A Weltanschauung is a worldview; in other words, a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint. The word is typically capitalized. // Many people disagree with the writer's personal Weltanschauung, but most can appreciate the quality and thoughtfulness of her work. See the entry > Examples: "[Writer Martin] Amis' subject matter was unforgiving: the degradation of individual values and the incorporation of greed, indifference and cruelty into public morality. But so intense was his focus, and so forensic the methodology he brought to his task, that each novel revealed some new facet of his ever-darkening Weltanschauung." — The Southland Times (New Zealand), 24 May 2023 Did you know? The German word Weltanschauung literally means "world view"; it combines Welt, meaning "world," with Anschauung, meaning "view." (You might have noticed this word’s resemblance to another German borrowing, weltschmerz, meaning “world-weariness” or “world-pain”). When English speakers first adopted Weltanschauung in the mid-19th century, it referred to a philosophical view or apprehension of the universe, and this sense is still the most widely used. It can also describe a more general ideology or philosophy of life. Note that the word is typically capitalized in English, as all nouns are in German.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 7, 2024 is: descry • \dih-SKRYE\  • verb Descry is a literary word that, like discover or find out, means “to come to realize or understand something.” Descry can also mean “to catch sight of.” // In their research, the bryologists descried an association between a moss and the iron content of the rock it typically grows on. // From the tops of the high dunes, we could just descry the ship coming over the horizon. See the entry > Examples: “Where does one begin to learn about Dundee’s history and heart? Luckily, for a tourist, there is a place. It’s called Verdant Works, a former jute mill in a part of the city known as Blackness. (Dickens couldn’t have come up with a better name.) Once the employer of 500 people, the mill is a keyhole through which most of Dundee’s history can be descried. Unlike many factory museums, its story is made vivid by docents only one or two generations removed from its inescapable clutches.” — David Brown, The Washington Post, 30 Sept. 2022 Did you know? If you’ve ever mixed up the words descry and decry, you’re not alone; even carefully edited publications occasionally mistake the former (“to catch sight of” or “to discover”) for the latter (“to express strong disapproval of”), as in “the watchdog group’s report descried (oops: decried) environmental pollution by manufacturers in the harshest terms.” As always, we’re here to help you descry handy ways to tell confusing words apart. In the case of descry and decry, pronunciation is key—the s in descry is not silent. Descry sounds just like the English verb describe without its closing b, and the two share a Latin root as well, the verb dēscrībere, meaning “to represent by drawing or speech.” When you descry something, it becomes known to you either by discovery or understanding, as though it were well-described. Decry, on the other hand, emphasizes cry when spoken, and shares roots with cry as well: when you decry something, you might be said to cry loudly your complaint.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 6, 2024 is: ad hominem • \ad-HAH-muh-num\  • adjective Something described as ad hominem involves an attack on an opponent’s character rather than an answer to assertions or points that the opponent has made. // The debate between the mayoral candidates was going smoothly until the ad hominem attacks began. See the entry > Examples: “Ad hominem arguments are viewed, almost universally, as bad, bad, bad.... Students are taught to differentiate between their opponent and their opponent’s argument. The rationale for doing so makes perfect sense. In theory, a person’s merits are irrelevant to whether their argument makes logical sense. An argument depends on nothing more than whether its conclusion follows its premises; the speaker, you might say, is just the messenger.” — Mehdi Hasan, Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking, 2023 Did you know? Ad hominem literally means “to the person” in New Latin (Latin as used since the end of the medieval period). In centuries past, the term was used in the phrase “argument ad hominem” (or argumentum ad hominem, to use the full New Latin phrase) to refer to a valid method of persuasion by which one takes advantage of an opponent’s interests or feelings in a debate, instead of just sticking to general principles. What exactly came into play in such persuasions eventually expanded, and ad hominem came to describe an attack aimed at an opponent’s character rather than their ideas. It’s in this decidedly less civil application that ad hominem appears today. The hostile nature of such attacks has led to an understanding of the term as meaning “against the person,” rather than its original Latin meaning of “to the person.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 6, 2024 is: ad hominem • \ad-HAH-muh-num\  • adjective Something described as ad hominem involves an attack on an opponent’s character rather than an answer to assertions or points that the opponent has made. // The debate between the mayoral candidates was going smoothly until the ad hominem attacks began. See the entry > Examples: “Ad hominem arguments are viewed, almost universally, as bad, bad, bad.... Students are taught to differentiate between their opponent and their opponent’s argument. The rationale for doing so makes perfect sense. In theory, a person’s merits are irrelevant to whether their argument makes logical sense. An argument depends on nothing more than whether its conclusion follows its premises; the speaker, you might say, is just the messenger.” — Mehdi Hasan, Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking, 2023 Did you know? Ad hominem literally means “to the person” in New Latin (Latin as used since the end of the medieval period). In centuries past, the term was used in the phrase “argument ad hominem” (or argumentum ad hominem, to use the full New Latin phrase) to refer to a method of persuasion in which one introduces issues that relate personally to one’s opponent, such as the opponent’s habits, practices, or circumstances, instead of just sticking to principles or facts. What exactly came into play in such persuasions eventually expanded, and ad hominem came to describe an attack aimed at an opponent’s character rather than their ideas. The hostile nature of such attacks has led to an understanding of the term as meaning “against the person,” rather than its original Latin meaning of “to the person.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 5, 2024 is: luminary • \LOO-muh-nair-ee\  • noun A luminary is a person of prominence or brilliant achievement. The word luminary may also refer to a celestial body, such as the sun or moon. // Luminaries of the art world congregated at the international convention. See the entry > Examples: "The upcoming documentary will dive deep into the lives of the next generation of basketball luminaries, Jonquel Jones, Nneka Ogwumike, and Breanna Stewart, as well as WNBA legend, Sheryl Swoopes." — Okla Jones, Essence, 18 Dec. 2023 Did you know? As, dare we say, leading lights of the dictionary game, we're here to brighten your day with the 411 on luminary. This word has been casting its glow in English since the 15th century, and it traces back to the Latin word lumen, meaning "light." Other lumen descendants in English include illuminate ("to light up"), luminous ("emitting light"), phillumenist ("one who collects matchbooks or matchbox labels"), and bioluminescence ("the emission of light from living organisms").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 4, 2024 is: salubrious • \suh-LOO-bree-us\  • adjective Salubrious is a formal word that means “favorable to or promoting health or well-being.” // They picked up several salubrious habits on their wellness retreat in Bali. See the entry > Examples: “Despite their salubrious sounding name, fruit flies ... eat food that is decaying. They inhabit rubbish bins, compost heaps or any place where food is present, including drains.” — Primrose Freestone, The Conversation, 31 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Salubrious, like healthful and wholesome, describes things that are favorable to the health of the mind or body. (A rather formal and somewhat rare word, it is related by its Latin ancestor salubris to the very common English word safe.) Unlike healthful and wholesome, salubrious tends to apply chiefly to the helpful effects of climate or air, as in “the salubrious climate of the tropical island.” Salubrious seems to be expanding semantically; we occasionally see evidence of it being used as a descriptor of prosperous people or locales. This is the sense used by British author Zadie Smith in her 2023 historical novel The Fraud when she writes: “Following the more salubrious element of the crowd, they found themselves on the second floor of Lady Blessington’s Old Gore House, recently converted into a restaurant by Alexis Soyer.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 3, 2024 is: connive • \kuh-NYVE\  • verb To connive is to secretly help someone do something dishonest or illegal. // Roger suspected that his coworkers were conniving to get him fired when in reality they were planning his surprise birthday party. See the entry > Examples: "The truth is that conflict on the river will never be stilled because there will always be more demand for the water than there is water. As I reported in 'Colossus,' my 2010 book about the building of Hoover Dam, [Herbert] Hoover and his deputy, Arthur Powell Davis, connived in 1922 to exaggerate the Colorado River's flow in order to persuade all seven states that it carried enough water to serve their interests, then and into the future." — Michael Hiltzik, The Los Angeles Times, 8 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Connive may not seem like a term that would raise many hackles, but it certainly raised those of Wilson Follett, a usage critic who lamented that the word "was undone during the Second World War, when restless spirits felt the need of a new synonym for plotting, bribing, spying, conspiring, engineering a coup, preparing a secret attack." Follett thought connive should only mean "to wink at" or "to pretend ignorance." Those senses are closer to the Latin ancestor of the word: connive comes from the Latin verb connivēre, which means "to close the eyes" and which is descended from -nivēre, a form akin to the Latin verb nictare, meaning "to wink." But many English speakers disagreed, and the "conspire" sense is now the word's most widely used meaning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 2, 2024 is: proximity • \prahk-SIM-uh-tee\  • noun Proximity is the quality or state of being near or proximate. The word proximity is synonymous with closeness. // The apartment's proximity to hiking trails is a definite plus. See the entry > Examples: "... research on employee proximity conducted at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that sitting near senior colleagues led junior engineers to learn more and to be less likely to leave their jobs, an effect that was particularly pronounced for women and younger employees." — Amy Edmondson, WIRED, 8 Jan. 2024 Did you know? The fact that the star closest in proximity to our sun (approximately 4.2 light-years distant) is named Proxima Centauri is no coincidence. The history of proximity hinges on the idea of closeness, both physical and metaphorical. English speakers borrowed the word from Middle French, which in turn acquired it from forms of the Latin adjective proximus, meaning "nearest" or "next." Close relatives of proximity in English include proximal, proximate, and the somewhat more rare approximal (meaning "contiguous"). A number of other languages, including Catalan, Portuguese, and Italian, have similar words that come from the Latin proximus.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 1, 2024 is: inveterate • \in-VET-uh-rut\  • adjective Inveterate is a formal word used to describe someone who is always or often doing something specified. For instance, a person could be an inveterate liar, or inveterate prankster. Inveterate can also mean "firmly established by long persistence," as in "an inveterate tendency to overlook the obvious." // She's an inveterate traveler who constantly searches for flight deals to her next destination. // Carla’s inveterate optimism keeps her going during challenging times. See the entry > Examples: "I am an inveterate name dropper as you have just very politely pointed out. I left it to the editor to decide whether something was too much ... and she just said, 'That is a reflection of how your brain works.'" — Richard E. Grant, quoted in The Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Despite how it may seem at first glance, inveterate has nothing to do with lacking a spine. That’s invertebrate, which came into English in the early 19th century from New Latin, the Latin vocabulary used in scientific description and classification. Inveterate, on the other hand, is a true veteran of the English language, with a membership card dating to the 15th century. Like veteran, inveterate ultimately comes from the Latin adjective vetus, which means "old." (In times past, inveterate had among its meanings "old.") The more direct source of inveterate, however, is the Latin adjective inveteratus, with which it shares the meaning "firmly established by long persistence." Today inveterate most often describes someone who so frequently or invariably engages in a particular habit or attitude as to be regularly identified with that habit or attitude, as when political columnist Jamelle Bouie observed "The truth is that our best presidents—or at least our most successful ones—have been inveterate flip-floppers, willing to break from unpopular positions, move with political winds, and adjust to new complications."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 29, 2024 is: demean • \dih-MEEN\  • verb To demean someone or something is to cause that person or thing to seem less important or worthy of respect. // By refusing to condemn the unlawful actions of her supporters, the governor demeaned the office she was elected to hold. See the entry > Examples: “Balding, bespectacled [Hubert] Eaton didn’t lack self-esteem. He went by the godlike nickname ‘the Builder,’ and in the early days of his cemetery, he crafted a mission statement that sounded more like a set of holy commandments than a business plan. He had the Builder’s Creed etched onto a giant stone tablet that still stands in front of the Great Mausoleum. The creed demeans traditional cemeteries as ‘unsightly stone-yards full of inartistic symbols and depressing customs’ and promises all who read it that the Builder will offer a better place for people to go after their deaths.” — Greg Melville, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Sept. 2022 Did you know? There are two words spelled demean in English. One has a construction similar to its synonym, debase: where debase combines the prefix de- with an adjective base, meaning “low” or “vile,” demean applies de- to the adjective mean, meaning “inferior or contemptible.” The basic meaning the pair shares, “to lower in character or esteem,” is quite at odds with that of the other demean: “to conduct or behave oneself.” This demean comes from the Anglo-French verb demener (“to conduct”), and is generally used in formal contexts to specify a type of behavior, as in “he demeaned himself in a most unfriendly manner”; “she demeaned herself as befitting her station in life”; and “they knew not how to demean themselves in the king’s presence.” As such, it may be possible to demean someone for the way they demean themselves, though we assert that would be doubly mean.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 28, 2024 is: jeopardy • \JEP-er-dee\  • noun Jeopardy is defined as "exposure to or imminence of death, loss, or injury"; it is synonymous with danger. In legal contexts, jeopardy refers specifically to the danger that an accused person is subjected to when on trial for a criminal offense. // Rather than risk placing passengers in jeopardy, the pilot waited for the storm to pass before taking off. See the entry > Examples: "As Dior rises to prominence with his groundbreaking, iconic imprint of beauty and influence, Chanel’s reign as the world’s most famous fashion designer is put into jeopardy." — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 16 Nov. 2023 Did you know? We'll start with the answer and you provide the question: A word meaning "danger" that inspired the title of a popular game show. Got it? If you buzzed in "what is jeopardy?" you are correct! Today’s word dates back to at least the 1300s, but its Middle English form can make it hard to spot: it appears in the phrase "in jupartie" with a meaning very much akin to the word's meaning in the modern phrase "in jeopardy"—that is, "in danger." The spellings of what we now render only as jeopardy were formerly myriad. The Oxford English Dictionary reports that between the late 14th and mid-17th centuries the word was spelled in a great variety of ways, among them ieupardyes (the spelling Chaucer used in The Canterbury Tales), iupertie, iupartye, ieoperdis, and juperti. Indeed, like the eponymous quiz show Jeopardy!, today’s word has a long history; we’d wager it has a long future, too.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 27, 2024 is: translucent • \trans-LOO-sunt\  • adjective Translucent describes something that is not completely clear or transparent but is clear enough to allow light to pass through. // They admired the translucent gemstones on the display at the museum. See the entry > Examples: "What you want to buy are dry scallops, which have never been soaked or treated. Dry scallops are visually distinguishable from their wet counterparts: Their cylindrical edges are more clearly defined, while the firm meat has a moist sheen and looks almost translucent." — Tim Cebula, The Portland (Maine) Press Herald, 14 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Let’s shine a light on translucent and a couple of its relatives. Look closely and you will see the same group of three letters in translucent, elucidate, and lucid, illuminating the family relationship between the three words. All descend from the Latin word lucēre, meaning "to shine." Translucent is from lucēre plus trans-, which means "through"—hence, something translucent allows light to pass through. To elucidate something is to metaphorically shine a light on it by explaining it clearly; a lucid person is able to think clearly, and lucid writing is easy to understand. We hope this light explainer helps clarify things.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2024 is: retinue • \RET-uh-noo\  • noun A retinue is a group of helpers, supporters, or followers. // The venue relies on a retinue of workers to carry out large events. See the entry > Examples: "Royal Island, a swanky Caribbean oasis in The Bahamas, awaits its next king or queen and their lucky retinue of family and friends." — Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 11 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Retinue comes via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb retenir, meaning "to retain or keep in one's pay or service." Another retenir descendant is retainer, which has among its meanings "one who serves a person of high position or rank." In the 14th century, such retainers typically served a noble or royal of some kind, and retinue referred to a collection of retainers—that is, the noble's servants and companions. Nowadays, the word retinue is often used with a bit of exaggeration to refer to the assistants, guards, publicists, and other people who accompany a high-profile individual in public. You might also hear such a collection of folks called a suite or entourage, two other words that come from French.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 25, 2024 is: caterwaul • \KAT-er-wawl\  • verb To caterwaul is to make a very loud and unpleasant sound. Caterwaul can also mean “to protest or complain noisily.” // The woods were quiet until the sound of a chainsaw caterwauling in the distance broke the calm. // They continue to caterwaul about having to take the blame. See the entry > Examples: “The young woman in her 20s seated next to me laughed and caterwauled as other audience members participated in the traditional ‘Rocky Horror’ routine, shouting catchphrases and sarcastic commentary back at the actors.” — Peter Marks, The Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Though the most familiar sense of caterwaul, “to protest or complain loudly,” is not specific to our feline friends, we still think it’s the cat’s meow, and not without good reason. Caterwaul first appeared in English in the 1300s as a verb applied to the wailing sounds made by cats when on the prowl for a mate. The word comes from the Middle English word caterwawen (also caterwrawen), but its origins beyond that are obscure. The cater part is thought to be connected to the cat, but scholars disagree about whether it traces to the Middle Dutch word cāter, meaning “tomcat,” or if it is merely cat with an “-er” added. Wawen is probably imitative in origin, approximating one of the domestic kitty’s many vocalizations. By the 1600s caterwaul was also being used for similar non-cat noises and later as a noun referring to noisy people or things.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 24, 2024 is: voracious • \vaw-RAY-shus\  • adjective Voracious describes someone who has a huge appetite. It can also be used figuratively to mean "excessively eager," as in "a voracious reader." // It seemed like the voracious kitten was eating her weight in food every day. // She has her voracious appetite for knowledge to thank for graduating at the top of her class. See the entry > Examples: "Cane toads are unwelcome in Australia because the bulbous amphibian is a voracious eater that when stressed releases a toxin strong enough to kill lizards, snakes, crocodiles—almost anything that dares to attack it. In a suburban setting, that includes dogs and cats." — Hilary Whiteman, CNN, 19 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Voracious is one of several English words that come from the Latin verb vorare, which means "to eat greedily" or "to devour." Vorare is also an ancestor of devour and of the -ivorous words that describe the diets of various creatures. These include carnivorous ("meat-eating"), herbivorous ("plant-eating"), omnivorous ("feeding on both animals and plants"), frugivorous ("fruit-eating"), graminivorous ("feeding on grass"), and piscivorous ("fish-eating").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 24, 2024 is: voracious • \vuh-RAY-shus\  • adjective Voracious describes someone who has a huge appetite. It can also be used figuratively to mean "excessively eager," as in "a voracious reader." // It seemed like the voracious kitten was eating her weight in food every day. // She has her voracious appetite for knowledge to thank for graduating at the top of her class. See the entry > Examples: "Cane toads are unwelcome in Australia because the bulbous amphibian is a voracious eater that when stressed releases a toxin strong enough to kill lizards, snakes, crocodiles—almost anything that dares to attack it. In a suburban setting, that includes dogs and cats." — Hilary Whiteman, CNN, 19 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Voracious is one of several English words that come from the Latin verb vorare, which means "to eat greedily" or "to devour." Vorare is also an ancestor of devour and of the -ivorous words that describe the diets of various creatures. These include carnivorous ("meat-eating"), herbivorous ("plant-eating"), omnivorous ("feeding on both animals and plants"), frugivorous ("fruit-eating"), graminivorous ("feeding on grass"), and piscivorous ("fish-eating").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 23, 2024 is: opprobrium • \uh-PROH-bree-um\  • noun Opprobrium refers to very strong disapproval or criticism of a person or thing especially by a large number of people. // They're going ahead with the plan despite public opprobrium. See the entry > Examples: "Caught up in a whirlwind of public opprobrium, ... the brand's executives seemed unsure how to react, before finally offering up statements of public apologies and self-recrimination." — Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times, 1 June 2023 Did you know? Unfamiliar with opprobrium? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Just kidding—unfamiliarity with a word is hardly grounds for, well, opprobrium. We're here to learn! Besides, opprobrium is quite formal and has few close relations in English. It comes from the Latin verb opprobrāre, which means "to reproach." That verb, in turn, comes from the noun probrum, meaning "a disgraceful act" or "reproach." The adjective form of opprobrium is opprobrious, which in English means "deserving of scorn" or "expressing contempt." One might commit an "opprobrious crime" or be berated with "opprobrious language," for example.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 22, 2024 is: haggard • \HAG-urd\  • adjective Someone described as haggard appears tired or thin especially as if because of hunger, worry, or pain. Haggard can also describe someone who looks wild or otherwise disheveled. // After a disastrous rafting trip, Robin emerged from the woods looking haggard but otherwise unscathed. See the entry > Examples: “All three leads are excellent, but it’s especially worth noting the complexity of what DiCaprio pulls off. Initially, Ernest seems a fairly standard character type, the cocky, dim-bulb guy of disposable moral fiber, easily influenced by someone much smarter. But he becomes more interesting as the anguish caused by his love for Mollie eats away at him, with the actor looking discernibly more haggard as Hale’s plot advances and he's unable to extricate himself from it.” — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 May 2023 Did you know? Haggard has its origins in falconry, the ancient sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey. The birds used in falconry were not bred in captivity until very recently; traditionally, falconers trained wild birds that were either taken from the nest when quite young or trapped as adults. A bird trapped as an adult is termed a haggard, from the synonymous Middle French word hagard. Such a bird being notoriously wild and difficult to train, haggard was easily extended to apply to a “wild” and intractable person. Eventually, the word came to express the way the human face looks when a person is exhausted, anxious, or terrified. Today, the most common meaning of haggard is “gaunt” or “worn.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 21, 2024 is: lampoon • \lam-POON\  • verb To lampoon someone or something is to ridicule that person or thing, especially through the use of harsh satire. // The exhibit chronicles the long history of lampooning public figures in cartoons. See the entry > Examples: "'An exciting element of this to me was the opportunity to completely lampoon entitled Hollywood celebrities. Those celebrities out there who think that acting is the most important vocation in the world and that there's not an interesting conversation unless it’s about one of their future projects,' [Jury Duty actor, James] Marsden said with a laugh and without naming names." — Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 20 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Lampoon can be a noun or a verb. The noun lampoon (meaning "satire" or, specifically, "a harsh satire usually directed against an individual") was first used in English in the 17th century and may be familiar from the names of humor publications such as The Harvard Lampoon and its now-defunct spinoff National Lampoon. Both the noun and the verb come from the French word lampon, which likely originated from lampons, a form of the verb lamper, meaning "to drink to the bottom." So what is the connection? Lampons! (meaning "Let us guzzle!"—that is, drink greedily) was a frequent refrain in 17th-century French satirical poems.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2024 is: buttress • \BUTT-russ\  • noun A buttress is a structure built against a wall in order to support or strengthen it. More broadly, buttress may refer to anything that supports or strengthens. Buttress may also refer to something that resembles a buttress, such as a projecting part of a mountain or hill, a horny protuberance on a horse's hoof at the heel, or the broadened base of a tree trunk or a thickened vertical part of it. // After the wall collapsed, the construction company agreed to rebuild it with a buttress. See the entry > Examples: "Between November 2018 and May 2021, the glacier retreated eight kilometres as the ice shelf at the end of the glacier ... disappeared. The ice shelf would have acted as a buttress, slowing the movement of the glacier towards the sea." — The University of Leeds (environment.leeds.ac.uk), 29 Nov. 2023 Did you know? The word buttress first budded in the world of architecture during the 14th century, when it was used to describe an exterior support that projects from a wall to resist the sideways force, called thrust, created by the load on an arch or roof. The word ultimately comes from the Anglo-French verb buter, meaning "to thrust." Buter is also the source of our verb butt, meaning "to thrust, push, or strike with the head or horns." Buttress developed figurative use relatively soon after its adoption, being applied to anything that supports or strengthens something else. No buts about it: the world would not be the same without buttresses.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2024 is: prestigious • \preh-STIH-juss\  • adjective Something described as prestigious has the respect and admiration that someone or something gets for being successful or important. // Chelsea’s mom often bragged about her daughter’s job at the prestigious company. See the entry > Examples: “Emma Stone has amassed a trove of prestigious Hollywood awards—an Oscar, two Golden Globes and three SAG Awards among them—but the accolade that eludes her is the one she covets most: ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant.” — Malia Mendez, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2024 Did you know? You might expect, based on how adjectives are often formed in English, that today’s word is an extension of the noun prestige. However, although both words share the same Latin root, they entered English by different routes and at different times. Moreover, both adjective and noun once had more to do with trickery than respect when they were first used. Prestigious came directly from the Latin adjective praestigiosis, meaning “full of tricks” or “deceitful,” and had a similar meaning upon entering English in the mid-16th century. Praestigiosis in turn came from the plural noun praestigiae, meaning “conjurer’s tricks.” This noun also gave English the word prestige, though it first passed through French and arrived a century after prestigious. Though it wasn’t first on the block, prestige influenced prestigious in a different way, by eventually developing an extended sense of “standing or esteem.” That change spurred a similar development in prestigious, which now means simply “illustrious or esteemed.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2024 is: fathom • \FA-thum\  • verb To fathom something is to understand the reason for its existence or occurrence. // Even those close to him can't always fathom why he repeatedly risks his life to climb the world’s tallest mountains. See the entry > Examples: "Oppenheimer provides an opportunity to revisit this charismatic, contradictory man and reconsider how previous attempts to tell his story have succeeded—and failed—at fathoming one of the 20th century’s most fascinating public figures." — Andy Kifer, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 July 2023 Did you know? Fathom comes from the Old English word fæthm, meaning "outstretched arms." The noun fathom, which now commonly refers to a measure (especially of depth) of six feet, was originally used for the distance, fingertip to fingertip, created by stretching one's arms straight out from the sides of the body. In one of its earliest uses, the verb fathom was a synonym of our modern embrace: to fathom someone was to encircle the person with your arms. By the 1600s fathom had taken to the seas, with the verb being used to mean "to measure by a sounding line." At the same time, the verb also developed senses synonymous with probe and investigate, and it is now frequently used to refer to the act of getting to the bottom of something, figuratively speaking.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 17, 2024 is: rapport • \ra-POR\  • noun When you have a rapport with someone, your relationship is characterized by agreement, mutual understanding, or empathy that makes communication possible or easy. // Once our daughter had developed a rapport with her piano teacher, she began to show some real enthusiasm for learning and practicing the piano. See the entry > Examples: "No one ever equaled the [Smothers] brothers' unique rapport, blending folk music and natural conversations with sibling rivalry and comical bickering." — Marc Freeman, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Dec. 2023 Did you know? The word rapport bears a resemblance to a more common English word, report, which is no coincidence: both words come ultimately from the Latin verb portare, meaning "to carry," and both traveled through French words meaning "to bring back" on their way to English. Report has been in use since the 14th century, when it entered Middle English by way of Anglo-French. Rapport was first used in the mid-15th century as a synonym of report in its "account or statement" meaning, but that meaning had become obsolete by the mid-19th century. It wasn't until the early 20th century that English speakers borrowed rapport back from French in the meaning of "a friendly, harmonious relationship." We're happy to report that rapport has since flourished, and we trust this friendly word will stick around a while.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 16, 2024 is: turbid • \TER-bid\  • adjective Turbid is a formal word that has several meanings having to do with literal or figurative muddiness or cloudiness. It's most often used literally to describe water that is thick or opaque with stirred-up sediment, as in "the river's turbid waters"; similarly, turbid air is smoky or misty. In figurative use, turbid describes things that lack clarity, as in "efforts to clear my turbid mind." // The group decided to forgo stopping at the swimming hole on their hike because of its turbid waters. See the entry > Examples: "Forty million people rely on the Colorado River’s largesse, from Wyoming ranchers to the residents of sprawling Arizona subdivisions to the lettuce farmers in California’s Imperial Valley. Less visibly, the river is also a lifeline for 14 native species of fish. They are rarely seen by humans—the river they inhabit is as turbid as coffee, and they’re seldom fished for sport—yet they require a healthy Colorado as much as any Angeleno or Tucsonan." — Ben Goldfarb, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Turbid and turgid (which means "swollen or distended" or "overblown, pompous, or bombastic") are frequently mistaken for one another, and it's no wonder. Not only do the two words differ by only a letter, they are often used in contexts where either word could fit. For example, a flooded stream can be simultaneously cloudy and swollen, and badly written prose might be both unclear (another sense of turbid) and grandiloquent. Nevertheless, the distinction between these two words, however fine, is an important one for conveying exact shades of meaning, so it's a good idea to keep them straight. Turbid, like its relative turbulent, comes ultimately from the Latin noun turba, meaning "confusion" or "crowd," while turgid comes from the Latin verb turgēre, "to be swollen."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 15, 2024 is: enervate • \EN-er-vayt\  • verb Enervate is a formal word used for situations in which someone or something is being sapped of physical or mental vigor, vitality, or strength. The verb is most common in the participial forms enervated and enervating, as in "children enervated by the summer afternoon heat" and "a tedious discussion we found completely enervating." // The person giving the lengthy toast seemed to be completely unaware of the degree to which he was enervating his audience. See the entry > Examples: "Toward the end of Paved Paradise … [author, Henry] Grabar follows housing activists' efforts to legalize in-law apartments carved from single-family houses, in many cases from the garage. The mere fact of this movement epitomizes the underlying problem: Local regulations have blocked apartments while allowing parking structures because, for most of seven or eight decades, city planners got hung up on the wrong issue. The visionaries of Victor Gruen's day simply failed to foresee how the relentless promotion of parking spaces might enervate cities and crowd out other needs." — Dante Ramos, The Atlantic, 4 June 2023 Did you know? Do not let any haziness in your understanding of enervate cause you to be enervated. Confusion about this somewhat rare word is reasonable, and aided greatly by the fact that although enervate looks like a plausible product of the joining of energize and invigorate, it is actually an antonym of both. Enervate comes from a form of the Latin verb enervare, which literally means "to remove the sinews of," and figuratively means simply "to weaken." Enervare was formed from the prefix e-, meaning "out of," and nervus, meaning "sinew, nerve." So etymologically, at least, someone who is enervated is "out of nerve." Knowing this, you no longer need be unnerved by it.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 14, 2024 is: Cupid • \KYOO-pid\  • noun Cupid is the Roman god of erotic love. The word cupid in lowercase refers to a figure that represents Cupid as a naked usually winged boy often holding a bow and arrow. // She purchased a large Valentine's Day card decorated with hearts and cupids. See the entry > Examples: "Michelangelo's talent as a sculptor first drew attention after a failed attempt at art fraud. The cardinal who purchased his fake antique cupid statue was so impressed with Michelangelo's work that he invited the artist to Rome for a meeting." — The Williston (North Dakota) Daily Herald, 4 Mar. 2022 Did you know? According to Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Mercury, the messenger god, and Venus, the goddess of love. In Roman times, the winged "messenger of love" was sometimes depicted in armor, but no one is sure if that was intended as a sarcastic comment on the similarities between warfare and romance, or a reminder that love conquers all. Cupid was generally seen as a good spirit who brought happiness to all, but his matchmaking could cause mischief. Venus wasn't above using her son's power to get revenge on her rivals, and she once plotted to have the beautiful mortal Psyche fall in love with a despicable man. But the plan backfired: Cupid fell in love with Psyche, and she eventually became his immortal wife.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 13, 2024 is: maladroit • \mal-uh-DROYT\  • adjective Maladroit is an adjective that means "incompetent" or "very awkward." It is usually used in formal speech and writing, and often describes people who lack skill in handling situations. // The governor has been criticized for his maladroit handling of the budget crisis. See the entry > Examples: "Barry Allen, a.k.a. the Flash, is the dweebiest Justice League superhero. He's also the most endearing. Barry's got a bit of Peter Parker's boyishness. He's maladroit in a way that's equally maddening and winning." — Mark Feeney, The Boston Globe, 16 June 2023 Did you know? Maladroit is perhaps an awkward fit for casual speech—outside of the occasional Weezer album title, one most often encounters it in formal writing—but you can remember its meaning by breaking it down into its French building blocks. The first is the word mal, meaning "badly," which may be familiar from English words including malaise ("a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being") and malodorous ("having a bad odor"). The second is adroit, meaning "having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations." Middle French speakers put those pieces together as maladroit to describe the clumsy and incompetent among them, and English speakers borrowed the word intact. We'd adopted adroit from them a short time before.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2024 is: inveigh • \in-VAY\  • verb Inveigh is a formal word that means "to protest or complain bitterly or vehemently." Like its synonym rail, it's typically used with against. // Students inveighed against the new dress code policy. See the entry > Examples: "While I've inveighed here about categorical statements against chocolate and wine, I will repeat my favorite maxim that 'bubbles go with everything.' Champagne … is fantastic with chocolate-covered strawberries (in which the berries are the star)." — Dave McIntyre, The Washington Post, 9 Feb. 2023 Did you know? It's all well and good to complain, kvetch, gripe, or grumble about whatever happens to be vexing you, but for a stronger effect, we suggest inveighing against it. (You'll almost always want to include the against, by the way.) Inveigh was borrowed with its meaning from the Latin verb invehi (invehi can also mean "to attack"), which is also a form of invehere, meaning "to carry in." Another invehere descendant is the closely-related noun invective, which refers to insulting or abusive language. Nota bene: it's not necessary to hurl invective when inveighing against what irks you.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 11, 2024 is: quirk • \KWERK\  • noun Quirk refers to an unusual habit or way of behaving. It can also refer to something strange that happens by chance, as in “a quirk of fate.” // For an icebreaker, we were each asked to share a noteworthy quirk about ourselves. Mine was that I have to make sure every square of my waffles is buttered evenly before I eat them. See the entry > Examples: “The hip-hop legend [E-40] has been rapping for more than 30 years, carving his own corner of the rap world with his inimitable vocal quirks and a freewheeling cadence that made songs like ‘Sprinkle Me,’ ‘Tell Me When to Go,’ and ‘U and Dat’ transcendental hits.” — Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 28 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Those whose quirk is to zig while others zag (and conversely those who zag while others zig) will appreciate the origins of today’s word. Not its etymological origins, mind you—no one knows whence quirk came—but the twists and turns of its meanings across the centuries. The oldest known use of quirk dates to the mid-1500s, and referred to a clever verbal dodge of the kind one might use to turn the tables on someone in an argument or debate. It didn’t take long for quirk’s meaning to expand to cover all kinds of twisty, turn-y things, from witty retorts and curlicue flourishes made with ink on paper to the vagaries or twists of fate. The sense of quirk meaning “a peculiarity of action or behavior” refers to a twist of sorts as well, insofar as our quirks often flip others’ expectations of us, perhaps even causing them to quirk their eyebrows now and again. In a surprising twist, quirk began to be used as a verb meaning “to curve or twist” in the late 1800s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 10, 2024 is: callous • \KAL-us\  • adjective Someone or something described as callous does not feel or show any concern about the problems or suffering of other people. // Several employees cringed at the callous remark their supervisor made about the team's performance. See the entry > Examples: "The tragedy of AI is not that it stands to replace good journalists but that it takes every gross, callous move made by management to degrade the production of content—and promises to accelerate it." — Brian Merchant, The Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2023 Did you know? A callus is a hard, thickened area of skin that develops usually from friction or irritation over time. Such a hardened area often leaves one less sensitive to the touch, so it's no surprise that the adjective callous, in addition to describing skin that is hard and thick, can also be used as a synonym for harsh or insensitive. Both callus and callous come via Middle English from Latin. The figurative sense of callous entered English almost 300 years after the literal sense, and Robert Louis Stevenson used it aptly when he wrote in Treasure Island "But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 9, 2024 is: MacGuffin • \muh-GUFF-in\  • noun A MacGuffin is an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance. // The missing document is the MacGuffin that brings the two main characters together, but the real story centers on their tumultuous relationship. See the entry > Examples: "... like every Mission: Impossible before it, Dead Reckoning sticks to a tried-and-true formula that essentially acts as a string to connect one action-sequence bead to the next. The set-up: A stealth Russian sub gets attacked by its own torpedoes. The MacGuffin: One cruciform key that the sub’s chief officer has in his possession, and which goes missing; once this item is slotted into an identical counterpart, the composite key will unlock… something." — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 July 2023 Did you know? The first person to use MacGuffin as a word for a plot device was Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from an old shaggy-dog story in which some passengers on a train interrogate a fellow passenger carrying a large, strange-looking package. The fellow says the package contains a "MacGuffin," which, he explains, is used to catch tigers in the Scottish Highlands. When the group protests that there are no tigers in the Highlands, the passenger replies, "Well, then, this must not be a MacGuffin." Hitchcock apparently appreciated the way the mysterious package holds the audience's attention and builds suspense. He recognized that an audience anticipating a solution to a mystery will continue to follow the story even if the initial interest-grabber turns out to be irrelevant.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 8, 2024 is: fissile • \FISS-ul\  • adjective Fissile describes materials that are capable of undergoing fission—that is, the process in which the nucleus of a heavy atom is split apart, releasing a large amount of energy. Fissile can also be used to describe something, such as wood or crystals, capable of or prone to being split or divided in the direction of the grain along natural planes. // The wood of most conifer species is fissile, making it much easier to cut than that of sycamore and hornbeam. See the entry > Examples: "In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a whopping 50,000 people worked to create the material, enriched uranium, needed for Los Alamos' bomb, while thousands more created another fissile material, plutonium, in Hanford, Washington. Including the hundreds of thousands of construction workers who built these labs and boomtowns, 'the Oak Ridge and Hanford sites alone hired more than a half-million employees,' the U.S. Department of Energy said." — Mark Kaufman, Mashable.com, 2 Sept. 2023 Did you know? When scientists first used fissile back in the 1600s, the notion of splitting an atom would have seemed far-fetched indeed. At that time, people thought that atoms were the smallest particles of matter that existed and therefore could not be split. Fissile (which can be traced back to the Latin verb findere, meaning "to split") was used in reference to things like rocks. When we hear about fissile materials today, the reference is usually to nuclear fission: the splitting of an atomic nucleus that releases a huge amount of energy. But there is still a place in our language for the original sense of fissile (and for the noun fissility, meaning "the quality of being fissile"). A geologist or builder, for example, might describe slate as being fissile, as it splits readily into thin slabs.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 7, 2024 is: absolve • \ub-ZAHLV\  • verb To absolve someone is to free them from a responsibility or commitment, or from the consequences of guilt. // The plaintiff asserts that the company is not absolved of responsibility for the false claims simply because its ownership has changed. See the entry > Examples: "'We chose these Five Common Reactions to Change because they're very prevalent and they help illustrate a spectrum of change reactions from individuals,' Curtis [Bateman, author] says. 'It's important to highlight that no reaction is right or wrong at the start of the change. We're all human. But that doesn't absolve us of responsibility regarding the choices we make from that point forward.'" — Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2023 Did you know? The act of absolving can be seen as releasing someone from blame or sin, or "loosening" the hold that responsibility or guilt has on a person, which provides a hint about the word's origins. Absolve was adopted into Middle English in the 15th century from the Latin verb absolvere ("to release, acquit, finish, complete"), formed by combining the prefix ab- ("from, away, off") with solvere, meaning "to loosen." Absolve also once had additional senses of "to finish or accomplish" and "to resolve or explain," but these are now obsolete. Solvere is also the ancestor of the English words solve, dissolve, resolve, solvent, and solution.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 6, 2024 is: signet • \SIG-nut\  • noun Signet refers to a seal used officially to give personal authority to a document in lieu of a signature, or to the impression made by or as if by such a seal. // The ring had been passed down for generations, and bore an intricate intaglio signet. See the entry > Examples: "The bottle is crowned with the letter K like a signet representing the majesty of the wearer." — MuseArabia.net, 20 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Signets have been used for thousands of years. The design of a signet is personalized for its owner, and no two are alike. The ancients used signets to mark their possessions and to sign contracts. In later years signets were used to stamp a blob of hot wax sealing a folded secret document so that it couldn't be opened and read without the design being broken. Nowadays you’re likely to hear of signets in reference to jewelry, especially rings. The reigning pope wears one, called the Fisherman's Ring, which is carved with a figure of St. Peter encircled with the pope's name; after a pope's death, the ring is destroyed and a new one is made. If you guessed that signet and sign share an etymological relation, you’re entirely right: both can be traced to the Latin noun signum, meaning "a mark, token, image, sign, or seal."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 5, 2024 is: gratuitous • \gruh-TOO-uh-tuss\  • adjective Gratuitous describes things that are not necessary, appropriate, or justified, as in "a gratuitous insult" or "a gratuitous assumption." Gratuitous can also mean "free." // The film was criticized for its gratuitous violence. // A local veterinary technician provides gratuitous services to the animal shelter twice a month. See the entry > Examples: "The Hunger Games trilogy followed Katniss Everdeen as she won a fight to the death and eventually sparked a nationwide rebellion, a dystopian treatment that explores how gratuitous violence can lead to generational trauma. While the book's topics are serious, Levithan tells Rolling Stone that much of The Hunger Games' success came from Collins' ability to respect her younger readers' ability to handle deep material, making the books reach an audience of all ages." — CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 25 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Like gratitude, grace, and congratulate, gratuitous is a descendant of the Latin word gratus, which means "pleasing" or "grateful." When gratuitous was first used in the 17th century, it meant "free" or "given without return benefit or compensation." The extended meaning "done without good reason" or "unwarranted" came about just a few decades later, perhaps from the belief held by some people that one should not give something without getting something in return. Today, that extended meaning is the more common sense, employed, for example, when graphic cruelty depicted in a work of fiction is described as "gratuitous violence," or when unkind words better left unsaid are described as "a gratuitous insult."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 4, 2024 is: zeitgeber • \TSYTE-gay-ber\  • noun Zeitgeber refers to an environmental agent or event (such as the occurrence of light or dark) that provides the stimulus which sets or resets an organism’s biological clock. // The ratio of daylight to darkness in the spring is an important zeitgeber that affects the activity of some migrating birds. See the entry > Examples: “Which digital rhythms are we actively following because they make us feel good, and which are we entrained to? Entrainment, a term that originated in biology and then spread to the social sciences, refers to the alignment of an organism’s physiology or behavior with a cycle; the most familiar example would be our circadian rhythm. The signal driving entrainment, in this case light and dark, is called a ‘zeitgeber’ ...” — Jenny Odell, The New York Times, 8 Dec. 2022 Did you know? Zeitgebers are alarm clocks—both biologically and etymologically. The word zeitgeber comes from a combination of two German terms: Zeit, meaning “time,” and Geber, which means “giver.” In nature, zeitgebers tend to be cyclic or recurring patterns that help keep the body’s circadian rhythms operating in an orderly way. For earthlings of all kinds, the daily pattern of light and darkness and the warmer and colder temperatures between day and night serve as zeitgebers, cues that keep organisms functioning on a regular schedule—consider how the changing ratio of day to night in spring serves as a trigger for critters such as birds and spring peepers to sing their mating songs. For humans, societally imposed cycles, such as the schedule of the work or school day and regular mealtimes, can become zeitgebers as well. What you sing is up to you, however.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 3, 2024 is: acquisitive • \uh-KWIZ-uh-tiv\  • adjective Someone or something described as acquisitive is characterized by a strong desire to own or acquire more things. // The game aims to teach middle schoolers to balance their acquisitive instincts with a consideration of what will benefit society as a whole. See the entry > Examples: "The film casts a cynical side-eye at the acquisitive ethos of the Reagan '80s, told with a hypnotic sense of style." — Mark Olsen, The Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2023 Did you know? While acquisitive is a useful synonym of the likes of greedy and avaricious, it's relatively unknown compared to its more popular lexical relations, acquire and acquisition. The former of that pair is most often used to mean "to get as one's own," as in "skills acquired through practice"; the latter refers either to the act of acquiring something, as in "the acquisition of skills," or to something or someone acquired or gained, as in "the museum's recent acquisitions." All three have as their ultimate source the Latin word acquīrere, meaning "to acquire." While acquire and acquisition have both been in use since the 15th century, acquisitive is a bit younger. The word has a somewhat rare use meaning "capable of acquiring" that dates to the late 16th century, but its "greedy" meaning dates only to the early 19th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 2, 2024 is: prognosticate • \prahg-NAHSS-tuh-kayt\  • verb To prognosticate is to predict or foreshadow something. // Our company uses current trends to prognosticate what the workplace of the future will be like. See the entry > Examples: “What-ifs are almost always registered as negative. We prognosticate the worst-case scenarios probably as a means to be prepared for the worst. ‘Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst’ is a well-known adage that programs negative thinking.” — Bruce Wilson, Psychology Today, 7 May 2023 Did you know? Prognosticate, which ultimately traces back to the Greek word prognōstikos (“knowing beforehand, prescient”), first appears in English during the 15th century. Since that time, prognosticate has been connected with things that foreshadow events to come and with people who can prophesy or predict the future by such signs. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley used the “prophesy” sense of prognosticate in her Gothic horror novel Frankenstein as Victor Frankenstein writes of his feelings upon approaching Geneva: “I wept like a child. ‘Dear mountains! my own beautiful lake! how do you welcome your wanderer? Your summits are clear; the sky and lake are blue and placid. Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?’” Other English words stitched together from prognōstikos that you may be familiar with include the nouns prognostic and prognosis, which also have senses related to foretelling. Prognostic can mean “prophecy,” while prognosis—used often in medical contexts to refer to the prospect of a patient’s recovery—can also mean “forecast.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 1, 2024 is: damask • \DAM-usk\  • noun Damask refers to a usually shiny, thick fabric (as of linen, cotton, silk, or rayon) made with patterns. The word can also be used as a synonym of Damascus steel, or for a grayish red color. // The old chair was upholstered in a blue silk damask which was now faded and threadbare. See the entry > Examples: “Though damask first emerged in the third century BCE, when Chinese weavers used one warp and one weft thread to create opulent, reversible topographies of silk that draped the shoulders of emperors, it gained its moniker when Syrian merchants introduced the fabric to European weavers.” — Mary Alice Russell and Tracey Minkin, Veranda.com, 19 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Upon visiting the city of Damascus in 1867, Mark Twain wrote that “To Damascus, years are only moments, decades are only flitting trifles of time. She measures time not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise and prosper and crumble to ruin. She is a type of immortality.” Indeed, the city’s Arabic name comes from Dimašqa, a word so ancient that it suggests the origins of the city predate recorded history. The Medieval Latin name for the fabric famously associated with the “pearl of the East,” damascus, first entered Middle English as damaske in the 1300s and was later shortened to damask. That term has also been used in the intervening centuries for a type of steel, though neither the fabric nor the steel likely originated there.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 31, 2024 is: quotidian • \kwoh-TID-ee-un\  • adjective Something described as quotidian occurs every day or occurs routinely or typically. More broadly, quotidian is used as a synonym of commonplace and ordinary. // The article offers suggestions on how to gamify quotidian tasks. See the entry > Examples: "Ultimately, the beauty creators offered a behind-the-scenes look at how these top glam squads find quotidian ways to keep their creativity thriving." — Eda Yu, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Nov. 2023 Did you know? In William Shakespeare's play As You Like It, the character Rosalind observes that Orlando, who has been running about in the woods carving her name on trees and hanging love poems on branches, "seems to have the quotidian of love upon him." The Bard's use doesn't make it clear that quotidian comes from a Latin word, quotidie, which means "every day." But as odd as it may seem, his use of quotidian is just a short semantic step away from the "daily" adjective sense. Some fevers come and go but occur daily; in medical use, these are called "quotidian fevers" or simply "quotidians." Poor Orlando is afflicted with such a "fever" of love.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 30, 2024 is: bailiwick • \BAY-lih-wik\  • noun Bailiwick refers to the domain or sphere in which someone has superior knowledge or authority. // Fundraising events are his bailiwick. See the entry > Examples: "Originally directed at lower-paid independents such as Uber drivers and delivery people, first the State of California and then the U.S. Department of Labor proposed legislation aimed to give these workers protection from the companies that were underpaying or otherwise mistreating them. Recently New York State followed suit, proposing a bill classifying workers as employees unless 'the worker is free from the control of the hiring entity, the work performed is outside the hiring entity's bailiwick, and the worker is 'customarily engaged' in the type of work he is hired to do.'" — Nigel Wilson, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2023 Did you know? The first half of the word bailiwick comes from the Middle English word for "bailiff"—in this case, a term referring to a sheriff or chief officer of a town in medieval England, not the officer who assists today in U.S. courtrooms. Bailiff comes, via Anglo-French, from the Medieval Latin verb bajulare, meaning "to care for" or "to support." The second half of bailiwick comes from wik, a Middle English word for "dwelling place" or "village," which ultimately hails from the Latin word vicus, meaning "village." (This root is also thought to have given English -wich and -wick, suffixes used in place names like Norwich and Warwick.) Although bailiwick dates from the 15th century, the "special domain of knowledge" sense we use most often today did not appear in English until the middle of the 19th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 29, 2024 is: emote • \ih-MOHT\  • verb To emote is to express emotion in a very dramatic or obvious way. // He stood on the stage, emoting and gesturing wildly. See the entry > Examples: "An entity that feigns human emotions is arguably a worse object of affection than a cold, computational device that doesn't emote at all." — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 26 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Emote is an example of what linguists call a back-formation—that is, a word formed by trimming down an existing word. In this case, the parent word is emotion, which came to English by way of Middle French from the Latin verb emovēre, meaning "to remove or displace" (making the "removal" of the suffix -ion to form emote quite fitting). As is sometimes the case with back-formations, emote has since its coinage in the early 20th century tended toward use that is less than entirely serious. It frequently appears in humorous or deprecating descriptions of the work of actors, and is similarly used to describe theatrical behavior by nonactors.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 28, 2024 is: ne plus ultra • \nay-plus-UL-truh\  • noun Ne plus ultra refers to the highest point of development or success that something may achieve; it is a synonym of acme. // The company’s latest electric car is being hailed as the ne plus ultra of automotive achievement. See the entry > Examples: "Vanilla is earthy. It’s ethereal. It’s exotic. It’s indispensable in some recipes and, when added to others on a whim, seems essential. … The ne plus ultra of flavoring." — Dorie Greenspan, Food52.com, 25 Feb. 2022 Did you know? It is the height, the zenith, the ultimate, the crown, the pinnacle. It is the peak, the summit, the crest, the high-water mark. All these expressions, of course, mean "the highest point attainable." But ne plus ultra may top them all when it comes to expressing in a sophisticated way that something is the pink of perfection. It is said that the term's predecessor, non plus ultra, was inscribed on the Pillars of Heracles at the Strait of Gibraltar, which marked the western end of the classical world. The phrase served as a warning: "(Let there) not (be) more (sailing) beyond." The New Latin version ne plus ultra, meaning "(go) no more beyond," found its way into English in the early 1600s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 27, 2024 is: docile • \DAH-sul\  • adjective Docile is used to describe those who are easily taught, led, or managed. // Though the professor feared a rowdy incoming class, he found that his new students were docile and eager to learn. See the entry > Examples: "An homage to David Cronenberg's 2005 film 'A History of Violence,' 'Leo' released on Oct. 19. The action-thriller follows a docile cafe owner (Vijay) who is incited to return to his violent past." — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 23 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Docile students have always made teaching easier than it otherwise would be. Today calling students "docile" indicates that they aren't trouble-makers, but there's more than just good behavior connecting docility to teachability. The original meaning of docile is more to the point: "readily absorbing something taught." "The docile mind may soon thy precepts know," rendered Ben Jonson, for example, in a 17th-century translation of the Roman poet Horace. Docile comes from the Latin verb docēre, which means "to teach." Other descendants of docēre include doctrine (which can mean "something that is taught"), document (an early meaning of which was "instruction"), and doctor and docent (both of which can refer to teachers).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2024 is: lexicographer • \lek-suh-KAH-gruh-fer\  • noun A lexicographer is an author or editor of a dictionary. // Noah Webster believed that a lexicographer's work was to document a language as it is used, without any judgment or subjective influence. See the entry > Examples: "'Ma'am' ... comes from the French word for 'my lady' (ma dame), which in English turned into 'madam' and then 'ma'am' by the 1600s, according to Merriam-Webster. This pronunciation change happened at a time when American English was trying to differentiate itself from British English, explained Kelly Elizabeth Wright, experimental sociolinguist and lexicographer at Virginia Tech." — Janelle Davis, CNN, 12 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Today, we're looking at a word that is dear to our hearts: lexicographer. The ancient Greeks were some of the earliest makers of dictionaries; they used them mainly to catalog obsolete terms from their rich literary past. To create a word for writers of dictionaries, the Greeks sensibly attached the suffix -graphos, meaning "writer," to lexikon, meaning "dictionary," to form lexikographos, the direct ancestor of the English word lexicographer. Lexikon, which itself descends from Greek lexis (meaning "word" or "speech"), also gave us lexicon, which can mean either "dictionary" or "the vocabulary of a language, speaker, or subject."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2024 is: vivacious • \vuh-VAY-shus\  • adjective Someone or something described as vivacious is happy and lively in an appealing way. // Our vivacious host’s bubbly humor and welcoming spirit quickly set everyone at ease. See the entry > Examples: “Mikayla Nogueira staked her claim in the beauty space on TikTok by grabbing the attention of viewers through her incredible makeup skills, her vivacious energy and, of course, her Boston accent.” — Kerry Justich, Yahoo! Life, 2 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Vivacious may not be onomatopoeic in a strict sense, but there’s definitely something lively—maybe even a bit va-va-voom—in the way its three syllables trip off the tongue. Perhaps this is why it has appealed to English speakers since the mid-1600s, when it was formed from the Latin adjective vivax meaning “long-lived, vigorous, or high-spirited.” Vivax comes from the verb vivere, meaning “to live.” Other English descendants of vivere include survive, revive, and victual—all of which came to life during the 15th century—and vivid and convivial, both of which surfaced around the same time as vivacious. Somewhat surprisingly, the word live is unrelated; it comes to us from the Old English word libban.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 24, 2024 is: capitulate • \kuh-PIH-chuh-layt\  • verb To capitulate is to surrender to an enemy, often after negotiating terms, or to stop trying to fight or resist something. // After months of organized boycotts, company officials finally capitulated to the protesters’ demands and announced significant changes to their practices. // The teacher refused to capitulate: no calculators were to be used during the exam. See the entry > Examples: “With [Horst] Hrubesch reluctant to add more attacking thrust to the team until it was too late, it was an odd game to end an odd year for Germany. But you have to give credit to Wales. It would have been easy to capitulate in the final game, given their results, but they continued to show some fighting spirit and finally got a reward for their determined play, pressing the visiting defence and working as a group to claim their first point of the campaign.” — Sophie Lawson, ESPN United Kingdom, 6 Dec. 2023 Did you know? We hope you’ll acquiesce to some history about capitulate because we can’t resist. When it first entered English in the 16th century, capitulate meant “to discuss terms with an enemy; to negotiate.” Its Latin source is more bookshelf than battlefield: the Medieval Latin word capitulare means “to distinguish [text] by chapters or headings,” as well as “to stipulate in an agreement.” The original “negotiate” sense of capitulate is now rarely heard, and today capitulate typically stresses surrender, whether to agreed-upon terms or in hopelessness before an irresistible opposing force (as in “team owners capitulated to the demands of the players’ union”).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 23, 2024 is: unfettered • \un-FET-erd\  • adjective Unfettered describes what is not controlled or restricted. It is a synonym of both free and unrestrained. // The biographer has been given unfettered access to the family's collection of personal correspondence. See the entry > Examples: "Kevin Desjardins, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, said that, before the CRTC, foreign streamers for a decade were allowed unfettered access to the Canadian market, which increasingly put local TV networks at a disadvantage." — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Dec. 2023 Did you know? A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet (such as the kind sometimes used on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. Fetter and unfetter both function as verbs in English with contrasting literal meanings having to do with the putting on of and freeing from fetters; they likewise have contrasting figurative extensions having to do with the depriving and granting of freedom. The adjective unfettered resides mostly in the figurative, with the word typically describing someone or something unrestrained in progress or spirit. This is how Irish author James Joyce used the word in his 1916 autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man when the character of Cranly recalls to his best friend Stephen what he (Stephen) said he wishes to do in life: "To discover the mode of life or of art whereby your spirit could express itself in unfettered freedom."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2024 is: sarcasm • \SAHR-kaz-um\  • noun Sarcasm refers to the use of words that mean one thing to communicate the exact opposite of that thing, especially to insult someone, to show irritation, or to be funny. // Her monotone voice often made it difficult to tell whether or not she was using sarcasm. See the entry > Examples: “Without a doubt, the Beatles’ longevity is connected to their collective sense of humor, as well as other comic, comedic, and playful elements present in their musical, cinematic, and other visual texts. Four parts made a whole, with each member of the band versed in the comedic tools of irony, sarcasm, wordplay, and even nonsense.” — Katie Kapurch, et al., The Beatles and Humour, 2023 Did you know? Painful as it can be, a remark full of cutting sarcasm offers insight into the origins of the word. Sarcasm traces back to the Greek verb sarkázein, meaning “to jeer at while biting the lips.” Evidence is scant, but there is some suggestion that sarkázein may have had a fiercer original meaning: “to bite or strip off flesh.” Between sarkázein and the word we know today came the Greek noun sarkasmos, (“a sneering or hurtful remark”), iterations of which passed through French and Late Latin before arriving in English as sarcasm in the early 17th century. The adjective form sarcastic arrived a few decades later.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2024 is: conflate • \kun-FLAYT\  • verb Two closely related meanings of the verb conflate are “to confuse,” i.e. “to fail to differentiate,” and “to blend or bring together.” // Be careful not to conflate gossip with real news. // The movie conflates documentary footage and dramatized reenactments so seamlessly and ingeniously that viewers may not know what is real and what is not. See the original > Examples: “It’s long been a misnomer when independents are conflated with swing voters. In reality most so-called ‘independents’ say they vote mainly for one party, even though they call themselves independent. Only a relative handful of them—just a third—are truly independent and vote equally for either party over time.” — Anthony Salvanto et al., CBS News, 19 Sept. 2023 Did you know? We’re not just blowing hot air when we tell you that conflate can actually be traced back to the same roots as the English verb blow. Conflate comes from conflatus, a form of the Latin verb conflare (“to blow together, to fuse”), which was formed by combining the prefix com-, meaning “with” or “together,” with the Latin verb flare, meaning “to blow.” Blow’s ancestor, the Old English word blāwan, shares an ancestor with flare. When two or more things are conflated, they are figuratively “blown together” either by someone’s confusion or ingenuity. Other descendants of flare in English include flavor, inflate, and, well, flatulent.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 20, 2024 is: kindred • \KIN-drud\  • adjective To say that two people or things are kindred is to say that they are of a similar nature or character, or that they have the same ancestry. // I believe she and I are kindred spirits. // German and English are kindred languages. See the entry > Examples: “I’ve always loved to read, long before I began to write. Prolific writer Stephen King explains, ‘If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.’ Another kindred soul, Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘I kept always two books in my pocket: one to read, one to write in.’ The two passions are so connected in my being.” — Kerri Thoreson, The Coeur d’Alene (Idaho)/Post Falls Press, 30 Mar. 2022 Did you know? Family—both ancestral and in spirit—is what puts the “kin” in kindred. This word comes from the Old English noun for “kinship,” cynrǣden, which combines cynn (meaning “kin”) and ræden, meaning “condition.” Kindred first entered English as a noun during the Middle Ages. That noun, which can refer to a group of related individuals or to one's own relatives, gave rise to the adjective kindred in the 14th century. Other words akin to kin include kinfolk (and kinsfolk), kinship, kinsman, and kinswoman.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2024 is: harangue • \huh-RANG\  • noun A harangue is a forceful or angry speech or piece of writing. // After watching the popular documentary, he delivered a long harangue about the dangers of social media. See the entry > Examples: '"HBO’s 'The Young Pope” … is a visually sublime but textually ridiculous horror tale in which the monster is the pontiff himself. …[H]is first public address is not the warm greeting the crowd in St. Peter’s Square hopes for, but a terrifying harangue. 'You have forgotten God!' he raves, declaring that his papacy will abandon the feel-good rhetoric of reaching out to one’s fellow man." — James Poniewozik, The New York Times, 12 Jan. 2017 Did you know? In Old Italian, the verb aringare meant "to speak in public," the noun aringo referred to a public assembly, and the noun aringa referred to a public speech. Aringa was borrowed into Middle French as arenge, and it is from this form that we get our noun harangue, which made its first appearance in English in the 16th century with that same "public speech" meaning. Perhaps due to the bombastic or exasperated nature of some public speeches, the term quickly developed an added sense referring to a forceful or angry speech or piece of writing, making it a synonym of rant. By the mid-17th century, the verb harangue made it possible to harangue others with such speech or writing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2024 is: axiomatic • \ak-see-uh-MAT-ik\  • adjective Axiomatic is a formal adjective that describes something—usually a statement—that is understood as obviously true, such that it is or should be taken for granted. // It is axiomatic that successful athletes are not just talented, but have put in years of dedicated training. See the entry > Examples: “‘You’re better off’ is a hard pill when you’re grieving a breakup. But it’s axiomatic: Someone who doesn’t want you as-is isn’t the person you want.” — Carolyn Hax, The Washington Post, 24 Feb. 2023 Did you know? An axiom is a principle widely accepted for its intrinsic merit, or one regarded as self-evidently true. A statement that is axiomatic, therefore, is one against which few people would argue. Axiomatic entered English from the New Latin word axiōmaticus, and like axiom, it comes ultimately from the Greek word axíōma, meaning (among other things) “that which is reasonable (though not demonstrated to be true).” The word axiom can also refer to a statement accepted as true specifically as the basis for an argument or inference. An example would be: “Nothing can both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect.” Such axioms are often employed in philosophy, as well as in mathematics and geometry, where they are sometimes called postulates.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2024 is: whinge • \WINJ\  • verb Whinge is a verb used especially in British English to mean "to complain fretfully." // Everyone at the pub was whinging about the television not working. See the entry > Examples: "In his customary forthright manner, [Prince] Philip wanted to do much more than whinge about the environment. In 1970, he told the Conference on World Pollution: 'It's totally useless for a lot of well-meaning people to wring their hands in conference and to point out the dangers of pollution, or the destruction of the countryside, if no one is willing or capable of taking any action.'" — Harry Mount, The Independent (United Kingdom), 9 Nov. 2023 Did you know? One of the strengths of the English language is the nuance it exhibits when called upon to supply words for every possible kind of whining and complaining. We English users vent, we lament, we fuss and grouse and kvetch. We also—especially those of us across the pond—have a tendency to whinge. Contrary to appearances, whinge is etymologically distinct from whine. The latter traces to an Old English verb, hwīnan, meaning "to hum or whir like a speeding object (such as an arrow) through the air." When hwīnan became whine in Middle English, it meant "to wail distressfully"; whine didn't acquire its "complain" sense until the 16th century. Whinge, on the other hand, comes from a different Old English verb, hwinsian, meaning "to wail or moan discontentedly." Whinge retains that original sense today, though nowadays it puts less emphasis on the sound of the complaining and more on the discontentment behind all the whinging and moaning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2024 is: bunkum • \BUNG-kum\  • noun Bunkum is an old-fashioned and informal word that refers to foolish or insincere talk or ideas. // As usual, the politician let out a load of bunkum during his speech. See the entry > Examples: "The German chemist’s interests also stretched to human nutrition. He became convinced the juices that flowed out of cooked meat contained valuable nutritional compounds and encouraged cooks to sear the meat to seal in the juices. This turned out to be complete bunkum, but 150 years later his advice is still followed by Christmas dinner chefs across the land." — Mark Lorch, The Conversation, 20 Dec. 2021 Did you know? Some words in the English language have more colorful histories than others. In the case of bunkum, you could almost say it was an act of Congress that brought the word into being. Back in 1820, Felix Walker, who represented North Carolina's Buncombe County in the U.S. House of Representatives, was determined that his voice be heard on his constituents' behalf, even though the matter up for debate was irrelevant to Walker's district and he had little of substance to contribute. To the exasperation of his colleagues, Walker insisted on delivering a long and wearisome "speech for Buncombe." His persistent—if insignificant—harangue made buncombe (later respelled bunkum) a synonym for meaningless political claptrap and came later to refer to any kind of nonsense.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 15, 2024 is: oneiric • \oh-NYE-rik\  • adjective Oneiric is an adjective meaning "of or relating to dreams." // The paintings, filled with fantastical imagery conjured by the artist's imagination, have a compellingly oneiric quality. See the entry > Examples: "The poem operates by a kind of fairy logic: mesmerizing, oneiric, enchanted, with language that surprises and clauses that seem to magnetically adhere." — Verity Spott, The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2023 Did you know? The notion of using the Greek noun oneiros (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective oneiric wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the late 1500s and early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few oneiros spin-offs, giving English oneirocriticism, oneirocritical, and oneirocritic (each having to do with dream interpreters or dream interpretation). The surge in oneiros derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus. In the 17th century, English speakers also melded Greek oneiros with the combining form ­-mancy ("divination") to create oneiromancy, meaning "divination by means of dreams."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2024 is: cosplay • \KAHZ-play\  • verb To cosplay is to engage in the activity or practice of dressing up as a character from a work of fiction (such as a comic book, video game, or television show). // Liz’s favorite part of attending Comic-Con is choosing a character to cosplay that few others will think of, then recreating their look as accurately as possible. See the entry > Examples: “An educator for more than 20 years, [Heather] Trupia brought her love for the Star Wars franchise to the Hays CISD school in Niederwald, Texas, about 25 miles south of Austin. She wanted to excite kids about taking the state’s standardized STAAR test. This included cosplaying as Star Wars characters and performing shows for students.” — Kiko Martinez, MySanAntonio.com, 9 Nov. 2023 Did you know? If you enjoy cosplaying as your favorite anime character (say, Nezuko Kamada from Demon Slayer or Luffy from One Piece), you’ve got yourself a special, lexicographical twofer of words that were borrowed from English into Japanese and then back into English. In Japanese, anime is short for animēshiyon, which comes from the English word animation, referring to an animated cartoon. Japanese users similarly took the English words costume and play (as in role-play) and combined them into the word kosuchūmupurē, or kosupure for short, which was reborrowed into English as cosplay, first as a noun, and later as a verb. It's not required that one choose an anime character to cosplay, however—any fictional character will do, and probably has done! People are even starting to use cosplay figuratively to mean “to pretend to be,” as in “her chiweenie likes to cosplay as a much bigger dog whenever they visit the dog park.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 13, 2024 is: gargoyle • \GAR-goy-ul\  • noun A gargoyle is a strange or grotesque human or animal figure that sticks out from the roof of a building (such as a church) and is used to cause rainwater to flow away from the building's sides. // Some of the exchange students were creeped out by all the gargoyles they passed during their walking tour of the old European town. See the entry > Examples: "Disney simply did not need to go this hard, and yet here we are. A clan of gargoyle protectors from medieval times are cursed to become statues until a scheming billionaire genius frees them in the present. From there, the clan spends their nights fighting their many enemies while protecting the humans that fear them." — Gavin Jasper, Den of Geek, 19 Aug. 2023 Did you know? In the 12th century, St. Bernard of Clairvaux reportedly complained about the new sculptures in the cloisters where he lived. "Surely," he is quoted as saying, "if we do not blush for such absurdities we should at least regret what we have spent on them." St. Bernard was apparently provoked by the grotesque figures designed to drain rainwater from buildings. By the 13th century, those figures were being called gargoyles, a name that came to Middle English from the Old French word gargoule. The stone beasts likely earned that name because of the water that gargled out of their throats and mouths; the word gargoule is imitative in origin.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 12, 2024 is: Elysian • \ih-LIZH-un\  • adjective Something described as elysian is blissful or delightful in a way that evokes something otherworldly. Elysian is also used to mean "of or relating to Elysium"—that is, an eternal paradise for the souls of the heroic and pure in classical mythology. // They were motivated by the dream of retiring to a tropical isle and enjoying a life of elysian ease. See the entry > Examples: "The secret to its longevity, then and now, is a steadfast commitment to the idea of dolce far niente, the elysian pleasantness of doing absolutely nothing except enjoying yourself." — Spencer Bailey, Town & Country, 28 Mar. 2021 Did you know? In classical mythology, Elysium, also known as the Elysian Fields, was the paradise reserved for the heroes immortalized by the gods. Ancient Greek poets imagined it as the abode of the blessed after death, but in English the concept has more often been applied figuratively. In his history play Henry V, William Shakespeare used the place-name as a word for a peaceful state of sleep enjoyed by a mere mortal, and 18th-century English lexicographer and author Samuel Johnson wrote in The Rambler that in reading pastoral poetry we allow ourselves "to be transported to elysian regions, where we are met with nothing but joy, and plenty, and contentment..." In Walden a century later Henry David Thoreau wrote that "The summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian life."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 11, 2024 is: mangle • \MANG-gul\  • verb To mangle something is to ruin it due to carelessness or a lack of skill. Mangle can also mean “to injure or damage something or someone severely by cutting, tearing, or crushing.” // Half-remembering a joke from her favorite sitcom, Ally mangled the punch line, but honestly this made it even funnier. See the entry > Examples: “A small tornado with 90 mph winds ripped through Calaveras County early Tuesday morning, uprooting and mangling trees in its wake, the National Weather Service Sacramento office said.” — Ariana Bindman, SFGate.com, 11 Jan. 2023 Did you know? If you’re an aficionado of ironing appliances, you may be steamed that we did not highlight the noun mangle (“a machine for ironing laundry by passing it between heated rollers”) or its related verb (“to press or smooth with a mangle”) for today’s Word of the Day. You may even believe we mangled it! We concede, even if we fail to entirely smooth things over, that mangle is a perfectly fine word, coming as it does from the Dutch word mangel (not to be confused with the beet), but it is less commonly encountered than the mangle that means “to ruin or injure”; that mangle is unrelated, coming instead from Anglo-French. Its path in English has followed a trajectory similar to that of butcher, moving swiftly from applying to a violent action to a figurative use meaning “to bungle.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 10, 2024 is: tenet • \TEN-ut\  • noun A tenet is a principle, belief, or doctrine that is held to be true by members of an organization, movement, or profession. // On her first day at the fashion institute, Marta learned the basic tenets of the fashion industry. See the entry > Examples: "Other tenets of sound communication hold: for example, the use of active listening skills to identify the person's underlying needs and drivers of their behavior; and responding respectfully, to demonstrate understanding and acknowledge the impact of what happened and their feelings about it." — Steven P. Dinkin, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Dec. 2023 Did you know? Tenet holds a centuries-long tenure in the English language, but its hometown is Latin. In that language, tenet is a form of the verb tenēre ("to hold") and means "s/he holds." Tenet was borrowed into English around 1600, probably because of use of the word in Latin writings to introduce text giving a principle or doctrine held by a person or group, such as a particular church or sect. The word’s English use today seems clearly linked: "a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true, and especially one held in common by members of an organization, movement, or profession." Note that the similar-sounding word tenant is also from tenēre; it arrived in the 1300s and typically refers today to someone who rents or leases a house, apartment, etc., from a landlord. (Be careful not to use tenant where you want tenet.) Tenure is a tenēre descendant too.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 9, 2024 is: ominous • \AH-muh-nus\  • adjective Something described as ominous hints or suggests that something bad is coming or is going to happen. // Our fears about the picnic being cancelled were heightened by the sight of dark, ominous clouds appearing over the horizon. See the entry > Examples: "The trailer opens with ominous signs of seismograph activity picking up as desert sands start to shift and a giant ape hand bursts out from below. 'For most of human civilization, we believed that life could only exist on the surface of our planet,' Andrews says in a voiceover. 'What else were we wrong about?'" — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica.com, 4 Dec. 2023 Did you know? Ominous didn't always mean that something bad was about to happen. If you look closely, you can see the omen in ominous, which gave it the original meaning of "being a sign of events to come"—whether good or bad. It ultimately comes from the Latin word omen, which is both an ancestor and a synonym of our omen. Today, however, ominous suggests a menacing or threatening aspect. Its synonyms portentous and fateful are used similarly, but ominous is the most menacing of the three. It implies an alarming quality that foreshadows evil or disaster. So when something wicked this way comes, count on ominous to deliver the news aforehand.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2024 is: ferret • \FAIR-ut\  • verb To ferret means to find something, such as information, by careful searching. It is usually followed by the word out. // We love having her in our study group because she's good at ferreting out the answers to the study guide. See the entry > Examples: "The St. John's coach was captured on ABC cameras at the Garden for Game 4 between the Knicks and Cavaliers on Sunday, allowing some enterprising lip readers to ferret out the digits he was giving to someone." — Michael Blinn, The New York Post, 25 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Since the 14th century, English speakers have used ferret as the name of a small, slinky, domesticated mammal of the weasel family. The word came to us by way of Anglo-French and can be traced back to the Latin word fur, meaning "thief." These days ferrets are often kept as pets, but previously they were used to hunt rabbits, rats, and other vermin, and to drive them from their underground burrows. By the 15th century, the verb ferret was being used for the action of hunting with ferrets. By the late 16th century, the verb had taken on figurative uses as well. Today, we most frequently encounter the verb ferret in the sense of "to find and bring to light by searching."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 7, 2024 is: retronym • \RET-roh-nim\  • noun Retronym refers to a term (such as analog watch, film camera, or acoustic guitar) that is created and adopted to distinguish the original or older version, form, or example of something from others that are more recent. // While ordering a regular coffee Sam started to tell the barista about how “regular coffee” is a retronym until the next person in line sighed with impatience. See the entry > Examples: “Framework has also formally renamed its first laptop design; the 13-inch model picks up the ‘Framework Laptop 13’ retronym to distinguish it from the new Framework 16 gaming laptop.” — Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica, 23 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Remember way back when cameras used film? Back then, such devices were simply called cameras; they weren't specifically called film cameras until they needed to be distinguished from the digital cameras that came later. Similarly, the term desktop computer wasn't often used until laptops became prevalent. A lot of our common retronyms have come about due to technological advances: acoustic guitar emerged to contrast with electric guitar, and brick-and-mortar store came into use to distinguish traditional stores from online retailers. Retronym was coined by Frank Mankiewicz, an American journalist and former president of National Public Radio, and was first seen in print in 1980. Retronyms themselves are of course much older; British English, for example, is a retronym called into service when American English developed.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2024 is: circumspect • \SER-kum-spekt\  • adjective Someone described as circumspect is careful to consider all circumstances and risks before doing or saying something. // They are circumspect in all their business dealings. See the entry > Examples: "As a narrator, [Martin] Baron is at once circumspect—his memoir reveals nearly nothing of his life outside the newsroom—and brimming with astringent disclosure." — Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Circumspect may not be the most common of words, but its Latin forebears have made quite a mark on our language. That's because circumspect combines two major players in the Latin branch of the English language's pedigree: circum-, meaning "around," and specere, meaning "to look." Just look around, and you'll find that English is brimming with descendants of these Latin gems. Open your paper dictionary to circumspect and behold with your own eyes the thirty circum- entries that surround it, such as circumference, circumscribe, and circumnavigate. Then flip on over to spectacular for a little peek at the many words for which English has specere to thank, including spectacle, spectrum, and spectator. Latin lovers: we see you!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2024 is: circumspect • \SER-kum-spekt\  • adjective Someone described as circumspect is careful to consider all circumstances and risks before doing or saying something. // They are circumspect in all their business dealings. See the entry > Examples: "As a narrator, [Martin] Baron is at once circumspect—his memoir reveals nearly nothing of his life outside the newsroom—and brimming with astringent disclosure." — Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Circumspect may not be the most common of words, but its Latin forebears have made quite a mark on our language. That's because circumspect combines two major players in the Latin branch of the English language's pedigree: circum-, meaning "around," and specere, meaning "to look." Just look around, and you'll find that English is brimming with descendants of these Latin gems. Open your paper dictionary to circumspect and behold with your own eyes the thirty circum- entries that surround it, such as circumference, circumscribe, and circumnavigate. Then flip on over to spectacular for a little peek at the many words for which English has specere to thank, including spectacle, spectrum, and spectator. Latin lovers: we see you!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 5, 2024 is: accolade • \AK-uh-layd\  • noun Accolade refers to an award or expression of praise. It is often used in the plural form. // The movie's special effects have drawn accolades from both fans and critics. See the entry > Examples: "'It is a tremendous honor to be mentioned on the extended World's 50 Best List,' says Executive Chef Lee, who later tells us that it wasn't necessarily one of their immediate goals, making the tremendous accolade quite the surprise. 'I am extremely grateful that we are getting attention on the world stage and I am so happy that the team here at Saison gets the recognition for their hard work.'" — Chelsea Davis, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Give credit where credit is due: it's time to celebrate accolade for its centuries of laudatory service. Accolade joined English in the 16th century from the Middle French noun acolade, which in turn comes from the verb accoler, meaning "to embrace." When it was first borrowed from French, accolade referred to a ceremonial embrace that formally conferred knighthood. The term was later extended to other ceremonial acts conferring knighthood (such as the familiar touching of the shoulders with the flat part of a sword's blade), and then to other ceremonies marking the recognition of a special merit, distinction, or achievement. Today it refers more broadly to an award or expression of praise.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 4, 2024 is: skulk • \SKULK\  • verb To skulk is to move around or hide in a stealthy or secretive way. A person or animal that is said to be skulking is often assumed or considered to be up to some form of wrongdoing or mischief. // The cat often skulks around the entryway, waiting for someone to open the front door so it can sneak out. See the entry > Examples: “To the general public, vultures may seem vaguely repulsive, Edward Gorey-type characters that skulk in bare trees waiting for something to die. But to researchers who study any of the 23 species in today’s vulture consortium, the birds brim with intelligence born of their exceptional vocation.” — Natalie Angier, The New York Times, 12 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Here's one for the word-puzzle lovers. Name three qualities that the word skulk shares with each of the following words: booth, brink, cog, flit, kid, meek, scab, seem, and skull. If you noticed that all of the terms on that list have just one syllable, then you've got the first, and easiest, similarity. The next two require some special knowledge: all of the words are of Scandinavian origin and all were first recorded in English in the 13th century. As for skulk specifically, its closest known Scandinavian relative is the Norwegian dialect word skulka, which means “to lie in wait” or “to lurk.” Skulk is also used—though less often—as a noun, referring either to “one that skulks” or to a group of foxes, animals often held to be furtively lurking around.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 3, 2024 is: diligent • \DIL-uh-junt\  • adjective Someone or something described as diligent is characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort. // After many hours of diligent research, the students were ready to compile their results. See the entry > Examples: “Scott had a reputation for being diligent and hardworking, maybe a tad arrogant, but not the type to make rousing speeches in the locker room at halftime.” — Robert Samuels, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2023 Did you know? You’re more likely to be diligent about something if you love doing it. The etymology of diligent reflects the fact that devotion can lead to energetic effort. The word, which entered English in the 14th century by way of Anglo-French, comes from the Latin verb diligere, meaning “to value or esteem highly” or “to love.” Diligere was formed by combining the di- prefix (from dis-, meaning “apart”) with the verb legere, meaning “to gather, select” or “to read.” Legere has itself proved to be a diligent contributor to English; its offspring include collect, lecture, legend, intelligent, and legume.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2024 is: posse • \PAH-see\  • noun A posse is a group of friends, or a group of people who are gathered together for a particular purpose. Posse also refers to a group of people who were gathered together by a sheriff in the past to help search for a criminal. // He and his posse met after school to catch the newly released sequel to their favorite movie. // A posse of photographers waited outside the restaurant when they heard that the actress was spotted inside. See the entry > Examples: “‘Kill Bill’ meets James Bond in the video, in which Swift fights against and with a posse of stars such as Selena Gomez, Cindy Crawford and Zendaya. Don’t expect them to pop up in the movie but, on tour, Swift performed the No. 1 hit with a posse of fierce, hip-swiveling dancers who stepped into the stars’ kicks.” — Chris Hewitt, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 10 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Posse started out in English as part of a term from common law, posse comitatus, which in Medieval Latin translates as “power or authority of the county.” Posse comitatus referred to a group of citizens summoned by a reeve (a medieval official) or sheriff to preserve the public peace as allowed for by law. “Preserving the public peace” so often meant hunting down a supposed criminal that posse eventually came to refer to any group organized to make a search or embark on a mission, and today one may read about posses organized for search and rescue efforts. In even broader use it can refer to any group, period. Sometimes nowadays that group is a gang or a rock band but it can as easily be any group—of politicians, models, architects, tourists, children, or what have you—acting together for some shared purpose.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 1, 2024 is: incipient • \in-SIP-ee-unt\  • adjective Incipient is used to describe things which are beginning to come into being or which are to become apparent. // The study clearly needs to be extended because the most recent data suggest incipient changes in the trends identified. See the entry > Examples: “While still in its incipient stages, working with AI will also become more important over the years. Automated systems are at the core of many things, from streaming apps and video games to online shopping platforms and navigation tools.” — Jon Stojan, USA TODAY, 4 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Incipient... incipient... where to begin? Well, there’s its meaning for one: incipient describes something that is beginning to come into being or to become apparent, as in “the incipient stages of the process.” And of course a good starting point for any investigation of incipient is also the Latin verb incipere, which means “to begin.” Incipient emerged in English in the 17th century, appearing in both religious and scientific contexts, as in “incipient grace” and “incipient putrefaction.” Later came the genesis of two related nouns, incipiency and incipience, both of which are synonymous with beginning. Incipere’s influence is also visible at the beginning of the words inception (“an act, process, or instance of beginning”) and incipit, a term that in Latin literally means “it begins” and which refers in English to the opening words of a medieval manuscript or early printed book.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2023 is: futurity • \fyoo-TOOR-uh-tee\  • noun Futurity is a formal, literary synonym of future meaning “time to come.” The plural form, futurities, can also refer to future events or prospects. // The motivational speaker exhorted us to change the way we live today, rather than looking always toward some vague distant futurity. See the entry > Examples: “The 18th floor, two-room suite with a spacious balcony overlooking 27th Street has been transformed by the recent Yale grad, in a project aiming to broadly represent the values of the queer and creative community. ... Standard hotel whites are swapped for neon, patterned towels and bathrobes, with nods to science fiction and a theme of queer futurity continuous throughout the space.” — Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, Forbes, 31 July 2023 Did you know? For a forward-looking word, futurity has quite the literate past. Its first known use comes from Act III of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, when the downtrodden Cassio, mystified about why Othello has turned against him, beseeches Desdemona to tell him whether his “offense be of such mortal kind / That nor my service past, nor present sorrows, / Nor purpos’d merit in futurity / Can ransom me into his love again.” Centuries later the Scottish writer Walter Scott wrote of events still in “the womb of futurity,” employing a phrase also used by James Fenimore Cooper, among others. Though still in use and very much useful, futurity tends to lend one’s speech or writing a lofty tone, so if the situation calls for something more down-to-earth, you may want to go back to [the] future.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2023 is: arduous • \AHR-juh-wus\  • adjective Arduous is an adjective used to describe something that is very difficult or strenuous. // The gorgeous waterfall at the top of the mountain was worth the arduous hike. See the entry > Examples: “And with [hockey player, Patrice] Bergeron now enjoying the retired life after 19 seasons spent with the Bruins, the six-time Selke Trophy winner acknowledged that [Zdeno] Chara has already tried to recruit him for some arduous training.” — Conor Ryan, Boston.com, 21 Nov. 2023 Did you know? Arduous isn’t the type of word one expects to hear in a folk song—it’s a bit too formal—but strenuous work and difficult journeys are the stuff of many a classic tune. Take “The Wayfaring Stranger,” for an example, a somber song about life’s travails performed by everyone from singer and activist Paul Robeson to country star Emmylou Harris: “I know dark clouds will gather o’er me / I know my pathway’s rough and steep.” Such a lyric gets at the dual literal/figurative nature of arduous, which comes from the Latin adjective arduus, meaning “high,” “steep,” or “difficult.” For quite a while after appearing in English in the mid-1500s, arduous hewed closely to the figurative “strenuous” or “difficult” sense until poet Alexander Pope invoked steepness when he wrote of “those arduous paths they trod” in his 1711 work “An Essay on Criticism.” To pen such a work at the age of 23, and in heroic couplets no less, must have been an arduous challenge indeed, but like the wayfaring stranger seeking a brighter land, Pope had his eyes on the prize.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2023 is: glower • \GLOUR\  • verb To glower is to look or stare with sullen annoyance or anger. // Kelly glowered at me after I sided with Brenda in their dispute about the chores. See the entry > Examples: "As their laughter echoed down the hallway, stern faces glowered from old black-and-white portraits in gilded frames." — Hailey Branson-Potts, The Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2023 Did you know? We send this word, glower, out to the glaring grumps, the scowling scoundrels, and the pouting pessimists of the world. Its gloomy roots grow in Scotland, where glower (or glowren, to use the older Scottish form of the word) has been used since the late Middle Ages. Originally, the word meant simply "to look intently" or "to stare in amazement," but by the late 1700s, glowering stares were being associated with anger instead of astonishment. We can offer no explanation for this semantic development, but we will submit that in its evolved form it reminds us of an older and unrelated English word: lower (it rhymes with flower) means "to frown or look sullen."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 28, 2023 is: ubiquitous • \yoo-BIK-wuh-tuss\  • adjective Ubiquitous is a synonym of widespread and describes things that are actually, or seemingly, seen or encountered everywhere. // Though they were once a status symbol reserved only for those with considerable means, smartphones are now a ubiquitous technology. See the entry > Examples: “Though she’s been a singer and performer for six decades, Cher had never made one of pop’s most ubiquitous (and commercially viable) releases: a Christmas album.” — Melena Ryzik, The New York Times, 17 Oct. 2023 Did you know? To be sure, the title of the Academy Award-winning 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once (starring Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh as the reluctant hero traversing the multiverse) is the better choice, but may we just say that Ubiquitous would have also made sense as a title? After all, ubiquitous describes the idea of the everything everywhere all at once in the blockbuster movie’s name and does it in one handy four-syllable word. Ubiquitous comes from the noun ubiquity, meaning “presence everywhere or in many places simultaneously,” and both words come ultimately from the Latin word ubique, meaning “everywhere.” Ubiquitous, which has often been used with a touch of exaggeration to describe those things that it seems like you can’t go a day without encountering, is the more popular of the two by a parsec. It may not quite be ubiquitous, but if you keep your eyes and ears open, you’re apt to encounter it quite a bit.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 27, 2023 is: sangfroid • \SAHNG-FRWAH\  • noun Sangfroid refers to the ability to stay calm in difficult or dangerous situations. // He displayed remarkable sangfroid when everyone else was panicking during the crisis. See the entry > Examples: “[Tennis star, Novak] Djokovic’s wins are not always electric or explosive, but his patience is unparalleled. His ability to wait, to self-discipline and withhold the urge to strike until sensing human weakness, is its own kind of generative art. And he excels most at moments that require a machinelike sangfroid.” — Caira Conner, Intelligencer, 23 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Sangfroid comes from the French term sang-froid, which literally translates as “cold blood.” When describing amphibians and reptiles, cold-blooded means “having a body temperature that is similar to the temperature of the environment,” but to dub a person cold-blooded is to say that the person shows no sympathy or mercy to others. By the mid-1700s, English speakers had been using cold-blooded to describe the ruthless among them for more than a century, but in sangfroid they found a way to put a positive spin on the idea of ice in the veins: they borrowed the French term to describe the quality of someone who keeps their composure under strain—that is, not a “cold fish” or “icicle” but someone who is cool as a cucumber.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2023 is: chapfallen • \CHAP-faw-lun\  • adjective Chapfallen (less commonly spelled chopfallen) is a synonym of depressed that means "cast down in spirit." It can also mean "having the lower jaw hanging loosely." // Gina was chapfallen when she learned that her best friend's visit would have to be postponed. See the entry > Examples: "The disappointment and grief of the party's base transformed quickly—from chapfallen into broad smiles." — Jonathan Jobson, The Sunday Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), 19 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Finally: an answer to the age-old question "why the long face?" To be chapfallen is, literally, to have one’s jaw in a fallen or lower position, a physical sign of dejection. The chap in chapfallen is a word that dates back to at least the 16th century. It refers to the fleshy covering of the jaw or to the jaw itself and is often used in the plural, as in "the wolf licked its chaps." If that phrase doesn’t seem quite right to you, it’s likely because you are more familiar with chops, an alteration of chaps that is also used to refer to the jaw or the mouth. Accordingly, a variant spelling of chapfallen is chopfallen, which may help us to better understand this somewhat unusual word.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2023 is: envisage • \in-VIZ-ij\  • verb To envisage something is to picture it in your mind, or to view or regard something in a particular way. // She envisages many positive changes and opportunities in the New Year. See the entry > Examples: “Amid all his onscreen work, [Sheb] Wooley never stopped writing songs. And the one that took off … was ‘The Purple People Eater,’ which skewered the musical crazes of the time by envisaging a grotesque space invader taking the bait.” — Morgan Enos, UDiscoverMusic.com, 31 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Envisage this: a word is borrowed from French in the mid-17th century and sticks around to be used in the 21st. It’s not hard to picture; envisage is not alone in this accomplishment. Used today to mean “to have a mental picture of something, especially in advance of realization” and “to view or regard something in a certain way,” envisage for a time could also mean “to confront or face someone.” That use, which is now archaic, nods to the word’s origin: we borrowed envisage from French, but the visage part is from Anglo-French vis, meaning “face.” (It reaches back ultimately to Greek idein, “to see.”) Visage is of course also an English word. It entered English much earlier, in the 14th century, and is typically used today in literary contexts to refer to a person’s face. Envisage isn’t necessarily restricted to literary contexts, but it does have a formal tone. Its near twin envision (“to picture to oneself”), which has been with us since the 19th century, is interchangeable with envisage in many contexts and is somewhat less formal.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 24, 2023 is: luminaria • \loo-muh-NAIR-ee-uh\  • noun A luminaria is a lantern—traditionally used in Christmas celebrations in the southwestern U.S.—that typically consists of a candle (or its electric analogue) set in sand inside a paper bag. Luminaria is also broadly used to refer to a similar lantern lit for other occasions, such as memorials or weddings. Both luminarias and luminaria are acceptable plural forms of luminaria. // One of Anna’s favorite Christmas Eve traditions is lighting luminaria with her family to line their driveway in a festive display. See the entry > Examples: “A cherished tradition, Las Noches de las Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Garden is a great spectacle. As one of the garden’s longest-running events, it invites visitors to wander along trails decorated with thousands of twinkling, hand-lit luminarias.” — Karee Blunt, The Courier-Times (Roxboro, North Carolina), 17 Oct. 2023 Did you know? The tradition of lighting small lanterns on the night (or nights) before Christmas is an old one in what is now New Mexico, dating back to when the region belonged to colonial Spain and later to independent Mexico. Where one lives in New Mexico today, however, often determines what these paper lanterns are called. New Mexicans in the northern part of the state, around Santa Fe, call them farolitos, Spanish for “little lanterns.” Those further south, around Albuquerque, are more likely to call them luminaria (or luminarias), a word that began appearing in English publications around the 1930s, and that is today used more broadly to refer to such lanterns lit for other occasions, such as memorials, weddings, etc. Luminaria comes to English from Spanish, but the word has been around with exactly the same spelling since the days of Late Latin. It ultimately traces to the classical Latin word luminare, meaning “window,” and to lumen, meaning “light.” It is related to other light-bearing words such as luminary and illuminate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 23, 2023 is: nobby • \NAH-bee\  • adjective Nobby is a synonym of chic and typically describes people and things that are cleverly stylish. The word is sometimes disapproving in modern use. // The restaurant was a bit too nobby for my tastes, but I did enjoy the food. See the entry > Examples: “If documentaries about famously nobby creatives are your schtick, you should also bookmark Todd Haynes’s much-lauded The Velvet Underground, which reconsiders the figure of Lou Reed and premiered in the Grand Théâtre Lumière to rapturous applause.” — Hayley Maitland, British Vogue, 16 July 2021 Did you know? Nobby comes from the noun nob, which is used in British English to mean “one in a superior position in life.” (This nob may have begun as a slang word for “head,” but a possible connection to noble has been suggested as well.) Appearing in English in the 18th century, nobby was first used to describe people in society’s upper echelons. In a way similar to that of a more recent coinage, posh, it has extended in usage to describe the places frequented by such people, as well as their genteel customs. Charles Dickens, for example, wrote in his 1853 novel Bleak House of “[r]especting this unfortunate family matter, and the nobbiest way of keeping it quiet.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 22, 2023 is: purview • \PER-vyoo\  • noun Purview refers to an area within which someone or something has authority, influence, or knowledge. It can also refer to a range of vision, understanding, or awareness. // I’ll do my best to answer your questions, but please note that my field is linguistics, and topics relating to economics are beyond my purview. See the entry > Examples: "The Springdale Public Library comes under the purview of the Washington County Library System." — Laurinda Joenks, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 18 July 2023 Did you know? It may not be illogical to assume a connection between purview and view, but is there one? Not exactly. Although the two words share a syllable, you’ll find that they have very different histories as viewed in the etymological rearview mirror. Purview comes from purveu, a word often found in the legal statutes of 13th- and 14th-century England. These statutes, written in Anglo-French, regularly open with the phrase purveu est, which translates literally to "it is provided." Purveu in turn comes from porveu, the past participle of the Old French verb porveeir, meaning "to provide." View, on the other hand, comes (via Middle English) from the past participle of another Anglo-French word, veer, meaning "to see," and ultimately from the Latin word vidēre, of the same meaning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 21, 2023 is: Kafkaesque • \kahf-kuh-ESK\  • adjective Something described as Kafkaesque has an often nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality to it. More broadly, anything relating to or suggestive of the writing of Franz Kafka may be said to be Kafkaesque. // The airline is notorious for its Kafkaesque procedures for changing flights, even in situations where a flight is cancelled due to bad weather. See the entry > Examples: “Two people who had recently navigated the state’s maze of housing programs also spoke to lawmakers on Thursday. ... Those living in poverty are expected to complete mountains of complicated paperwork to access aid and can be harshly penalized for any errors. For help, they must rely on overtaxed social workers, who are themselves often stumped by the Kafkaesque bureaucracy their clients face.” — Lola Duffort, VTDigger.org (Montpelier, Vermont), 6 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a Czech-born German-language writer whose surreal fiction vividly expressed the anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness of the individual in the 20th century. The opening sentence of his 1915 story The Metamorphosis has become one of the most famous in Western literature (“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect”), while in his novel The Trial, published a year after his death, a young man finds himself caught up in the mindless bureaucracy of the law after being charged with a crime that is never named. So deft was Kafka’s prose at detailing nightmarish settings in which characters are crushed by nonsensical, blind authority, that writers began using his name as an adjective a mere 16 years after his death. Although many other literary eponyms, from Austenian to Homeric, exist and are common enough, Kafkaesque gets employed more than most and in a wide variety of contexts, leading to occasional charges that the word has been watered down and given a lack of specificity due to overuse.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 20, 2023 is: bowdlerize • \BOHD-ler-ize\  • verb In its strictest sense, to bowdlerize a book, manuscript, etc. is to modify it by editing so that nothing judged to be morally harmful or offensive remains. More broadly, bowdlerize means "to modify by abridging, simplifying, or distorting in style or content." // The publisher's decision to bowdlerize the classic novel was met with mixed reactions. See the entry > Examples: "Right from the beginning, Walt Disney Animation Studios leaned heavily on existing books and stories for inspiration, starting with its first feature, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While this has resulted in some truly wonderful movies, the studio's tendency to make major changes to its source material—toning down the original stories' dark or violent content, and generally softening the edges—has also been apparent from the start. It's such a predictable part of the Disney process that the neologism 'Disneyfication' has become a generic term for bowdlerizing a story into a tame kid-friendly version." — Chris Wheatley, Polygon.com, 20 June 2023 Did you know? In 1807, a new edition of the works of William Shakespeare hit the scene in England. Titled The Family Shakespeare, the collection of 20 of the Bard's plays in four volumes was at first anonymously edited, and promised in its preface to "remove every thing that could give just offence to the religious or virtuous mind." Though the sanitized project later became a public sensation (and a source of literary derision) after its expanded, ten-volume second edition was published in 1818 and credited solely to physician Thomas Bowdler, the original expurgation was in fact the work of his older sister Henrietta Maria "Harriet" Bowdler, an accomplished editor and author. Within a year of the younger Bowdler’s death in 1825, bowdlerize had come to refer to cutting out the dirty bits of other books and texts—testimony not only to the impact of his eye for impropriety, but to those of his sister Harriet as well, though her efforts were obscured by history, if not technically bowdlerized.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 19, 2023 is: overweening • \oh-ver-WEE-ning\  • adjective To describe someone as overweening is to say that they are arrogant and unduly proud. Overweening also disapprovingly describes qualities or desires, such as greed or ambition, that are seen as excessive. // It’s hard for people to believe every word in speeches by overweening politicians. See the entry > Examples: “Most people in recovery take extensive inventories without professional help, though a skilled professional can often help scrape away remnants of denial and search more deeply for underlying features of many defects, such as hidden insecurities powering a person’s overweening pride.” — Timmen L. Cermak, Psychology Today, 6 Sept. 2023 Did you know? “The overweening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities is an ancient evil remarked by the philosophers and moralists of all ages.” So wrote the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. But while overweening conceit might be an age-old evil, the word overweening is of 14th century vintage. It developed from a form of the Middle English verb overwenen, meaning “to be arrogant.” That term built on wenen, meaning “to think” or “to suppose.” Today, the adjective overweening is the most widely used of the wenen descendants, but historical texts also occasionally include the verb overween, meaning “to think too highly of one’s own opinion.” It was also possible at one time to ween just enough, without overdoing it. All things in moderation—even self-esteem—after all.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2023 is: raconteur • \ra-kahn-TER\  • noun A raconteur is someone who excels in telling anecdotes. // A bona fide raconteur, Paola can turn even mundane experiences into hilariously entertaining stories. See the entry > Examples: “He [filmmaker and author Kenneth Anger] lit and shot and cut images so that no matter how beautiful each was on its own, you had to ingest the totality like a potion and let it do its work if you wanted to get anything out of it. Most viewers weren’t interested in his kind of visual poetry, recognizing him mainly as a raconteur.” — Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 27 May 2023 Did you know? If you’re a sage of sagas, a bard of ballads, or a pro in prose, you may have lost count of the accounts you’ve recounted. Some might call you a recounter, but as a master of narrative form you may find that recounter lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. Sure, it has a cool story—it traces back to the Latin verb computere, meaning “to count”—but so do many words: compute and computer, count and account, and neither last nor least, raconteur, a singsong title better fit for a whimsical storyteller. English speakers borrowed raconteur from French in the early 19th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2023 is: visceral • \VISS-uh-rul\  • adjective Visceral is an adjective that describes something as coming from or triggering an instinctive emotional (as opposed to intellectual) response. In medical contexts it means “of or related to internal organs of the body.” // Although she is best known for her film and television roles, Sabrina much prefers the visceral excitement of acting on stage in front of an audience. See the entry > Examples: “The truest, most visceral comedy to me is always going to be Warner Bros. cartoons that were made in the 1940s and ’50s. That’s the stuff I grew up on that was shown in reruns. So I liked that kind of comedy. I was never as comfortable with comedy where I needed to make a point about something…” — Conan O’Brien, quoted in New York Magazine, 11 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Apologies in advance for the offal puns, but we have a gut feeling it’s going to be hard to resist serving them up for this particular word. After all, the English language is home to a bellyful of words that refer literally to body parts and figuratively to emotions associated with them. If something has ever tickled your funny bone or touched your heart, we trust you’ve got our back on this. The adjective visceral is another prime example. Something described as visceral has to do with the viscera—that is, the internal organs of the body (especially the heart, liver, or intestines). Yet even in the early years of its use, visceral often described emotional feeling, as the physical viscera were considered the seats of human passion, sentiment, et al. Though we no longer ascribe anger to, say, the spleen, we still use visceral to describe things that are felt deeply, as if in our physical bodies. In medical contexts the word still describes things related to our actual viscera.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2023 is: delve • \DELV\  • verb To delve is to carefully search for information about something, or to examine a subject in detail, as in “The class eagerly delved into the writings of Zora Neale Hurston.” Delve can also mean “to dig or labor with or as if with a spade,” as in “delving into their pockets for loose change.” As the examples show, delve is typically followed by into. // Before my trip to Venice, I delved into the history of the city. See the entry > Examples: “According to [Dr. Elena] Davidiak, this is not your typical language course. Students will delve into the disciplines of linguistics and fictional languages while analyzing and interpreting sentences from conlangs, artificially constructed languages, during class.” — Clare Gehlich, The Statesman (Stony Brook University), 27 Oct. 2023 Did you know? We must dig deep into the English language’s past to find the origins of delve. The verb traces to the early Old English word delfan meaning “to dig.” For centuries, there was only delving—no digging—because dig didn’t exist until much later; it appears in early Middle English. Given dig and delve’s overlapping meanings today, is the phrase “dig and delve” (as in the line “eleven, twelve, dig and delve,” from the nursery rhyme that begins “one, two, buckle my shoe”) redundant? Not necessarily. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in some local uses, dig was the term for working with a mattock (a tool similar to an adze or a pick), while delve was reserved for work done using a spade. Although delve has a history of use for literal digging, nowadays the term is often applied to carefully researching or examining something, as in “delving into the past.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2023 is: aplomb • \uh-PLAHM\  • noun Aplomb means “complete and confident composure or self-assurance” and is a synonym of poise. // On her first day as a teacher, June handled herself with aplomb, keeping the class engaged and focused. See the entry > Examples: “Themselves a band that likes to push the edge of the technology envelope, and who made video a major part of their performances 30 years ago, U2 opened Sphere with aplomb, but not necessarily full-bore success.” — Brad Auerbach, Spin, 6 Oct. 2023 Did you know? If you do something with aplomb, you do it with composure and self-assurance—you do it with poise. This English noun aplomb was borrowed directly from French, where it carries the meanings of both “composure” and “perpendicularity.” The French word aplomb comes from the phrase “a plomb,” meaning “perpendicularly,” or literally “according to the plummet” (a plummet being a lead weight that is attached to a line and used to determine vertical alignment). Plomb has its roots in the Latin word plumbum, meaning “lead,” source too of such varied English words as plummet, plumb, plumber (which originally referred to someone who deals with or works in lead), and the symbol Pb, which designates the element lead on the periodic table. Plumbum is also the source of the word plunge, and therefore plunger. The fact that a plumber is able to use a plunger with more aplomb than most of us is, however, merely coincidence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2023 is: genial • \JEEN-yul\  • adjective Someone described as genial is cheerful and pleasant; a thing described as genial suggests or expresses friendliness and cheer. // Omar was a most genial host, making sure to spend time with each and every one of the guests at the reception. // Though I knew no one at the conference, the genial atmosphere immediately put me at ease. See the entry > Examples: “There’s a fresh way to revisit [John] Prine apart from the catalog of records he left behind. Five decades’ worth of stories about and conversations with the artist have been collected by Holly Gleason in ‘Prine on Prine: Interviews and Encounters With John Prine’.... To know him is to love him, and to love and know Prine is to spend a lot of hours in his presence via Gleason’s essential compendium, which finds his observational candor, fierce intelligence and genial warmth to be unwavering over a half-century of meeting the press.” — Chris Willman, Variety, 10 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Warm, cheerful, and pleasant? That’s genial in a bottle, baby. Or at least (if such a declaration rubs you the wrong way) that’s the most common sense of genial. You may also be familiar with its closely related meaning of “favorable to growth or comfort” as in “what a girl wants most on vacation is to recline in the genial sunshine.” Or perhaps you’ve heard genial used to describe someone or something displaying or marked by genius, as in “who among us doesn’t appreciate genial insights embedded in a beautiful pop song”? After all, both genial and genius share an ancestor in the Latin word genius, meaning “a person’s disposition or inclination.” There are also older, now-obsolete senses of genial. When it first entered English from the Latin adjective genialis (“connected with marriage”) it shared that word’s matrimonial meaning. And at one time genial was also a synonym of native or inborn, describing things (such as musical talent) present or seemingly present in someone from birth.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2023 is: exhort • \ig-ZORT\  • verb To exhort someone is to try to strongly urge them to do something. // The volunteers exhorted the young adults to register to vote before the upcoming election. See the entry > Examples: “Now and again, the band pauses as the musicians praise and exhort each other. ‘More cowbell.’ ‘Let’s do it for timing, and then we’ll break it down.’ ‘I would love a violin solo right there.’ ‘It’s G minor, not B-flat?’” — Reed Johnson, The Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2023 Did you know? If you want to add a little oomph to your urge in speech or writing—and formal oomph at that—we exhort you to try using exhort as a synonym instead. Arriving in the 15th century from the Anglo-French word exorter, exhort traces back further to the Latin verb hortari, meaning “to incite to action, urge on, or encourage.” Latin users added the prefix ex- to hortari to intensify it; in essence, exhortari is a succinct way of saying “to really, really urge.” The Latin words adhortari (its meaning similar to that of exhortari) and dehortari (“to dissuade”) also found their way into English as adhort and dehort, respectively, but neither of these remains in current use.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2023 is: mentor • \MEN-tor\  • noun A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. // They regarded the professor not only as a mentor, but as a good friend as well. See the entry > Examples: “The grant supports individuals who are pushing boundaries as founders, educators, and artists. Awardees are matched with creative industry mentors, who include the likes of stylist Zerina Akers, and Hanifa’s Anifa Mvuemba.” — Skylar Mitchell, Essence, 30 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Mentor is pretty ubiquitous in today’s world as a word for anyone who is a positive, guiding influence in another (usually younger) person's life, but no matter your age we’re here to guide you through the word's history. Mentor comes originally from ancient Greek literature: in Homer's epic The Odyssey, Odysseus is away from home fighting and journeying for 20 years. During that time, Telemachus, the son he left as a babe in arms, grows up under the supervision of Méntōr, an old and trusted friend. When the goddess Athena decides it is time to complete the education of young Telemachus, she visits him disguised as Méntōr and they set out together to learn about his father. A version of Méntōr (written as Mentor) later appeared as a major character in the Odyssey-inspired French novel Les aventures de Télémaque (1699) by François Fénelon, after which it became a generic noun for “trusted guide” in that language before being borrowed into English with the same meaning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2023 is: quixotic • \kwik-SAH-tik\  • adjective Quixotic describes people and ideas that are foolishly impractical, especially as they pursue or relate to the pursuit of ideals. A quixotic person is often known for lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action. Quixotic can also describe things that are unpredictable. // Although they lived on opposite ends of the world, they shared quixotic dreams about the future. See the entry > Examples: "Lena Dunham doesn’t care if you love her or hate her; she only cares that she tells a story honestly. When it debuted on HBO in 2012, her stunningly authentic semi-autobiographical show rocked a TV ecosystem that primed audiences to expect a dark comedy about four, white female friends in NYC to deliver a quixotic ... fantasy. Instead, the only fantasies it peddled were the ones that depicted a fresh-out-of-college confessional writer finding literati success despite a dearth of detectable talent." — Daniel Fienberg, Angie Han, and Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Oct. 2023 Did you know? If you guessed that quixotic has something to do with Don Quixote, you're absolutely right. The hero of Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century Spanish novel El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (in English "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha") didn't change the world by tilting at windmills, but he did leave a linguistic legacy in English. The adjective quixotic is based on his name and has been used to describe unrealistic idealists since at least the early 18th century. The novel has given English other words as well. Dulcinea, the name of Quixote's beloved, has come to mean "mistress" or "sweetheart," and rosinante, which is sometimes used to refer to an old horse, comes from the name of the hero's less-than-gallant steed, Rocinante.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2023 is: foolscap • \FOOLZ-kap\  • noun Foolscap refers broadly to a piece of writing paper, and in the US specifically to a usually 8” x 13” size of paper. // The exhibit includes a number of early legal documents written on foolscap with quill and ink. See the entry > Examples: “Thwarted megamergers and private-equity acquisitions, buyouts and layoffs, self-publishing and artificial intelligence: It’s hard to find a glimmer of glamour in the book business right now. … Against this tech-inflected landscape, Thomas Harding’s more than serviceable new biography of George Weidenfeld, long a force of letters in England and briefly in the United States, floats as if on stained foolscap.” — Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times, 27 Aug. 2023 Did you know? You’d be well within your rights to respond “Surely, you jest!” to the notion that foolscap refers to a sheet of writing paper, and also specifically to a paper size of approximately 8" x 13", similar to that of a legal pad. After all, when foolscap was first used in the 1500s, it referred to an actual fool’s cap—the oft jingling headwear worn as part of a jester’s motley (a sense still used today). But we promise we do not jest. The connection between the whimsical chapeau and the paper is attributable to the former use of a watermark depicting a fool’s cap that was used on long sheets of writing or printing paper. There are various explanations for the introduction of this watermark—including the claim that a 1648 British parliamentary group substituted it for the royal arms during exceptionally turbulent times—but such explanations remain unsupported by historical evidence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 9, 2023 is: convalesce • \kahn-vuh-LESS\  • verb To convalesce is to recover health and strength gradually after sickness, injury, or weakness. // According to the article, the athlete is still convalescing from her recent injury but expects to resume her training schedule by the end of the month. See the entry > Examples: "No complications occurred during the surgery or while the pope was convalescing in Gemelli's 10th-floor apartment reserved exclusively for hospitalization of pontiffs, according to the pope's medical staff." — Frances D'Emilio, The Los Angeles Times, 16 June 2023 Did you know? When you convalesce, you heal or grow strong after illness or injury, often by staying off your feet. The related adjective convalescent means "recovering from sickness or debility," and a convalescent home is a hospital for long-term recuperation and rehabilitation. Convalesce comes from the Latin verb convalescere, which combines the prefix com-/con-, meaning "with, together, jointly," with the verb valescere, meaning "to grow strong." Valescere, in turn, is related to the verb valēre, meaning "to be strong or be well," which is also an ancestor of prevail, valor, value, and valid.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 8, 2023 is: intrepid • \in-TREP-id\  • adjective Intrepid means “fearless, bold, and brave.” // Her college semester abroad sparked a series of intrepid travels around the world. See the entry > Examples: “After a trio of tech billionaires are forewarned of an apocalyptic superbug and flee to a secret doomsday bunker to save only themselves, an unlikely group of friends embark on an intrepid mission to take down the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. Beginning with the end of civilization and jumping back and forth through time, Naomi Alderman, the award-winning author of 2016's The Power, weaves a cautionary tale of what society stands to lose in a near-future where AI has transformed all walks of life.” — Megan McCluskey, Time, 31 Oct. 2023 Did you know? If you’re going to name a ship, whether an aircraft carrier or an interstellar starship, you could do worse than to name it the Intrepid, as both the United States military and Star Trek writers have done, respectively. (Technically “Intrepid” is a class of Trek ships that includes the Voyager, etc., but you get the drift.) Intrepid, after all, comes from the Latin word intrepidus, itself formed by the combination of the prefix in-, meaning “not,” and the adjective trepidus, meaning “alarmed.” When not designating sea or space vessels, intrepid aptly describes anyone—from explorers to reporters—who ventures bravely into unknown territory, though often you’ll see the word loaded with irony, as in “an intrepid couch surfer endeavored to watch every installment of the beloved sci-fi series in chronological order.” Intrepid word lovers may be interested to know of the existence of trepid, meaning “fearful”; it predates intrepid but most are too trepid (or simply unaware of its existence) to use it.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 7, 2023 is: tincture • \TINK-cher\  • noun Tincture refers to a solution made by mixing a medicinal substance in an alcoholic solvent. It can also refer to a slight trace of something, as in “a tincture of doubt.” // The shelves behind the apothecary counter were lined with dozens of jars and vials containing tinctures of every color of the rainbow. See the entry > Examples: “Lemon balm can be consumed in several ways. People often drink it as a tea or as an ingredient in a tea blend. You can eat the herb fresh—chopped up into a salad, added to a cold beverage, or even as an ingredient in baked goods. You can find it as a supplement in capsule or tablet form or as an herbal tincture.” — Wendy Wisner, Health.com, 4 June 2023 Did you know? A droplet of this, a skosh of that. Now you take that home, throw it in a beaker, and add a touch of ethyl alcohol to hold it all together—baby, you’ve got a tincture going. Tincture is a word with a colorful past most often encountered today in reference to a solution consisting of a medicinal substance mixed with alcohol, as in “Carl weathers his cold with a tincture of echinacea.” When the word first appeared in English in the 14th century, tincture referred to a substance used to color, dye, or stain, but by the 17th century the word had acquired several additional meanings, including “a slight infusion or trace of something.” This sense is still in use today, especially figuratively, as when an aspiring actor is said to feel a “tincture of doubt that the acting lessons are worth what he paid.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 6, 2023 is: permeable • \PER-mee-uh-bul\  • adjective Permeable is a synonym of penetrable that is used especially to describe things that have pores or openings that permit liquids or gases to pass through. // The new housing project will include a permeable parking lot to help mitigate stormwater runoff. See the entry > Examples: “The idea is to enable cities to soak up and retain excess water with designs focused on nature, including gardens, green roofs, wetlands and permeable sidewalks—allowing water to both sink into the ground and flow outwards.” — Laura Paddison, CNN, 26 Mar. 2023 Did you know? “Our landscapes are changing … they’re becoming less permeable to wildlife at the precise moment animals need to move most,” writes Ben Goldfarb in his book Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. He’s describing the effects of highway infrastructure and at the same time clearly demonstrating the meaning of permeable, a word that traces back to a combination of the prefix per-, meaning “through,” and the Latin verb meare, meaning “to go” or “to pass.” Accordingly, a permeable landscape—such as one where humans have constructed wildlife overpasses—is one that allows animals to pass and spread through unimpeded. Permeable’s relative, the verb permeate (“to spread or diffuse through”) is another commonly used meare descendent, but other relations haven’t managed to permeate the language quite so widely, such as meatus (“a natural body passage”), congé (“a formal permission to depart”), and irremeable (“offering no possibility of return”).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 5, 2023 is: smite • \SMYTE\  • verb Smite means “to hit someone or something very hard.” Other uses of the word include “to severely injure, kill, or attack someone” (as in “smitten by disease”) and “to captivate or take” (as in “smitten by her beauty”). // He smote the ball mightily, which helped us win the game. See the entry > Examples: “Somehow, Kyle Shanahan keeps meeting his accursed fortune with a spirit of inquiry. His record is arguably the most perplexing in the NFL: He is one of its most playful minds and most pained losers. He seems at once young and old, with his boyishly thin neck and easy laugh yet gray bristle and a somewhat scarred look around his eyes, as if he’s waiting for the next hex or treacherous blow of fate to smite him in the face.” — Sally Jenkins, The Washington Post, 10 Dec. 2022 Did you know? Today’s word has been part of the English language for a very long time; its earliest uses date to before the 12th century. Smite can be traced back to the Old English smītan, meaning “to smear (a substance) on something” or “to stain or defile.” Smite kept these meanings for a few centuries before they became obsolete and others arose or became more prominent, among them the modern “to strike or attack.” But smite also has a softer side. As of the mid-17th century, it can mean “to captivate or take”—a sense that is frequently used in the past participle in such contexts as “smitten by their beauty” or “smitten with them” (meaning “in love with them”). If such a shift seems surprising, just remember what they say about the moon hitting your eye like a big pizza pie (that’s a smiting).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2023 is: avoirdupois • \av-er-duh-POYZ\  • noun Avoirdupois is synonymous with weight and heaviness, especially as related to the body. It also refers to the series of units of weight based on the pound of 16 ounces and the ounce of 16 drams. // The coach limited his recruiting to linebackers of a certain avoirdupois. See the entry > Examples: “... I find it hopeful that we’ve at least begun to dispense with the notion that only thin bodies are healthy and good. And to replace fantastical diet prescriptions with the common sense that healthy bodies eat all kinds of foods, depending on circumstance.... I will say Vogue’s diets have been right at least twice. A little Champagne at lunch is a sound choice, regardless of the rest of the meal, and, as an anonymous writer put it in these pages in 1906, ‘There is healthy fat as there is unhealthy fat, and unless your avoirdupois becomes such as to make you uncomfortable ... you should leave it alone.’” — Tamar Adler, Vogue, 24 Feb. 2022 Did you know? When avoirdupois first appeared in English in the 15th century, it referred to “goods sold by weight,” which is also the meaning of its Middle English predecessor, avoir de pois. That term comes from an Anglo-French phrase meaning “goods of weight” or “property.” Today, avoirdupois most commonly refers to the system of weight measurement used for general merchandise, in which the pound is equal to 16 ounces, the ounce 16 drams, and the dram an ultra-specific 27.344 grains. (Some other weight systems are apothecaries’ weight, used to measure pharmaceutical items, and troy weight, used for precious metals.) It was William Shakespeare, in his play Henry IV, Part 2, who first used avoirdupois to mean “heaviness”: “the weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 3, 2023 is: dexterous • \DEK-strus\  • adjective Dexterous is a formal adjective used to describe someone or something that has or shows great skill or cleverness. // She was praised for her dexterous handling of the crisis. // The movie is a dexterous retelling of a classic love story. // As a shortstop, Alex is a dexterous fielder who is adept at catching any ground ball or line drive hit at him. See the entry > Examples: "There can now be no doubt of Phillis Wheatley’s importance not only to African America but also to the country and culture as a whole. She was a learned, dexterous wielder of the written word in a taut political and racial moment." — Tiya Miles, The Atlantic, 22 Apr. 2023 Did you know? If you believe dexterous to be on the right side of etymological history, well, right on. Dexterous comes from the Latin word dexter, meaning "on the right side." Since most people are right-handed, and therefore do things more easily with their right hand, dexter developed the additional sense of "skillful." English speakers crafted dexterous from dexter and have been using the resulting adjective for anyone who is skillful—in either a physical or mental capacity—since at least the early 1600s. (The noun dexterity arrived a bit earlier, influenced both by Latin and the Middle French word dexterité). The adjective ambidextrous, which combines dexter with the Latin prefix ambi-, meaning "both," describes one who is able to use both hands in an equally skillful way. With so many handy words at its disposal, the English language itself is pretty dexterous, amirite?

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 2, 2023 is: hive mind • \HYVE-mynde\  • noun Hive mind refers to the collective thoughts, ideas, and opinions of a group of people (such as Internet users) regarded as functioning together as a single mind. In biology, hive mind refers to the collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects (such as bees or ants) regarded as comparable to a single mind controlling the behavior of an individual organism. // She doesn't need to advertise or publicize—her fans’ hive mind is always ready to promote her work. See the entry > Examples: “It was like coming into this big, welcoming family. The cast were so beautiful and generous. The three directors of this season, we were all new and hadn’t done past seasons. They were wonderful. It was wonderful, too, to be able to tap into the crew. They have this hive mind that they’ve all developed after three seasons together.” — Alyssa McClelland, quoted in The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Sometimes a biological term crosses over into everyday language with a similar, but less specific meaning. Take drone, a word for a stingless male bee: it dates back all the way to Old English and is also used today for (among other things) someone tasked with boring, repetitive work. More recently, hive mind has similarly flown beyond the apiary; what was first used to talk about the ways that colonies of social insects, like bees and ants, behave as a coordinated unit has come to be applied also to the collective thoughts, ideas, and opinions of a group of people seeming to function as a single entity. It’s not uncommon nowadays to see someone appeal to the hive mind of a social media website for relationship advice or dining recommendations, for example, or refer to a celebrity’s fanbase (like Queen Bey’s “Beyhive”) acting together to share the latest buzz about their favorite star.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 1, 2023 is: bifurcate • \BYE-fer-kayt\  • verb When something bifurcates, it divides into two branches or parts; to bifurcate something is to divide it into two branches or parts. // The stream bifurcated into two narrow winding channels. // When a highway bifurcates a forest, it also splits the habitats of animal populations that may have a difficult time making it across safely to the other side. See the entry > Examples: "Over time, the English ... became more powerful, spreading from Virginia to Maryland to Carolina (not yet bifurcated) ..." — Scott W. Stern, The New Republic, 26 June 2023 Did you know? Yogi Berra, the baseball great who was noted for his head-scratching quotes, is purported to have said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Berra's advice might not offer much help when you're making tough decisions in life, but perhaps it will help you remember bifurcate. A road that bifurcates splits in two, like the one in Berra's adage. Other things can bifurcate (or be bifurcated) as well, such as an organization that splits, or is split, into two factions. Bifurcate comes from the Latin adjective bifurcus, meaning "two-pronged," a combination of the prefix bi- ("two") and the noun furca ("fork"). Furca, as you may have guessed, is also an ancestor of fork, which refers to the handy utensil that can (in a pinch) help us—as Berra might say—to cut our pizza in four pieces when we're not hungry enough to eat six.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2023 is: felicitous • \fih-LISS-uh-tus\  • adjective Felicitous is an adjective most often used in formal speech and writing to describe something that is very well expressed or suited for some purpose or situation. It can also be used as a synonym for pleasant or delightful. // She had not been asked ahead of time to speak at the event, but she managed some felicitous remarks nonetheless. // That the cousins happened to be on the same flight was a felicitous coincidence—they had no idea the other would even be traveling at that time. See the entry > Examples: “The secret to Finnish contentment has long been debated. But Finns credit their happiness to five essential factors: wellness, a seasonal diet, strong connections to nature, an appreciation for the arts, and the friendly local atmosphere. Travelers on the hunt for happiness can get a glimpse of these felicitous lifestyle features on a visit to Finland.” — Rebecca Ann Hughes, Forbes, 27 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Before a mouse named Mickey ruled the animation scene, there was Felix—a wily black cat who is often regarded as the first cartoon star, and who became an international sensation in the early 20th century for films such as Felix in Hollywood (1923) and Comicalamities (1928). “Felix,” you might say, was a felicitous—that is, apt—name for the happy, Chaplinesque feline. Felix, after all, is a Latin word meaning “happy” or “fruitful,” and the ancestor of the English adjective felicitous, which can mean both “pleasant and delightful,” and “very well suited or expressed.” With regard to the “apt” sense of felicitous, it’s important to note that it is most often applied to someone’s actions or expressions (as in “a felicitous phrase”). In other words, no matter how fitting someone’s choice of pants may be for, say, the world premiere of a new animated movie, it would not be fitting to say “they arrived at the theater wearing felicitous pants.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 29, 2023 is: detritus • \dih-TRYE-tus\  • noun Detritus refers to debris—that is, the pieces that remain when something breaks, falls apart, or is destroyed. // On her trip to Central America, she was fascinated by how much people have learned from the detritus of ancient civilizations. See the entry > Examples: “[Artist, Fiona] Connor’s one-to-one scale version of the sidewalk squares required a single concrete pour in her studio before she got to work painstakingly recreating the cracks, fissures, graffiti, blackened chewing gum debris, stamps and metal plates common to L.A. sidewalks. She is chronicling the detritus of urban life, the echoes of the city’s past evident in the patches, and nature’s attempt at reclamation all visible in the humble squares of concrete and asphalt.” — Marissa Gluck, The Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2023 Did you know? If you use detritus in speech, remember to stress the second syllable, as you do in the words arthritis and bronchitis. Once you've mastered its meaning and pronunciation, you’ll find that detritus is a term—originally a geology term referring to loose material, such as broken rock fragments, resulting from disintegration—that can be applied in many situations. After the first hard freeze of fall, gardens are littered with the detritus of summer’s plants and produce: stalks, leaves, vines, and maybe even an abandoned hand trowel. As a flood-swollen river retreats to its banks, it leaves detritus—debris gathered by the raging waters—in its wake. The detritus of civilization may include junkyards and abandoned buildings, while mental detritus may include all kinds of useless trivia. (We’re not saying it qualifies as such, but detritus comes from the Latin root deterere, meaning “to wear away, impair.”)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2023 is: kinetic • \kuh-NET-ik\  • adjective Kinetic has several meanings that all have to do with movement. In physics, kinetic means "of or relating to the motion of material bodies and the forces associated with them"; kinetic energy, for example, is energy associated with motion. More generally, kinetic can be used synonymously with active and lively as well as dynamic and energizing. And kinetic art is art (such as sculpture or assemblage) that has mechanical parts which can be set in motion. // The novel's plot is kinetic and fast-paced, and its effect on the reader is much like that of caffeine. // The loft district is the locus of the city's kinetic arts scene. See the entry > Examples: "To study the behavior of elusive animals, scientists routinely tag them with GPS location trackers. But such devices' battery capacity limits how long they operate. ... So biologist Rasmus Worsøe Havmøller of the University of Copenhagen and his colleagues turned to another abundant power source: kinetic energy generated by an animal's movements. Their kinetic tracker, which Havmøller's team recently tested on domestic dogs, a wild pony and a European bison, could theoretically survive for the entire life span of an active animal." — Rachel Crowell, Scientific American, 9 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Ever watch a top spin? Or see one pool ball collide with another and send it across the felt? When you do, you’re witnessing kinetic energy—the energy of something in motion. Kinetics is a branch of science that deals with the effects of forces upon the motions of material bodies, and something described as kinetic has to do with the motion of material bodies and the forces associated with them. Both words were adopted in the 19th century from the Greek word kinētikos (meaning "of motion") for use in the field of physics, but the adjective kinetic proved too apt for broader application, and by the 1930s it was being used to describe people and things full of literal and figurative energy as well.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 27, 2023 is: culprit • \KUL-prit\  • noun Culprit refers to a person who has committed a crime or done something wrong. Culprit can also refer to the source or cause of a problem. // The break-in was witnessed by several neighbors, and the culprit was quickly apprehended. // Our bread-baking effort was disappointing; the bread failed to rise, and apparently old yeast was the culprit. See the entry > Examples: “A severe housing shortage is the main culprit for steep housing costs. The US is short of anywhere between an estimated 1.5 million and 5.5 million homes. High interest rates are scaring off both would-be buyers and sellers and slowing rates of homebuilding.” — Eliza Relman, Business Insider, 1 Oct. 2023 Did you know? We would be culpable—that is, deserving of blame—if we didn’t clearly explain the origin of culprit. Yes, it is related to culpable, which itself comes (via Middle English and Anglo-French) from the Latin verb culpare, meaning “to blame.” But the etymology of culprit is not so straightforward. In Anglo-French, culpable meant “guilty,” and this was abbreviated “cul.” in legal briefs and texts. Culprit was formed by combining this abbreviation with the Anglo-French word prest or prit, meaning “ready”; literally, a culprit was one who was ready to be proven guilty. The word was eventually adopted into English and used to refer to someone who is accused of a wrongdoing. The word has since taken on an additional meaning: “the source or cause of a problem.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 26, 2023 is: olfactory • \ahl-FAK-tuh-ree\  • adjective Olfactory describes things that have to do with the sense of smell. // Few can deny the olfactory pleasures of fresh-baked bread, sea breezes, and apple blossoms—all scents with the power to trigger intense nostalgia. See the entry > Examples: “Dogs are uniquely positioned to collect data that helps humans track and preserve endangered species—and find invasive species—because of their exceptional sense of smell. Dogs have millions more olfactory receptor cells than humans.” — Sydney Page, The Washington Post, 9 Sept. 2023 Did you know? No, olfactory is not a noun meaning “a place that makes scents”; for that, you want perfumery, which makes more sense. Olfactory is instead an adjective used to describe things related to one’s sense of smell, that which lets you detect fruit with your snoot, a leek with your beak, Shiraz with your schnozz. Olfactory comes from the Latin word olfacere (“to smell”), which in turn combines two verbs, olēre (“to give off a smell”) and facere (“to do”). It often appears in scientific contexts (as in “olfactory nerves,” the nerves that pass from the nose to the brain and contain the receptors that make smelling possible), but it is occasionally used in less technical writing and speech. The pleasant smell of hot mulled cider, for example, might be considered an “olfactory delight,” depending on the spices and your own sensibilities, of course. As they say, the nose knows.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2023 is: abnegate • \AB-nih-gayt\  • verb Abnegate is a formal word that is most often used to mean "to deny or renounce" in contexts relating to responsibility: if you abnegate your responsibilities, you deny them and refuse to do what those responsibilities require. Abnegate can also mean "to surrender or relinquish," especially in contexts in which someone is abandoning their own desires or interests. // The letter outlined ways in which the mayor had abnegated his responsibilities to the city's employees. // Their spiritual practice teaches that the self must be abnegated in order to achieve deep inner peace. See the entry > Examples: "The Athletics' move to Las Vegas isn't official yet, but MLB ownership is expected to rubber-stamp it. ... The league, enabled by Nevada politicians, has displayed shocking arrogance and abnegated its responsibility to fans—a stark reminder that enriching billionaires ultimately is baseball's top priority." — Mark Hill, The New Republic, 29 June 2023 Did you know? There's no denying that the Latin root negāre, meaning "to deny," has given English some useful words, among them abnegate, which is used in formal settings to mean "to deny or renounce" (with responsibilities typically being the thing denied), and "to surrender or relinquish" (with personal desires or self-interest being the thing surrendered). Abnegate combines negāre with the Latin prefix ab-, meaning "from or away." (The related noun abnegation means "denial" or "self-denial.") Other negāre relations include negative, negate, renegade, and deny.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 24, 2023 is: nebbish • \NEB-ish\  • noun Nebbish refers to a timid, meek, or ineffectual person. // Considered a bit of a nebbish by her colleagues, she surprised everyone by speaking up boldly against the proposed changes at the meeting. See the entry > Examples: “[Actor, Paul] Rudd is outstanding, as he toys with his own likability in his performance. Initially, he uses his Paul Rudd charm to persuade Marty [Markowitz, character] and us, that ‘Dr. Ike’ is a good man whose goal is to help this poor nebbish. We all get swept up in his promise not to let people use Marty, and he lets his wife and his friends think he’s performing a mitzvah by bringing the introverted Marty out of his shell.” — Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe, 17 Jan. 2023 Did you know? “It looks like Pa isn't anything like the nebbish Ma is always making him out to be.” Sounds like poor Pa got a bum rap, at least according to a 1951 book review that appeared in The New York Times. The unfortunate Pa unwittingly demonstrates much about the etymology of nebbish, which comes from the Yiddish word nebekh, meaning “poor” or “unfortunate.” In keeping with the term’s semantic timidity, its journey from Yiddish to English wasn’t accomplished in a single bold leap. In the earliest known English example of the word, it’s an adjective meaning “harmless or ineffectual.” That mid-19th century use was joined in the early 20th century by the noun we’re familiar with today. Along the way, nebbish has also been used in English as an interjection expressing dismay, pity, sympathy, or regret. The English adjective and interjection are too rare to be included in most general-use English dictionaries, but the noun has made a place for itself in the common lexicon, proving that it’s less of a nebbish than the timid and meek types it refers to.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 23, 2023 is: scrumptious • \SKRUMP-shus\  • adjective Scrumptious is an informal word that is usually used as a synonym of delicious, but can also mean “delightful” or “excellent.” // Parsnips may be an unconventional vegetable to serve on Turkey Day, but they are scrumptious with a little maple syrup drizzled on top. See the entry > Examples: “Need a scrumptious Thanksgiving side dish that will have your holiday guests scrambling for the biggest helping? … This Thanksgiving casserole is more like a dessert than a side dish. It features a rich, silky smooth sweet potato filling that entices the taste buds with cream, butter, pure vanilla extract, and freshly grated nutmeg.” — USA Today, 18 Nov. 2022 Did you know? First appearing in English in the early 1800s, scrumptious is a mouth-watering word that is used to describe things delightful and delectable. It may have originated as an alteration of sumptuous, carrying the elegant connotations of its parent, though this is not certain. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a dialect form of the word used to mean “cheap, stingy” as its earliest use, and posits that it could instead have been formed by combining the verb scrimp, meaning “to be frugal or stingy,” with the adjective suffix -ious. (Scrimption meaning “a tiny amount or pittance” could be a relation.) How could a word with such a meaning lead to the wholly positive scrumptious? The OED points to a similar path taken by the word nice, which began as a word meaning “wanton or lacking restraint” and is now, well, nice. Regardless, scrumptious today is a fun word to say and play around with, a fact apparent to British author Roald Dahl who used the variation scrumdiddlyumptious in his novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2023 is: boilerplate • \BOY-ler-playt\  • noun Boilerplate is a noun that refers to standard or formulaic language, a meaning that comes from an earlier meaning still in use: syndicated material supplied to newspapers in matrix or plate form. Boilerplate can also refer to tightly packed snow. // The last paragraph of the contract was legal boilerplate. See the entry > Examples: "For years, the trolley driver has been putting his own spin on the T’s boilerplate announcements, playing with cadence and pitch, recommending his favorite anime, and cheering on Boston sports teams." — Daniel Kool, The Boston Globe, 15 Sept. 2023 Did you know? In the days before computers, small newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other printed material supplied by large publishing syndicates. The syndicates delivered that copy on metal plates with the type already in place so the local papers wouldn't have to set it. Printers apparently dubbed those syndicated plates "boiler plates" because of their resemblance to the plating used in making steam boilers. Soon boilerplate came to refer to the printed material on the plates as well as to the plates themselves. Because boilerplate stories were often more filler—material used to fill extra space in a column or page of a newspaper to increase its size—than important or informative news, the word acquired negative connotations and gained the "standardized or formulaic language" sense widely used today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 21, 2023 is: ransack • \RAN-sak\  • verb To ransack a place is to search it for something in a way that causes disorder or damage. // My sister ransacked my room looking for the shoes I had borrowed (and returned). See the entry > Examples: “Now, I didn't pick up any Halloween candy on this particular Costco trip for one big reason. If I bring home a giant sack of assorted goodies, my kids will ransack that stash in short order.” — Maurie Backman, The Motley Fool, 12 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Ransack carries the image of a house being roughly disarranged, as might happen when you are frantically searching for something. This is appropriate given the word’s origin. Ransack comes, via Middle English, from the Old Norse word rannsaka: the rann in rannsaka means “house”; the second half of rannsaka is what is known as an “ablaut” variant of sœkja, meaning “to seek, search out.” But our modern use of the word isn’t restricted to houses. You can ransack a drawer, a suitcase, or even (by hurriedly looking through it) the contents of a book. Ransack also inspired another English word related to disorder and unsteadiness. A now-obsolete form of ransack, ransackle, gave us our adjective ramshackle, meaning “rickety” or “carelessly or loosely constructed.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 20, 2023 is: laissez-faire • \less-ay-FAIR\  • noun Laissez-faire refers to an economic policy or doctrine that allows businesses to operate with very little interference from the government. Laissez-faire is also used as an adjective, as in “laissez-faire capitalism,” and often figuratively used to mean “hands-off,” as in “she took a laissez-faire approach to managing her employees.” // The newly-announced candidate is a strong advocate of laissez-faire. See the entry > Examples: “There is no doubt that our collective viewing during the Christmas period has always been enhanced by the various versions of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.... Dickens’s most popular work was penned at a time when the government policy of laissez-faire was common practice and led directly to social, economic and political inequality, widespread poverty and inequity.” — Owen Kelly [letter to the editor], The National (Glasgow, Scotland), 29 Dec. 2021 Did you know? The French phrase laissez faire literally means “allow to do,” with the idea being “let people do as they choose.” The origins of laissez-faire are associated with the Physiocrats, a group of 18th-century French economists who believed that government policy should not interfere with the operation of natural economic laws. (The actual coiner of the phrase may have been French economist Vincent de Gournay, or it may have been François Quesnay, who is considered the group’s founder and leader.) The original phrase was “laissez faire, laissez passer,” with the second part meaning “let (things) pass.” Laissez-faire, which first showed up in an English context in the first half of the 19th century, can still mean “a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs,” but it is also used in broader contexts in which a “hands-off” or “anything-goes” policy or attitude is adopted. It is frequently used as an adjective meaning “favoring a ‘hands-off’ policy,” as in “laissez-faire economics.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 19, 2023 is: inordinate • \in-OR-dun-ut\  • adjective Something described as inordinate exceeds reasonable limits; it goes beyond what is considered usual, normal, or proper. // We waited an inordinate amount of time to get a table at the restaurant, especially given that it was a Tuesday night. See the entry > Examples: “The majority of attractions are in the northern and western parts of Honduras, but it’s worth spending a day in/around Comayagua regardless of your plans. If you do only one thing here, make it a visit to Rancho Sofia. Don’t be fooled by the inordinate amount of cow photos on their social media page, as this is far more than a farm. This farm-turned-tourist attraction opened a small but stunning hotel two years ago with six rooms, multiple pools, plus camping options and a laundry facility.” — Cassandra Brooklyn, TheDailyBeast.com, 18 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Although today it describes something that exceeds reasonable limits, inordinate used to be applied to what does not conform to the expected or desired order of things. That sense, synonymous with disorderly and unregulated, is no longer in use, but it offers a hint as to the origins of inordinate. The word traces back to the Latin verb ordinare, meaning “to arrange,” combined with the negating prefix in-. Ordinare is also the ancestor of such English words as coordination, ordain, ordination, and subordinate. The Latin root comes from the noun ordo, meaning “order” or “arrangement,” from which the English word order and its derivatives originate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 18, 2023 is: disabuse • \diss-uh-BYOOZ\  • verb To disabuse someone of something, such as a belief, is to show or convince them that the belief is incorrect. // Anyone expecting a light, romantic story will be quickly disabused of that notion by the opening chapter of the novel. See the entry > Examples: “Wineries that persist in using heavier glass continue to blame us—consumers—for believing a heavy bottle signals a better wine. We should disabuse them of their belief in our gullibility. These peacock bottles, strutting to catch our attention, won't work.” — Dave Mcintyre, The Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Taken as a product of its parts, one might assume that disabuse means “to not abuse.” While the usage has changed over the years, that assumption isn’t entirely wrong. We know the verb abuse as a word with various meanings having to do with bad physical or verbal treatment, as well as incorrect or excessive use, but when disabuse first appeared in the 17th century, there was a sense of abuse, now obsolete, that meant “to deceive.” Francis Bacon used that meaning, for example, when he wrote in 1605, “You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand the King’s power.” The prefix dis- has the sense of undoing the effect of a verb, so it’s logical that disabuse means “to undeceive.” English speakers didn’t come up with the idea of joining dis- to abuse all on their own, however. It was the French who first appended their prefix dés- to their verb abuser; our disabuse is modeled after the French word désabuser.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2023 is: hallmark • \HAWL-mahrk\  • noun A hallmark is a distinguishing characteristic, trait, or feature. Hallmark also refers to a mark or design placed or stamped on something to indicate its origin, purity, or genuineness, as in "sterling silver hallmarks." // The entertainer's new book features the same kind of wry humor that is the hallmark of his radio show. See the entry > Examples: "Clever, funny, and genuinely thrilling, the movie Dumb Money has all of the hallmarks of an epic finance film." — Lillian Brown, Vulture, 3 Oct. 2023 Did you know? In the year 1300, King Edward I of England (His Excellency also known most excellently as "Edward Longshanks") established a standard for gold and silver to ensure quality and prevent fraud. Thereafter precious metals had to be tested and approved by master craftsmen (and given the mark of a leopard's head) before being sold. Over the ensuing centuries, many London artisans brought their finished metal goods to Goldsmiths' Hall, where the Goldsmiths' Company had a charter to grant their unique mark of approval to wares that met standards of purity. (The process is much the same today.) At first, people used hallmark to name that mark of excellence from Goldsmiths' Hall, but over the years the word came to refer to any mark guaranteeing purity or genuineness, and eventually to any distinguishing characteristic, trait, or feature.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 16, 2023 is: woebegone • \WOH-bih-gahn\  • adjective Woebegone describes someone or something that feels or shows great woe, sorrow, or misery. // The team never looked more woebegone than it did heading back to the locker room after losing the championship to their rivals by a single run. // Despite its woebegone appearance, the old mill town has a strong community and a vibrant arts scene. See the entry > Examples: “It’s a classic pop formula: wed woebegone lyrics to bright sounds, drawing out all that’s entrancing about sadness. Peach Pit does it as well or better than most of their peers.” — Aarik Danielsen, The Columbia (Missouri) Tribune, 27 July 2023 Did you know? Whoa, whoa, whoa. We know that, at first glance, woebegone looks like a word that has its meaning backwards; after all, if begone means “go away,” shouldn’t woebegone mean “devoid of woe,” or “happy”? Not exactly. The word comes from the Middle English phrase wo begon. The wo in this phrase does indeed mean “woe,” but begon means “beset.” Someone who is woebegone, therefore, is beset with woe. Since the mid-1700s, the word has also been used to describe things that appear to express sadness, as in “the woebegone look on his face when he misplaced his favorite dictionary.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 15, 2023 is: chimera • \kye-MEER-uh\  • noun In Greek mythology, Chimera is a fire-breathing monster that has a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a snake’s tail. In general contexts, chimera can refer to something (such as an aspiration) that exists only in the imagination and is not possible in reality. // The fantasy is a utopian chimera, but there are real improvements for the town that can be made. See the entry > Examples: “For years, consumer advocates maintained that giving subscribers a la carte options from cable menus instead of the one-size-fits-all model would save people money. Alas, this nirvana has proved to be a chimera. Streaming channels have peeled off from cable lineups and established their own individualized subscription services, with the result that what used to be bundled together in premium tiers are now separate charges.” — Michael Hiltzik, The Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2023 Did you know? “In head and shoulders, she was like a lion, / in back and tail, a snake, and in the middle, / a she-goat, and she breathed a dreadful blast / of blazing fire.” So did Homer describe the fearsome Chimera in The Iliad (as translated by scholar Emily Wilson in 2023). The Chimera terrorized the people of Lycia until slain by the hero Bellerophon, but the beast lived on in people’s imaginations, and English speakers adopted her name for any monster similarly composed of the parts of different animals. Later, chimera took on another meaning that is common in today’s lexicon: “an illusion of the mind, especially an unrealized dream.” This sense of chimera is often used to refer to a fantasy or delusion.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 14, 2023 is: exigent • \EK-suh-junt\  • adjective Exigent is a formal word that describes things that need to be dealt with immediately, as well as people who expect significant time, attention, effort, etc. from other people. // The warrantless search of the property was permitted because of exigent circumstances. // He struggled to satisfy the needs of the exigent client. See the entry > Examples: "People don't tend to reveal their true selves while careening across a landscape. Unless, of course, civilization has ended—a cheap setup that, I must begrudgingly admit, motivates character development in an exigent way. The most famous literary and filmic specimen that focuses, as games do, on spatial traversal amid existential threat is Lord of the Rings—which, of course, exerted a strong influence on the development of games in the first place." — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 29 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Exigent is a formal word with meanings closely tied to its Latin forbear, exigere, meaning "to demand." Exigent things and people demand attention—for example, an exigent client expects so much that they are hard to satisfy, and exigent circumstances are so significant that they can be used to justify certain police actions without the warrant typically required. Before exigent joined the language in the early 1600s, the noun exigency was being used to refer to something that is necessary in a particular situation—for example, the exigencies of an emergency situation might require that certain usual precautions be ignored. That word dates to the late 1500s, but even earlier, in the mid-1400s, exigence was on the scene doing the same job. All three words—exigent, exigency, and exigence—continue to meet the demands of English users, albeit not frequently in everyday conversation.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 13, 2023 is: gravitate • \GRAV-uh-tayt\  • verb To gravitate is to move, tend to move, or be attracted to or toward someone or something. // Many young people now gravitate toward careers on social media. See the entry > Examples: “... Olipop has grown into a nationwide brand and favorite among Gen Z and millennial consumers, who gravitate to the brand’s eye-catching packaging and nostalgia-inducing flavors like root beer and vintage cola—many of which [CEO, Ben] Goodwin comes up with in the early hours of the morning.” — Morgan Smith and Lauren Shamo, CNBC, 16 Sept. 2023 Did you know? The force is strong in the family of words descended from the Latin adjective gravis, meaning “heavy”: gravitation has it, graviton has it, and gravitate has it, too. That force is gravity (gravity being another gravis descendent), a fundamental physical force that is responsible for bringing us literally back down to earth (or Tattooine, as it were). But you don’t have to be a full-fledged linguistic Jedi, young padawan, to know that gravity, like its Latin ancestor, also has figurative meanings, as does gravitate. When it first landed in the 17th century, gravitate meant “to apply pressure or weight,” and later it maintained its connection to literal gravity with a sense (still in use today) meaning “to move under the effect of gravitation.” It then, however, acquired a more general sense of “to move toward something” (such as toward a specific location), and finally a metaphorical sense of “to be attracted,” as in, “when choosing movies to watch she often gravitates toward space operas.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 12, 2023 is: bugbear • \BUG-bair\  • noun A bugbear is a source of dread or irritation; in other words, something that causes problems or annoys people. // The biggest bugbear of the skiing business is a winter with no snow. See the entry > Examples: “When faced with the prospect of any kind of online regulation, social media companies, old-school internet idealists and free-market zealots ring the same two alarm bells: Regulation will stifle free speech and impede tech innovation. For the past couple of decades or so, these twin bugbears have scared away legislators from imposing regulation with real teeth. But these arguments have multiple flaws. Social media companies are not absolute protectors of free speech and already impose limits on the speech they distribute. Nor are they the only innovative businesses subject to regulation.” — Nancy Kim, The Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2022 Did you know? Just as peanuts are neither peas nor nuts (they are legumes), bugbears are neither bugs nor bears, but a secret, third thing. Not so secret that we won’t share it with you, however. Let’s start with the bug in bugbear, which refers not to an insect, but instead comes from the Middle English word bugge. This bugge was used for all kinds of imaginary spooky creatures—from ghosts and goblins to scarecrows—that cause fright or dread. In the 1500s this bug was combined with bear (as in the animal) to form bugbear, even though there is little evidence that either a bug or bugbear took an ursine form. In fact, based on its earliest known uses, bugbear began as an all-purpose word for things that cause fear or dread, not just supernatural beasties. This sense is still in use today, alongside the closely related sense of “a continuing source of irritation or annoyance.” Use of the “hobgoblin” sense of bugbear appears to have begun slightly later, though it, too, persists to the present day, notably as the name of a hulking creature in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 11, 2023 is: valorous • \VAL-uh-russ\  • adjective Someone or something described as valorous is marked by courage or heroism. // For carrying three wounded members of his squadron out of harm's way, the lieutenant was presented with an award that recognized his valorous actions in the heat of battle. See the entry > Examples: "Cryptozoology is not a quest for animals but for monsters. It represents a valorous last stand to preserve awe and mystery in an over-charted, over-exploited world." — Rajat Ghai, Down to Earth (India), 26 Aug. 2023 Did you know? The English language has no shortage of synonyms for brave. In fact, it even has two different such words from the same Latin verb, valēre ("to have strength"): valiant and valorous. Valiant is the older of the pair, borrowed from the Anglo-French adjective vaillant ("worthy, strong courageous") in the 1300s. Valorous followed in the 1400s, a combination of valor ("strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness")—another valēre descendent—and the adjective suffix -ous. (The form was inspired either by the Middle French word valeureux or the Medieval Latin word valōrōsus.) While the words can be used synonymously, valorous sometimes has an archaic or romantic ring, describing stout-hearted warriors of yore, while the more common word valiant describes soldiers as well as general kinds of bravery or effort.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 11, 2023 is: valorous • \VAL-uh-russ\  • adjective Someone or something described as valorous is marked by courage or heroism. // For carrying three wounded members of his squadron out of harm's way, the lieutenant was presented with an award that recognized his valorous actions in the heat of battle. See the entry > Examples: "Cryptozoology is not a quest for animals but for monsters. It represents a valorous last stand to preserve awe and mystery in an over-charted, over-exploited world." — Rajat Ghai, Down to Earth (India), 26 Aug. 2023 Did you know? The English language has no shortage of synonyms for brave. In fact, it even has two different such words from the same Latin verb, valēre ("to have strength"): valiant and valorous. Valiant is the older of the pair, borrowed from the Anglo-French adjective vaillant ("worthy, strong, courageous") in the 1300s. Valorous followed in the 1400s, a combination of valor ("strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness")—another valēre descendent—and the adjective suffix -ous. (The form was inspired either by the Middle French word valeureux or the Medieval Latin word valōrōsus.) While the words can be used synonymously, valorous sometimes has an archaic or romantic ring, describing stout-hearted warriors of yore, while the more common word valiant describes soldiers as well as general kinds of bravery or effort.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 10, 2023 is: suffuse • \suh-FYOOZ\  • verb To suffuse something is to spread over it or fill it, either literally or figuratively. The word suffuse is usually encountered in literary contexts. // Natural sunlight suffused the room as she opened the blinds. // The novel tells a difficult story, but it is suffused with hope. See the entry > Examples: "How to work, what to work on, assessing what’s been made. These are the questions that suffuse every artist’s career. They start with nothing, mostly without being asked, and sail into the unknown with a passion to make something." — Margaret Heffernan, The Guardian (London), 23 Apr. 2023 Did you know? The Latin word suffendere, ancestor to suffuse by way of Latin suffūsus, has various meanings that shed light on our modern word, among them "to pour on or in (as an addition)" and "to fill with a liquid, color, or light that wells up from below." It’s no surprise, then, that suffuse refers to the action of fluid or light spreading over or through something, as when light fills a dark room when you crack open a door. Suffundere is a blend of the prefix sub- ("under" or "beneath") and the verb fundere ("to pour" or "to send forth"). Other English verbs related to fundere continue the theme of pouring or spreading: diffuse ("to pour out and spread freely"), effuse ("to pour or flow out"), transfuse ("to cause to pass from one to another"), and the verb fuse itself when it's used to mean "to meld or join."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 10, 2023 is: suffuse • \suh-FYOOZ\  • verb To suffuse something is to spread over it or fill it, either literally or figuratively. The word suffuse is usually encountered in literary contexts. // Natural sunlight suffused the room as she opened the blinds. // The novel tells a difficult story, but it is suffused with hope. See the entry > Examples: "How to work, what to work on, assessing what’s been made. These are the questions that suffuse every artist’s career. They start with nothing, mostly without being asked, and sail into the unknown with a passion to make something." — Margaret Heffernan, The Guardian (London), 23 Apr. 2023 Did you know? The Latin word suffundere, ancestor to suffuse by way of Latin suffūsus, has various meanings that shed light on our modern word, among them "to pour on or in (as an addition)" and "to fill with a liquid, color, or light that wells up from below." It’s no surprise, then, that suffuse refers to the action of fluid or light spreading over or through something, as when light fills a dark room when you crack open a door. Suffundere is a blend of the prefix sub- ("under" or "beneath") and the verb fundere ("to pour" or "to send forth"). Other English verbs related to fundere continue the theme of pouring or spreading: diffuse ("to pour out and spread freely"), effuse ("to pour or flow out"), transfuse ("to cause to pass from one to another"), and the verb fuse itself when it's used to mean "to meld or join."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 9, 2023 is: audacious • \aw-DAY-shus\  • adjective Audacious is an adjective used to describe people, or things that people make or do, that are confident and daring, or bold and surprising. // She made the audacious decision to quit her job. // The band has been making original and creative music for well over ten years, but their latest album is their most audacious to date. See the entry > Examples: “My auntie Carolyn was a teacher at Bunker Hills School in Washington, DC. She was an audacious teacher, and invited the Queen of England to her classroom—and the Queen came, twice. Teachers like that make such a difference.” — Sheryl Lee Ralph, quoted in Ebony, 16 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Fortune favors the bold—or, as ancient Romans are known to have said, “audentes Fortuna iuvat.” Audentes here is the present participle of the Latin verb audēre, meaning “to dare,” a word that also led, via several etymological twists and turns through the centuries, to the English adjective audacious. When it first appeared in English in the mid-1500s, audacious meant “intrepidly daring,” a sense we still use today when we apply the word to various feats of derring-do and those who dare to do them. Since then it has developed several additional meanings, including the closely related “recklessly bold” and “marked by originality and verve,” as in “her audacious new album heralds the future of hip-hop.” Of course, with audacity (another audēre descendent) comes risk that fortune, despite the maxim, doesn’t always favor: as fungi foragers know, there are sagacious mushroomers, and audacious mushroomers, but there are no sagacious audacious mushroomers.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 8, 2023 is: mien • \MEEN\  • noun Mien is a literary word that refers to a person's demeanor or appearance, especially as expressive of their attitude or personality. // The minister projected a stern and serious mien from the pulpit, but we found him to be friendly and welcoming when we spoke with him in the social hall after the service. See the entry > Examples: "'Hit Man,' a new movie from Richard Linklater, was co-written by its leading man, Glen Powell, and proved to be the perfect showcase for his charisma. Playing a philosophy professor turned fake assassin, Powell changes his costume, accent, and mien with joyful abandon, pulling the audience along as the stakes and absurdities continue to mount." — Alex Barasch, The New Yorker, 22 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Mien is a somewhat literary term that refers to a person’s appearance and behavior toward others—that is, their outward manner or demeanor. Mien and demeanor are also linked through etymology: mien arose in the early 1500s through the shortening and alteration of the rare verb demean, meaning "to conduct or behave (oneself) usually in a proper manner." The source of demean is a Middle English word meaning (among other things) "to behave in a certain way; to conduct oneself"; that word’s Anglo-French source, demener, could mean (also among other things) "to lead," "to strive," "to guide," and "to behave." Note that the "behave" demean related to demeanor and mien is not related to the more common demean that means "to debase"; that word has its roots in an Old English word meaning "common, shared."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 7, 2023 is: cockamamie • \kah-kuh-MAY-mee\  • adjective Cockamamie is an adjective used to describe something ridiculous, silly, or incredible. // Instead of being honest, he came up with a cockamamie excuse about why he didn't turn in his assignment. See the entry > Examples: "... [Andy] Reid will invent strange new football ideas unlike anything that has been seen before—or at least not in the past few decades—and run them in the biggest moments of a season. And while his trick plays may appear like cockamamie inventions of a football mad scientist, they often take advantage of the unique strengths and talents of his superstar players. They are gimmicks and yet functional." — Rodger Sherman, TheRinger.com, 8 Feb. 2023 Did you know? By the look and sound of it, cockamamie (also spelled "cockamamy") could have something to do with a rooster and the outrageous sound it makes. But in fact, cockamamie is believed to be an altered form of the term decalcomania, which refers to the process, invented in the mid-19th century, of transferring pictures and designs from specially prepared paper to surfaces such as glass or porcelain. (The word referring to the picture or design itself, decal, is a shortening of decalcomania.) The word decalcomania comes from French, with décalcomanie combining the verb décalquer, meaning "to trace" or "to transfer by tracing," and -manie, meaning "-mania." Starting in the 1930s, painted strips of paper with images capable of being transferred to the skin were called decals or—in children's slang—cockamamies. Those familiar with today's temporary tattoos will understand quickly that these were regarded by many as silly novelties, lending the word cockamamie the necessary leeway for application to anything ridiculous.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 6, 2023 is: terraform • \TEH-ruh-form\  • verb To terraform something (such as a planet or moon) is to transform it so that it is suitable for supporting human life. // With Earth being the only Goldilocks planet within our reach, some argue that the survival of humanity depends on our ability to eventually terraform Mars. See the entry > Examples: “Simulation games now routinely engage with climate change, but usually from a place of wish fulfillment. Surviving Mars lets players use magical future technology to terraform the Red Planet into a new Eden, creating a backup home in case Earth is ravaged beyond redemption.” — Mark Hill, Wired, 6 Jan. 2022 Did you know? In the world of science fiction, life (uh) finds a way. Such is the goal of terraforming, a concept that has long served as a sci-fi staple. In fact, the word terraform can be traced to the genre’s Golden Age: the first known use of terraform was by the science fiction writer Jack Williamson who, writing under the pseudonym Will Stewart, included the word in his 1942 story “Collision Orbit.” Terraform applies the Latin noun terra (“land, earth”) as a prefix to the English verb form (“to shape or develop”). (Terra is evidenced in many English words, including terrain, terrace, and terra-cotta.) You may ask, “what is the future of terraforming?” Suffice it to say, we have no earthly idea.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 5, 2023 is: requisite • \REK-wuh-zut\  • adjective Requisite is a synonym of necessary and essential that describes something needed for a particular purpose. // It's clear from her application materials that Leona has the requisite knowledge and experience for the job. See the entry > Examples: "On the eve of their own wedding, David presented Kavi with three custom fragrances in a series of ornate vintage vessels: one unique scent for each day of their traditional Indian ceremony. Naturally, the couple went on to launch his-and-her scents inspired by these sentimental creations: D.S. for David, with notes like sandalwood, saffron, and rose; Durga for Kavi, the requisite orange blossom mingling with tuberose and orris butter." — Ivana Rihter, Vanity Fair, 18 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Acquiring an understanding of where requisite comes from won't require a formal inquiry. Without question, the quest begins with the Latin verb quaerere, which means "to ask" or "to seek." That word is ancestor to a number of English words, including acquire, require, inquiry, question, quest, and, of course, requisite. From quaerere came requirere, meaning "to ask again." Repeated requests can express a need, and the past participle of the Latin word requirere, which is requisitus, came to mean "needed" or "necessary." English acquired requisite when it was adopted into Middle English back in the 1400s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 4, 2023 is: maelstrom • \MAIL-strum\  • noun A maelstrom is a powerful often violent whirlpool that sucks in objects within a given radius. Maelstrom is also often used figuratively to refer to a situation resembling the turbulence of a maelstrom, as when there are a lot of confused activities, emotions, etc. // He was caught in a maelstrom of emotions after the news he received over the phone. // The ship was drawn into the maelstrom. See the entry > Examples: “Innovation can be a crushing force—a physical and emotional juggernaut that can redefine entire sectors, societies, and civilizations in its inexorable path. As we peer into the maelstrom of technology’s ever-expanding possibilities—clinging to what guardrails we may find—the question that emerges is not just about what awaits us but about when. Timing, as they say, is everything.” — John Nosta, Psychology Today, 22 Sept. 2023 Did you know? The original Maelstrom, also known as the Mostenstraumen or Moskstraumen, is a channel located off the northwest coast of Norway that has dangerous tidal currents. English speakers became familiar with its (often exaggerated) perils through literature—Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story called “A Descent into the Maelstrom,” and Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea has—spoiler alert—a maelstrom at its climax. The English word arrived by way of the Dutch word maelstrom, which today is spelled maalstroom. (The Dutch word combines the verb malen, meaning “to grind,” and the noun strom, “stream.”) English speakers have applied the word to any powerful whirlpool since the 16th century, and by the 19th century they’d begun to apply it figuratively to things or situations resembling such maelstroms in turbulence or confusion.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 3, 2023 is: parse • \PARSS\  • verb To parse something is to study it by looking closely at its parts. In grammar and linguistics, parse means "to divide (a sentence) into grammatical parts and identify the parts and their relations to each other." // The lawyer meticulously parsed the wording of the final contract to be sure that her client would get all that he was asking for. See the entry > Examples: "Around the turn of the millennium, the captcha tool arrived to sort humans from bots based on their ability to interpret images of distorted text. Once some bots could handle that, captcha added other detection methods that included parsing images of motorbikes and trains, as well as sensing mouse movement and other user behavior." — Christopher Beam, WIRED, 14 Sept. 2023 Did you know? If parse brings up memories of learning the parts of speech in school, you've done your homework regarding this word. Parsing sentences, after all, is part and parcel of learning to read and write. Parse comes from the first element of the Latin term for "part of speech," pars orationis. It's an old word that has been used since at least the mid 1500s, but it was not until the late 1700s that parse graduated to its extended, non-grammar-related sense of "to examine in a minute way" or "to analyze critically." Remember this extended sense, and you'll really be at the head of the class.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 2, 2023 is: analogue • \AN-uh-log\  • noun Analogue refers to something that is similar to something else in design, origin, use, etc. In other words, an analogue is analogous to something else. // There are many historical analogues to our current political situation that we can learn from in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past. See the entry > Examples: “When the 32-year-old artist Gray Wielebinski was growing up in Dallas, he saw 10-gallon hats and boots as the marks of a fantastical machismo that belonged as much to him as to cisgender men. … In his work, the cowboy is a tragic figure professionally endangered by commercial ranching, making him an analogue to the queer establishments that have closed in recent years.” — Evan Moffitt, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Analogue is a handy word for something that is similar to something else in design, origin, use, etc., as in “tofu is a meat analogue.” Like its relations analogy and analogous, it traces back ultimately to the Greek word lógos, meaning “word,” “speech,” “relation,” “correspondence,” and “proportion.” Not to get too meta about analogue, but the nouns analogue and analog are themselves analogues (or, ahem, analogs) of one another: they differ only in spelling, though the analogue spelling is more common except in contexts related to chemistry. The pair also function as adjectives—as in “an analog watch” or “analog recording”—but in that case the shorter form is preferred except by those who use British English.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 1, 2023 is: fuliginous • \fyoo-LIJ-uh-nus\  • adjective Fuliginous is a formal adjective that is synonymous with sooty; it describes things related to, containing, or producing soot. It can also describe things that are figuratively sooty—that is, dark or murky, as in "fuliginous soul"—as well as things that are dark or sooty in color, from crystals and insects to the plumage of some bird species. // Stringent environmental regulations eventually helped the city rid itself of the fuliginous haze that had plagued its citizens for decades. // The infamous journalist has a fuliginous prose style that’s not exactly ideal for general audiences. See the entry > Examples: "This latter-day Solomon remarked upon the atmospheric conditions he encountered ... a choking smoke that prompted him to cover his mouth and nostrils with a handkerchief. This exercise proved futile as he ventured into the fuliginous town where 'there was literally nothing for it but to breathe chimney smoke, or to turn and flee to purer air before it was too late.'" — Mervyn Edwards, The Stoke Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent, England), 17 June 2023 Did you know? Fuliginous is a word with a dark and dirty past—it comes from fuligo, the Latin word for "soot," a substance formed by combustion or separated from fuel during combustion, that rises in the air in fine particles, such as what's seen in smoke. An early, now-obsolete sense of fuliginous described noxious bodily vapors once thought to be produced by organic processes. The "sooty" sense, which English speakers have been using since the 16th century, can be used literally to describe everything from overworked chimney sweeps to industrial city skylines, and figuratively for dense fogs, malevolent clouds, and grim senses of humor. Fuliginous can also be used to refer to something dark or dusky in color, as in Henry James' novel The Ambassadors, in which the character Waymarsh is described as having "dark fuliginous eyes."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 31, 2023 is: eldritch • \EL-dritch\  • adjective Eldritch describes things that are strange or unnatural, especially in a way that inspires fear. The word is often used as a synonym for eerie. // She's afraid to visit haunted houses because the eldritch decor and sound effects are too realistic for her liking. See the entry > Examples: “One of the newer entries on this list is Dredge, which is a cozy game for players who like spooky, eldritch tales of the open sea. It sounds counterintuitive to combine relaxing gameplay with horror, but it works out well here. You’ll catch eerie-looking fish, explore abandoned and sometimes dangerous areas and start dredging treasures from shipwrecks to help a mysterious collector. The joy in Dredge though comes from the casual way it lets you complete your quests and the openness of its world, which is ripe for exploration.” — Carli Velocci, CNN, 2 May 2023 Did you know? Curse, cobweb, witch, ghost, and even Halloween—all of these potentially spooky words have roots in Old English. Eldritch, although less common, is another, hailing from a time when otherworldly beings were commonly thought to inhabit the earth. The word dates back to the 16th century and may have its origin in the Middle English word elfriche, meaning “fairyland.” (The two components of elfriche—“elf” and “riche”—come from the Old English words ælf, “elf,” and rīce, “kingdom.”) Nowadays, eldritch is used to describe things that are eerie, weird, or frightful. You may also recognize the word as the name of the popular video game Eldritch, inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, who often used the word in his horror fiction. Or perhaps you've encountered it in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 30, 2023 is: werewolf • \WAIR-woolf\  • noun Werewolf refers to a person transformed into a wolf or capable of assuming a wolf's form, especially during the full moon. // She went to the Halloween party dressed as a werewolf, wearing faux fur from head to toe. See the entry > Examples: "With her brother and sister, Marnie follows her grandma to a city called Halloweentown, where ghosts and goblins and werewolves live side by side." — Claudia Guthrie, ELLE, 28 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Although English sometimes makes use of other words for howling humanoid beasties, werewolf is the leader of the pack. It’s also an ancient word, tracing all the way back to the Old English werwulf, and before that to a prehistoric predecessor that also left its paw prints on German (Werwolf) and Dutch (weerwolf). Synonyms for werewolf in English include the obscure lycanthrope, which has roots in two Greek words (lykos, meaning "wolf," and anthrōpos, meaning "human being"), and loup-garou, which comes from Old French. Whichever you use, the lycanthropic creatures these words refer to most often assume wolf form during a full moon—at least in works of fiction. There are no credible studies to date on the behavior of real-life werewolves, as scientists have yet to find the silver bullet that proves they exist.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 29, 2023 is: pandemonium • \pan-duh-MOH-nee-um\  • noun Pandemonium refers to a situation in which a crowd or mass of people act in a wild, uncontrolled, or violent way because they are afraid, excited, or confused. // Pandemonium ensued when a power failure knocked out the city’s traffic lights during rush hour. See the entry > Examples: “It was pandemonium when [Taylor] Swift broke out one of her first country singles that became an international hit. The crowd really lost it for the famous tale of a high school love triangle, especially with the signature lyric: ‘She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts / She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.’” — Emily Yahr, The Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2023 Did you know? When John Milton needed a name for the gathering place of all demons for Paradise Lost, he turned to the classics as any sensible 17th-century writer would. Pandæmonium, as the capital of Hell is known in the epic poem, combines the Greek prefix pan-, meaning “all,” with the Late Latin daemonium, meaning “evil spirit.” (Daemonium itself traces back to the far more innocuous Greek word daímōn, meaning “spirit” or “divine power.”) Over time, Pandæmonium (or Pandemonium) came to designate all of hell and was used as well for earthbound dens of wickedness and sin. By the late-18th century, the word implied a place or state of confusion or uproar, and from there, it didn’t take long for pandemonium to become associated with states of utter disorder and wildness.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 28, 2023 is: irascible • \ir-RASS-uh-bul\  • adjective Someone who is irascible is easily angered and annoyed. // That tidy little house belongs to an irascible crank who never has a kind word for any of his neighbors. See the entry > Examples: "If anyone earned the right to be an irascible octogenarian—especially when it comes to music—it's probably Bob Dylan. In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, the singer-songwriter got the chance to do some ... sermonizing—sharing both astute points, and some rather curmudgeonly ones—about the state of contemporary music and the streaming era." — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 19 Dec. 2022 Did you know? If you try to take apart irascible on the model of irrational, irresistible, and irresponsible you might find yourself wondering what ascible means—but that's not how irascible came to be. The key to the meaning of irascible isn't the negating prefix ir- (which is the form of the prefix in- that is used before words beginning with "r"), but rather the Latin noun ira, meaning "anger." From ira, which is also the root of irate and ire, came the Latin verb irasci ("to become angry") and the related adjective irascibilis, the latter of which led to the French word irascible. English speakers borrowed the word from French in the 16th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 27, 2023 is: shill • \SHIL\  • verb Shill is an informal word that is used disapprovingly to mean “to talk about or describe someone or something in a favorable way for pay.” It is usually paired with for. // It’s very common to see influencers shilling for different brands on their social media accounts. See the entry > Examples: “The NFT market isn’t so hot these days. In June, Bloomberg reported that the JPG NFT Index was down more than 30 percent since its launch in April. ... Most of the celebs who had shilled for NFTs have gone back to promoting an upcoming project ... or appear to be on vacation.” — Lauren Goode, Wired, 3 Aug. 2022 Did you know? The action at the heart of the verb shill—promoting someone or something for pay—is not, on its face, unseemly. After all, that is what marketers and public relations firms do. But when someone is said to be shilling for something or someone there is a distinct note of disapproval, and often the implication that the act is somehow corrupt or dishonest, or that the product or person being promoted is not to be trusted. This connotation is actually the word’s birthright: in the early 1900s, the noun shill referred to a type of con artist, specifically one who aided others in their efforts to part people from their money. For example, a shill might be paid to fake a big win at a casino to make a game look easily winnable. The first uses of the verb shill, appearing around the same time as the noun, show it applying to the kinds of cons shills did, but the term eventually came to be used in cases when someone was simply promoting someone or something. Perhaps fitting for a word with a criminal past, shill has a mysterious origin: it’s thought to be a shortened form of the older synonymous term shillaber, but the etymological trail goes cold there.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 26, 2023 is: cadre • \KAD-ray\  • noun Broadly, cadre can refer to any group of people with a unifying relationship, as in “a cadre of lawyers,” or “a cadre of sportswriters.” More specifically, cadre can also be used for a group of people who are trained in a role or task, and who in turn can train others. // A small but influential cadre of students ultimately persuaded their peers and then the administration to change the school’s mascot. // The company was able to stay afloat through the downturn thanks largely to a highly-skilled cadre of workers and technicians with deep institutional memory. See the entry > Examples: “Though Sage has recently begun to embrace a more acoustic sound—whether as a member of the Fuubutsushi jazz quartet or collaborating with a cadre of flutists, slide guitarists, and harmonium players on 2021’s The Wind of Things—here he honors the spirit of the outdoors using the most computerized sounds imaginable.” — Sam Goldner, Pitchfork, 31 May 2023 Did you know? A wise man named Huey Lewis once sang that “it’s hip to be square.” As lexicographers—a hip cadre if ever there was one—we heartily agree with this sentiment, not least because the song (as performed by Lewis and his trusted cadre of bandmates dubbed “the News”) prompts us to ponder an etymological descendent (via French and Italian) of the Latin word for square, quadrum: cadre. Squares being a logical and standard shape for frames (as of window and picture varieties), it’s easy to understand why French speakers and later English speakers adopted cadre as a word meaning “frame.” A sense of cadre referring to a metaphorical framework for something (such as a novel or curriculum) soon developed. And if you consider a group of officers in a military regiment as the framework that holds things together for the unit, you’ll understand how yet another sense of cadre, referring to a nucleus of trained personnel, arose. Military leaders and their troops are well-trained and work together as a unified team, which may explain why cadre is now sometimes used more generally to refer to any group of people who have some kind of unifying characteristic—such as a belief in the heart of rock and roll, or perhaps the power of love.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 25, 2023 is: extraneous • \ek-STRAY-nee-us\  • adjective Something described as extraneous does not form a necessary part of something else, and may also therefore be considered irrelevant or unimportant (as in “extraneous details”). // The woman who reported the robbery kept bringing up extraneous facts, such as what she'd had for lunch. See the entry > Examples: “Free of frippery and extraneous decorative details, the roughly 4,500-square-foot loft is a pure expression of the bold geometries, expert craftsmanship, and premium materials for which Gwathmey is renowned.” — Mark David, Robb Report, 22 Aug. 2023 Did you know? We’d hate to be extra, so we won’t weigh you down with a lot of extraneous information about the word extraneous. Instead, we’ll tell you that it has been a part of the English language since at least the mid-1600s, and that it comes from the Latin word extrāneus, which means “not belonging to one’s family or household; external.” Extrāneus—a combination of the Latin adverb/preposition extrā  (“outside” or “beyond”) and adjective suffix -āneus—is also the root of the English words strange and estrange; its influence is even more obvious in the Spanish adjective extraño, meaning “strange.” The “outside/beyond” senses of extrā are also evident in non-extraneous English words like extraterrestrial, which refers to a creature originating from “outside” planet Earth, and extrajudicial, which describes something “beyond” what is allowed by a court.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 24, 2023 is: regale • \rih-GAIL\  • verb Regale is a somewhat formal word that means “to entertain or amuse by telling stories, describing experiences, etc.” It is often followed by with. // He regaled his party guests with stories of his adventures abroad. See the entry > Examples: “She'll [Shanti Pierce] bring loads of bamboo pieces and parts for people to create take-home art. Nudge her only slightly and she will regale you with stories of bamboo art contests, the health and medicinal benefits of bamboo and even the documented sensory benefits of youngsters working with bamboo.” — Brian Blair, The Republic (Columbus, Indiana), 17 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Regale has been an English verb since the early half of the 1600s, having been adapted from the French word régaler. That word traces back to the Middle French verb galer, which means “to have a good time.” (Gala, meaning “a festive celebration,” is from the same source.) Today, regale still applies when someone is entertaining or amusing another, especially by sharing stories. Regale also sometimes functions as a noun meaning “a sumptuous feast.” An early use of the noun appears in the preface to a 1732 dramatic poem by George Granville: “An English stomach … will rise hungry from a regale of nothing but sweet-meats.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 23, 2023 is: threshold • \THRESH-hohld\  • noun A threshold is a piece of wood, metal, or stone that lies across the base of a doorway. In figurative use, threshold refers to the point or level at which something begins or changes. // As he stepped across the threshold a chorus of friends yelled "surprise!" // If your income rises above a certain threshold, your tax rate also rises. See the entry > Examples: "First out of the kitchen was a plate of five breaded chicken tenders bathed in Nashville-style hot sauce. ... And these tenders indeed packed a wallop, although the spiciness never quite reached my threshold of pain." — Grub Scout, The Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel, 30 Mar. 2022 Did you know? Whenever you leave your home, walk from one room to another, or enter a building, you are crossing a threshold—that is, the horizontal floor piece that you cross over whenever you move through a doorway. But the earliest uses of threshold refer to a different type of boundary: an Old English translation of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae uses the word in a sentence about how the sea was made so that it didn’t overstep the "threshold," or boundary, of the earth. In this translation, which was written around 888, threshold appears as þeorscwold (that first letter is called thorn and it was used in Old English and Middle English to indicate the sounds produced by th in thin and this). The origins of this Old English word are not known, though it is believed to be related to the Old English word threscan, from which we get the words thresh, meaning "to separate seed from (a harvested plant) using a machine or tool" and thrash, meaning, among other things, "to beat soundly with or as if with a stick or whip." But there's nothing in the historical record that directly ties threshing to the threshold.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 22, 2023 is: beholden • \bih-HOHL-dun\  • adjective Beholden is a formal adjective that describes someone as having obligations to someone or something else, often (but not always) to return a favor or gift. Beholden is usually followed by to. // She works for herself, and so is beholden to no one. // Many believe the government is overfull with politicians who are beholden to special interest groups. See the entry > Examples: “We are living through an information revolution. The traditional gatekeepers of knowledge—librarians, journalists and government officials—have largely been replaced by technological gatekeepers—search engines, artificial intelligence chatbots and social media feeds. Whatever their flaws, the old gatekeepers were, at least on paper, beholden to the public. The new gatekeepers are fundamentally beholden only to profit and to their shareholders. That is about to change, thanks to a bold experiment by the European Union.” — Julia Angwin, The New York Times, 14 July 2023 Did you know? To behold something is to perceive or gaze upon it—therefore, to be beholden is to be seen or observed, right? Not so fast! It’s true that behold and beholden share the same Old English roots, and also that beholden originated as the past participle of behold, whose original meaning was “to hold or retain.” But the two words weaved and wended their way down different paths into present-day English. Behold had settled into its “perceive, see” use by the 12th century. Meanwhile, beholden was called into duty as the “indebted, obligated” adjective we know today by the 14th century, as evidenced by its appearance in the Middle-English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the ensuing years, beholden has continued to describe people who are obligated to others (often for a favor or gift), as well as people or things that are in figurative debt due to aid or inspiration, as in “many contemporary books and films are beholden to old Arthurian legends.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 21, 2023 is: inculcate • \in-KUL-kayt\  • verb Inculcate is a formal word that has to do with teaching and persuading especially by frequent repetition. If you inculcate someone, you gradually cause the person to fully understand something. If you inculcate an ideal, practice, or behavior in someone, you impress it upon them. // The teacher inculcated in her students the importance of good study habits. // The students were inculcated with a sense of responsibility. See the entry > Examples: “For the past 50 years, boosters of the cable industry made the case that the marketplace could deliver for American consumers and citizens. But the pursuit of profits has resulted in cable news networks that overwhelmingly appeal to viewers’ worst impulses, overrunning efforts to inculcate good citizenship.” — Kathryn Cramer Brownell, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Sometimes before a lesson sinks in, you’ve got to go over it in your mind for a long time. The same is true for when you want to make a path: you have to walk over it again and again. The connection between walking and learning is at the heart of inculcate, which comes from a form of the Latin verb inculcare, meaning “to tread on.” In Latin, inculcare possesses both literal and figurative meanings, referring to either the act of walking over something or to that of impressing something upon the mind, often by way of steady repetition. It is the figurative sense that survives with inculcate, which was first used in English in the 16th century. Since then, the word has kept the meaning of impressing facts, ideas, or ideals on someone through repetition. If you have trouble remembering inculcate’s definition, you may find it helpful to know that it’s a synonym of the word instill (“to impart gradually”), which shares the Latin prefix in-.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 20, 2023 is: dubious • \DOO-bee-us\  • adjective A dubious person lacks a definite opinion or is doubtful about something; this sense of the word is usually used with about. Dubious can also describe something that causes doubt, uncertainty, or suspicion. In phrases like “dubious honor” and “dubious distinction” it functions ironically to describe something bad or undesirable as if it were an honor or achievement. // I was dubious about the chances that our gamble would pay off. // Jesse made the dubious claim that he could eat a whole watermelon in one sitting; then we sat in awe and watched him do it. See the entry > Examples: “A professional thrift shopper claims that a rare assortment of VHS tapes could help people pay off their debt—and now her video is going viral. ... She goes on to cite such tapes as a 1983 VHS of ‘Rocky,’ a 1986 VHS of ‘Back to the Future,’ the first three ‘Chucky’ movies and a first print VHS of ‘Star Wars’—all of which sold, she claims, for thousands of dollars in ‘legitimate’ eBay sales. However, many TikTok commenters were dubious of these listings and their sales.” — Cassie Morris, InTheKnow.com, 8 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Pop music pop quiz—which musical act had a hit with the song “Ooby Dooby”: 1950s rock-and-roll legend Roy Orbison or 1970s soft rock groovers the Doobie Brothers? Perhaps you’re dubious that the Doobies would do “Ooby Dooby.” Too obvious. On the other hand, Orbison may represent the more dubious choice if you’re an “Ooby Dooby” newbie. Regardless of which way you waffle, however, we think you’ll appreciate dubious as a word that does double duty, meaning both “uncertain or doubtful” (as in “dubious that the Doobies would do…”) and “giving rise to uncertainty as to outcome, quality, or nature” (as in “dubious choice”). And we know without a doubt that dubious comes from the Latin verb dubare, meaning “to hesitate in choice of opinions or courses,” which in turn shares roots with the Latin word duo, meaning “two.” Oh, and if you’re still of two minds about our music quiz, the answer is Orbison.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 19, 2023 is: quintessence • \kwin-TESS-unss\  • noun Quintessence is a formal word that can refer to the most typical or perfect example of something, or the most important part of something. // Roasting marshmallows over an open fire and making s’mores is the quintessence of camping in the great outdoors. // The quintessence of music is the melody. See the entry > Examples: "The stories read like the quintessence of the human imagination in its densest, strangest form, as if his language were a thick, sweet concentrate of the creativity that other writers dilute to a sippable weakness. The comparison with Kafka misses much of [Bruno] Schulz’s surreal humour and vivacity; the writer of whom he reminds me most is Maurice Sendak, with his bewitching childhood worlds filled with galumphing, unpredictable adults." — Joe Moshenska, The Guardian (London), 14 May 2023 Did you know? Long ago, when people believed that everything was made up of four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—they thought the stars and planets were made up of yet another element. In the Middle Ages, people called this element by its Medieval Latin name, quinta essentia, literally, "fifth essence." They believed the quinta essentia was essential to all kinds of matter, and if they could somehow isolate it, it would cure all disease. People have since given up on that idea, but English users have kept quintessence, the offspring of quinta essentia, as a word for the purest essence of a thing. Some modern physicists have given quintessence a new twist—they use it to refer to a form of the dark energy believed to make up almost 70 percent of the energy in the observable universe.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 18, 2023 is: omnipotent • \ahm-NIP-uh-tunt\  • adjective Omnipotent is a formal word describing someone or something as having complete or unlimited power. // History is replete with examples that reveal the dangers of having an omnipotent ruler. See the entry > Examples: "AI is not omnipotent (yet). AI-generated products may perpetuate gender, racial and cultural stereotypes or lead to product homogenization. Moreover, the product development cycle could lose the human element that provides diversity, authenticity and emotional connection to consumers. It’s also not yet apparent how copyright issues will be handled." — Pavel Podkorytov, Forbes, 2 Aug. 2023 Did you know? The word omnipotent made its way into English through Anglo-French, but it ultimately comes from a combination of the Latin prefix omni-, meaning "all," and the word potens, meaning "potent." The omni- prefix has also given us similar words such as omniscient (meaning "all-knowing") and omnivorous (describing one that eats both plants and animals). Although omnipotent is most often used in general contexts to mean "having virtually unlimited authority or influence" (as in "an omnipotent ruler"), it was originally applied specifically to the power held by an almighty deity. The word has been used as an English adjective since the 14th century, and since the 16th century it has also been used as a noun referring to one who is omnipotent.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 18, 2023 is: omnipotent • \ahm-NIP-uh-tunt\  • adjective Omnipotent is a formal word describing someone or something as having complete or unlimited power. // History is replete with examples that reveal the dangers of having an omnipotent ruler. See the entry > Examples: "AI is not omnipotent (yet). AI-generated products may perpetuate gender, racial and cultural stereotypes or lead to product homogenization. Moreover, the product development cycle could lose the human element that provides diversity, authenticity and emotional connection to consumers. It’s also not yet apparent how copyright issues will be handled." — Pavel Podkorytov, Forbes, 2 Aug. 2023 Did you know? The word omnipotent made its way into English through Anglo-French, but it ultimately comes from a combination of the Latin prefix omni-, meaning "all," and the word potens, meaning "potent." The omni- prefix has also given us similar words such as omniscient (meaning "all-knowing") and omnivorous (describing one that eats both plants and animals). Although omnipotent is most often used in general contexts to mean "having virtually unlimited authority or influence" (as in "an omnipotent ruler"), it was originally applied specifically to the power held by an almighty deity. The word has been used as an English adjective since the 14th century, and since the 16th century it has also been used as a noun referring to one who is omnipotent.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 17, 2023 is: mollycoddle • \MAH-lee-kah-dul\  • verb When you mollycoddle someone, you are treating that person with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attention. // The newborn cub at the wildlife park enjoys being mollycoddled by its mother. See the entry > Examples: “Former Barnsley and Leeds United manager Heckingbottom has never been one to mollycoddle players and he says it is up to the individuals concerned to ensure they are getting the fitness work they need if his attention is dragged elsewhere.” — Stuart Rayner, Yorkshire Post (England), 17 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Coddling eggs is delicate business. You need to cook them slowly and gently, keeping the water just below boiling. Given how carefully you need to treat the eggs, it's not surprising that some believe the cooking sense of coddle led to the sense meaning “to treat with excessive care or kindness.” Another source is possible though: the “pamper” coddle may be linked to caudle, a curative drink of yore made usually of warm ale or wine mixed with bread or gruel, eggs, sugar, and spices. Regardless, mollycoddle was formed by combining the “pamper” sense of coddle with Molly, a nickname for Mary. In its earliest known uses in the mid-1800s, mollycoddle was a noun, a disparaging and now-dated synonym of our modern wimp. But in short time, it was being used as the verb you're likely to encounter today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 16, 2023 is: acronym • \AK-ruh-nim\  • noun An acronym is a word formed from the first letter or letters of each one of the words in a phrase. // They came up with the perfect acronym, WORDS, as a name for their spelling team by using the first letters of each of their names: William, Owen, Rosie, Diana, and Sam. See the entry > Examples: "Despite the innate human capacity to wander—particularly when bolstered by walking sticks—things will still go wrong. Here are a few of the most common ailments pilgrims will face. Sprained ankles: Follow the RICE acronym to reduce swelling and support healing. Rest: Stop all activity and try not to put any weight on the ankle. Ice: Apply an ice pack—or a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a thin towel—for up to 20 minutes every two to three hours for about two days. Compression: Wrap a bandage around the injury or wear a compression sock to support it. Elevate: Keep it raised as much as possible." — James Jeffrey, CNN, 31 Aug. 2023 Did you know? The word acronym fuses together two combining forms: acr- ("beginning") and -onym ("name" or "word"), both of which trace back to Greek. You may recognize -onym in other familiar (and older) English words, such as pseudonym and synonym. When acronym first entered English in the mid-20th century (likely influenced by or borrowed from the German word Akronym or Akronymon), some usage commentators decreed that it should refer to combinations of initial letters that were pronounced as if they were whole words (such as radar and scuba), and be differentiated from an initialism, which is spoken by pronouncing the component letters (as in FBI and CEO). These days, however, that distinction is largely lost, and acronym is a common label for both types of abbreviation.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 15, 2023 is: hirsute • \HER-soot\  • adjective Hirsute is a formal word that means “hairy.” It is also often used in humorous contexts to describe someone with a lot of hair on their face or body. Botanists use hirsute to describe plant parts, such as leaves, that are covered in coarse, stiff hairs. // Turner wore a hirsute mask as part of his werewolf costume for the school play. See the entry > Examples: “Outfielder Reggie Jackson, as the story goes, arrived for spring training with a mustache. A few pitchers followed suit, thinking they all would need to shave. Instead, then-A’s owner Charlie Finley offered a $300 bonus to any player who grew a mustache. The result: A World Series between the hirsute A’s and clean-cut Reds was dubbed ‘The Hairs vs. The Squares.’” — Matt Kawahara, SFChronicle.com, 3 June 2022 Did you know? If you’ve seen even one horror movie featuring a werewolf, you likely can recall the classic transformation scene of such films: tufts of hair sprouting from under cuffs and collars, some unfortunate soul’s head suddenly covered by a shaggy, full-face beard. It’s enough to make the hair stand up on the back of your own neck! Werewolves are common hirsute horror antagonists, which is fitting (unlike a werewolf’s clothes) since hirsute and horror share etymological roots. Hirsute entered English in the early 17th century with nearly the same spelling and exactly the same meaning as its Latin parent, hirsutus. Hirsutus, in turn, is a cousin of the Latin verb horrēre, meaning “to bristle.” Horrēre gave rise to the Latin word horrōr-, horror, which has the various meanings of “standing stiffly,” “bristling,” “shivering,” “dread,” and “consternation,” and is the source, via Anglo-French, of our word horror. And if you need a fancy word for the goose bumps you experience watching Lon Chaney in his hirsute suit, may we suggest another hirsute relation, horripilation; its Latin source, the verb horripilāre, means “to shudder,” and was formed from horrēre and pilus (“hair”).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 14, 2023 is: foliage • \FOH-lee-ij\  • noun Foliage refers to the leaves of a plant or of many plants. // The winding river cut its course beneath the thick green foliage of the jungle canopy. See the entry > Examples: "Summer hiking is undeniably breathtaking, but there’s something about the foliage of the fall that secures its spot as the best time of year to get outside and enjoy the beauty of nature." — Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 25 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Whether you’re a casual leaf peeper or a card-carrying botanist, a staunch New Englander or Caribbean beach bum, there’s plenty to love about foliage—though the pronunciation of foliage has long been a point of contention among English speakers. Most commonly accepted is the trisyllabic \FOH-lee-ij\. However, there’s no denying that the pronunciations \FOH-lij\ and even \FOY-lij\ have also staked their claim. The first of these disputed pronunciations is consistent with the pronunciation of the -iage ending in marriage and carriage. The second is often more fiercely denounced, in part because of its association with the nonstandard spelling foilage. But there’s redemption for this estranged pronunciation: foliage traces back to Middle French foille ("leaf"), which is also the source of the English word foil (as in "aluminum foil"). When adopted by Middle English speakers, foil originally meant "leaf." Love it or leaf it, there’s just no taking the "foil" out of foliage.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 13, 2023 is: circumvent • \ser-kum-VENT\  • verb To circumvent something is to get around it in a clever and sometimes dishonest way, or, if it's a rule or law, to avoid being stopped by it. // We circumvented the technical issues by using a different computer program. See the entry > Examples: “[Adrienne] Finch already had several friends who were making money on YouTube, and following in their footsteps seemed like a way to circumvent several years of early-career dues-paying. So she turned down the Warner Bros. gig and instead took a job with a smaller digital-focused production company, one that would give her the space to build a YouTube following on the side. After a year, she left to focus on YouTube full-time.” — Brian Contreras, The Los Angeles Times, 5 Sept. 2023 Did you know? If you’ve ever felt as if someone was running circles around those trying to get something done, you have an idea of the origins of circumvent—it comes from the Latin word circumventus, a form of the verb circumvenire, meaning “to surround or go around” (circumvenire combines the adverb circum, “in a circle around,” and the verb venire, “to come”). The earliest uses of circumvent referred to a tactic of hunting or warfare in which the quarry or enemy was encircled and captured. This meaning doesn’t exactly square with modern uses of the word. Today, circumvent more often suggests avoidance than entrapment; to come full circle, it typically means to “get around” someone or something, as by evading a problem or avoiding the law.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 12, 2023 is: gullible • \GULL-uh-bul\  • adjective Someone described as gullible is easily fooled or cheated. In other words, they are quick to believe something that is not true. // The store sells overpriced souvenirs to gullible tourists, and no self-respecting local would shop there. See the entry > Examples: “It’s true that reality television has grown to look more and more like The Truman Show in the quarter-century following the film’s release, but even more unnerving, so have we as viewers. In 1998 the movie’s premise provoked dread. Now, though, we find easy humor and comfort in watching shows like it, in seeing a kind but gullible person bumble their way through a fake reality designed to strain credulity.” — Casey Epstein-Gross, Observer.com, 22 June 2023 Did you know? “Let a gull steal my fries once, shame on the gull; let a gull steal my fries twice, shame on me.” So goes the classic, oft-repeated seaside maxim reminding people to guard against being gullible. Okay, that’s not really how the old saw goes, but on the off chance that you believed our little trick, you yourself were, however briefly, gullible—that is, “easily duped.” The adjective gullible grew out of the older verb gull, meaning “to deceive or take advantage of.” (That gull originally meant “to guzzle or gulp greedily,” and comes from an even older gull meaning “throat, gullet.”) Another relative is the noun gull, referring to a person who is easy to cheat. However, no matter how much the seabirds we call gulls love to pilfer our potatoes, that avian gull has no relation, and is instead of Celtic origin—we promise.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 11, 2023 is: voracity • \vuh-RASS-uh-tee\  • noun Voracity refers to an immoderate eagerness or enthusiasm for something, or to an intense desire to eat or consume something. // Elena reads books with a voracity that requires multiple weekly visits to the library. // After ten straight hours of driving, Marv ate his late dinner with a voracity that would impress a wolverine. See the entry > Examples: “Wildfires also emerged at tough-to-control voracity and speed, ravaging hundreds of thousands of acres across southern Europe and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.” — Forbes, 27 Sept. 2021 Did you know? The insatiable word nerds among us will appreciate voracity, a word used to refer to both literal and figurative appetites that simply cannot be quelled. Voracity comes to us (via Middle French) from the Latin word voracitas, which itself comes from the combining of vorax, meaning “voracious,” with -itas, the Latin equivalent of the English noun suffix -ity. Voracity is one of two English words that mean “the quality or state of being voracious.” The other is voraciousness, which was once considered archaic but has made a comeback. Because voracity developed from non-English forerunners, rather than being created in English from voracious (as was voraciousness), the word may strike some English speakers as an unusual formation. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the more familiar-looking voraciousness has reappeared—most likely through a process of reinvention by people unfamiliar with voracity.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 10, 2023 is: berserk • \ber-SERK\  • adjective Berserk generally means “markedly out of control due to intense anger or excitement.” It is often used in the phrase go berserk, which can mean either “to become very excited” or “to become very angry and often violent.” // The crowd went wild with berserk fans screaming as the main act finally hit the stage. See the entry > Examples: “The actor made his nightly entrance at the Roxy from the lobby to the stage, belting out the signature tune. … ‘Tim’s entrance was phenomenal,’ recounts David Foster, the Grammy-winning composer and producer, who early in his career was the show’s pianist. ‘The place just went berserk because, of course, he was so much bigger than life.’” — Steve Appleford, The Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2023 Did you know? Combine a bear with a shirt and what do you get? A cuddly, honey-loving, ursine pal, perhaps. Combine the words bear and shirt however, at least in Old Norse, and you get something quite different. Our English word berserk comes from the Old Norse noun berserkr, which is likely a combination of ber- (“bear”) and serkr (“shirt”). According to Norse legend, berserkers were not ones to say “Oh bother” when faced with sticky situations—they were warriors who wore bearskin coverings and worked themselves into such frenzies during combat that they became immune to the effects of steel and fire. Berserk was borrowed into English (first as a noun referring to such a warrior) in the 19th century, when interest in Scandinavian myth and history was high. It was considered a slang term at first, but it has since gained broader use.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 9, 2023 is: juncture • \JUNK-cher\  • noun Juncture refers to an important point in a process or activity, or to a junction, that is, a place where things join. // "At this juncture in the editing process," said Philip, "it is important that all facts have been double-checked and sources verified." // At the juncture of the two rivers sits a large beaver's dam. See the entry > Examples: "At a key juncture in the play, the visual environment is transformed into rippling waves of energy that creates a dreamlike effect." — Don Aucoin, The Boston Globe, 21 July 2023 Did you know? Join us as we journey into the history of juncture, a word that’s neither junky nor janky, but just dandy. Juncture comes from the Latin verb jungere ("to join") and has many English relatives including not only join and junction but also conjugal ("relating to marriage") and junta ("a group of persons controlling a government"). The use of juncture in English dates back to the 14th century, when it meant "a place where two or more things are joined." By the 17th century it could also refer to an important point in a process or activity.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 8, 2023 is: obtain • \ub-TAYN\  • verb To obtain something is to gain or get it usually by planned action or effort, as opposed to chance, purchase, or another method. // The experiment was designed to obtain more accurate data about weather patterns. See the entry > Examples: “Declining species, like spotted owls, may be hard to see, but recordings may help document the numbers of the species. ‘There’s an acute need to obtain more sound recordings of many species, of the dawn chorus and sounds at night,’ Benner says. He uses recordings of red crossbills to understand the populations of that species, a type of finch, that occur in Southern California and in the Sierra Nevada.” — Dakota Kim, The Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2023 Did you know? If you have difficulty choosing whether to use obtain or attain in a sentence, don’t worry, we get it. Both can mean “to get” or “to acquire,” and in some situations can be used synonymously, but one or the other might be more appropriate depending on what is being acquired and how. One clue is their respective etymologies: obtain comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin verb obtinēre, meaning “to hold on to, possess,” while attain’s Anglo-French ancestor is ateindre, meaning “to reach” or “to accomplish.” Accordingly, obtain is usually the word used when you are acquiring, by planned effort, a tangible object—something you can hold. “We are having trouble obtaining the supplies we need” sounds natural, for example, while “Have you attained the sugar and flour I asked for?” does not. Reflecting its roots (and also implying effort), attain is often used in the same way as achieve, as in “After decades of hard work she attained her goal of earning a PhD.” Of course, one can also obtain intangible things, such as power or information, so consider this advice something to hold onto and consider when the moment arises—you needn’t cling to it.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 7, 2023 is: portentous • \por-TEN-tuss\  • adjective Portentous is a formal and literary term that describes something that gives a sign or warning that something (and usually something bad or unpleasant) is going to happen. It can also describe the pompous attitude or behavior of someone who is trying to seem important, serious, or impressive. // Edgar Allen Poe’s stories are filled with portentous foreshadowing. // The author's portentous speech was long and tedious and peppered with anecdotes about brushes with fame. See the entry > Examples: “Let me begin with the rainstorm. My Much Better Half and I are having our kitchen and downstairs guest bathroom remodeled. ‘Don’t expect smooth sailing,’ we were forewarned. This proved a portentous metaphor because returning from my daily run I opened the front door and found myself in need of a boat. While I was out, a worker clogged and broke the toilet … and it runneth over continuously for an hour or more.” — Woody Woodburn, Ventura County (California) Star, 11 Aug. 2023 Did you know? “If it wasn’t for bad luck / You know I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” So sang Albert King on the 1967 song “Born Under a Bad Sign,” written by Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. and the MG’s) and soul singer William Bell. He may have been singing about the ominous portent of being born during an unfavorable astrological alignment, but the classic tune became a standard of the blues. Portents are also at the heart of the adjective portentous, which describes things forewarning future events—usually events of the bad luck variety. Both portent and portentous come from the Latin noun portentum, meaning “omen or sign.” Since entering English in the 15th century, portentous has picked up additional senses, including “grave, solemn, significant” (as in “burdened with making portentous decisions”), which was added to our dictionary in 1934. It’s more recently moved into less estimable semantic territory, describing both the pompous and the excessive.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 7, 2023 is: portentous • \por-TEN-tuss\  • adjective Portentous is a formal and literary term that describes something that gives a sign or warning that something (and usually something bad or unpleasant) is going to happen. It can also describe the pompous attitude or behavior of someone who is trying to seem important, serious, or impressive. // Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are filled with portentous foreshadowing. // The author's portentous speech was long and tedious and peppered with anecdotes about brushes with fame. See the entry > Examples: “Let me begin with the rainstorm. My Much Better Half and I are having our kitchen and downstairs guest bathroom remodeled. ‘Don’t expect smooth sailing,’ we were forewarned. This proved a portentous metaphor because returning from my daily run I opened the front door and found myself in need of a boat. While I was out, a worker clogged and broke the toilet … and it runneth over continuously for an hour or more.” — Woody Woodburn, Ventura County (California) Star, 11 Aug. 2023 Did you know? “If it wasn’t for bad luck / You know I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” So sang Albert King on the 1967 song “Born Under a Bad Sign,” written by Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. and the MG’s) and soul singer William Bell. He may have been singing about the ominous portent of being born during an unfavorable astrological alignment, but the classic tune became a standard of the blues. Portents are also at the heart of the adjective portentous, which describes things forewarning future events—usually events of the bad luck variety. Both portent and portentous come from the Latin noun portentum, meaning “omen or sign.” Since entering English in the 15th century, portentous has picked up additional senses, including “grave, solemn, significant” (as in “burdened with making portentous decisions”), which was added to our dictionary in 1934. It’s more recently moved into less estimable semantic territory, describing both the pompous and the excessive.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 6, 2023 is: demarcate • \dih-MAHR-kayt\  • verb To demarcate something is to fix or define its limits or edges. // Treaty negotiations are underway, and both parties have agreed to accept whatever boundaries are demarcated in that document. See the entry > Examples: "In the 15th century, farmers on the North Atlantic isle began to mold the severe ecosystem of its coastal plains, building thousands of small, soil-free vineyards and demarcating their boundaries with the black stones of its fiery past." — Shoshi Parks, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Aug. 2023 Did you know? It’s reasonable to assume that demarcate inspired the noun demarcation—many a noun has been formed by adding the suffix -ion to an existing verb. But in this case you'd also be wrong; demarcation came first, with the verb demarcate following as a back-formation. We can ultimately thank Spanish for both: the Spanish noun demarcación (from demarcar, "to delimit") was used in 1493 to name a meridian dividing New World territory between Spain and Portugal. (A Spanish-born pope chose a meridian that favored Spain greatly.) Centuries later, English speakers began calling this boundary the "line of demarcation," and eventually applied that phrase to other dividing lines as well. By the early 19th century, demarcation had been verbified to create demarcate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 5, 2023 is: aficionado • \uh-fish-ee-uh-NAH-doh\  • noun Aficionado is a synonym of devotee and refers to someone who both likes and knows a lot about a given interest or subject. // Mickey’s brother, an aficionado of jazz, was a regular at the downtown clubs and often bought new records on the day they were released. See the entry > Examples: "The love of coffee for Ezra Coffee founder Jessica Taylor blossomed early during a visit with her grandparents. 'I've been loving coffee ever since my sister and I started drinking it with our grandfather. We were seven and five years old,' recalls Taylor about how the sisters’ curiosity for the beverage their grandfather was drinking led to a whole new world of flavor. 'By the time our parents came to pick us up, we had our pinkies up, we had our little mugs, we were coffee aficionados,' laughs the entrepreneur, whose passion for java continued into adulthood." — Jocelyn Amador, CuisineNoirMag.com, 29 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Before there were nerds, geeks, stans, fanboys, or fangirls, there were aficionados. But not long before, relatively speaking. English borrowed aficionado in the early 1800s directly from Spanish, making a noun out of the past participle of the Spanish verb aficionar, which means "to inspire affection." Nerd, geek, and the rest can sometimes imply that the devotee in question is overdoing their ardor, but aficionado (which traces further back to the same Latin ancestor that gave us the English word affection) is a more neutral descriptor for someone with an abiding and thoughtful devotion to an interest or activity.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 4, 2023 is: splenetic • \splih-NET-ik\  • adjective Splenetic is a formal word that typically describes expressions of sharp annoyance and anger. // The newspaper publisher's splenetic editorials often struck fear into local politicians. See the entry > Examples: "A strange combination of intricate, almost sci-fi-inflected psychological thriller, splenetic social-breakdown broadside and two-hander (torture) chamber drama, it is an exercise in bravura filmmaking applied to a story so relentlessly grim you might wish it were a little less well-made, giving you an excuse to look away." — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 8 Sept. 2022 Did you know? To vent one’s spleen is to express anger. There are healthy ways of doing this, of course, but vent too much of your spleen, or vent it too often, and you may be accused of being splenetic. Both spleen and splenetic trace back to the Latin word splen, which refers to the bodily organ responsible for storing and filtering blood, among other functions. So why the association with anger? In early Western physiology, a person's physical qualities and mental disposition were believed to be determined by the proportion of four bodily humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The last of these was believed to be secreted by the spleen, and to cause feelings and dispositions ranging from intense sadness (melancholia) to anger and violent temper—hence splenetic. In later years, the "melancholy" sense fell out of use (and the theory of the humors was discredited), but the "angry" sense of splenetic remains with us today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 3, 2023 is: faze • \FAYZ\  • verb To faze someone is to disturb their composure. Faze is a synonym of disconcert and daunt. // My grandfather was a stolid individual who was not easily fazed by life's troubles. See the entry > Examples: "The Patriots apparently weren’t fazed that their 6-2, 185-pound receiver reportedly had the thinnest wrists in the 2022 draft at 6⅛ inches." — Ben Volin, The Boston Globe, 8 Aug. 2023 Did you know? If you're hazy on faze, let us filter out the fuzz. Faze (not to be confused with phase) first appeared in English in the early 1800s with the same meaning we give it today: to disturb the composure of. Its appearance came centuries after the works of Shakespeare and Chaucer were penned, but both of those authors were familiar with the word's ancient parent, the now-rare verb feeze, which has been in use since the days of Old English (in the form fēsian), when it meant "to drive away" or "to put to flight." By the 1400s, it was also being used with the meaning "to frighten or put into a state of alarm," a sense close to that of the modern faze. While it is possible to use faze in constructions like "I felt fazed by the prospect of starting at a new school," it more often appears with negation, as in "it didn’t faze her a bit” or “nothing fazes him."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 2, 2023 is: confection • \kun-FEK-shun\  • noun Confection usually refers to a sweet prepared food item made to be eaten as a treat, but it can also refer to the act or process of confecting something—in other words, preparing or assembling it. In addition, confection can refer to a medical preparation usually made with sugar, syrup, or honey; a work of fine or elaborate craftmanship; or a light but entertaining theatrical, cinematic, or literary work. // Their mouths watered at the sight of the delicious cakes and other confections. See the entry > Examples: “He’s famous for liking corn, but right now, all Tariq can think about is cotton candy. The spun sugary confection was awaiting him in the kitchen, an award he said was promised to him by his mother Jessica for sitting through an interview with USA TODAY.” — Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 11 June 2023 Did you know? As a wise blue monster with a famous sweet tooth once noted, “c” is for cookie. And sure, that’s good enough for us, but sometimes the moment calls for a wide variety of delectables, not just cookies. In such times, you might remember that “c” is also for confection. Confection is a word that refers to something confected—that is, put together—from several different ingredients or elements. Often confections are sweet and edible, but confection can also be used to refer to a finely worked piece of craftsmanship. In other words, the lacy box containing chocolate confections can be a confection itself. Tracing back to the Latin verb conficere (“to carry out, perform, make, bring about, collect, bring to completion”), confection entered Middle English as the word confeccioun, meaning “preparation by mixing ingredients; something prepared by mixing, such as a medicine or dish of food,” and has since taken on additional, often figurative meanings in English in the ensuing centuries, as in “the beloved musical confection ‘C is for Cookie.’”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 1, 2023 is: echt • \EKHT\  • adjective Echt is an adjective used mostly in formal or literary speech and writing as a synonym of authentic, genuine, and true. // An echt New Englander wouldn’t dream of putting tomatoes in their clam chowder. See the entry > Examples: “There is a version of ‘Tao’—call it the best piece of theater we never saw—that would have featured [Philip] Glass playing piano alongside the action onstage. But early in development, the idea was shot down by his manager; Glass just didn’t have the time. But his score is a substantial, crucial contribution. This is late Glass—far from the echt Minimalist sound of ‘Glassworks’…” — Joshua Barone, The New York Times, 31 Mar. 2023 Did you know? When it comes to uncommon-but-nifty words, echt is true-blue, the real deal, the genuine article. (Actually it’s an adjective, not an article, of course—but you get the drift.) The earliest known use of echt—a synonym of true and genuine—in English is credited to playwright George Bernard Shaw, who used the word in a 1916 journal article. Shaw borrowed echt directly from German, but since then others have also adapted the Yiddish word ekht, meaning “true to form.” Both the German echt and Yiddish ekht share the same Middle High German source, both contributed to the English echt, and both, therefore, are the real (etymological) McCoy.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 30, 2023 is: palmy • \PAH-mee\  • adjective Palmy describes something that is flourishing or marked by prosperity, or something that is abounding in or bearing palms. // They knew her in her palmy days when she was living high. // They moved to a palmy suburb with lots of new homes and parks. See the entry > Examples: “The newspaper industry will survive, and golfers are in no danger of becoming an extinct species. Still, in both cases, the palmy days are probably long gone. Advertising revenues that largely sustained the press have been diverted to the upstart media of a digitized world, while the leisurely pace of golf proves increasingly out of step with the modern hurly-burly.” — James Gill, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 6 May 2022 Did you know? Our language became a smidge more prosperous the day palmy first waved “hello.” As the palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory, so did the word palm come to mean “victory” or “triumph” in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would employ palmy as a synonym for triumphant or flourishing in the tragedy Hamlet when the character Horatio speaks of the “palmy state of Rome / A little ere the mightiest Julius fell.” That use remains somewhat common, and English speakers have since dug back into palmy’s vegetal roots to develop the also familiar sense of “abounding in or bearing palms,” as in “palmy beaches.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 29, 2023 is: coax • \KOHKS\  • verb To coax a person or animal is to influence or persuade them to do something by talking in a gentle and friendly way. Coax can also be used when someone is working to bring about something desired with great perseverance and usually with considerable effort. // It took almost an hour to coax the cat down from the tree. // Our outdoor survival instructor taught us how to coax a fire to burn by blowing on it. See the entry > Examples: “We glimpse their lives through the eyes of Eva (Flomaria Papadaki), a young newcomer who’s joined the dance troupe after fleeing small-town life in Poland. … Eva is more inhibited than the others, and Kalia manages to slowly coax her out of her shell, showing her the ropes of a profession offering escape for both the dancers and their drunken spectators.” — Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Aug. 2023 Did you know? In days of yore, if you wanted to call someone a sap or a dupe, the word cokes was it, what you wanted, the real thing: to make a cokes of someone was to make a fool of them. This now-obsolete noun is believed to be the source of the verb coax. However, the earliest known sense of the verb, appearing in the late 16th century, was not “to make a fool of” (this meaning came later) but rather something sweeter: “to pet or caress; to treat lovingly.” As such an act of coaxing (or “cokesing”) was sometimes done for personal gain or favor, the word soon came to be used to refer to influencing or persuading people by kind acts or words. By the 19th century, the spelling cokes had fallen out of use, along with the meanings “to make a fool of” and “to treat lovingly.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 28, 2023 is: fervid • \FER-vid\  • adjective Fervid is a somewhat formal word describing people or things that express, or are expressive of, strong feelings. // Many of the movie franchise’s most fervid fans camped outside of theaters for days leading up to the new installment’s opening night. See the entry > Examples: “Unabashed pop groups with fervid teenage followings tend to get trivialized, at least in the media. They’re dismissed as being slick and calculated and superficial. But there’s a story in ‘Wham!,’ the new Netflix documentary about the quintessential pop duo of the 1980s, that testifies to what a chancy and audacious artist George Michael was even back in his teen-idol days.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 8 July 2023 Did you know? If you’ve ever felt as if your emotions were going to boil over, whether you were overly bubbly or, less happily, you needed to simmer down over something, you should have no trouble understanding the roots of fervid. Fervid comes from the Latin verb fervēre, meaning “to boil” or “to glow,” as well as, by extension, “to seethe” or “to be roused.” In English, this root gave us not only fervid but the similar-sounding and practically synonymous word fervent. But while fervid usually suggests warm emotion that is expressed in a spontaneous or feverish manner (as in “fervid basketball fans”), fervent is reserved for a kind of emotional warmth that is steady and sincere (as in “a fervent belief in human kindness”). Fervid fans of kimchi or sauerkraut (or fervent followers of anything fermented), may appreciate that fervēre is also the root of ferment.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 28, 2023 is: fervid • \FER-vid\  • adjective Fervid is a somewhat formal word describing people or things that express, or are expressive of, strong feelings. // Many of the movie franchise’s most fervid fans camped outside of theaters for days leading up to the new installment’s opening night. See the entry > Examples: “Unabashed pop groups with fervid teenage followings tend to get trivialized, at least in the media. They’re dismissed as being slick and calculated and superficial. But there’s a story in ‘Wham!,’ the new Netflix documentary about the quintessential pop duo of the 1980s, that testifies to what a chancy and audacious artist George Michael was even back in his teen-idol days.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 8 July 2023 Did you know? If you’ve ever felt as if your emotions were going to boil over, whether you were overly bubbly or, less happily, you needed to simmer down over something, you should have no trouble understanding the roots of fervid. Fervid comes from the Latin verb fervēre, meaning “to boil” or “to glow,” as well as, by extension, “to seethe” or “to be roused.” In English, this root gave us not only fervid but the similar-sounding and practically synonymous word fervent. But while fervid usually suggests warm emotion that is expressed in a spontaneous or feverish manner (as in “fervid basketball fans”), fervent is reserved for a kind of emotional warmth that is steady and sincere (as in “a fervent belief in human kindness”). Fervid fans of kimchi or sauerkraut (or fervent followers of anything fermented), may appreciate that fervēre is also the root of ferment.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 27, 2023 is: nepotism • \NEP-uh-tiz-um\  • noun Nepotism refers to favoritism based on kinship, and especially to the unfair practice of giving jobs and other favors to relatives. // It was strongly believed that nepotism played a role in helping Jessica get the sales manager position at her cousin's store. See the entry > Examples: "Venture to a certain corner of the Internet, and you’ll find an uncanny kind of social satire: that of the wishful work design. There’s the made-up meeting punctuality score, which tells you who among your invitees is most likely to show up to the brainstorm 10 minutes late. Or the fictitious LinkedIn nepotism disclosure, which adds a label to tell you which manager is actually just related to the boss." — Gabriela Riccardi, Quartz, 12 July 2023 Did you know? We happen to have neither Merriams nor Websters on our staff at Merriam-Webster, and familial connections to the company’s founders do not provide an advantage to job applicants. If it were otherwise, we might be accused of nepotism—that is, favoritism based on kinship, especially in professional contexts. English speakers have kept nepotism in the family since the late 1600s, having adopted it from the French, who were inspired by Gregorio Leti's 1667 book Il nipotismo di Roma (English title: The History of the Popes' Nephews). The book explores a practice introduced by Pope Sixtus IV: during his papacy in the late 15th century he granted many special favors to members of his family, in particular to his nephews. This practice of papal favoritism was carried on by his near successors. Today, nepotism is mostly associated with business and politics. In recent informal English use, the shortened form nepo has been hitched to the denigrating term baby to refer especially to celebrities who had a parent (or two) who were also in the entertainment industry.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 26, 2023 is: grok • \GRAHK\  • verb To grok something is to understand it both profoundly and intuitively. // She enjoyed the deep discussions in her metaphysics class that helped her grok some of the main themes of Western philosophy. See the entry > Examples: "The thing that marketing teams can’t fully grok is that TikTok interest is organic, growing like a mushroom, sending out spores that germinate and thread through existing cultural ephemera." — Chelsea G. Summers, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2022 Did you know? Grok may be the only English word that derives from Martian. Yes, we do mean the language of the planet Mars. No, we're not getting spacey; we've just ventured into the realm of science fiction. Grok was introduced in Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. The book's main character, Valentine Michael Smith, is a Martian-raised human who comes to Earth as an adult, bringing with him words from his native tongue and a unique perspective on the strange ways of earthlings. Grok was quickly adopted by the youth culture of America and has since peppered the vernacular of those who grok it.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 25, 2023 is: quorum • \KWOR-um\  • noun Quorum refers to the smallest number of people who must be present at a meeting in order for official decisions to be made. Broadly speaking, quorum may refer to any select group. // The organization's charter states that a quorum of at least seven board members must be present before any voting can take place. See the entry > Examples: "There has been criticism of several councillors not appearing at committee and council meetings over the last two years forcing some meetings to be cancelled because of a lack of quorum." — Kevin Werner, The Hamilton (Ontario) Mountain News, 14 July 2022 Did you know? It takes two drama queens to tango, three Nervous Nellies to change a lightbulb, and 218 U.S. House Representatives to constitute a formal meeting. Each of these minimums—especially the last one—may be described as a quorum. This word, which can be pluralized as quorums or quora, comes directly from the Latin word quorum, which translates as "of whom." At one time, this Latin quorum was used in the wording of the commissions granting power to justices of the peace in England. Later, when it became an English noun, quorum initially referred to the number of justices of the peace who had to be present to constitute a legally sufficient bench. That sense is now rare, and today quorum is used to refer to the minimum number of people required to be present at a meeting in order for official business to take place. It can also be used more broadly to mean simply "a select group."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 24, 2023 is: lionize • \LYE-uh-nyze\  • verb To lionize someone is to treat them as a person of great interest or importance. // While her name was not attached to her books in her lifetime (she published anonymously), Jane Austen continues two centuries hence to be lionized as one of the English language's greatest novelists. See the entry > Examples: “What I love about this memoir, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2019, is its incredible sense of place. [Sarah M.] Broom’s story is submerged in one of the most lionized—and complex—cities in America: New Orleans. More specifically, she focuses on New Orleans East and the yellow shotgun house that the author’s steadfast mother, Ivory Mae, bought in 1961, and where Broom grew up as the youngest of 12 siblings.” — Isaac Fitzgerald, The Atlantic, 10 Aug. 2022 Did you know? Across time and across cultures—as evidenced from Chauvet-Pont d’Arc’s paintings to The Lion King—lions have captured people’s imaginations. Though the big cats themselves are fascinatingly complex, it’s perhaps no surprise that humans have long projected qualities of bravery and regality upon the proverbial “king of the beasts.” It is precisely those and similar admirable qualities that led, in the 18th century, to lion being used for a person who is similarly well-regarded, especially after a long and distinguished career in a particular field, as in “lion of the Senate,” or “literary lion.” This sense of lion imbues the verb lionize, which first appeared in English in the early 19th century to apply to acts of treating someone as, perhaps, deserving of roaring applause.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 23, 2023 is: tenebrous • \TEN-uh-brus\  • adjective Tenebrous is a formal word that is often used as a synonym of gloomy. It also can be used to describe dark, unlit places (as in “the tenebrous abyss”) or things that are difficult to understand (as in “a tenebrous tangle of lies”). // The neighborhood children made sure never to approach the abandoned mansion, which sat tenebrous and foreboding at the top of the hill. // A horror film seems incomplete without someone running through a tenebrous forest or alley. See the entry > Examples: “On the heels of Greig Fraser’s spectacular work on Dune, the cinematographer gives the film a moody, tenebrous look to match the tortured pit of Batman’s soul, and production designer James Chinlund’s world-building is first-rate, weaving together elements from real cities and sets to form a Gotham that resembles New York while establishing its own gritty, gothic identity, pulsing with menace and mystery.” — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Feb. 2022 Did you know? Tenebrous can mean both “obscure” and “murky,” but its history is crystal clear. Etymologists know that the word comes from the Latin noun tenebrae, meaning “darkness.” Tenebrous has been used in English since the 15th century, and in subsequent centuries has been joined by some interesting and even less common relations. Tenebrionid is the name that may be given to any of at least 20,000 species of mostly nocturnal beetles, also called darkling beetles, many of whom love inhabiting dark places. Tenebrism refers to a style of painting—associated especially with the Italian painter Caravaggio—in which most of the figures are engulfed in shadow while some are dramatically illuminated by concentrated light. And let’s not forget the terrific tenebrific, a tenebrous synonym.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 22, 2023 is: mesmerize • \MEZ-muh-ryze\  • verb Mesmerize means "to hold the attention of someone entirely; to interest or amaze someone so much that nothing else is seen or noticed." The word is often used in the phrase "be mesmerized." // The crowd was mesmerized by the flawlessly synchronous movements of the acrobats. See the entry > Examples: "Yep, Ruth [Handler] ended up naming two of her iconic dolls after her kids. The idea for Barbie and Ken stemmed from a family Europe trip in 1956.... Barbara, then still a teenager, saw a doll that looked like an adult woman in a store window in Switzerland and was mesmerized." — Korin Miller, Women's Health, 21 July 2023 Did you know? Experts can’t agree on whether Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was a quack or a genius, but all concede that the Swabian physician's name is the source of the word mesmerize. In his day, Mesmer was the toast of Paris, where he enjoyed the support of notables including Queen Marie Antoinette. He treated patients with therapeutic procedures (called, appropriately enough, mesmerism) involving what he claimed was a mysterious force termed animal magnetism. (Many believe that mesmerism was what we now call hypnotism). Accordingly, the verb mesmerize was first used to mean "to subject to mesmerism" before broadening to be synonymous with hypnotize, and later to mean "to amaze or captivate."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 21, 2023 is: regimen • \REJ-uh-mun\  • noun Regimen refers to a plan or set of rules about food, exercise, etc., designed to make someone become or stay healthy. // Sherry’s personal trainer at the gym started her on a workout regimen of 30 minutes on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes of weight training. See the entry > Examples: “For those with natural hair, taking on a protective hairstyle is more than an expectation, it’s a symbolic rite of passage. ... That said, tucking your hair into a protective style is not an excuse to completely disregard all hair-care practices. If anything, it's the exact opposite: Establishing an effective hair-care regimen is essential to maximizing and maintaining a protective style, so once it’s removed, both the scalp and hair are healthy and happy.” — Janelle Sessoms, Fashionista.com, 16 June 2023 Did you know? Being but humble lexicographers, we cannot say whether an apple a day truly keeps the doctor away, but as far as regimens go, one could do a lot worse than snackin’ on a McIntosh. Regimen, which usually refers to a system of rules or guidelines—often for living a healthy life or taking a regular dose of exercise—comes ultimately from a Latin verb, regere, meaning “to direct.” Regere led in apple-pie order to the English word regimen, first by way of the Latin noun regimen, meaning “steering” or “control,” and then via the Medieval Latin regimen, referring to a set of rules. Other regere descendants fell further from the tree, including correct, erect, region, rule, and surge. Be sure not to confuse regimen with another of its kin, regiment, which refers to a military unit, as doing so could upset the apple cart.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 20, 2023 is: churlish • \CHUR-lish\  • adjective Churlish is a formal word that means “irritable and rude.” // It would be churlish not to congratulate the winning team because we lost the match. See the entry > Examples: “‘Ted Lasso’ has gradually become more of a light drama than a comedy, but it’s such a pleasant one that it seems churlish to even point this out. In that dramatic vein, the show's depiction of Nate is more compelling than I might have anticipated. The series has never been particularly interested in validating the man-child archetype, but it is interested in how insecurity can manifest itself into toxic behavior and Nate is the epitome of that.” — Nina Metz, The Chicago Tribune, 15 Mar. 2023 Did you know? In Old English, the word ceorl referred to a free peasant—someone who was neither part of the nobility nor enslaved or in debt. In Anglo-Saxon England, which lasted roughly from the 5th to 11th centuries, ceorls had many rights that peasants of lower social status did not, and a few even rose to the rank of thane. However, as most ceorls were driven into the class of unfree villeins over the centuries, especially following the Norman Conquest, the connotation of the word ceorl—spelled cherl in Middle English and then finally churl—diminished as well, eventually coming to mean “a lowly peasant” and later “a rude, ill-bred person.” Similarly, churlish began in the form ceorlisc in Old English as a simple descriptor of someone with the rank of ceorl, but today it describes a boorish person, or their rude and insensitive behavior.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 19, 2023 is: pontificate • \pahn-TIF-uh-kayt\  • verb To pontificate is to speak or express an opinion about something in a pompous or dogmatic way. // Stan loves to hear himself talk and will often pontificate on even the most trivial issues. See the entry > Examples: "Fact is, you can find good pizza from Memphis to Salt Lake City. But you have to look a lot harder than you do in Orlando. So, stop with this nonsense already. Similarly, let's abandon the absolutes. This place is THE BEST. That place is THE WORST. These things are entirely subjective and ranted about on the internet by a small but exhaustingly vocal contingent of zealots, many of whom I suspect enjoy pontificating far more than they enjoy pizza." — Amy Drew Thompson, The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel, 8 June 2023 Did you know? We hate to drone on, so we’ll give you the TL;DR on pontificate. In ancient Rome, a pontifex (plural pontifices) was a member of an important council of priests. With the rise of Catholicism, the title pontifex was transferred to the Pope and to Catholic bishops. From pontifex, by way of Medieval Latin, comes the English verb pontificate, which in the early 1800s meant “to officiate as a pontiff”—that is, as a bishop or Pope. (Note that the noun pontificate), which refers to the state, office, or term of office of a pontiff had been borrowed directly from Latin in the 15th century.) By the late 1800s, pontificate was also being used derisively for lay individuals who spoke as if they had the authority of a member of the clergy. To this day the word connotes an air of spurious superiority—one might consider this sense of pontificate to be the spiritual forerunner of mansplain.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 18, 2023 is: zenith • \ZEE-nith\  • noun Zenith refers to the strongest or most successful period of time for a person or thing. // At the zenith of her music career in the early 2000s, she released her best-selling album to date. See the entry > Examples: "Once deemed ‘one of the most underrated musicians in rock history’ by David Bowie, John Cale is best known as the viola-scraping Velvet Underground co-founder who grounded the group in the avant-garde. But those years hardly marked a creative zenith for Cale. Since leaving the band in 1968, he has released more than a dozen solo albums, ranging in style from orchestral pop to new wave and punk; collaborated with luminaries like Patti Smith and Brian Eno; and scored numerous films." — Olivia Horn, The New York Times, 18 Aug. 2023 Did you know? When you reach the zenith, you're at the top, the pinnacle, the summit, the peak. Zenith developed from an Arabic phrase meaning "the way over one's head," and then traveled through Old Spanish, Medieval Latin, and Middle French before arriving in English. As long ago as the 1300s, English speakers used zenith to name the highest point in the celestial heavens, directly overhead. By the 1600s, zenith was being used for other high points as well. The celestial term is often contrasted with nadir, which refers to the point that is vertically downward from the observer (imagine a line going through the Earth from the observer's feet and out the other side into the sky). Figuratively, nadir simply means "the lowest point."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 17, 2023 is: shofar • \SHOH-far\  • noun A shofar is the horn of an animal (usually a ram) blown as a trumpet by the ancient Hebrews in battle and during religious observances. It is used in modern Judaism especially during Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur. // As a child, Eli's favorite part of the High Holidays was the sounding of the shofar. See the entry > Examples: "Synagogues will also blow a shofar, a curved ram's horn, during Rosh Hashanah. There are many interpretations of the shofar’s meaning. One is that it represents the biblical story told in Genesis, in which Abraham sacrifices a ram instead of his son, Isaac. Rabbis have also interpreted the loud blast of the shofar as a wake-up call for the new year. [Rabbi Charlie] Schwartz called the sounding of the shofar 'the pinnacle of the Rosh Hashanah service in synagogues.'" — Marina Pitofsky, USA Today, 2 Sept. 2021 Did you know? One of the shofar's original uses was to proclaim the Jubilee year (a year of emancipation of enslaved Jews and restoration of alienated lands to their former owners). Today, it is mainly used in synagogues during the High Holidays. It is blown daily, except on Shabbat, during the month of Elul (the 12th month of the civil year or the 6th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar), and is sounded a number of times during the Rosh Hashanah services, and again at the end of the last service (known as neilah) on Yom Kippur. The custom is to sound the shofar in several series that alternate shorter notes resembling sobbing and wailing with longer unbroken blasts.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 16, 2023 is: mellifluous • \muh-LIFF-luh-wus\  • adjective Mellifluous is an adjective used in formal speech and writing to describe things with a smooth, flowing sound. It can also be used to mean “filled with something (such as honey) that sweetens,” as in “mellifluous confections.” // Though not so enchanting as the dawn chorus of early spring, Sasha looks forward to the fall, when the woods ring again with mellifluous birdsong. See the entry > Examples: “‘Toni Morrison: Sites of Memory,’ is an homage to the late Pulitzer Prize-winner, but also a walking meditation. The walls act as an altar—the writings, scripts, maps, drafts, letters and photos are thoughtfully placed assemblages that carry Morrison’s spirit. The author’s mellifluous voice, though subtle, echoes throughout the exhibition space, as an edited interview of Morrison at Boston College plays on repeat.” — Felice León, Essence, 2 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Have a bee in your bonnet to learn some mellifluous facts? Sweet—we won’t make you comb for them. Mellifluous comes from two Latin roots: the noun mel, meaning “honey,” and the verb fluere, meaning “to flow.” These linguistic components flowed smoothly together into the Late Latin word mellifluus, then continued on into the Middle English word mellyfluous, before crystallizing into the adjective we employ today. As it has for centuries, mellifluous typically and figuratively describes sound, and is often at the tip of the tongues of writers who proclaim that a voice or melody is smooth like molasses (molasses, like mellifluous, is a descendant of the Latin mel). But mellifluous can also be used to describe edibles and potables, such as wine, with a pronounced note of sweetness.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 15, 2023 is: demure • \dih-MYOOR\  • adjective When describing something observed, such as clothing or an attitude, demure means "not attracting or demanding a lot of attention," making it a synonym of reserved and modest. When used to describe a person—it's usually applied to a girl or woman—it typically means "quiet and polite," but it can also describe someone who puts on a show of false modesty, making it a synonym of coy. // It's an elegant gown with a demure neckline. // The girl greeted her parents' dinner party guests with a demure curtsy. See the entry > Examples: "After his wife's near-fall, Harry protectively stopped for a second to make sure she was okay, before they carried on walking to the ceremony. The former Suits actress, who looked elegant and demure in a blue maxi dress, laughed off the near mishap and carried on walking." — Emmy Griffiths, Hello Magazine, 8 June 2023 Did you know? In the nearly seven centuries that demure has been in use, its meaning has only shifted slightly. While it began solely as a descriptive term for people of quiet modesty and sedate reserve—those who don't draw attention to themselves, whether because of a shy nature or determined self-control—it came to be applied also to those whose modesty and reservation is more affectation than sincere expression. While demure sounds French and entered the language at a time when the native tongue of England was borrowing many French words from the Normans, the etymological evidence requires that we exercise restraint: the word's origin remains obscure.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 14, 2023 is: harbinger • \HAHR-bun-jer\  • noun A harbinger is something that foreshadows, or gives an early indication of, something that will happen in the future. // When the star running back went down with an injury in the team’s first game, it turned out to be the harbinger of a disappointing season. See the entry > Examples: “Whether a subtle whiff of campfire on a cool autumn breeze or the less-than-subtle lure of a pumpkin spice latte, the spicy, savory harbingers of fall spark a shift in the food and wine we crave.” — Anna Lee Iijima, The Chicago Tribune, 14 Sept. 2022 Did you know? In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, four hobbits—pursued by riders in black—seek safe harbor in the village of Bree. Unbeknownst to the hobbits, the innkeeper of The Prancing Pony, Butterbur, was made aware of their potential arrival by the wizard Gandalf some months prior (“... I was asked to look out for hobbits of the Shire ...”). When you consider the oldest, now-obsolete definitions of harbinger, there are multiple harbingers in this section of the tale. The first is Butterbur himself: coming from the Anglo-French herberge, meaning “lodgings,” harbinger was used as long ago as the 12th century to mean “one who provides lodgings.” Later on, harbinger was also used for a person sent ahead of a main party to seek lodgings. Those sent ahead would announce the approach of those following behind (the hobbits did not send Gandalf to Bree, but he did still herald their eventual arrival—making him a harbinger of sorts), which is how our modern sense of harbinger came to be used for someone or something which foretells a future event—such as how the hobbits’ arrival is a harbinger of the evil pursuing them and threatening all of Middle Earth.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 13, 2023 is: abstain • \ub-STAYN\  • verb To abstain from something is to choose to not do or have that thing. Abstain can also mean specifically "to choose not to vote." // The doctor insisted that Drew abstain from eating for at least 12 hours before his blood test. // Ten members voted for the proposal, six members voted against it, and two abstained. See the entry > Examples: "In this impassioned plea to restore native ecosystems, landscape designer Reynolds (The Garden Awakening) sets out to recruit green 'warriors' to build ARKs, or 'Acts of Restorative Kindness,' on their land. ... Those looking to turn their gardens into ARKs should overcome 'the shame of having a messy garden'; abstain from using fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides; cut back on concrete usage in landscaping so as to 'let the earth breathe as much as possible'; and plant native flora." — Publisher's Weekly, 1 Aug. 2022 Did you know? If you abstain, you're consciously, and usually with effort, choosing to hold back from doing something that you would like to do. Lucky for you, we’d never abstain from sharing a good bit of word history. Abstain traces back through Middle English and Anglo-French to the Latin verb abstinēre, which combines the prefix ab- ("from, away, off") with tenēre, a Latin verb meaning "to hold." (Spanish speakers might recognize tenēre’s influence in the Spanish verb tener, meaning "to have, hold, or take.") Tenēre has many offspring in English; other descendants include contain, detain, maintain, obtain, pertain, retain, and sustain, as well as some words that don’t end in -tain, such as tenant and tenacious. Abstain, like many of its cousins, has been used by English speakers since at least the 14th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 12, 2023 is: fallible • \FAL-uh-bul\  • adjective Fallible means “capable of making mistakes or being wrong.” // We can be too hard on ourselves at times and often need gentle reminders that everyone is fallible. See the entry > Examples: “AI is fallible. We see biased responses. ... This is because of how AI models are trained—in other words, it’s because of the data. Skewed data will lead to skewed results and misrepresentations.” — Kevin Collins, Forbes, 8 June 2023 Did you know? “Humanum est errare” is a Latin expression that translates as “To err is human.” Of course, cynics might say that it is also human to deceive. The history of the word fallible simultaneously recognizes both of these character flaws. In modern usage, fallible refers to one’s ability to make mistakes, but it descends from the Latin verb fallere, which means “to deceive.” Fallible has been used to describe the potential for error since at least the 15th century. Other descendants of fallere in English, all of which actually predate fallible, include fallacy (the earliest, now obsolete, meaning was “guile, trickery”), fault, false, and even fjail. Whoops, we mean fail.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 11, 2023 is: injunction • \in-JUNK-shun\  • noun Injunction refers to an order from a court of law that says something must be done or must not be done. // The group has obtained an injunction to prevent the demolition of the building. See the entry > Examples: “While a district court rejected the group's request for an emergency injunction at the end of June, the Fifth Circuit obliged—blocking the new rule from being carried out for the time being.” — Ayelet Sheffey, Business Insider, 7 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Injunction, injunction, what’s your function? When it first joined the English language in the 1400s, injunction referred to an authoritative command, and in the following century it developed a legal second sense applying specifically to a court order. Both of these meanings are still in use. Injunction ultimately comes from the Latin verb injungere (“to enjoin,” i.e., to issue an authoritative command or order), which in turn is based on jungere, meaning “to join”: it is joined as a jungere descendant by several words including junction, conjunction, enjoin, and join.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 10, 2023 is: orotund • \OR-uh-tund\  • adjective Orotund is a formal word used as a synonym of sonorous to describe something—usually a voice—marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound. It can also be used disapprovingly to mean "pompous" or "bombastic." // As a child, she loved listening to her grandfather’s rich, orotund baritone as he told stories of his childhood growing up overseas. // Every year the mayor gives a version of the same overblown, orotund speech, full of fancy promises they never seem to keep. See the entry > Examples: "The interplay of warring voices informs the thesis of Pan’s project. The abstract structure, at least compared to a traditional opera, piercingly emphasizes the beauty of its arrangements. Across the seamless span of 'A Found Lament' and 'A Tender Accent,' swooning sighs and orotund mezzo-soprano are backed by an almost melodic drone, and high-pitched voices cry out, '害怕! (Fear!),' to protest the minatory wall of mechanical sound encroaching on them." — Zhenzhen Yu, Pitchfork, 22 Jan. 2022 Did you know? An experiment: first breathe in deeply, then try to sing the strongest, lowest note that you can, at the utmost floor of your register. How lovely. Now, what vowel did you sing for your one-syllable song? We’ll bet you a skillet full of bacon it was o. Why? Shaping one’s mouth into an o-shape is pretty much a surefire way to produce an orotund or resonant sound, that is, one that is full, strong, and loud. Try the same exercise with a long e sound, as in sleep, and see (or hear) what we mean. Orotund comes from the Latin phrase ore rotundo, literally meaning "with round mouth." It was adopted into English in the late 18th century to describe the strength of one’s vocal delivery but has since picked up an additional sense of "pompous" or "bombastic" to describe inflated speech that may be full of sound and fury, yet signifies nothing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 9, 2023 is: bellwether • \BEL-WEH-ther\  • noun Bellwether refers to someone or something that leads others or shows what will happen in the future—in other words, a leader or a trendsetter. // She was known as a bellwether of fashion because she was always one step ahead of the runways and magazines. See the entry > Examples: “To shape a subjective and experiential cinema between the wilds of 1960s Haiti and a contemporary French boarding school—the blackest of nights, the comfiest of bourgeois trappings—constitutes a remarkable achievement. If there will be a future cinema indebted to Twin Peaks season three, Zombi Child’s our bellwether.” — Nick Newman, The Film Stage, 22 Dec. 2020 Did you know? Because it suggests the act of forecasting, one might be inclined to think that bellwether has something to do with weather. But the wether in bellwether has nothing to do with meteorology. Instead, to learn whither wether, we must head to the sheep farm. We usually think of sheep more as followers than leaders, but in a flock one sheep must lead the way. Since long ago, it has been common practice for shepherds to hang a bell around the neck of one sheep in their flock, thereby designating it the lead sheep. This animal was historically called the bellwether, a word formed by a combination of the Middle English words belle (meaning “bell”) and wether (a noun that refers to a male sheep, and today specifically to a castrated male sheep). It eventually followed that bellwether would come to refer to someone who takes initiative or who actively establishes a trend that is taken up by others. This usage first appeared in English in the 15th century and has remained in the language ever since.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 8, 2023 is: redound • \rih-DOWND\  • verb Redound is a formal word that when paired with to means “to have a particular result.” It is often used in one of two idioms: “It redounds to someone's credit/honor” is used to say that a person deserves credit/respect for having done something. “Redound to the advantage of” means “to benefit (someone or something).” Redound is also sometimes used as a synonym of accrue and reflect. // It redounds to his credit that he worked so hard to prevent this crisis. // We need to be aware that this new policy may redound to the advantage of our competitors. See the entry > Examples: “Making mass transit more affordable and better utilized reduces hardship and its attendant costly ills while boosting air quality and public health. This investment in the health and well-being of those with the least resources in our county will redound to everyone's benefit.” — Dawn Plummer, The Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Post-Gazette, 12 Apr. 2022 Did you know? A rising tide, as they say, lifts all boats. Or to be redundant: a redounding tide undulates such that the surrounding water elevates every pontoon. This latter sentence—in addition to featuring five words with some relationship to the Latin word for “wave,” unda (redundant, redound, undulate, surround, and water)—highlights the earliest and now-archaic meaning of redound, “to swell or overflow,” which entered English in the 14th century. Since then, additional uses of redound have abounded (abound being another unda relation), all containing ripples, however faint, of the original aqueous meaning. When an action or accomplishment redounds to someone’s credit or honor, for example, it reflects positively back on them the way a wave produced by someone jumping into a pool bounces back to the jumper. And when something redounds to someone’s advantage, one might say that it helps by accruing like, well, a rising tide.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 8, 2023 is: redound • \rih-DOWND\  • verb Redound is a formal word that when paired with to means “to have a particular result.” It is often used in one of two idioms: “It redounds to someone's credit/honor” is used to say that a person deserves credit/respect for having done something. “Redound to the advantage of” means “to benefit (someone or something).” Redound is also sometimes used as a synonym of accrue and reflect. // It redounds to his credit that he worked so hard to prevent this crisis. // We need to be aware that this new policy may redound to the advantage of our competitors. See the entry > Examples: “Making mass transit more affordable and better utilized reduces hardship and its attendant costly ills while boosting air quality and public health. This investment in the health and well-being of those with the least resources in our county will redound to everyone's benefit.” — Dawn Plummer, The Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Post-Gazette, 12 Apr. 2022 Did you know? A rising tide, as they say, lifts all boats. Or to be redundant: a redounding tide undulates such that the surrounding water elevates every pontoon. This latter sentence—in addition to featuring five words with some relationship to the Latin word for “wave,” unda (redundant, redound, undulate, surround, and water)—highlights the earliest and now-archaic meaning of redound, “to swell or overflow,” which entered English in the 14th century. Since then, additional uses of redound have abounded (abound being another unda relation), all containing ripples, however faint, of the original aqueous meaning. When an action or accomplishment redounds to someone’s credit or honor, for example, it reflects positively back on them the way a wave produced by someone jumping into a pool bounces back to the jumper. And when something redounds to someone’s advantage, one might say that it helps by accruing like, well, a rising tide.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 7, 2023 is: disingenuous • \dis-in-JEN-yuh-wuss\  • adjective Disingenuous is a formal word that describes things, such as speech or behavior, that give a false appearance of being honest or sincere. Similarly, a person who is being disingenuous may seem sincere, but is in fact only pretending to be open and candid. // Her recent expressions of concern about the community center closing are disingenuous at best because she stands to benefit financially when the property is redeveloped. See the entry > Examples: “You know those one-line reviews on Amazon listings that don’t quite seem legitimate? Like the ones that rate a product five stars and say something incredibly vague, like “This is such a great item,” without expanding on any specifics? Well, that’s just one type of fake feedback that the FTC wants to crack down on. The FTC’s proposed rule seeks to ban several different types of disingenuous reviews and would not just punish the companies that use them but also the brokers that falsify feedback.” — Emma Roth, TheVerge.com, 30 June 2023 Did you know? To be disingenuous is to feign sincerity—to pretend you are speaking genuinely and honestly while concealing an ulterior motive. Similarly, a disingenuous remark might contain a hint of truth, but it is delivered with the intent to deceive or to serve some hidden purpose. While not currently defined in our dictionary, the internet term sealioning might also shed some light on the meaning of disingenuous, especially if you’ve ever been dragged into an online argument with a stranger whose true purpose is to exhaust you and erode your goodwill. As media critic Anita Sarkeesian wrote for Marie Claire magazine, “Sealioning is when an uninvited stranger pops into your conversation and peppers you with unsolicited and insincere questions. The sealion politely demands evidence for even the most mundane or self-evident statements and insists that you justify your opinions until he’s satisfied—which he never is, since he’s asking questions in bad faith.” In other words: textbook disingenuous behavior.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 6, 2023 is: pareidolia • \pair-eye-DOH-lee-uh\  • noun Pareidolia refers to the tendency to perceive a specific and often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. // For those especially prone to pareidolia, a simple piece of toast can get distracting. See the entry > Examples: “A key to interpersonal interactions is the ability to read facial expressions, which is why we are hardwired to recognise faces and often believe to see them even in random objects (this is called face pareidolia). Just as with faces, recognising social dynamics is largely innate and effortless.” — Damian K. F. Pang, Psychology Today, 14 May 2023 Did you know? If you’ve ever spotted an image of a dog or a shoe in the clouds, you’ve exhibited what is called pareidolia, the tendency to perceive a meaningful image in a random pattern. Pareidolia emerged in English in 1962, borrowed from the German word Pareidolie, itself a combination of the Greek prefix par-, the Greek noun eídōlon (“image, reflection”), and the German suffix -ie. But although the word may be relatively new to English speakers, the concept is not. During the Renaissance, for example, artists such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo—who painted collections of fruits, vegetables, and other objects to look like human portraits—used pareidolia as a technique in their work, while Leonardo da Vinci once wrote, “… if you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills.” So the next time you see the man or even a toad in the moon, you can think of your kinship with Da Vinci.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 5, 2023 is: ambiguous • \am-BIG-yuh-wus\  • adjective To describe something as ambiguous is to say that it can be understood in more than one way or that it has more than one possible meaning. // We were confused by the ambiguous wording of his message. See the entry > Examples: “There are a lot of reasons for medical errors: inexperienced caregivers; ambiguous symptoms; understaffed hospitals, underlying conditions.” — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 26 July 2023 Did you know? Ambiguous may highlight the vague and obscure, but its origins are as clear as a bell. This word comes from the Latin verb ambigō or ambigere, meaning “to be undecided; to dispute,” which in turn combines amb- (“on both sides”) with agere (“to be in motion”). Ambi- is a prefix to many English words denoting two or more options, such as ambivalent, ambidextrous, and ambient. Similar prefixes include bi- (as in bicentennial), di- (as in dialect), and multi- (as in multiverse).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 4, 2023 is: gauntlet • \GAWNT-lut\  • noun Gauntlet was first used in English to refer to the reinforced glove worn with a suit of armor in the Middle Ages. Gauntlet later came to refer to any long, heavy glove worn to protect the hand, as well as to an open challenge to an argument, fight, competition, etc., usually in the common phrase “throw down the gauntlet.” // In marketing the product this way, the company has thrown down the gauntlet to its top two competitors. See the entry > Examples: “WGA [Writers Guild of America] and SAG [Screen Actors Guild] sought a residual formula that would give standardization and certainty to creators and performers. The talent, a spokesman for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said in 1960, is ‘entitled to get a portion of all this money that is floating around. It is as simple as that. Where would everybody be without talent?’ The WGA threw down the gauntlet first. On Jan. 16, 1960, citing ‘a consistently uncompromising attitude on the part of producers,’ WGA president Curtis Kenyon, a former screenwriter now toiling in television, called a ‘two-pronged’ strike against both film and television production.” — Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 July 2023 Did you know? There’s no reason to treat the word gauntlet with kid gloves, so let’s go straight to the punch: gauntlet (which comes from the Middle French word gantelet, the diminutive of gant, meaning “glove”) first referred to the reinforced glove of a suit of armor, but today it’s mostly encountered in figurative phrases, such as “throw down the gauntlet” and “pick up the gauntlet,” that arose from the conventions of medieval combat. To challenge someone to combat, a knight would throw his glove at another knight’s feet. The second knight would pick the glove up if he intended to accept the challenge, in which case a jousting match might ensue. Accordingly, to throw down the gauntlet is to issue an open challenge, while to pick up the gauntlet is to accept one. (The gauntlet that means “severe trial,” or “ordeal,” often used in the phrase “run the gauntlet,” is an alteration of gantelope, a word that originates from Swedish gata, meaning “lane” or “way.”)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 4, 2023 is: gauntlet • \GAWNT-lut\  • noun Gauntlet was first used in English to refer to the reinforced glove worn with a suit of armor in the Middle Ages. Gauntlet later came to refer to any long, heavy glove worn to protect the hand, as well as to an open challenge to an argument, fight, competition, etc., usually in the common phrase “throw down the gauntlet.” // In marketing the product this way, the company has thrown down the gauntlet to its top two competitors. See the entry > Examples: “WGA [Writers Guild of America] and SAG [Screen Actors Guild] sought a residual formula that would give standardization and certainty to creators and performers. The talent, a spokesman for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said in 1960, is ‘entitled to get a portion of all this money that is floating around. It is as simple as that. Where would everybody be without talent?’ The WGA threw down the gauntlet first. On Jan. 16, 1960, citing ‘a consistently uncompromising attitude on the part of producers,’ WGA president Curtis Kenyon, a former screenwriter now toiling in television, called a ‘two-pronged’ strike against both film and television production.” — Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 July 2023 Did you know? There’s no reason to treat the word gauntlet with kid gloves, so let’s go straight to the punch: gauntlet (which comes from the Middle French word gantelet, the diminutive of gant, meaning “glove”) first referred to the reinforced glove of a suit of armor, but today it’s mostly encountered in figurative phrases, such as “throw down the gauntlet” and “pick up the gauntlet,” that arose from the conventions of medieval combat. To challenge someone to combat, a knight would throw his glove at another knight’s feet. The second knight would pick the glove up if he intended to accept the challenge, in which case a jousting match might ensue. Accordingly, to throw down the gauntlet is to issue an open challenge, while to pick up the gauntlet is to accept one. (The gauntlet that means “severe trial,” or “ordeal,” often used in the phrase “run the gauntlet,” is an alteration of gantelope, a word that originates from Swedish gata, meaning “lane” or “way.”)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 3, 2023 is: upbraid • \up-BRAYD\  • verb To upbraid someone is to speak to them in an angry or critical way in response to something they have done wrong—in other words, to scold them. // The teacher upbraided the class after discovering the chalkboard erasers had been clapped all over the walls. See the entry > Examples: “Shot mostly in black-and-white, with amusing bits of animation included (the scene in which Troyal is upbraided for ordering a steak well-done is a quirky comedic highlight), this movie gets better the more it strays from its real-life models and into hazy hallucinatory American weirdness.” — Glenn Kenny, The New York Times, 7 Apr. 2023 Did you know? First things first: do not confuse upbraid with topknot lest you be upbraided for it. Topknot is a noun referring to a hairstyle, while upbraid is a verb (and an ancient one at that) meaning “to criticize or scold severely.” However, it may soothe your pride to know that the braid in upbraid likely comes from the same source as our hirsutal verb braid, meaning “to do up (the hair) by interweaving three or more strands.” That source is the Old English word bregdan, which could be used to mean “to snatch,” “to move suddenly,” or “to plait,” i.e. “braid.” The Old English verb ūpbregdan is probably a combination of this bregdan with ūp, meaning “up.” If the connection between moving suddenly upward at someone and berating them seems obscure, you might consider upbraid to be a more formal counterpart of the expression “to get/be in someone’s face.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 2, 2023 is: copacetic • \koh-puh-SET-ik\  • adjective Copacetic (less commonly spelled copasetic or copesetic) describes things that are very satisfactory. // Worry not: I assure you that everything's copacetic. See the entry > Examples: "Yes, 'atmosphere,' has always been a factor in restaurant criticism and there have been some extraordinary and inspiring outliers, but restaurateurs of the past didn't necessarily agonize over coming up with a unique look or small decor details. For the most part, as long as the place looked nice (and clean) and there were chairs to sit in and tables to eat at, everything was copacetic." — Elizabeth Chorney-Booth, The Calgary (Alberta) Herald, 1 July 2023 Did you know? If you’re living the life of Riley, strolling along easy street, or wallowing in hog heaven, your circumstances may be described as copacetic. A word of obscure origin, copacetic has for over a century satisfied those who’ve had a hankering to describe that which is hunky-dory or otherwise completely satisfactory. (If "of obscure origin" leaves you feeling less than copacetic, the note here will undoubtedly remedy that.) Life isn’t always beer and skittles, but when you do find yourself walking that primrose path, just remember: it’s all copacetic.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 2, 2023 is: copacetic • \koh-puh-SET-ik\  • adjective Copacetic (less commonly spelled copasetic or copesetic) describes things that are very satisfactory. // Worry not: I assure you that everything's copacetic. See the entry > Examples: "Yes, 'atmosphere,' has always been a factor in restaurant criticism and there have been some extraordinary and inspiring outliers, but restaurateurs of the past didn't necessarily agonize over coming up with a unique look or small decor details. For the most part, as long as the place looked nice (and clean) and there were chairs to sit in and tables to eat at, everything was copacetic." — Elizabeth Chorney-Booth, The Calgary (Alberta) Herald, 1 July 2023 Did you know? If you’re living the life of Riley, strolling along easy street, or wallowing in hog heaven, your circumstances may be described as copacetic. A word of obscure origin, copacetic has for over a century satisfied those who’ve had a hankering to describe that which is hunky-dory or otherwise completely satisfactory. (If "of obscure origin" leaves you feeling less than copacetic, the note here will undoubtedly remedy that.) Life isn’t always beer and skittles, but when you do find yourself walking that primrose path, just remember: it’s all copacetic.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 1, 2023 is: embargo • \im-BAHR-goh\  • noun Embargo refers to a government order that limits trade in some way. In broader usage, embargo can function as a synonym of prohibition. // The government has placed an embargo on arms shipments. See the entry > Examples: “Since its review embargo lifted on July 18, ‘Barbie’ has received a largely positive critical response, with The Independent describing it as ‘a near-miraculous achievement’ and The Times dubbing it ‘a gorgeous and fascinating mishmash.’” — Eleanor Burleigh, The Bucks Free Press (Buckinghamshire, England), 21 July 2023 Did you know? English speakers got embargo—both the word and the concept, it seems—from the Spanish in the early 17th century. The word first referred specifically to a government order prohibiting commercial ships from entering or leaving that country’s ports. (The Spanish word comes from embargar, “to bar.”) By the middle of the 17th century embargo was being used more broadly to refer to any government order that limits trade in some way. Today, the word is applied more broadly still to refer to various prohibitions. Publishers, for example, often place an embargo on a book to prevent stores from selling it before its official release date. And in Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion, Anne Elliot says “I lay no embargo on anybody's words.” We feel similarly.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 31, 2023 is: pundit • \PUN-dit\  • noun A pundit is someone who is usually considered an expert on a particular subject and who shares their opinion on that subject in a public setting (such as a television or radio program). // Grandpa likes watching liberal and conservative pundits spar about the issues of the day on the Sunday morning talk shows. See the entry > Examples: “… the family film quickly fell flat at the box office in the latest blow for the storied animation studio. Many pundits worry that original animated IP [intellectual property] is no longer a theatrical proposition.” — Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 June 2023 Did you know? It’s no hot take to say that the original pundits were highly learned scholars and teachers in India; it’s just a statement of fact. Our English word pundit comes from the Hindi word paṇḍit, a term of respect (and sometimes an honorary title) for a wise person, especially one with knowledge of philosophy, religion, and law; its ultimate source is the Sanskrit word paṇḍita, meaning “learned.” English speakers have used pundit to refer to sages of India since the 1600s, but as is typically done with English, they eventually pushed the word into new semantic territory. By the late 1800s, pundit could also refer to a member of what is sometimes called the commentariat or punditocracy—that is, the collective group of political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists often paid to share their views on a variety of subjects.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 30, 2023 is: caustic • \KAWSS-tik\  • adjective In general contexts, caustic describes bluntly and harshly critical remarks, statements, or ways of being and communicating, as in "a caustic remark" or "caustic humor." In contexts involving chemistry, caustic is a synonym of corrosive, and is used to describe things capable of destroying or eating away matter by chemical action. // She was a writer whose caustic wit endears her still to readers everywhere. // The chemical was so caustic that it ate through the pipes. See the entry > Examples: "For [novelist Milan] Kundera, the deadly foe of truthful art was kitsch: the narcissistic sentimentality that, under any social system, effaces realities and encourages people to 'gaze into the mirror of the beautifying lie.' With caustic irony, mordant wit and acrobatic literary skill, he mocked the beautifying lie wherever he found it—in politics, in culture or in personal relationships." — The Economist, 13 July 2023 Did you know? If you have a burning desire to know the origins of caustic, you're already well on your way to figuring it out. Caustic was formed in Middle English as an adjective describing chemical substances, such as lime and lye, that are capable of destroying or eating away at something. The word is based on the Latin adjective causticus, which itself comes ultimately from the Greek verb kaiein, meaning "to burn." In time, caustic was baked into the English language as an adjective describing people or things (such as wit or remarks) that are bitingly sarcastic. Other kaiein descendants in English include cautery and cauterize, causalgia (a burning pain caused by nerve damage), and encaustic (a kind of paint that is heated after it's applied).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 29, 2023 is: oxymoron • \ahk-sih-MOR-ahn\  • noun An oxymoron is a combination of words that have opposite or very different meanings, such as “cruel kindness” or “open secret.” In broader usage, oxymoron can also refer to something (such as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements. // Her favorite Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, is filled with clever wordplay, including oxymorons such as “sweet sorrow” and “heavy lightness.” See the entry > Examples: “Until now I thought ‘enjoyable science book’ was an oxymoron. [Author, Katie] Spalding proved me wrong. I learned a lot and had fun doing it. Turns out a spoonful of snark helps the factoids go down—in a most delightful way.” — Curt Schleier, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 19 May 2023 Did you know? The ancient Greeks exhaustively classified the elements of rhetoric, or effective speech and writing, and gave the name oxymoron—literally "pointed foolishness"—to the deliberate juxtaposing of seemingly contradictory words. The roots of oxymoron, oxys meaning "sharp" or "keen," and mōros meaning "foolish," are nearly antonyms themselves, making oxymoron nicely self-descriptive. Oxymoron originally applied to a meaningful paradox condensed into a couple of words, as in "precious bane," "lonely crowd," or "sweet sorrow." Today, however, what is commonly cited as an oxymoron is often simply a curiosity of language, where one or both elements have multiple meanings (shrimp in "jumbo shrimp" doesn't mean "small"; it refers to a sea creature), or a phrase whose elements seem antithetical in spirit, such as "organized chaos."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 28, 2023 is: assay • \a-SAY\  • verb Assay is a technical word meaning "to test something (such as a metal or drug) to find out what it contains or to assess its value." // Experts will assay the gold to determine its purity. See the entry > Examples: "An obscure testing lab was hired to assay the metal because using the leading firm in the field would supposedly alert the Canadian nickel cartel." — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 24 Mar. 2022 Did you know? Usage experts warn against confusing the verbs assay and essay. Some confusion shouldn’t be surprising; not only do the two somewhat uncommon words look and sound alike, they also come from the same root, the Middle French word essai, meaning "test" or "effort." (Essai, in turn, comes from the Late Latin word exagium, meaning "act of weighing.") At one time, the two terms were synonyms, sharing the meaning "try" or "attempt," but they are now typically differentiated, with essay meaning "to try or attempt" (as in "a comedic actor essaying her first dramatic role") and assay meaning "to test or evaluate" (as in "blood assayed to detect the presence of the antibody"). Of course, essay is more common as a noun referring to a short analytic or personal literary composition, but that’s another essay.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 27, 2023 is: myriad • \MEER-ee-ud\  • noun The noun myriad is usually followed by of and means “a great number,” as in “a myriad of possibilities.” It is also common as an adjective meaning “very many” or “both numerous and diverse,” as in “myriad topics were discussed at the convention.” // The middle school class generated a myriad of ideas for ways they could volunteer in the community. See the entry > Examples: “With a film career spanning more than three decades as an actor, director, writer, and martial artist, Michael Jai White has cemented himself as one of the top action stars and Black martial artists in the genre today. Studying martial arts since a young age, White learned a myriad of styles over the years … with eight black belts to his name and earning the title of ‘The Mantle of the Black Dragon’ in 2019 at the Urban Action Film Showcase from the Black Dragon himself, Ron van Clief.” — Frankie “Balboa” Diaz, Polygon.com, 15 June 2023 Did you know? You don’t need ten thousand justifications to use myriad as a noun, only one: with more than 400 years of usage history behind it, the noun myriad, as in the phrase “a myriad of,” is a well-established and respectable member of the English language. Still, we understand that “myriad of” raises the hackles of myriad folks who were taught at one point or another that myriad is only to be used as an adjective, and that phrases like “a myriad of emailers vexed about myriad” should be shunned in favor of “myriad emailers vexed about myriad.” Now, to each their own lexical peeves and pleasures, but let it be known that myriad entered the English language in the mid-1500s as a noun, and since its introduction has been used in the senses of “ten thousand,” “a set of ten thousand,” “an immense or indefinitely large number,” and “a great multitude”; furthermore, it has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton, Thoreau, Twain, and DuBois—no slouches when it comes to wielding words. Myriad the adjective is about 200 years younger, but both continue to enjoy wide use today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 26, 2023 is: suffrage • \SUF-rij\  • noun Suffrage means “the right to vote in an election.” // The Nineteenth Amendment, which granted suffrage to women, was certified on August 26, 1920, making it an official part of the Constitution of the United States. See the entry > Examples: “The Liberty Tree dates back to 1763, and it played a significant role in the Underground Railroad. ... The tree also stands outside what were once the High Street stables of Edward E. Bennett, a local hotel keeper who sheltered enslaved people seeking freedom along the Underground Railroad. During the 19th century, people often gathered around the tree to hear speeches by leaders of the time such as William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone, and Douglass on subjects ranging from abolition to women's suffrage.” — Tiana Woodard, The Boston Globe, 8 July 2023 Did you know? Why would a 17th-century writer warn people that a chapel was only for “private or secret suffrages”? Because suffrage has been used since the 14th century to mean “prayer” (especially a prayer requesting divine help or intercession). So how did suffrage come to mean “a vote” or “the right to vote”? In answering that question, we get a lesson about the ways Latin words enter English. The Latin word suffrāgium has a number of vote-related meanings, including “a vote cast in an assembly” and “the right to vote.” In Medieval Latin, this same word had expanded to mean “vote, selection, aid, support, intercessory prayer,” and it’s this suffrāgium that gave us the prayer kind of suffrage in the 14th century. It wasn’t until the 16th century that English speakers mined the older—the classical—Latin suffrāgium for a word to use with regard to voting, and especially to refer to the right to vote.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 25, 2023 is: quiescent • \kwy-ESS-unt\  • adjective Quiescent is a formal word that describes things that are quiet, inactive, or in a state of peaceful rest. In medical contexts it describes a condition that is not currently developing or causing symptoms, as in "a quiescent disease/virus." // Volcanoes often exist for centuries in a quiescent state before their sudden, violent eruptions. See the entry > Examples: "The mechanism is just one way that scientists are realizing that asteroids can be active, dynamic places rather than quiescent lumps of rock." — Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 29 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Hush your puppies and calm your kitties, it’s time to make much (tranquil) ado about quiescent. As you might expect from both its meaning and the sequence of its first four letters, quiescent shares roots with the far more common, and less formal, word quiet. In fact, short is the list of English words beginning "q-u-i-e" that have no kinship with quiet and its various relations suggestive of restfulness and calm. (Our unabridged dictionary lists only two: quiebracha and quiebrahacha, both rare variants of quebracho.) Today’s adjective quiescent traces back to the Latin verb quiēscere, meaning "to become quiet" or "to rest," and was possibly first used by Francis Bacon, who wrote in 1605 that "… as Aristotle endeavoureth to prove, that in all motion there is some point quiescent…" Way to bring it home, Bacon.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 24, 2023 is: empirical • \im-PEER-uh-kul\  • adjective When we describe something, such as data, as empirical, we mean that it originated in, or was based on, observation or experience. Empirical can also be used to describe something that is capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment, as in “empirical laws.” // The team of conservation biologists gathered reams of empirical data—from species inventories to soil analyses—to help them get a better understanding of the forest’s ecology. See the entry > Examples: “Scholars have long tried to understand why Neolithic farmer populations go through boom-bust cycles, including ‘collapses’ when whole regions are abandoned. According to one common explanation, climate fluctuations are the main driver, but empirical tests do not fully support this claim. In a new paper, published in the latest issue of Scientific Reports, Turchin and his team seem to have come up with a new piece of information. ‘Our study shows that periodic outbreaks of warfare—and not climate fluctuations—can account for the observed boom-bust patterns in the data,’ argues Turchin...” — The Complexity Science Hub, Phys.org, 19 June 2023 Did you know? When empirical first appeared as an adjective in English, it meant simply “in the manner of an empiric.” In the ancient world, empirics were members of a sect of doctors who practiced medicine using treatments observed to be clinically effective, rather than treatments based on theoretical principles. This sounds all fine and good to a modern reader, but empirics were in direct opposition to Galen, the 2nd century Greek physician whose theories and practices (including the theory of bodily humors) dominated medicine in Europe from the Middle Ages until the mid-17th century. As the underdogs in this rivalry, empirics took some reputational hits, evidenced by the use of empiric to refer to someone who disregards or deviates from the rules of science or accepted practice; to be called an empiric was sometimes like being called a quack or charlatan. Empirical can still be used critically to describe ideas and practices that rely on experience or observation alone and without due regard for system or theory. But, perhaps in a bit of a case of “the Empirics strike back,” empirical more often keeps its narrower sense, and is used positively to describe evidence and information grounded in observation and experience, or capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 23, 2023 is: duplicity • \doo-PLISS-uh-tee\  • noun Duplicity is a formal word that refers to dishonest behavior meant to trick or deceive someone. // The extent of his duplicity wasn't clear until a century after his death, when documents revealing more of his many deceptions were discovered. See the entry > Examples: “Series three ended with a bang—patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox, in one of TV's most memorable performances) doing the dirty on his children and rewriting his divorce settlement to rob them of boardroom power at the family firm, just as they were about to wrest control from him. And, the kicker, he was able to do it thanks to the duplicity of son-in-law Tom (Matthew Macfadyen).” — Chris Bennion, The Daily Telegraph (London), 25 May 2023 Did you know? We’ve all probably dealt with someone who acted a little two-faced—they said one thing and did another, for example, or they talked “from both sides of their mouth.” If such behavior has made you do a double take or left you feeling double-crossed, you may be single-minded in your quest to learn more about duplicity. Duplicity comes from a long line of “double” talk, starting with its Latin ancestor duplex, which means “double” or “twofold.” Duplex is also the source of the English word duplex (which can be a noun meaning “a two-family house” or an adjective meaning “double”), and it is the root of another term for doubling it up, duplicate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 22, 2023 is: lackluster • \LAK-luss-ter\  • adjective Lackluster describes something lacking in sheen, brilliance, or vitality—in other words, something dull or mediocre. // After a summer of lackluster sales, business is booming at the coffee shop now that students are returning. See the entry > Examples: “Layers of texture and pattern can keep a black-and-white bedroom from feeling lackluster.” — Monique Valeris, Good Housekeeping, April 2021 Did you know? Lackluster may describe things that are dull, but the word itself is no yawn. In its earliest uses in the early 17th century, lackluster (also spelled lacklustre) usually described eyes that were dull or lacking in brightness, as in “a lackluster stare.” Later, it came to describe other things whose sheen had been removed; Charles Dickens, in his 1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit, writes of the faded image of the dragon on the sign outside a village alehouse: “many a wintry storm of rain, snow, sleet, and hail, had changed his colour from a gaudy blue to a faint lack-lustre shade of grey.” These days lackluster is broadly used to describe anything blah, from a spiritless sensation to a humdrum hump day.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 21, 2023 is: frisson • \free-SOHN (the second vowel is pronounced nasally)\  • noun Frisson refers to a brief moment of emotional excitement. // He felt a frisson of delight as he stepped tentatively through the door to the walled garden. See the entry > Examples: “I still remember the frisson of mild excitement when a reporter entered the committee room. The members sat up, some straightened their ties, others coughed, and a new urgency was brought to the business of quizzing some hapless civil servant on whatever mundane business was before them.” — John McManus, The Irish Times, 6 July 2023 Did you know? A chill down one’s spine isn’t always a sensation of fear or suspense. As Daniel Marenco writes, “What is most exciting about literature is how much it surprises us and makes us fall in love. Poetry especially has this gift, the gift of provoking in us a frisson, a shiver, this capacity, like a bee, to put honey on the tip of our tongue, provoking that pleasant sensation of feeling and perceiving.” His relating of frisson and shiver is apt given that frisson comes from the French word for “shiver.” (Those familiar with shivering will note that it’s also apt that frisson traces back to ultimately to Late Latin frīgēre “to be cold” or frīgēscere “to become cold.”) A frisson can be compared to a thrill or a rush, as it refers to a brief moment of emotional excitement, as in “a frisson of surprise.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 21, 2023 is: frisson • \free-SOHN (the second vowel is pronounced nasally)\  • noun Frisson refers to a brief moment of emotional excitement. // He felt a frisson of delight as he stepped tentatively through the door to the walled garden. See the entry > Examples: “I still remember the frisson of mild excitement when a reporter entered the committee room. The members sat up, some straightened their ties, others coughed, and a new urgency was brought to the business of quizzing some hapless civil servant on whatever mundane business was before them.” — John McManus, The Irish Times, 6 July 2023 Did you know? A chill down one’s spine isn’t always a sensation of fear or suspense. As Daniel Marenco writes, “What is most exciting about literature is how much it surprises us and makes us fall in love. Poetry especially has this gift, the gift of provoking in us a frisson, a shiver, this capacity, like a bee, to put honey on the tip of our tongue, provoking that pleasant sensation of feeling and perceiving.” His relating of frisson and shiver is apt given that frisson comes from the French word for “shiver.” (Those familiar with shivering will note that it’s also apt that frisson traces back to ultimately to Late Latin frīgēre “to be cold” or frīgēscere “to become cold.”) A frisson can be compared to a thrill or a rush, as it refers to a brief moment of emotional excitement, as in “a frisson of surprise.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 20, 2023 is: balmy • \BAH-mee\  • adjective Balmy is an adjective that is often used to describe weather that is warm, calm, and pleasant. It can also be used to describe someone or something (such as an idea) that is foolish or irrational. // After a long, eight-hour drive, we were rewarded with a mild, balmy evening at our vacation spot on the shores of Lake Erie. // Despite being a devout Green Bay fan, she finds the idea of attending games in head-to-toe yellow and green body paint to be a bit balmy. See the entry > Examples: “While our warmer winters have caused some of these dinosaur-like birds to remain in southern Michigan all year long, most are just now returning from balmier winter locales like Mexico and Cuba. You’re most likely to find sandhill cranes this time of year in wet meadows, marshy areas and agricultural fields, though if you learn their distinctive, prehistoric-sounding call, you can also hear them as they flock overhead this season.” — Emily Bingham, MLive.com (Grand Rapids, Michigan), 14 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Aromatic ointments and fragrances are the bomb. They are also, literally, balms: healing substances and soothing scents with the power to ease both mind and body. The original balm, what Latin-speakers referred to as balsamum, was the oleoresin of a species of balsam tree. In Anglo-French, balsamum became basme and baume, spellings which entered Middle English and later became balm. Balm eventually begat the adjective balmy, used to describe things with a balm’s comforting, calming qualities, as when Shakespeare’s Othello speaks of “balmy slumbers.” Today balmy is typically used to describe the weather—balmy breezes, balmy temperatures, balmy spring afternoons, et al—conditions that are neither too hot nor too cold, but just right—Goldilocks conditions, even.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 19, 2023 is: slake • \SLAYK\  • verb Slake is a verb meaning "to satisfy or quench." It can also mean "to hydrate." // The quest to slake his wanderlust was never-ending. // They slaked their thirst with cold lemonade. See the entry > Examples: "The warm weather of late spring and summer brings certain wines to mind—racy rosés to slake our thirst, for example." — Dave McIntyre, The Washington Post, 1 June 2023 Did you know? Have no fear, the Word of the Day is here to slake your thirst for knowledge. The uses of slake are varied and fluid. Its most common meaning is synonymous with satisfy or quench—one can slake anything from curiosity to literal thirst. In chemistry, slake can mean "to cause a substance to heat and crumble by treatment with water," and is used specifically in the noun phrase slaked lime, which refers to a compound used in binding agents such as plaster and cement. The word has some obsolete meanings as well: in Shakespearean times, slake meant "to subside or abate" or "to lessen the force of." The most erudite word enthusiasts may also be aware of earlier meanings of slake, such as "to slacken one’s efforts" or "to cause to be relaxed or loose." These early meanings recall the word’s Old English ancestor sleac, which not only meant "slack" but is also slack’s source.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 18, 2023 is: inkling • \INK-ling\  • noun Inkling refers to a slight, uncertain idea about something, or to a slight amount of knowledge about something. // As the professor explained the complex math formula in class, I didn’t have an inkling of what it all meant. See the entry > Examples: “It was in Jim [Melchert]’s class that I first felt the inkling that there was more to being an artist than simply expressing yourself. It was also about paying attention—looking closely and curiously—and being open to where it might take you.” — Sharon Mizota, The Los Angeles Times, 5 June 2023 Did you know? This may come as a surprise, but inkling has not a drop to do with ink, whether of squid, tattoo, or any other variety. Originating in English in the early 16th century, inkling comes instead from Middle English yngkiling, meaning “whisper or mention,” and perhaps further back from the verb inclen, meaning “to hint at.” An early sense of the word meant “a faint perceptible sound or undertone” or “rumor,” but now people usually use the word to refer to a vague notion someone has (“had an inkling they would be there”), or to a hint of something present (“a conversation with not even an inkling of anger”). One related word you might not have heard of is the rare verb inkle, a back-formation of inkling that in some British English dialects can mean “to utter or communicate in an undertone or whisper, to hint, give a hint of” or “to have an idea or notion of.” (Inkle is also a noun referring to “a colored linen tape or braid woven on a very narrow loom and used for trimming” but etymologists don’t have an inkling of where that inkle came from.)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 17, 2023 is: volatile • \VAH-luh-tul\  • adjective Volatile has several closely related meanings, including “subject to rapid or unexpected change,” “having or showing extreme or sudden changes of emotion,” and “likely to become dangerous or out of control.” // Our financial advisor cautioned us to be conservative with our investments while the stock market was still volatile. // One classic trope of war movies is the drill sergeant with a volatile temper, always ready to yell at recruits for the slightest infraction of the rules. // The protests are increasing, creating a volatile situation in the capital. See the entry > Examples: “This smart … novel has more secrets than you could successfully hide from your Sunday school teacher. Set in a beautifully evoked Cape Cod, in politically volatile 2016, the novel centers on the Gardner family. There's Adam, the brilliant, but erratic, father; Ken, his Babbitt-like real estate developer son; and Abby, his artist daughter, whom he considers ‘a special snowflake of the highest order.’” — Jeffrey Ann Goudie, The Boston Globe, 23 June 2023 Did you know? Volatile was originally for the birds—quite literally. Back in the 14th century, the word was a noun and volatiles were birds (especially wild fowl) or other winged creatures, such as butterflies. That's not as flighty as it sounds. Volatile traces back to the Latin verb volare, which means “to fly.” By the end of the 16th century, people were using volatile as an adjective to describe meal ground so fine and light that it could easily “fly” or be blown about. Soon after, the adjective was extended to creatures that were capable of flying (as in “volatile insects”), later to vapors and gases, and by the early 17th century, to individuals or things as prone to sudden change as some gaseous substances. In recent years, volatile has alighted in economic, political, and technical contexts far flown from its avian origins.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 16, 2023 is: chasten • \CHAY-sun\  • verb To chasten someone is to cause them to feel sad or embarrassed about something that has happened, or in other words, to make them feel more humble or restrained. // He was arrogant as a young man, but he has been chastened by life's hardships and is now more cognizant of his own failings and weaknesses. See the entry > Examples: "AutoPacific asked people looking to buy a new vehicle about their interest in 11 different ... features, starting with a data plan for the car for a hypothetical price of $15/month. The results may chasten some of the investors demanding that the car companies keep traveling down this path. The most in-demand or desirable feature was Internet connection with a Wi-Fi hotspot.... But only 30 percent of people looking to buy a new car said they were interested in paying for their car's Internet access." — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 24 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Buck up, logophiles! There’s no need to fret if you have a hard time sussing out the finer distinctions between chasten, castigate, and chastise, three verbs with overlapping histories and meanings. All three come (via different routes) from the Latin verb castīgāre, meaning "to punish," and all have been used to refer to physical punishment, but today are more likely to refer to a verbal dressing-down than a rap on the knuckles (or worse). However, while one is usually castigated or chastised by another person, one can be chastened—made to feel humility or embarrassment—by a humbling situation or experience. Just don’t let encountering an unfamiliar or subtle word be one of them; that’s what we’re here for.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 15, 2023 is: nexus • \NEK-sus\  • noun A nexus is a relationship or connection between people or things. // Her final research paper for her pedagogy class highlighted the nexus between teachers and students. See the entry > Examples: “Darren Tucker, a field supervisor with Arizona Game and Fish, said that the last known fatal bear attack in Arizona happened in 2011 in the Pinetop area, further adding to the ‘extremely uncommon’ nature of the attack, stating that it seemed ‘predatory in nature.’ ‘We didn't see any obvious attractants. The location and the surrounding residencies looked pretty tidy,’ Tucker told reporters. ‘However, typically, nine times out of ten when we have wildlife-human conflict there is some nexus to food.’” — Kye Graves, USA Today, 16 June 2023 Did you know? If you’re unfamiliar with the word nexus, the popular, long-running video game series The Legend of Zelda may provide an object lesson in its several definitions (and if you’re unfamiliar with the games, we will explain). When nexus came into English in the 17th century, it meant “connection” or “link.” Eventually, people began using it to refer to a connected group or series of things, as in “a nexus of relationships.” In recent decades it has taken on a third meaning: “center” or “hub,” perhaps from the notion that a point in the center of an arrangement serves to join together the objects that surround it. Now, one might plausibly say that the 20 Zelda games (not counting remakes and spin-offs) themselves form a nexus, as each represents an installment in a long, twisty saga with numerous echoes and callbacks to other games in the series. Most of these feature the fictional land of Hyrule, which often presents magical nexuses to shadowy alternate dimensions (1991’s A Link to the Past), the past (2011’s Skyward Sword), or the underworld (2023’s Tears of the Kingdom) that the hero, Link (ahem) must traverse. As for nexus’s third meaning, Hyrule’s map is nearly always situated around a central nexus, or hub, in the form of the castle where the titular Zelda lives. (If you’re into gaming or curious about its lingo, don’t miss the article “Popular Gaming Terms Explained”).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 14, 2023 is: asunder • \uh-SUN-der\  • adverb or adjective Asunder is most often used as an adverb—often with a verb such as tear or pull—to mean "apart" or "into pieces." It is more rarely used as an adjective meaning "apart from each other," as in "he stood with his legs wide asunder." // The park was torn asunder by yesterday's microburst, and many of its trails have been blocked by fallen trees. See the entry > Examples: "House of the Dragon chronicles the events leading up to and during the Dance of the Dragons, the name given by the poets of Westeros to a gruesome civil war that tore House Targaryen asunder." — Nick Romano, EW.com, 11 Aug. 2022 Did you know? To get to the root of today’s word, it helps to take it apart and focus on the sunder. You see, asunder comes from the verb sunder, which means "to break apart" or "to become parted, disunited, or severed." Both words come from the Old English word sundor, meaning "apart." The adverbial "into parts" sense of asunder is often used in the phrase "tear asunder," which can be used both literally (as in "fabric torn asunder") and, more often, figuratively (as in "a community torn asunder by the dispute"). The adjectival "apart from each other" sense can be found in the phrase "poles asunder," used to describe two things that are as vastly far apart as the poles of the Earth.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 13, 2023 is: travesty • \TRAV-uh-stee\  • noun Travesty refers to something that is shocking, upsetting, or ridiculous because it is not what it is supposed to be, but is instead a distorted or badly inferior imitation of it. The word is often used in the phrase “a travesty of.” Travesty is not a synonym of tragedy, which refers instead to a disastrous event. // That the timber company only had to pay a minimal fine after being found guilty of illegal logging was considered by many to be a travesty of justice. See the entry > Examples: “Ten years and a number of entries later, ‘Fast Five’ is the first sequel to the 2001 ‘The Fast and the Furious’ that’s worth watching, that isn’t an embarrassment or a travesty of the original picture.” — Mick LaSalle, SFChronicle.com, 20 May 2023 Did you know? When disaster strikes, keeping track of which word to use seems pretty unimportant. But you don’t want to describe disastrous events as travesties, because they’re not: they’re tragedies. Travesties are terrible too, but travesty refers specifically to something that is done in a way that makes a mockery of what it’s supposed to be: for example, a contest won by the judge’s spouse could be considered a travesty. And a trial in which the defendant wasn’t allowed to present evidence could be described as a “travesty of justice.” Travesty, which can also function as a verb meaning “to make a travesty of” or “to parody,” comes from the French verb travestir, meaning “to disguise.” Its roots, however, wind back through Italian to the Latin verb vestire, meaning “to clothe” or “to dress.” Other descendants of vestire include vestment, divest, and invest.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 12, 2023 is: fungible • \FUN-juh-bul\  • adjective Fungible describes things, such as currency, goods, and commodities, that can be exchanged for something else of the same kind or value. In broader usage, fungible can also mean “interchangeable,” as well as “readily changeable to adapt to new situations.” // A dollar bill is considered fungible because it can easily and acceptably be traded for ten dimes, four quarters, twenty nickels, or one hundred pennies. // Since fruits and vegetables are regarded as fungible in this diet, you are allowed a total of five servings of either or both. // Some baseball team managers set their batting orders in stone, while others prefer to keep their lineups fungible, to respond to the strengths or weaknesses of different opposing pitchers. See the entry > Examples: “Network television operates a little differently from its streaming counterparts. Episode orders are more fungible and networks also have the benefit of airing reruns.” — Alec Bojalad and David Crow, DenOfGeek.com, 11 May 2023 Did you know? Before expectations about the origins of fungible mushroom into mycological fantasy: no, fungible has no relation to the noun fungus and its plural fungi. The fungi in fungible is there because of the Latin verb fungi, meaning “to perform,” ancestor of both fungible and function. Fungible is considerably less familiar than its cousin to most English users, but it pops up like toadstools (sorry) in legal, technological, and economic contexts. Something described as fungible can be exchanged for something else of the same kind. For example, when we say “oil is a fungible commodity,” we mean that when a purchaser is expecting a delivery of oil, any oil of the stipulated quantity and quality will usually do. Another example of something fungible is cash. It doesn't matter what twenty dollar bill you get—it’s still worth the same amount as any other twenty dollar bill. In contrast, something like a work of art (or an NFT, aka a “non-fungible token”) isn’t fungible; a purchaser would expect a specific, identifiable item to be delivered. In broader use, fungible can mean “interchangeable,” or sometimes “readily changeable to adapt to new situations.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 11, 2023 is: boycott • \BOY-kaht\  • verb To boycott something is to refuse to buy, use, or participate in that thing as a form of protest. To boycott an entity, such as a company or country, is to stop using the goods or services of that entity until changes are made. // People are boycotting the company for its refusal to reduce its yearly greenhouse gas emissions. See the entry > Examples: "Over 100 music artists, including Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, have banded together to announce they are boycotting concert venues that use facial recognition technology, according to a Rolling Stone report on Thursday. The artists cite a number of concerns, including privacy infringement and increased discrimination." — Lawrence Bonk, Engadget.com, 22 June 2023 Did you know? In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of the crisis. When retired British army captain Charles Boycott, acting as an agent for an absentee landlord, tried to evict tenant farmers for refusing to pay their rent, he was ostracized by the League and community. His laborers and servants quit, and the crops in his care began to rot. Boycott’s fate was soon well known, and his name became a byword for that particular protest strategy, both as a verb and as a noun. Across the Atlantic three-quarters of a century later, boycotts such as the Montgomery bus boycott were pivotal components of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 10, 2023 is: encomium • \en-KOH-mee-um\  • noun Encomium refers to an expression of glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise. // Upon achieving EGOT status, the actor was deservedly showered with encomiums from across the entertainment world. See the entry > Examples: “Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) is desperately trying to save the life of her brother, King T’Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman) … until her mother, Ramonda (Angela Bassett), arrives to deliver the dreaded news: ‘Your brother is with the ancestors.’ Thus does ‘Wakanda Forever’ address, head on, the tragic loss of Boseman, who died of colon cancer in 2020. In a fitting tribute, the shuffle of iconic characters that opens every Marvel movie here is composed entirely of images of Boseman, a moving encomium to a gifted and charismatic actor who left the stage much too soon.” — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post, 8 Nov. 2022 Did you know? Kudos to encomium for being a marvelous, magnificent, must-have word for high praise for over four centuries—at least in formal speech and writing. Indeed, like its synonym panegyric, encomium (from the Greek word enkōmion, meaning “celebration”) has seen a steady drop in usage since the early 1800s and is rarely encountered outside of literary or highfalutin contexts. It does pop up in pop culture now and again, however. Music fans of a certain generation may remember a host of their favorite artists, from Tori Amos to Stone Temple Pilots, paying tribute to Led Zeppelin in 1995 on the appropriately titled album Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin. And more recently, the famously loquacious television series Gilmore Girls dropped encomium no less than five times in a 2016 episode featuring “Stars Hollow: The Musical,” a show-within-a-show featuring the line “Not so fast with the encomiums!” Of course, you may dish out your own encomiums in any manner or velocity you wish—and verily we shall tip our chapeaux.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 9, 2023 is: reticent • \RET-uh-sunt\  • adjective Reticent is often used as a synonym of reserved to describe someone who does not readily or openly talk to others. Despite objections from some, reticent is also often used as a synonym of reluctant. // She is reticent about discussing her personal business with anyone. // Despite claims of openness, the organization has always been reticent to disclose even the most basic information about its internal operations. See the entry > Examples: “Having long harbored ambitions to produce and direct, [Eva] Longoria decided it was time to pivot. But the same industry that was ready to program her into its fall lineup was more reticent to put her behind the camera for one of its series.” — Mia Galuppo, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 June 2023 Did you know? We hate to break it to the language sticklers among us, but use of reticent as a synonym of reluctant—though it veers away from the word’s Latin origins in the verb reticēre, meaning “to keep silent”—is well established, and there is no reason to be reticent about employing it. In fact, reticent took on its “reluctant” sense a mere 50 years after first appearing in English in the early 19th century with the meaning “inclined to be silent or uncommunicative.” Though brows may furrow and lips may purse, the development of reticent’s newer meaning has some logic to it: English speakers first used reticent synonymously with reluctant when the context was speech, as in “he was reticent to talk about his past,” keeping the word close to its “silent” beginnings. Eventually, however, exclusive association with speech was abandoned, and one can now be reticent to do anything, even if it’s to admit that language is not immutable.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 8, 2023 is: preen • \PREEN\  • verb To preen is to make one's appearance neat and tidy or to behave or speak with obvious pride or self-satisfaction. In ornithology, preen means "to groom with the bill." // She stood preening herself in front of the mirror. // The award-winners were preening backstage. See the entry > Examples: "One day, I crossed the Nakdong River on foot, over a bridge connecting the neighborhood of Hadan to Eulsuk Island. That area, where the river meets the ocean, had been the site of the Nakdong Bulge, part of a monthlong battle in 1950. It is now an estuary for migrating birds, and I thrilled at seeing a great egret preen on a glittering field of water." — E. Tammy Kim, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Preen hatched in 14th-century Middle English, and early on it displayed various spelling forms, including prenen, prayne, prene, and preyne. The word traces to the Anglo-French puroindre, or proindre, linking pur-, meaning "thoroughly," with uindre, oindre, meaning "to anoint or rub." One of the first writers known to apply preen to the human act of primping was Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales: "He preens himself and prunes and combs his curls / To take the fancy of this queen of girls." Centuries later (sometime during the late 19th century), the prideful meaning of preen took flight, joining bird-related verbs plume, which was being used with the meaning "to pride or congratulate (oneself)," and peacock, a word still used today to mean "to show off."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 7, 2023 is: malaise • \muh-LAYZ\  • noun Malaise refers to a slight or general feeling of not being healthy or happy. // She couldn’t pinpoint the cause of this overwhelming feeling of malaise. See the entry > Examples: “Despite its less-than-satisfying ending, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse serves the coolest animated kids I’ve seen since Miles felt that first bite from a radioactive spider five years ago. The movie opens with an all-girl, multiracial garage band coping with Gwen Stacy’s (Hailee Steinfeld) malaise and ends with a team as powerful as rock stars ready to save the world.” — Eisa Nefertari Ulen, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 June 2023 Did you know? A recipe: combine a handful of the blahs, a pinch of the blues, and maybe a soupçon of ennui, season generously with “under the weather,” and voila, you’ve got yourself the stew of sinking sensations known as malaise. Malaise, whose Old French ancestor was formed from the combination of mal (“bad”) and aise (“comfort”), has been a part of English since the mid-18th century. It originally referred to a vague feeling of weakness or discomfort accompanying the onset of an illness—a meaning still in use today when a virus or other malady starts producing symptoms—but has since broadened to cover a general, ominous sense of mental or moral ill-being.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 6, 2023 is: debonair • \deb-uh-NAIR\  • adjective Debonair describes someone who may, by definition, also be called fashionable, attractive, and confident. // Now a professional dancer himself, Raul remembers idolizing Gene Kelly, Gregory Hines, and other debonair performers as a child. See the entry > Examples: “By trade, Malik Afegbua is an accomplished filmmaker. He is currently working on a Netflix docudrama about Nigerian textile designer and global fashion icon Nike Davies-Okundaye. … Recently, his artificial intelligence (AI) generated Fashion Show for Elders broke the internet and garnered international press coverage with its stunning images of debonair elders owning the runway.” — Ebony Flake, Essence, 20 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Calling someone debonair is another way of saying they’ve got a certain je ne sais quoi, or to be more specific (and complete the rhyme): savoir faire. Ooh la la! If this all sounds ultra chic to you, you’re not alone. French has a certain cachet, a fanciness and prestige owing in part to its deep etymological, historical, and political connections with English. This extends to many French words that English has borrowed outright or adapted, including debonair. In Anglo-French, someone who was genteel and thought to be well-brought-up was described as deboneire—literally “of good family or nature” (from the three-word phrase de bon aire). When the word was borrowed into English in the 13th century, it basically meant “courteous,” but today’s debonair incorporates suaveness, nonchalance, and maybe even a soupçon of esprit (carefree sophistication with a dash of wit).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 5, 2023 is: aggrandize • \uh-GRAN-dyze\  • verb To aggrandize something is to enhance its power, wealth, position, or reputation. Aggrandize can also mean "to increase or enlarge" or "to praise highly." // Critics of the book argued that the author aggrandizes corrupt politicians. See the entry > Examples: "By definition and disposition, the spy presents a daunting challenge to the historian. Expected to be elusive and deceptive, secret agents prefer to swallow written evidence, not preserve it. Then, if they survive to write memoirs, they often aggrandize their achievements at the expense of truth." — Harold Holzer, The Wall Street Journal, 2 Aug. 2019 Did you know? Aggrandize is a grand word, and we don’t just mean that in praise. The word literally traces back to the Latin adjective grandis, meaning "grand," and it has enhanced the English language for over three centuries. Nowadays, aggrandize is often paired with self (either the word or the prefix: to "aggrandize oneself" or to "be self-aggrandizing" is to glorify oneself, or to intently pursue power, wealth, and the like. It's of course great to take pride in a job well done, but we stan those who keep it real—after all, not every hit can be a grand slam.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 4, 2023 is: gumption • \GUMP-shun\  • noun Gumption means “courage and confidence,” or in other words, “initiative.” // It took a lot of gumption to speak up for yourself like that. See the entry > Examples: “Perhaps this conclusion would have been easier to embrace if more of Nate’s internal journey had been made apparent to the audience throughout season three. But it wasn’t. In early episodes, we do see Nate abiding by his darker impulses. He makes catty comments about Ted at a press conference and fails to shake Ted’s hand after West Ham beats AFC Richmond. But in episode four, the same one that depicts that match, Nate is already aching to apologize to Ted—he just can’t find the gumption to do it.” — Jen Chaney, Vulture, 2 June 2023 Did you know? English speakers have had gumption (the word, that is) since the early 1700s. The term's source isn't known, but early examples of it are found in Scottish (the related terms rumblegumption and rumgumption can be found there too). Gumption originally referred to common sense, but American English speakers adopted the word and took it in a new direction, using it to refer to the kind of courage or get-up-and-go that makes undertaking difficult things possible. Art historians may know a couple additional applications for the word: gumption was historically used both to refer to the art of preparing painters' colors, and as a synonym of megilp, which refers to a mixture of linseed oil and mastic varnish that is used as a vehicle for oil paints.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 3, 2023 is: incarcerate • \in-KAHR-suh-rayt\  • verb To incarcerate someone is to put them in prison or, figuratively, to subject them to confinement, as in “people incarcerated in their obsessions.” // Because the accused man did not present a serious threat to society, many questioned the judge’s order that he remain incarcerated while awaiting trial. See the entry > Examples: “[Attorney] Ray Taseff points to ‘the inhumanity of taking people off the streets who are not committing a crime but are merely asking for help and incarcerating them as a means of social control.’ Instead of trying to ostracize people experiencing homelessness, cities should offer resources to help them break the cycle of poverty, get back on their feet and find long-term housing.” — Katherine Murray et al., The Miami Herald, 13 June 2023 Did you know? Just as English is full of nouns referring to places where prisoners are confined, from the familiar (jail and prison) to the obscure (calaboose and bridewell), so we have multiple verbs for the action of putting people behind bars. Some words can be used as both nouns and verbs, if in slightly different forms: one can be jailed in a jail, imprisoned in a prison, locked up in a lockup, or even jugged in a jug. Incarcerate does not have such a noun equivalent in English—incarceration refers to the state of confinement rather than a physical structure—but it comes ultimately from the Latin noun carcer, meaning “prison.” Incarcerate is also on the formal end of the spectrum when it comes to words related to the law and criminal justice, meaning you are more likely to read or hear about someone incarcerated in a penitentiary or detention center than in the pokey or hoosegow.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 2, 2023 is: contiguous • \kun-TIG-yuh-wus\  • adjective Contiguous is a formal word used to describe things that touch each other or are immediately next to each other in time or sequence. // She's visited each of the 48 contiguous states in the U.S., but she hasn't been to Alaska or Hawaii yet. See the entry > Examples: "The City of Milwaukee defines Havenwoods as a small rectangle on the northwest side surrounding the state forest. Its northern and eastern borders are contiguous with the forest and it is bounded by 60th Street and Silver Spring Drive on the south and west." —Daphne Chen, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9 May 2023 Did you know? Time to get a little closer with contiguous, a word likely most familiar in the phrase "contiguous United States." Otherwise known as the conterminous United States, this region comprises the collective states within the U.S. that connect geographically by shared borders, as well as the nation's capital. Looking for a word to describe freestanding states like Hawaii and Alaska, or seabound territories along the lines of Guam and American Samoa? Today’s word has a direct antonym: noncontiguous. Both come from the Latin verb contingere, meaning "to be in contact with."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 1, 2023 is: perquisite • \PER-kwuh-zut\  • noun Perquisite refers to something extra that someone receives in addition to regular pay for doing a job. Perks, as in “job perks” is short for perquisite. // Her fancy new job came with several perquisites, including use of the company’s jet. See the entry > Examples: “With Zoom meetings ... there are a few traditional sectors and work areas wherein remote working has been quickly adopted. This includes marketing, advertising, and IT services. However, there have been a few areas where remote working was a possibility and perquisite even before the pandemic struck the world.” — Shalin Parikh, The Financial Express (India), 13 July 2021 Did you know? Looking to acquire a job loaded with perquisites, or perks (a synonym of perquisites)? Don’t give up the search! Make plenty of inquiries, send out an exquisitely crafted résumé, follow up with queries, and be sure to meet most of the prerequisites of the job description. Your quest may result in your conquering of the job market. After all, perquisite comes from the Latin word perquirere, which, in turn, is from the prefix per-, meaning “thoroughly” and the verb quaerere, meaning “to ask” or “to seek.” It’s not surprising that several other words in this paragraph come from quaerere as well—acquire, inquiries, exquisitely, queries, conquering, quest, and, of course, perk, which was formed by shortening and altering perquisite. Quaerere is also an ancestor of prerequisite, so we don’t blame you if you mix up perquisite and prerequisite. You can tell the difference by remembering that a prerequisite can be a requirement needed before getting a job (pre- means “before”), while a perquisite is something extra you get after you’ve been hired.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 1, 2023 is: perquisite • \PER-kwuh-zut\  • noun Perquisite refers to something extra that someone receives in addition to regular pay for doing a job. Perks, as in “job perks” is short for perquisite. // Her fancy new job came with several perquisites, including use of the company’s jet. See the entry > Examples: “With Zoom meetings ... there are a few traditional sectors and work areas wherein remote working has been quickly adopted. This includes marketing, advertising, and IT services. However, there have been a few areas where remote working was a possibility and perquisite even before the pandemic struck the world.” — Shalin Parikh, The Financial Express (India), 13 July 2021 Did you know? Looking to acquire a job loaded with perquisites, or perks (a synonym of perquisites)? Don’t give up the search! Make plenty of inquiries, send out an exquisitely crafted résumé, follow up with queries, and be sure to meet most of the prerequisites of the job description. Your quest may result in your conquering of the job market. After all, perquisite comes from the Latin word perquirere, which, in turn, is from the prefix per-, meaning “thoroughly” and the verb quaerere, meaning “to ask” or “to seek.” It’s not surprising that several other words in this paragraph come from quaerere as well—acquire, inquiries, exquisitely, queries, conquering, quest, and, of course, perk, which was formed by shortening and altering perquisite. Quaerere is also an ancestor of prerequisite, so we don’t blame you if you mix up perquisite and prerequisite. You can tell the difference by remembering that a prerequisite can be a requirement needed before getting a job (pre- means “before”), while a perquisite is something extra you get after you’ve been hired.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 31, 2023 is: ancillary • \AN-suh-lair-ee\  • adjective Ancillary is an adjective used in formal speech and writing as a synonym of supplementary to describe things that provide something additional to a main part or function of something else. Ancillary can also mean "of lower or secondary class or rank." // One ancillary benefit of Beatrice's job at the movie theater is the ability to catch an early glimpse of new releases. // Her job is to oversee the flagship store and its ancillary outlets. See the entry > Examples: "... The Mitre is a gorgeous Grade II-listed boutique hotel, set on the banks of the River Thames. Rebuilt in the mid-18th century, the building dates back to 1665 and was originally used as an ancillary accommodation for guests of King Charles II." — Joanne Shurvell, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2022 Did you know? If you’re already familiar with ancillary, pull up a chair and help yourself to a side dish of trivia. The word comes from the Latin word ancilla, meaning "a female servant," which also gave us the rarer English word ancilla, meaning "an aid to achieving or mastering something difficult." While the English ancilla (which made its debut a couple of centuries after ancillary) is unlikely to be encountered except in very specialized contexts (such as philosophy or quantum computing), ancillary picks up on the notion of providing aid or support in a way that supplements something else. In particular, the word often describes something that is in a position of secondary importance, such as the "ancillary products in a company's line."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 30, 2023 is: filch • \FILCH\  • verb To filch something is to secretly or casually steal it. The word filch also usually, though not always, implies that what has been stolen is small or of little monetary value. // I couldn’t help but chuckle when I woke up to find my four-year-old daughter filching a cookie from the plate on the kitchen counter. See the entry > Examples: “Distillery employees filched more than $100,000 of the most famous name in rare bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle, to resell, a 2013 caper that has been dubbed ‘Pappygate.’” — Justin Jouvenal, The Washington Post, 20 Sept. 2022 Did you know? The award-winning 2019 video game Untitled Goose Game, in which players control the titular (or “un-titular”?) waterfowl through several levels of light and family-friendly mayhem, serves as an excellent primer on the meaning of filch. In fact, many of the game’s objectives involve waddling furtively around a quaint little scene, such as a garden, and trying to avoid detection by humans while you pilfer, say, a pumpkin or a woolen hat. To filch is to steal something (usually, though not always, a small or relatively unimportant something) in secret. So why not just use steal? There’s often a distinct twang of humor or mischievousness in filch that’s not inherent in plain old steal, and that reflects a casualness or nonchalance on the part of the silly goose—whether literal or figurative—snatching the pie from the windowsill.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 29, 2023 is: bully pulpit • \BULL-ee-PULL-pit\  • noun Bully pulpit refers to an important public position that allows a person to express beliefs and opinions to many people. // She uses her position as a famous actress as a bully pulpit to advocate for human rights. See the entry > Examples: “If you are a politician, you can respond to public protesters in a variety of ways. You can avoid getting too close to them. You can ignore them. You can use your bully pulpit to address their concerns from a position of strength. What you probably should not do is physically tussle with them or taunt them with childish facial gestures.” — Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 8 June 2023 Did you know? Bully pulpit comes from the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt, who observed that his time in office at the White House was a bully pulpit when he said, “I suppose my critics will call that preaching, but I have got such a bully pulpit!” For Roosevelt, bully was an adjective meaning “excellent” or “first-rate”—not today's familiar noun bully referring to an abusive meanie. Roosevelt understood the modern presidency’s power of persuasion and recognized that it gave the incumbent the opportunity to exhort, instruct, or inspire. He took full advantage of his bully pulpit, speaking out about the danger of monopolies, the nation’s growing role as a world power, and other issues important to him. Since the 1960s, bully pulpit has been used as a term for a public position—especially a political office—that provides one with the opportunity to widely share one’s views.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 28, 2023 is: disavow • \dis-uh-VOW\  • verb Disavow is a formal word that is often used as a synonym for repudiate meaning “to deny responsibility for.” A closely related second meaning is “to refuse to acknowledge or accept.” // In the face of intense public scrutiny, the college's president is now trying to disavow her previous statements about eliminating tenure. // Party leaders showed courage when they disavowed one of their most promising candidates following revelations of his past improprieties. See the entry > Examples: “No need to panic, but the Billy Goat Tavern changed its hamburger bun. For most restaurants, this wouldn’t matter in the slightest. But few places in Chicago have changed less over the past 40 years than the Billy Goat Tavern. … Personally, the only thing that could make me disavow eating at the Billy Goat is if they got rid of the condiment bar. Along with no seasoning, the burgers always still come out unadorned, leaving you to load up on toppings however you see fit.” — Nick Kindelsperger, The Chicago Tribune, 10 Nov. 2022 Did you know? When is a vow not a vow? When it has been disavowed, for one. Let’s say you make a solemn pledge to eat green vegetables every day of the week and twice on Sundays. If a few months down the cruciferous road you decide such a diet is for the rabbits, you might disavow (that is, repudiate or deny responsibility for) your earlier vow. Or perhaps you stick to it, going so far as to eat nothing but brassicas 24/7. Well, in that case, your local chapter of the Carnivore’s Club might illustrate another meaning of disavow by disavowing you (refusing to acknowledge or accept you) as a member any longer. Now when is a vow not avow? You might be surprised to learn that vow and avow/disavow are not related. Though all three words came to English from Latin via Anglo-French, they have distinct roots: vow comes from the Latin verb vovēre, meaning “to vow,” while avow and disavow trace back to the verb advocare, meaning “to summon.” We stand by it: there’s no denying that disavow has history.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 27, 2023 is: plaintive • \PLAYN-tiv\  • adjective Something (usually a sound) that is described as plaintive is expressive of sorrow or suffering. // The plaintive call of the loon, as though it were mourning some bygone age, drifted across the lake. See the entry > Examples: “To the ravishingly plaintive sound of Caetano Veloso singing the fado that gives the film [Strange Way of Life] its title, strummed on guitar and lip-synced by rising Spanish heartthrob Manu Ríos, Silva rides across the desert that separates him from the town of Bitter Creek to reunite, for the first time in 25 years, with Sheriff Jake.” — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2023 Did you know? “The people are drifting from door to door / Can’t find no heaven I don’t care where they go.” So sang Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James on a Depression-era recording of his song “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.” James’s somber lyrics as well as his otherworldly falsetto and distinctive minor-key fingerpicking may be aptly described by the adjective plaintive—deeply expressive, like much of the blues. Plaintive comes from the Middle English word plaintif, meaning “grieving,” a borrowing from an identical Anglo-French word that itself was formed from the Anglo-French noun plaint, a word meaning “lamentation.” (Plaint was also adopted directly into English to refer to expressions of sorrow, mourning, or regret.) Plaintif is the source too of the familiar legal term plaintiff, which refers to someone who presents a legal action or complaint to a court. But while only some people become plaintiffs, all are capable of plaintiveness, whether in song or just a world-weary sigh.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 26, 2023 is: stoic • \STOH-ik\  • adjective Stoic describes someone who shows very little emotion especially in response to a painful or distressing situation. // He remained stoic even as his manager reprimanded him in front of his colleagues. See the entry > Examples: “[Basketball player, Nikola] Jokic remained stoic and straight-faced throughout most of the postgame celebration, taking care to shake hands with every Heat player before attending the trophy presentation. Afterward, he was noncommittal about attending the Nuggets’ championship parade on Thursday, saying that he ‘needs to get home’ to Serbia as soon as possible.” — Ben Golliver, The Washington Post, 13 June 2023 Did you know? The familiar phrase “keep calm and carry on” would have made a lot of sense to the philosopher Zeno of Citium, born in Cyprus in the 4th century B.C.E. As a young man, Zeno traveled to Athens and studied with the important philosophers of the day, among them two influential Cynics. He eventually arrived at his own philosophy and began teaching at a public hall called the Stoa Poikile. Zeno's philosophy, Stoicism, took its name from the hall where he taught; it preached self-control, fortitude, and justice, and that passion was the cause of all evil. By the 14th century, English speakers had adopted the noun stoic as a general term for anyone able to face adversity calmly and without excess emotion, and by the 15th century, stoic was being used as an adjective to describe that same kind of person.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 25, 2023 is: null • \NULL\  • adjective Null is a technical term. In law it is commonly used in the phrase "null and void" to describe something that has no legal or binding force. Null also has several zero-related meanings, including "amounting to nothing," "having no value," "having no elements," "having zero as a limit," and "of, being, or relating to zero." // After careful review, the contract was declared null and void. // A null vote is a rejection of all the ballot's candidates. See the entry > Examples: "While negative and null results can often be overlooked—by authors and publishers alike—their publication is equally as important as positive outcomes and can help fill in critical gaps in the scientific record." — PLOS.org, 6 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Let’s be honest: null is kind of a nothing word. That’s not a judgment—it was literally borrowed into English from the Anglo-French word nul, meaning "not any." That word, in turn, traces to the Latin word nullus, from ne-, meaning "not," and ullus, meaning "any." Null often pops up in legal and scientific contexts; it was originally used in Scottish law and still carries the meaning "having no legal or binding force," especially in the phrase "null and void." In mathematics, it is sometimes used to mean "containing nothing"; for example, the set of all whole numbers that are divisible by zero is the "null set" (that is, there are no numbers that fit that description). Null is occasionally seen in non-technical contexts with the meaning "lacking meaning or value," as in "if no one reads it, the book's content is null."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 24, 2023 is: evince • \ih-VINSS\  • verb Evince is a formal word that means "to display clearly." Someone who evinces an attitude, emotion, quality, etc., shows it clearly. // She evinced a fondness for animals of all kinds from an early age. See the entry > Examples: "History will reflect that in all vocations, whether in the calling of the clergy, the practice of law, of medicine, of public service or education, there are certain individuals who, from time to time, evince a singular erudition, ingenuity, and skill that distinguishes them from their peers." — Anand Dash, TAPinto (New Providence, New Jersey), 2 June 2023 Did you know? A good explanation evinces a willingness to report facts, and we aim to do just that here. To evince something is to show it clearly; the thing evinced is typically an intangible, such as an attitude or intent. Before the current use of evince was established in the late 18th century, the word could mean "to conquer or subdue" and "to convince or conclusively refute," both meanings evincing a link to the word's Latin ancestry: the verb evincere, means "to vanquish" or "to win a point." It comes from another Latin verb, vincere, meaning "to conquer." That word counts among its offspring convince, invincible, vanquish, and victory.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 23, 2023 is: corollary • \KOR-uh-lair-ee\  • noun Corollary is a formal word that usually refers to something that naturally follows or results from another thing. It can also be applied to a thing that incidentally or naturally accompanies or parallels something else. In logic, it refers to a proposition inferred immediately from a proved proposition. // Two corollaries of investment in parks and other green spaces are cleaner air and lower temperatures in neighboring communities. See the entry > Examples: “Our right to speak, much less to parent, should not be contingent on our ability to gain political control. The much better course for our democracy is to uphold a legal corollary to the golden rule: Defend the rights of others that you would like to exercise yourself. It doesn’t end the culture war. We’ll still clash over contentious issues. But maintaining a bedrock defense of civil liberties lowers the stakes.” —David French, The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Not ones to rest on our laurels here in the Word of the Day hothouse, today we are pleased to offer some flowery prose on the history of the word corollary—not because it is rhetorically elegant (though it may be) but because its history is related to flowers. Indeed, the seed of corollary was planted initially by the Latin noun corōlla meaning “small wreath of flowers,” which later bloomed into another Latin noun, corōllārium, referring to a garland given as a reward as well as to a gratuity or an unsolicited payment. Just as one tips their server at the conclusion of a meal, you might think of a modern-day corollary as something that naturally follows or accompanies something else in natural course. The formality of corollary is thanks to its formal roots: the word first figured in logical proofs as a term for a proposition that can be inferred immediately from something that's just been proved—the corollary follows logically as a result of the statement before it.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 22, 2023 is: illustrious • \ih-LUSS-tree-us\  • adjective Illustrious describes a person or deed that is highly admired and respected. // During the ceremony, the illustrious star of stage and screen was presented with a lifetime achievement award. See the entry > Examples: "The USDA Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Region recently recognized Daris Matos, assistant forest engineer for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests for her innovative and impactful contributions to forest engineering in 2022. ... With an illustrious career as an engineer with the U.S. Forest Service spanning 20 years, Matos consistently delivers innovative solutions to complex engineering challenges and demonstrates outstanding contributions to the field." — The Montrose (Colorado) Daily Press, 24 May 2023 Did you know? Today’s spotlight is on illustrious, from the Latin adjective illustris, meaning "shining brightly with light." Illustris itself was probably a back-formation of the Latin verb illustrare, a word with varied meanings, among them "to light up," "to make clear," and "to embellish." (Our word illustrate also comes from illustrare, of course; its original meaning was "to enlighten intellectually, culturally, or spiritually.") At one time, illustrious could be used synonymously with its immediate Latin forbear to describe things that glow brightly, but that meaning is now considered archaic. The word today is almost exclusively used to describe something—such as a career or achievement—that stands out figuratively, shining brilliantly in the mind's eye.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 21, 2023 is: ameliorate • \uh-MEE-lee-uh-rayt\  • verb Ameliorate is a formal word that means "to make something, such as a problem, better or more tolerable." // The council is reviewing a plan that aims to ameliorate the town's affordable housing crisis. See the entry > Examples: "With many institutions embracing diversified forms of student enrollment, we believe that colleges and universities must be able to evaluate the experiences of all their students if they are going to truly embrace equity. To achieve this, leaders must ... strategically act to ameliorate any differences across student groups. While this might seem ... obvious, our research revealed that not many colleges are presently engaging in such comparisons." — Joshua Travis Brown and Joseph M. Kush, Inside Higher Ed, 15 June 2023 Did you know? Ameliorate traces back to melior, a Latin adjective meaning "better," and is a rather formal synonym of the verbs better and improve. When is it better to use ameliorate? Allow us to improve your understanding: if a situation is bad, ameliorate indicates that the conditions have been made more tolerable. Thus, one might refer to medicine that ameliorates pain from an injury, a loss of wages ameliorated by unemployment benefits, or a harsh law ameliorated by special exceptions. Improve and better apply when something bad is getting better or being made better (as in "the weather improved" or "she bettered her lot in life"), and they should always be chosen over ameliorate when something good is getting better still ("he improved his successful program," "she bettered her impressive scores").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 20, 2023 is: vagary • \VAY-guh-ree\  • noun The word vagary, usually used in its plural form, refers to a change that is difficult to predict or control. // The vagaries of fashion make it difficult to predict what styles will be popular a year or two from now. See the entry > Examples: “Fans who follow baseball closely, and a good many people who don’t, know that the pitch clock has cut almost half an hour off the average MLB game time this year. … After centuries of surrendering to the vagaries of extra innings and dawdling players, MLB has defeated time in a different way: by strictly controlling it.” — Ben Lindbergh, TheRinger.com, 1 May 2023 Did you know? Let’s say, hypothetically, that two roads diverge in a yellow wood. And (also hypothetically) sorry that you cannot travel both, you opt for the grassy one less traveled by. What makes all the difference is the century in which this scenario plays out. In the 16th century, it could be said that you “made a vagary” by wandering off the beaten path. Today you might be said to lead a vagabond lifestyle. Vagabond can be traced to the Latin verb vagārī, meaning “to wander” or “to roam,” and it’s likely that vagary comes from that same source. Nowadays, however, the noun vagary is mostly used in its plural form to refer to changes that are difficult to predict or control; modern vagaries have less to do with wandering, and more to do with unpredictability, such as what one might encounter down a path that lies in leaves no step has trodden black.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2023 is: dauntless • \DAWNT-lus\  • adjective Someone or something described as dauntless is incapable of being intimidated or subdued, or in other words, fearless. // With dauntless persistence, the ship's crew navigated the vessel through the unexpected storm, escaping with minimal damage and no casualties. See the entry > Examples: “Their mission was to maintain these historic trails with a sustainable tourism model that protects the cultural and environmental integrity of the awe-inspiring landscape and its cast of dauntless fishermen that called this place o fim de mundo, the end of the world.” — Jamie Ditaranto, Travel + Leisure, 1 Feb. 2022 Did you know? Human history teems with dauntless people, doughty folks who refused to be cowed or subdued, even if armed with nothing but the courage of their convictions. The existence of dauntless raises this question: can one be full of daunt? Not anymore—the noun daunt, meaning “discouragement” or “intimidation,” has been obsolete for centuries, though dauntless remains as a clue to its past use. But daunt is (and has been since the 14th century) a verb; we define it as “to lessen the courage of; to cow or subdue.” Introduced via Anglo-French, its ultimate source lies in the Latin verb domare, meaning “to tame” or “to subdue.” The idea of being subdued persists in today’s daunt, but the idea of being tamed was formerly present too: until at least the 16th century, horses trained to behave in ways useful to humans—that is, horses that were broken—could be said to be “daunted.” Not until the late 16th century did we use undaunted with the meaning “undiscouraged and courageously resolute” to describe people. By then, such lionhearted souls could also be described as “undauntable” as well as “dauntless.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2023 is: glom • \GLAHM\  • verb To glom is to take or get something. Glom is most often used in the phrase “glom on to” to refer to taking something for your own use, becoming strongly attached to or associated with someone or something, or becoming aware of something. // The book consists of a collection of humorous essays glommed from popular magazines. // That author is known for glomming on to other people's ideas as if they were his own. // Other business owners have not yet glommed onto the impact the new parking garage will have on the town. See the entry > Examples: “I am aware that adaptations have been with us for centuries and that Shakespeare borrowed his best plots. But that doesn't stop this book lover from being suspicious when movies and plays glom onto my favorite titles.” — Chris Hewitt, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 21 May 2023 Did you know? It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on glaum (a term from Scots dialect that basically means “to grab”) and appropriated it as their own, changing it to glom in the process. Glom first meant “to steal” (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched to include figurative uses. Today the term is most familiar in the phrase “glom on to,” or “glom onto,” which can mean “to appropriate for one's own use,” as in “glomming on to another's idea”; “to grab hold of,” as in “glommed onto the last cookie”; “to latch on to,” as in “glom on to an opinion” or “glom onto an influential friend”; or “to become aware of,” as in “glomming onto the potential of this new technology.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2023 is: homily • \HAH-muh-lee\  • noun A homily is a usually short talk on a religious or moral topic. Homily may also refer to an inspirational catchphrase, or to a trite or stale remark. // The calendar features serene photographs captioned by inspirational proverbs and homilies. // We had to listen to another one of his homilies about the value of public service. See the entry > Examples: "His rich baritone voice and charismatic delivery have labeled him a distinguished motivational speaker and preacher who delivers homilies on topics regarding hope, forgiveness, faith, prosperity, relationships, and other pertinent issues involving the human condition." — Yolanda Baruch, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Gather round for a succinct history of homily. The story starts with the ancient Greek word homilos, meaning "crowd" or "assembly," and travels through related Greek words homilein, "to address," and homilia, "conversation, discourse." Homilia eventually takes on the "usually short sermon" meaning in our modern homily, and then is incorporated into the Latin used by writers of the early first millennium. It reaches English speakers of the 14th century by way of Anglo-French, but when it arrives it's spelled omelie. By the mid-16th century the "h" is back, and the "y" of the modern spelling has found its place. A side note to our tale is this: be careful not to confuse homily with hominy, a 17th century word of Virginia Algonquian origin denoting a key ingredient in the Mexican soup posole (which, if we may be so corny, is a dish worth preaching about).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2023 is: cogent • \KOH-junt\  • adjective Cogent is a formal word that describes something that is very clear and easy for the mind to accept and believe, in other words “convincing.” // At the town meeting, citizens presented many cogent arguments in support of building a new senior center. See the entry > Examples: “Though Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany is not a go-to resource or final word on the subject, it doesn’t really aim to be. Rather, it’s a cogent and crisp reevaluation of one of the most important pop groups of the century, an erudite closeup on the group’s aims, history, and substantial cultural impact.” — James Toth, AquariumDrunkard.com, 6 Mar. 2023 Did you know? A cogent argument is one that really drives its point home because it is clear, coherent, and readily understandable, and perhaps also because of the etymological history of cogent. Cogent comes from the Latin verb cogere, meaning “to drive or force together.” Something described as cogent fuses thoughts and ideas into a meaningful whole that others can readily grasp and accept. A cogent explanation is a convincing one, and cogent analysis has us nodding along because it is clear and pertinent. Cogere was formed in Latin by combining the prefix co- with the verb agere, “to drive, lead, or act,” a root which is also the source of our familiar noun agent. Handily enough, one definition of agent is “a means or instrument by which a guiding intelligence achieves a result.” It follows logically then that cogency is often a worthwhile agent, indeed.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2023 is: salvo • \SAL-voh\  • noun In military contexts, salvo refers to various actions involving discharge or release of bombs, rockets, artillery, etc., as well to the bombs or projectiles released in such an action. In general use, salvo is usually used to refer to a strong or sudden verbal attack, but it can also refer to a sudden occurrence of applause, laughter, etc., from many people. // The troops were driven back by a salvo of cannon fire. // The editorial's opening salvo was a list of grievances against the mayor's policies. // The conclusion of her performance was answered with a salvo of cheers and applause. See the entry > Examples: “‘Are you a sicko?’ Delivered with operatic vitriol by Brian Cox, those words are the final salvo of the greatest comedic moment in Succession. Roman, on the cusp of getting everything he’s ever wanted, still hungers for more.” — Charles Holmes, The Ringer, 31 May 2023 Did you know? No opening salvo here: salvo in phrases like “an opening salvo” is a kind of attack, especially one that is strong or sudden. Usually, such salvos are verbal attacks, like a critical remark aimed at a debate opponent, or a pointed accusation at the start of an editorial. But salvo can also refer to attacks of a more perilous kind, including various martial actions involving bombs, rockets, and artillery. (It can also refer to the bombs or projectiles released in a salvo.) The word arrived from Italian in the late 16th century with a complex meaning: it referred to a simultaneous discharge of two or more guns, either in military action or as a salute. The word's ultimate source is the Latin word salve, meaning “hail!,” which was an ancient Roman greeting. In English, salvo is also sometimes used for a sudden occurrence of applause, laughter, etc., from many people, which sounds to us like the best kind of all.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2023 is: comprise • \kum-PRYZE\  • verb Comprise is a verb that first meant "to be made up of (something); to include or consist of (something)." It still carries that meaning but today it also often means "to make up or form (something)," though some object to this use. Comprise can also mean "to include especially within a particular scope." // The city developers' plans include a massive recreational complex that comprises a concert hall, four restaurants, two hotels, and a theater. // Bamboo comprises the bulk of the giant panda's diet. See the entry > Examples: "The ballots are in, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2023 will comprise Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, and the Spinners." — Al Shipley, SPIN, 3 May 2023 Did you know? The earliest meaning of comprise, "to be made up of" (as in "a team comprising nine players"), is sometimes regarded as the word's only correct use. However, this grammatical prescription denies a well-established sense of the word: "to compose or constitute" (as in "the nine players who comprise the team"). Until relatively recently, this sense appeared mostly in scientific writing, but current evidence shows that it is now somewhat more common in general use than the word's other meanings. You might be most familiar with this disputed use in the passive construction, "to be comprised of" (as in "a team comprised of nine players"). Apologies to the haters: a single sense simply can’t comprise comprise.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 13, 2023 is: outlandish • \out-LAN-dish\  • adjective Outlandish describes things that are strikingly strange or unusual; in this use, it's a synonym of bizarre. Outlandish can also describe things, such as claims, rumors, and accusations, that go beyond reasonable limits or standards. // One of the author's greatest strengths is her ability to write outlandish characters whose quirks remain lodged in readers' minds long after they've finished the book. // When asked to back up his outlandish claims, the governor quickly changed the subject, all but admitting that he had no proof for his allegations. See the entry > Examples: “The Derby is the horse racing equivalent of opening day, a spring festival for which all the sport's top owners and trainers put their best feet forward, thinking this might be their year. More even than the outlandish hats worn by patrons, optimism defines it.” — Childs Walker, The Baltimore Sun, 7 May 2023 Did you know? For some, the grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side of the fence—it may also be very, very strange. The side-eye that skeptical sorts cast toward visitors from parts yonder is embedded in the history of the ancient word outlandish. In Old English someone described as “outlandish” came from an outland, i.e., a foreign land. Within a few hundred years, outlandish had broadened in use to describe anything unfamiliar or strange. It’s now commonly applied to things—especially things people do, wear, or say—that are strikingly out of the ordinary, or even just too-too—that is, too far beyond reasonable or proper limits or standards. But lest you mistake us for equating outlandish with wrong or bad, heed the words of Tony Stark (as played by Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man) when addressing speculation that he is secretly a superhero: “That would be outlandish… and fantastic.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 12, 2023 is: forte • \FOR-tay\  • noun Forte refers to something that a person does well, or in other words, a person’s strong point. // It was no surprise that she got accepted to the performing arts school; dancing was always her forte. See the entry > Examples: “Rallying is what [tennis player, Sienna] Watts sees as her forte, especially with her ability to tire out her opponent. ‘I think a lot of people think I’m very fast because I can get to most of the balls,’ Watts said. ‘I try to move people around in hitting short shots followed by longer shots.’” — Matthew Ehler, M Live (Grand Rapids, Michigan), 26 May 2023 Did you know? En garde! When English speakers borrowed the word forte from French in the 17th century, it referred to the strongest part of the blade of a fencing sword, the section between the middle and the hilt. (The word’s ultimate source is the French adjective fort, meaning “strong.”) Forte was perfectly suited for metaphorical use, and it quickly came to refer to the strong point of a person, in addition to the strong point of a blade. (The word has its counterpoint in foible, which comes from an obsolete form of the French word faible, “weak,” and refers both to the weakest part of a sword blade and to a person’s weak point.) There is some controversy over how to correctly pronounce forte. Common choices in American English are “FOR-tay” and “for-TAY,” but many usage commentators recommend matching it to fort, since the e is not pronounced in French. Whichever you choose has no bearing on its meaning, however, and therefore should run you no risk of someone (say, an avenging duelist) commenting: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 11, 2023 is: loquacious • \loh-KWAY-shus\  • adjective Someone described as loquacious might also be called wordy (prone to using more words than considered necessary when talking) or garrulous (tending to talking a lot). // She's the loquacious host of a weekly news podcast. See the entry > Examples: “He is the most well-read city commissioner on issues, policies and governance. He is not the most loquacious commissioner, just the most listened to.” The Gainesville (Florida) Sun, 24 July 2022 Did you know? Loquacious undeniably has a certain poetic ring. It’s been a favorite of the writerly sort since it made its first appearance in English in the 17th century and, with poetic license, writers stretched its meaning beyond “talkative,” and especially “excessively talkative,” to describe such things as the chattering of birds and the babbling of brooks. The ultimate source of all this chattiness is loquī, a Latin verb meaning “to talk, speak.” Other words descended from loquī include colloquial, eloquent, soliloquy, and ventriloquism.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 10, 2023 is: bon vivant • \bahn-vee-VAHNT\  • noun A bon vivant is a sociable person who has cultivated and refined tastes especially with respect to food and drink. // She has become something of a bon vivant since moving to Paris, going out most nights and delighting in the city's many famous restaurants. See the entry > Examples: “Le Magritte is a humble bar that gets everything right. The service is timely and perceptive, the cocktails ... are subtle twists on spirituous classics that are delightful without trying to be the centre of attention. The bar bites are truly buzzworthy, too ... enough to leave any bon vivant smiling from ear to ear.” — Tyler Zielinski, The (London) Evening Standard, 19 July 2022 Did you know? Do you consider yourself a bon vivant? If you’re not sure, perhaps a peek into the word’s origin will help. In French, the phrase literally means “good liver.” Fear not if you are among those who are underinformed about the state of their liver. The “liver” here is not the bodily organ, but one who lives; a bon vivant is one who lives well. English speakers have used bon vivant since the late 17th century to refer specifically to those who subscribe to a particular kind of good living—one that involves lots of social engagements and the enjoyment of fancy food and drink. This puts the term very much in the company of some other French words. Gourmet, gourmand, and gastronome all refer to those who love a fancy meal (though gourmand often carries the connotation of a tendency to overindulge). Bon appétit!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 9, 2023 is: thwart • \THWORT\  • verb Thwart means “to effectively oppose or prevent.” To thwart a person is to prevent them from doing something, and to thwart a thing is to stop it from happening. // The campaign has successfully thwarted the effort to develop the land, which is now preserved in perpetuity. // The hometown crowd erupted in cheers as their beloved team thwarted the postseason hopes of their archrivals. See the entry > Examples: “In the 1990s, the beer company Old Style aired a series of ads starring Dennis Farina, the Chicago-born actor who’s been typecast for most of his career as a cop. In them, Farina plays the role of a detective tasked with thwarting out-of-towners, specifically from New York and Los Angeles, from loading cans of Old Style into vans to take back to home. ‘The Old Style Light you drink is one they’ll never get,’ he says in the ad. ‘It’s our great beer, and they can’t have it.’” — Luke Fortney, Eater.com, 17 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Try to compile a long list of words in English that begin with “thw,” and prepare to be thwarted in your attempt: there aren’t many, and a goodly portion of those that do exist, such as thwartwise and the now-obsolete thwartsaw, start with thwart itself. Today we mostly use thwart as a verb to mean “to defeat or oppose successfully” but a lesser-known meaning of the word is “to pass through or across.” And it’s that sense that points to the origin of this odd-sounding word. In early Middle English, thwert was an adverb meaning “across” or “transversely,” used to describe how something lies across the length of something else. The verb thwerten came from this adverb and eventually became thwart. The link between the meanings becomes clear if you think of thwarting a plan, effort, etc., as blocking a road or path, thereby impeding another’s progress. And if you’re at cross-purposes with someone, you two are mutually—even if unintentionally—thwarting each other’s plans.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 8, 2023 is: rectitude • \REK-tuh-tood\  • noun Rectitude is a formal noun that means “moral integrity or righteousness” or “the quality or state of being correct in judgment or procedure.” // The keynote speaker encouraged the graduates to go on to live lives of unimpeachable rectitude and integrity. // As treasurer of the club, she advocated a kind of fiscal rectitude that is widely credited with saving the organization from financial ruin. See the entry > Examples: “The district attorney was the picture of a gray-haired eminence, a figure of rectitude in a circus of a city. He conducted his indictment press conferences—an evening news staple—sitting down, grim as an undertaker, at the center of a long boardroom table. Unlike ... his bête noire at the U.S. attorney's office, he never raised his voice, cracked a smile or indulged in theatrics.” — Andrew Kirtzman, The Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2022 Did you know? Ready for some straight talk about rectitude? Righto! Rectitude is a formal word that comes from the Latin adjective rectus, which means both “right” and “straight,” and ultimately from the Latin verb regere, meaning “to lead straight.” Rectitude today typically refers to moral integrity—that is, to “straightness” or “rightness” of character. (An early use referred literally to a straight line, but that sense is now rare.) Rectus has a number of other descendants in English, including rectangle (a closed four-sided figure with four right angles), rectify (“to make right”), rectilinear (“moving in or forming a straight line”), and even rectus itself, a medical term for any one of several straight muscles in the body.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 7, 2023 is: mitigate • \MIT-uh-gayt\  • verb To mitigate something is to make it less severe, harmful, or painful. // One way we can mitigate the impact the construction project will have on residents is to commit to completing the project in the allotted time. See the entry > Examples: “Race, gender, disabilities, and other biases may be inadvertently embedded in artificial intelligence systems, forcing computational systems to replicate historical problems. The explosion of new AI technology needs a call-to-action from regulators and organizations to mitigate those risks with best practices for AI applications.” — Annette Hagood, Washington Technology, 13 June 2023 Did you know? The meaning of mitigate is straightforward enough: to make something—such as a problem, symptom, or punishment—less harsh or severe. Sometimes, however, mitigate appears where the similar-looking militate is expected. That word, which is often followed by against, means “to have weight or effect,” as in “your unexcused absences are likely to militate against your getting a promotion.” The two words are not closely related (mitigate comes from the Latin verb mitigare, meaning “to soften,” whereas militate traces to militare, meaning “to engage in warfare”), but the confusion between the two has existed for long enough that some usage commentators have accepted “mitigate against” as an idiomatic alternative to militate. Even William Faulkner used mitigate in this way in his 1932 short story, Centaur in Brass, writing “It's as though there were some intangible and invisible social force that mitigates against him.” Unless you’re Faulkner, though, it’s probably best to keep mitigate and militate distinct.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 6, 2023 is: dog days • \DAWG-DAYZ\  • noun Dog days is a plural noun that refers to the hottest time of the year, which in the northern hemisphere is usually between early July and early September. Dog days can also refer to a period of stagnation or inactivity suggestive of hot, sultry weather when it can be difficult to summon the energy required for hard work. // The kids swim every afternoon during the dog days of summer. See the entry > Examples: “Streets with mature trees command higher home prices, temper the dog days of summer and draw more people outdoors for fresh air, walks and chats with neighbors.” — Celia Llopis-Jepsen, Kansas News Service, 9 May 2023 Did you know? Idle hands may be the devil’s workshop, but let’s be serious: when it’s stiflingly hot outside, who among us isn’t tempted to shirk work to go lie doggo in the shade somewhere? Such is the desire of many a creature—not just dogs (or lexicographers)—during the dog days of summer. If you’re curious how dogs got singled out in this expression, however, you might say it was in the stars. The dog in dog days is the Dog Star, aka Sirius, the star that represents the hound of the hunter Orion in the eponymous constellation. The star has long been associated with sultry weather in the northern hemisphere because it rises simultaneously with the sun during the hottest days of summer.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 5, 2023 is: abscond • \ab-SKAHND\  • verb To abscond is to leave, flee, or escape a place in secret and go into hiding. Often, someone is said to have absconded with something. // The suspect absconded to Canada before investigators could reach her at home. // He became concerned that one of his co-conspirators would abscond with the money. See the entry > Examples: “Squirrels snarf hard taco shells, and abscond with Nutella jars; subway rats chow down on pizza, while seagulls have ripped fries and even a KFC wrap straight out of human mouths.” — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 21 Feb. 2023 Did you know? In “Take the Money and Run,” a 1976 earworm by the Steve Miller Band, the singer punctuates a song about teenage bandits with the catchy refrain “Go on, take the money and run.” Granted, the song probably wouldn’t have charted had it been titled “Abscond,” but the meaning would have been the same. Abscond is a word most often used in formal writing for when someone is running and hiding from the law, often with cash or other ill-gotten gains. In legal circles it’s used specifically when someone flies like an eagle from a jurisdiction to evade the legal process, as in “absconded from parole.” The history of abscond doesn’t evade scrutiny: it comes from the Latin verb abscondere, meaning “to hide away.” (That word’s root is condere, meaning “to conceal.”) Today, whether some joker absconds by going to the country to bury some treasure or by taking a jet airliner beyond the law’s reach, they are, in essence, hiding themselves away.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 4, 2023 is: girandole • \JEER-un-dohl\  • noun Girandole can refer to an ornamental branched candlestick, as well as to a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central piece. In its earliest uses, girandole referred to a radiating and showy composition, such as a cluster of skyrockets fired together for a fireworks display, or to a fountain issuing a rising column of spreading water. // The newlyweds found the most gorgeous girandole at an antique sale and couldn’t wait to put it in their living room. // She admired the girandoles and topknots of the characters in her favorite period piece. // Seeing girandoles light up the night sky was his favorite part of the holidays. See the entry > Examples: "A girandole is no newcomer to the jewellery scene: it became fashionable in the 18th century—think rose-cut diamond drops twinkling in a candle-lit room. Sticklers for accuracy will want a central design motif, often a bow or similar, with three pear-shaped stones suspended underneath. David Morris, Gucci and Graff have some great modern-day versions. But the most covetable of all? Rare originals that occasionally come up for auction, having survived centuries without being separated." — Jessica Diamond, The Times (London), 28 Nov. 2022 Did you know? The word girandole can refer to several different things, all of them designed to provoke oohs and aahs. The earliest uses of girandole in English, in the 17th century, referred to a kind of firework, or to something with a radiating pattern like that of a firework, such as a fountain. Such a pattern is reflected in the word's etymology: girandole can be traced back by way of French and Italian to the Latin word gyrus, meaning "gyre" or "a circular or spiral motion or form." By the 18th century, girandole was being used for a branched candlestick, perhaps due to its resemblance to the firework. The word's use for a kind of earring was lit during the 19th century. While pinwheel and Catherine wheel are more often called upon for firework duty today, we note that there’s nothing stopping you from applying the elegant girandole to the impressive displays that light up festive night skies.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 3, 2023 is: embezzle • \im-BEZZ-ul\  • verb To embezzle is to steal something (usually money) that you have been entrusted with. // The company's senior accounts manager embezzled thousands of dollars from her employer. See the entry > Examples: “In the courtroom, [courthouse dog] Ollie stands with those testifying as they take the oath to tell the truth and curls up at their feet behind the witness stand.... He comforted a woman in her 90s who had to testify against her son. He was accused of forging documents and embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from her over a long time.” — Diane Bell, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Apr. 2023 Did you know? English is full of verbs that mean “to steal” (such as pilfer, rob, swipe, plunder, filch, and thieve). But when it comes to stealing property (and in this context, money is a kind of property) that has been entrusted to you, embezzle wins the prize. The word most often refers to theft of company or government funds that one has charge of, and embezzlement is therefore a hallmark of white-collar crime—that is, crime committed by so-called “white-collar” workers. In the 15th century, around the time that embezzlement entered English (the ultimate root is Anglo-French besiller “to steal, plunder”), it would have also been possible to say that such plunderers “bezzled” company cash, but bezzle is now considered obsolete.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 2, 2023 is: prowess • \PROW-us\  • noun Prowess refers to someone’s great ability, skill, or talent for something specified, as in “the pop star's vocal prowess” or “a lawyer of great prowess.” // Already a proven virtuoso on guitar, she extends her considerable instrumental prowess to the piano throughout her new album as well. See the entry > Examples: “Asa Phillip Randolph led a successful 10-year campaign starting in 1925 to unionize the all-Black male service staff of the Pullman sleeping cars, which were passenger trains with sleeping accommodations. The union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was the first Black American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a major U.S. corporation. Randolph’s organizing prowess also led him to plan the March on Washington years before the 1963 march that became historically known.” — Malaika Jabali, Essence, 5 Sept. 2022 Did you know? Prowess is a word with a lot to be proud of. Not only has it performed gallantly for the English language since the 13th century, but it has stayed relatively stalwart in hewing to its original meaning, which is quite a flex. When prowess first joined the ranks of the lexicon, it could be used to refer to bravery, skill, and valor—especially those virtues as encountered in military contexts—or to individual acts of derring-do. The latter was usually used in the plural, as when people waxed rhapsodic about the “prowesses” of knights or some such. Today’s “extraordinary ability” meaning, which developed in the 17th century, tends to stick to the singular form, as when it’s used to describe those with intellectual prowess, or to someone known for their prowess as a fundraiser.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2023 is: whimsical • \WIM-zih-kul\  • adjective Something described as whimsical is unusual in a playful or amusing way. // Her younger sister’s whimsical sense of humor often leaves her friends giggling at the lunch table, as when she built a castle out of her mashed potatoes, complete with a moat. See the entry > Examples: “You match with an attractive person on a dating app and exchange a few messages. Then, without warning, a dizzying daydream pops in your head. Walks on the beach together, picnic lunches, moonlit city strolls, all leading up to a whimsical wedding fantasy.” — David Oliver, USA Today, 24 May 2023 Did you know? Even the origin of whimsical is whimsical: its ultimate source (by way of the noun whimsy) is the now-obscure whim-wham, a noun from the early 16th century that first referred to an ornamental object or trinket, and later to an eccentric impulse or interest—that is, to what in modern terms can be called a whim. The origin of whim-wham isn’t clear, but it’s among a class of words known as reduplications, words that are formed by repeating a word, as in go-go, or by adding to a word one that sounds very similar to it, as in dillydally. (In the case of whim-wham, the original duplicated term has been lost to time.) While whimsical first described those who tend toward whimsy, it now commonly describes things that are unusual in a playful or amusing way, as in “charmed by the book’s whimsical illustrations.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 30, 2023 is: facilitate • \fuh-SIL-uh-tayt\  • verb To facilitate something is to help bring it about, as in "her rise to power was facilitated by her influential friends." In other words, facilitating something eases the way for it to happen smoothly and effectively. // The moderator's role is to facilitate the discussion by asking appropriate questions. See the entry > Examples: "The fully paved road to Hurricane Ridge—completed in 1957 as part of the National Park Service’s Mission 66 modernization campaign—facilitates alpine access for visitors without vehicles capable of navigating rutted forest roads or the ability to hike long distances in the backcountry." — Gregory Scruggs, The Seattle Times, 8 May 2023 Did you know? English isn’t always easy, but the origin of facilitate is nothing but: the word traces back to the Latin adjective facilis, meaning "easy." Other descendants of facilis in English include facile ("easy to do"), facility ("the quality of being easily performed"), faculty ("ability"), and difficult (from dis- plus facilis, which equals "not easy"). English isn’t the only Latin-influenced language that has facilis to thank for "easy" words: the word for "easy" is fácil in both Spanish and Portuguese, and facile in both Italian and French. The way that facilitating something makes it "easy" (or "easier," as it were) can be likened to paving a road to make traveling to one’s destination smoother. Similarly, when we say, for example, that applying a healthy layer of mulch around the base of a newly planted tree facilitates robust growth, we mean that it (figuratively) paves the way for, or brings about, the sapling’s success.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 29, 2023 is: dyed-in-the-wool • \dyde-in-thuh-WOOL\  • adjective Someone described as dyed-in-the-wool has very strong, uncompromising beliefs or opinions. // The festival was held in a remote, rural town, ensuring it would attract no one but the most dyed-in-the-wool bluegrass fans. See the entry > Examples: “Nearly a century after Milton Hershey brought hockey here in part to entertain chocolate factory workers, the Bears and their fans still hold a novel place in the sport. The oldest AHL team serves as the primary development club for the Washington Capitals, even though it has supporters who have been season ticket holders longer than the Capitals have existed. Some players refer to Hershey as the ‘33rd NHL city’ because of the team’s dyed-in-the-wool fan base, much of which comprises generations of families that have followed it since World War II.” — Roman Stubb, The Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Early yarn makers would dye wool before spinning it into yarn to make the fibers retain their color longer, an order of operations still frequently followed. In 16th-century England, that make-it-last coloring practice led writers to draw a comparison between the dyeing of wool and the way children could, if taught early, be influenced in ways that would last throughout their lives. In the 19th-century U.S., the wool-dyeing practice put eloquent Federalist orator Daniel Webster in mind of a certain type of Democrat whose attitudes were as unyielding as the dye in unspun wool. Of course, Democrats were soon using the term against their opponents, too, but over time the partisanship of the expression faded and it is now a general term describing anyone or anything that seems unlikely or unwilling to change.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2023 is: kludge • \KLOOJ\  • noun A kludge is a haphazard or makeshift solution to a problem and especially to a computer or programming problem. // Andy knocked out a hasty kludge to circumvent the glitch until a more robust solution could be developed. See the entry > Examples: “I briefly considered purchasing a new desk for the office. But the one that several people at The Verge recommended … usually runs around $600 or so, and I had other expenses to deal with. … So I began to see if I could come up with a kludge that would give me what amounted to a standing desk.” — Barbara Krasnoff, TheVerge.com, 16 Aug. 2022 Did you know? As long as the origins of kludge (also spelled kluge) are uncertain, any attempt to pin them down will itself be a bit of a kludge—that is, a makeshift solution. The writer Jackson W. Granholm, once thought to have coined the word, offered his own when he wrote in his 1962 article “How to design a kludge” that it came from the German word klug, meaning “smart” or “witty.” This connection is unlikely on both phonetic and semantic grounds, however, and in any event the word already existed. A decade earlier, in an article recounting military folklore acquired from ex-soldiers, Agnes Nolan Underwood related a shaggy-dog story about a sailor named Murgatroyd whose civilian occupation is “kluge maker.” The meaning of kluge is withheld till the end of the tale, when the object made by Murgatroyd turns out to be “the damnedest looking little thing you ever saw—wires and springs sticking out in every direction.” Murgatroyd then accidentally drops the object: “the kluge slipped out and went overboard, down into the ocean, and went ‘kkluuge’.” This suggests a possible onomatopoeic origin for kludge/kluge (we note that the kluge spelling better reflects its pronunciation; the word rhymes with huge, not fudge), but again, nothing in this life is certain but death and taxes, and these days also computer malfunctions.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2023 is: kludge • \KLOOJ\  • noun A kludge is a haphazard or makeshift solution to a problem and especially to a computer or programming problem. // Andy knocked out a hasty kludge to circumvent the glitch until a more robust solution could be developed. See the entry > Examples: “I briefly considered purchasing a new desk for the office. But the one that several people at The Verge recommended … usually runs around $600 or so, and I had other expenses to deal with. … So I began to see if I could come up with a kludge that would give me what amounted to a standing desk.” — Barbara Krasnoff, TheVerge.com, 16 Aug. 2022 Did you know? As long as the origins of kludge (also spelled kluge) are uncertain, any attempt to pin them down will itself be a bit of a kludge—that is, a makeshift solution. The writer Jackson W. Granholm, once thought to have coined the word, offered his own when he wrote in his 1962 article “How to design a kludge” that it came from the German word klug, meaning “smart” or “witty.” This connection is unlikely on both phonetic and semantic grounds, however, and in any event the word already existed. A decade earlier, in an article recounting military folklore acquired from ex-soldiers, Agnes Nolan Underwood related a shaggy-dog story about a sailor named Murgatroyd whose civilian occupation is “kluge maker.” The meaning of kluge is withheld till the end of the tale, when the object made by Murgatroyd turns out to be “the damnedest looking little thing you ever saw—wires and springs sticking out in every direction.” Murgatroyd then accidentally drops the object: “the kluge slipped out and went overboard, down into the ocean, and went ‘kkluuge’.” This suggests a possible onomatopoeic origin for kludge/kluge (we note that the kluge spelling better reflects its pronunciation; the word rhymes with huge, not fudge), but again, nothing in this life is certain but death and taxes, and these days also computer malfunctions.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 27, 2023 is: pungent • \PUN-junt\  • adjective Pungent typically describes things that have a strong, sharp taste or smell. It can also describe communication that has a strong effect on the mind because of being clever and direct. // Toni likes to add pungent habaneros to her chili to give it an extra spicy kick. // The Emmy-nominated series is a pungent satire of today's political climate. See the entry > Examples: "The archive paints a pungent portrait of the couple in their own words, a relationship marked by recrimination and anger but also mutual dependence and tender affection." — Joseph Berger, The New York Times, 6 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Things described as "pungent"—be they on the plate or on the page—have a bite to them, just as the word's Latin forbear suggests: the verb pungere means "to prick or sting." Some early uses of pungent described things that literally pricked, and the word is still used this way in the biological sciences for such purposes as identifying fish with pungent dorsal fins or plants (such as holly) with pungent leaves. But most often we reserve pungent for flavors and scents that don’t actually pierce or poke us, even if they result in similar sensations—which many people enjoy! The word is also frequently applied to verbal prickings, in which sharp and incisive language brings a biting quality to satires, critiques, and the like. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we think pungent really cuts the mustard as an evocative word choice.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2023 is: consigliere • \kohn-sil-YEH-reh\  • noun Consigliere refers to a trusted adviser or counselor. Originally, a consigliere specifically served the leader of a criminal organization such as the Mafia, but others likened to such an adviser are now sometimes called consiglieres too. // Largely unknown to the general public, she was nonetheless a powerful Washington figure who served as the Senate leader's trusted consigliere and political strategist. See the entry > Examples: “‘Mafia Mamma’ is an action comedy about a flaky American marketing employee and soon-to-be empty nester, Kristin (Toni Collette), who, through the demise of her grandfather, Don Giuseppe Balbano (Alessandro Bressanello), becomes the head of a major Italian crime family. Assisted by Don Giuseppe’s consigliere, Bianca (Monica Bellucci), she must take down the Romanos, a rival family, while avoiding her own assassination.” — Odie Henderson, The Boston Globe, 14 Apr. 2023 Did you know? If you're a fan of The Godfather series of movies, mention of the word consigliere may already have brought to mind the character Tom Hagen. Hagen, the Corleones' family lawyer, is famously dismissed by the Don's successor and son Michael Corleone because he is not a “wartime consigliere.” The word consigliere comes from Italian and has been a part of English since the 17th century; it was originally used of someone who served on a council in Italy. Currently, it most commonly refers to advisers to the Mafia—a use that first appeared in English in a document from a 1963 session of the U.S. Senate. It is also used more generally for someone who is likened in some way to such an adviser.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2023 is: consigliere • \kohn-sil-YEH-reh\  • noun Consigliere refers to a trusted adviser or counselor. Originally, a consigliere specifically served the leader of a criminal organization such as the Mafia, but others likened to such an adviser are now sometimes called consiglieri too. // Largely unknown to the general public, she was nonetheless a powerful Washington figure who served as the Senate leader's trusted consigliere and political strategist. See the entry > Examples: “‘Mafia Mamma’ is an action comedy about a flaky American marketing employee and soon-to-be empty nester, Kristin (Toni Collette), who, through the demise of her grandfather, Don Giuseppe Balbano (Alessandro Bressanello), becomes the head of a major Italian crime family. Assisted by Don Giuseppe’s consigliere, Bianca (Monica Bellucci), she must take down the Romanos, a rival family, while avoiding her own assassination.” — Odie Henderson, The Boston Globe, 14 Apr. 2023 Did you know? If you're a fan of The Godfather series of movies, mention of the word consigliere may already have brought to mind the character Tom Hagen. Hagen, the Corleones' family lawyer, is famously dismissed by the Don's successor and son Michael Corleone because he is not a “wartime consigliere.” The word consigliere comes from Italian and has been a part of English since the 17th century; it was originally used of someone who served on a council in Italy. Currently, it most commonly refers to advisers to the Mafia—a use that first appeared in English in a document from a 1963 session of the U.S. Senate. It is also used more generally for someone who is likened in some way to such an adviser.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2023 is: lambent • \LAM-bunt\  • adjective When used literally, lambent can mean “softly bright or radiant” or “flickering.” Lambent is also often used to describe speech, writing, music, and even wine, that has a light, appealing quality. // Sitting around the campfire, we were mesmerized by the lambent flames dancing into the night. // As a writer she is known for the lambent wit with which she deftly and amusingly describes the absurdities of modern life. See the entry > Examples: “Observe the impact in the Clark’s permanent collection of a [Berthe] Morisot painting, “The Bath” (1885-86), amid several girly Renoirs…. Renoir’s rosy-fleshed models do arbitrarily fussy things with their hands. Morisot’s puts up her hair, anchoring in immediate experience the work’s lambent lyricism.” — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 7 Sept. 2020 Did you know? In his short story “The Word,” Vladimir Nabokov limned a dream-like landscape where “a wind, like the foretaste of a miracle, played in my hair” and grasses “lapped at the tree trunks like tongues of fire.” Both the wind and the grass in these passages might be described by one of the oldest senses of lambent: “playing lightly over a surface.” That Nabokov compared flames to tongues, as people often do, is doubly appropriate. Lambent, which first appeared in English in the 17th century, is a part of this tradition, coming from lambens, a form of the Latin verb lambere, meaning “to lick.” (Lap, as in “waves lapping at the shore,” also counts lambere among its distant relations.) Early uses of lambent were usually applied to flames or light (it can also mean “flickering”), and by way of that association, the term eventually came to describe things with a radiant or brilliant glow, first in a literal sense (“a lambent sunset”) and later a figurative one applied to prose, music, and other expressions marked by lightness or brilliance.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2023 is: sashay • \sa-SHAY\  • verb To sashay is to proudly walk in a slow, confident way that is meant to attract attention. Sashay can also mean simply "to walk, glide, or go," or "to proceed or move in a diagonal or sideways manner." In contexts involving dance, sashay means "to make a chassé," which is a dance step in which a slide on one foot is followed closely by a slide on the other foot. // The model sashayed down the runway wearing red from head to toe. See the entry > Examples: "I was surrounded by warm wood paneling, soft lighting, piano music playing at the exact right volume, white tablecloths, and servers who didn’t walk so much as they sashayed from the kitchen to the dining room and back again. This was one of the most confident restaurants I’d ever entered, and the next hour of my life would prove why." — Drew Magary, SFGate.com, 18 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Sashay slid into English as an alteration of the French borrowing chassé, which refers to a dance step in which a slide on one foot is followed closely by a slide on the other foot. (It comes from the French verb chasser, meaning "to chase.") Authors such as Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, and John Updike have all put their names on the word’s proverbial dance card, enjoying the liveliness sashay adds to prose. More recently, it has been strutting its stuff as a refrain on RuPaul’s Drag Race since 2009: a queen does not skulk when voted out of the race, but proudly sashays offstage. From classic literature to the runway, sashay continues to dance its way through English with attitude. Now, sashay away.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23, 2023 is: hashtag • \HASH-tag\  • noun A hashtag is a word or phrase that starts with the symbol # and that categorizes or comments on the text or image it accompanies. The word hashtag can also refer to the symbol # as used in a hashtag. // She used the hashtag #VeganEats to search social media for new recipes and restaurants she could add to her list. See the entry > Examples: “While attending the opening ceremony for the screening of the festival's opening film, ‘Jeanne du Barry,’ the ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ star [Dame Helen Mirren] walked the red carpet at Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, and showed off a blue hairstyle to match her blue gown. Mirren paired her look with matching earrings, a necklace and a black fan with the hashtag #WorthIt.” — Angeline Jane Bernabe, ABC News, 16 May 2023 Did you know? Hashtags are an everyday part of Internet culture, thanks to social media. Originally designed for categorizing posts (i.e., tagging them) on Twitter, hashtags now commonly also supplement or comment on whatever text or image they accompany. The “hash” in hashtag is short for hash mark, a term for what we also call a pound sign or, if you want to apply the word-nerdiest designation, an octothorpe. Hash in this case is probably an alteration of hatch, a term for the lines artists sometimes use to add shading to a drawing. #WordNerdery

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2023 is: jaundiced • \JAWN-dist\  • adjective Jaundiced means “showing or influenced by feelings of distrust, distaste, or hostility.” Someone described as jaundiced, or as possessing jaundiced opinions or views, is typically understood to feel that way because of negative past experiences. // She developed a very jaundiced view of politics and politicians after years of chairing her local school board committee and witnessing all kinds of petty shenanigans. See the entry > Examples: “I directed a short story [Dorothy] Parker wrote once with a couple of my acting students. It wasn't written as a one-act play, it was just a short dialogue-driven story and it was called ‘Here We Are.’ Parker was basically doing a satiric tap dance on the institution of marriage, and all of the little peccadilloes and foibles that human beings possess, because you know, they're human. ... Parker looked at marriage with a jaundiced eye because she probably saw and knew too much of human behavior.” — J. V. Houlihan, The Block Island (Rhode Island) Times, 12 May 2023 Did you know? Cast not a jaundiced eye on the word jaundiced—and by that we mean this: don’t dislike or distrust jaundiced because of past experiences with the word or with others like it. Jaundiced is handy for describing the grumps among us who tend toward envy, aversion, or hostility, and who doesn’t know a few of those? This useful 17th century adjective comes from an also-useful 14th century noun jaundice that still refers to a medical condition in which excess bile pigments in the bloodstream and body tissues cause a person’s skin to turn yellow. The connection between the physical condition and bad attitude lies in the physiological theory of the bodily humors, which holds that a hostile, irritable temperament is caused by excess yellow bile in one’s body.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2023 is: jaundiced • \JAWN-dist\  • adjective Jaundiced means “showing or influenced by feelings of distrust, distaste, or hostility.” Someone described as jaundiced, or as possessing jaundiced opinions or views, is typically understood to feel that way because of negative past experiences. // She developed a very jaundiced view of politics and politicians after years of chairing her local school board committee and witnessing all kinds of petty shenanigans. See the entry > Examples: “I directed a short story [Dorothy] Parker wrote once with a couple of my acting students. It wasn't written as a one-act play, it was just a short dialogue-driven story and it was called ‘Here We Are.’ Parker was basically doing a satiric tap dance on the institution of marriage, and all of the little peccadilloes and foibles that human beings possess, because you know, they're human. ... Parker looked at marriage with a jaundiced eye because she probably saw and knew too much of human behavior.” — J. V. Houlihan, The Block Island (Rhode Island) Times, 12 May 2023 Did you know? Cast not a jaundiced eye on the word jaundiced—and by that we mean this: don’t dislike or distrust jaundiced because of past experiences with the word or with others like it. Jaundiced is handy for describing the grumps among us who tend toward envy, aversion, or hostility, and who doesn’t know a few of those? This useful 17th century adjective comes from an also-useful 14th century noun jaundice that still refers to a medical condition in which excess bile pigments in the bloodstream and body tissues cause a person’s skin to turn yellow. The connection between the physical condition and the bad attitude lies in the physiological theory of the bodily humors, which holds that a hostile, irritable temperament is caused by excess yellow bile in one’s body.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 21, 2023 is: assuage • \uh-SWAYJ\  • verb Assuage is a formal word most often used when the intensity of something painful or distressing, such as guilt or fear, is being lessened, as in “efforts to assuage their concerns.” Assuage can also mean “satisfy” or “alleviate.” // City officials tried to assuage neighbors' concerns about the new factory. // Just beyond one of the hike's more arduous scrambles lay a shady glen with a lively brook perfect for assuaging a climber's thirst. See the entry > Examples: “One fourth of the land is being donated back to the government, part of Disney’s attempts to assuage environmental concerns with development of the property.” — Richard Tribou, The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel, 11 Sept. 2022 Did you know? If you’ve ever wanted to learn how the, ahem, assuage gets made, today is your lucky day—we’ve got a sweet story to quell your hunger for word knowledge. Assuage comes from the Latin adjective suavis, meaning—you guessed it—“sweet.” (Sweet itself is also a distant relation.) Perhaps recalling Mary Poppins (as played by Julie Andrews in the titular film) singing to the Banks children will make the link indelible: “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” To assuage something painful or distressing, such as fear, guilt, or grief, is to lessen its intensity the way, say, saccharine grape flavoring helps mask some of the bitterness of cough syrup. Similarly, to assuage hunger or thirst—as for lexicographical trivia, perhaps—is to end it by satisfying it fully. We hope you’re satisfied!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2023 is: nudnik • \NOOD-nik (the "OO" is as in "good")\  • noun Nudnik refers to a person who is a bore or nuisance. // She dreads family gatherings, as her nudnik of a brother-in-law is always sure to be there droning on about this or that. See the entry > Examples: “A ‘comic book obsessed nudnik,’ [Anthony] Bourdain was born in Manhattan on his literary hero’s birthday (George Orwell) and grew up in New Jersey. Deeply influenced by Hunter S. Thompson, ‘Angry Anthony’ was raised in a household under the ‘smothering chokehold of love and normalcy,’ as he wrote in Medium Raw.” — Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2022 Did you know? The suffix -nik, meaning “one connected with or characterized by being,” came to English through Yiddish (and ultimately from Polish and Ukrainian). You might know it from such words as beatnik, peacenik, neatnik, or even no-goodnik. The suffix -nik is frequently used in English to create nonce words that are often playfully jokey or slightly derogatory. Some theorize that the popularity of the suffix was enhanced by Russian Sputnik, as well as Al Capp's frequent use of -nik words in his L'il Abner cartoons. The nud- of the Yiddish borrowing nudnik ultimately comes from the Polish word nuda, meaning “boredom.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2023 is: indomitable • \in-DAH-muh-tuh-bul\  • adjective Indomitable is a formal word used to describe something that is impossible to defeat or discourage. // Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, and honors the indomitable spirit of African Americans past and present fighting for justice, liberation, and the fulfillment of this nation’s ideals. // Her spirit remained indomitable even in the face of tremendous adversity. See the entry > Examples: “In a life that has now marked 95 years in a country where she was born with every disadvantage except for the love and support of her family and her own indomitable determination to live fully for others, Opal Lee has changed her community. She has changed this state. She has changed our country. We are all better because she has been among us. … Through her life, and despite the terror visited upon her family, Ms. Opal has cherished and shared and spread the love and joy of Juneteenth whenever she could. And it is much to her credit that last year it became the country’s 11th national holiday. She is celebrated now as the grandmother of Juneteenth. And it is what the nation knows of her.” — editorial, The Dallas Morning News, 2 Jan. 2022 Did you know? At five punchy syllables, indomitable is an imposing word, so it’s inevitable that some are perplexed by this synonym for impregnable. But it’s not so tough once you break it into parts. The prefix in- (spelled im- before b, m, and p) means “not” in an innumerable collection of English words. (How many have you counted so far?) The common suffix -able means “capable of, fit for, or worthy of.” Combine those two English affixes with the Latin verb domitare (“to tame”), and voila: indomitable. Indomitable was first used in English as a synonym of wild, describing—appropriately enough—things that cannot be tamed, but over time the wildness associated with indomitable developed into a specific kind of invulnerable strength.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18, 2023 is: reconcile • \REK-un-syle\  • verb Reconcile has several meanings that have to do with settling or resolving things, such as differences, contradictions, and conflicts. It is also used to mean “to check a financial account against another for accuracy” and “to cause someone to accept something unpleasant.” // Historians have never been able to reconcile the two eyewitness accounts of the battle. // The estranged cousins eventually reconciled when they realized that neither could remember why they were fighting in the first place. // I’ve finally reconciled myself to no longer driving a car with manual transmission. See the entry > Examples: “Despite their long period of estrangement, [Graham] Nash and [David] Crosby had recently been reconciling their relationship. Nash spoke fondly of Crosby’s music, emphasizing that the music they created together rose above their personal conflicts. ‘I’m very pleased that David and I were getting closer towards the end,’ Nash said in the podcast. ‘He had a good life. I mean, what incredible music he made. He was a fantastic storyteller. I loved him dearly.’” — Aidin Vaziri, SFChronicle.com, 10 Apr. 2023 Did you know? When faced with a kerfuffle, dustup, or other flavor of fracas, a conciliatory gesture or tone of voice—one intended to gain goodwill or to reduce hostility—can go a long way toward reconciling the squabbling parties. This makes not only common but etymological sense—both conciliatory and reconcile trace back to the Latin verb conciliare, meaning “to assemble, unite, or win over.” Reconcile can also be used when it’s facts, ideas, etc. that are being brought into agreement, and when financial accounts are checked against one another for accuracy. Reconcile is not all feel-good vibes, however. If you reconcile yourself to something unpleasant you come to accept it, as in “Even lexicographers must reconcile themselves to never knowing all the words.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 17, 2023 is: microcosm • \MY-kruh-kah-zum\  • noun Microcosm refers to something (such as a place or an event) that is seen or understood as a small version of something much larger. In the phrase “in microcosm” it describes something in a greatly reduced size or form. // The game was a microcosm of the entire season, full of ups and downs. // The model is designed to represent the town in microcosm. See the entry > Examples: “… [Jackson Heights] isn't just a microcosm of New York City because of its culinary and cultural diversity, it also reflects the ways New York is rapidly changing.” — Sebastian Modak, BBC, 22 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Small wonder that the oldest meaning of microcosm in our dictionary is “little world”: the word comes ultimately from the Greek phrase mikros kosmos, meaning “little universe.” That meaning can be applied to many a wee realm, as in “the microcosm of the atom,” but microcosm was originally used by medieval scholars specifically to refer to humans as miniature embodiments of the natural universe. Microcosm soon expanded to refer to places (such as neighborhoods or other communities) thought to embody at a small scale characteristics of larger places, and later to anything serving as an apt representation of something bigger—as when Arthur C. Clarke, famed author of much fiction and nonfiction set in the cosmos, noted that “a sunken ship is a microcosm of the civilization that launched it.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2023 is: perennial • \puh-REN-ee-ul\  • adjective Perennial is used to describe things that exist or continue in the same way or state for a long time, as well as things that happen again and again. In botany, perennial describes plants whose life cycles are more than two years long, as in "oregano is perennial." The noun perennial is also used in botany, as in "oregano is a perennial." // Parking is a perennial problem in the quaint seaside town, especially during the summer. // Hot dogs are a perennial favorite at barbecues. See the entry > Examples: "Wild violets (Viola papilionacea, Viola sororal, Viola pubescens and other species) are a close relative of violas, pansies and other garden flowers. While some people view this plant as a fine wildflower, others regard it as a stubborn perennial lawn weed." — Kym Pokorny, OregonLive.com, 6 May 2023 Did you know? When you hear perennial, you probably think of peonies rather than pines. The word today typically describes (or, as a noun, refers to) plants that die back seasonally but produce new growth in the spring. But this wasn’t the word’s initial meaning: originally, perennial was equivalent to evergreen, used, as that word is, for plants that remain with us all year. We took this "throughout the year" sense straight from the Romans, whose Latin word perennis combined per- ("throughout") with a form of annus ("year"). The poet Ovid, writing around the beginning of the first millennium, used the Latin word to refer to a "perennial spring" (a water source), and the scholar Pliny used it of birds that don't migrate. Perennial retains these same uses today, for streams and occasionally for birds, but the word has long since branched out to encompass several other senses, including "constant" (as in "a perennial bestseller") and "recurring" (as in "the perennial joy of reading Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2023 is: vox populi • \VOKS-POP-yoo-lye\  • noun Vox populi is a Latin phrase that translates to “the voice of the people” and means, in essence, “popular sentiment or opinion.” // A successful campaign manager and ardent defender of workers’ rights, Adela dedicates her time to speaking on behalf of vox populi. See the entry > Examples: “Look, there’s plenty of reason to be demoralized. Goodness is not a constant, and the good fight is not always fought, but there is a strength and a resiliency and an eventuality to vox populi. There are events that shake up those Americans who still believe there is a right way to do things.” — Tom Hanks, quoted in The New York Times, 13 June 2022 Did you know? In a letter to his wife in June of 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman wrote about General Ulysses S. Grant’s ongoing but successful siege at Vicksburg: “Grant is now deservedly the hero. … He is now belabored with praise by those who a month ago accused him of all the sins in the calendar, and who next week will turn against him if so blows the popular breeze. Vox populi, vox humbug.” Sherman was tweaking the maxim vox populi, vox Dei, a Latin phrase that translates as “The voice of the people [is] the voice of God” and that is used by many people (excepting Sherman, clearly) to mean “the people are always right.” This phrase is often shortened to vox populi when a writer or speaker wishes to invoke what they believe to be the popular opinion of the day, whether real or perceived, rock solid or blowing on the breeze.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2023 is: dissemble • \dih-SEM-bul\  • verb Dissemble is a formal word that means “to conceal facts, feelings, or intentions with deceptive explanations, reasons, etc.” It's frequently used as a gentler way to say “lie.” // The board's members have lost all confidence in the organization's leader because she has repeatedly dissembled about basic facts about the organization's financial status. See the entry > Examples: “If past testimony is any guide, … the CEOs will dissemble and promise to follow up with better answers to any question they do not want to answer in front of cameras.” — Roger McNamee, Wired, 23 Mar. 2021 Did you know? We have nothing to hide: dissemble (from the Latin verb dissimulāre, meaning “to disguise the identity of”) stresses the intent to deceive others, especially about facts, feelings, or intentions. Most often found in formal or literary speech and writing, dissemble also implies that the facts, feelings, or intentions someone is attempting to conceal could land that person in hot water if discovered, as when a politician dissembles at a press conference when faced with questions about a recent scandal. Typical use notwithstanding, it’s perfectly fine to bust out dissemble in less formal contexts and conversations. Just be careful not to confuse dissemble with disassemble, which means “to take apart.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2023 is: fruition • \froo-ISH-un\  • noun Fruition refers to a state of being complete or fully realized. It's usually used in the phrases "come to fruition" or "bring to fruition." Fruition can also refer to the state of bearing fruit. // When she landed the role of Roxy in a Broadway production of Chicago, a lifelong dream was brought to fruition. See the entry > Examples: "Investors debuting on the 2023 Midas list saw their early bets made decades ago come to fruition in recent years." — Rashi Shrivastava, Forbes, 4 May 2023 Did you know? Fruition must come from the word fruit, right? Not exactly—the apple falls a little further from the tree than one might think. Fruition and fruit are related (both ultimately come from the Latin verb frui, meaning "to enjoy"), but they came about independently. The original meaning of fruition had nothing to do with fruit. Rather, when the term was first used in the 15th century, it meant only "pleasurable use or possession," as when playwright and Shakespeare contemporary Christopher Marlowe wrote of "the sweet fruition of an earthly crown." Not until several centuries later did fruition develop a second meaning, "the state of bearing fruit," possibly as the result of a mistaken assumption that fruition evolved from fruit. The "state of bearing fruit" sense was followed quickly by the figurative application to anything that can be "realized" and metaphorically bear fruit, such as a plan or a project.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 12, 2023 is: inchmeal • \INCH-meel\  • adverb Something done inchmeal is done gradually, or little by little. // They worked on the study guide inchmeal up until the exam. See the entry > Examples: “Dawn climbs inchmeal, the sky suffused with light so extravagant it seems stolen.” — Richard Bangs, HuffPost, 8 Aug. 2013 Did you know? “All the infections that the sun sucks up / From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him / By inch-meal a disease!” So goes one of the curses the hated and hateful Caliban hurls in the direction of Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The origin of inchmeal is simple; the inch half is the familiar measurement, and the meal half, which means “by a (specified) portion or measure at a time,” is the suffix we know from inchmeal’s much more common synonym piecemeal. Students of German may be interested to know that -meal is related to the modern German word mal, meaning “time,” which features in the common term manchmal, meaning “sometimes.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2023 is: redux • \ree-DUKS\  • adjective Redux is an adjective that means “brought back,” and it is usually used to describe an event or situation that closely resembles something from the past. Redux is always used postpostively, that is, after the word or phrase it describes. // Following a spell of unseasonably warm weather in late May, early June felt like spring redux as the region experienced a series of cool, rainy days. See the entry > Examples: “The seismic shift in our economic structure—a world of tech oligarchs with oceans of uber-serfs driving their gig economy—is feudalism redux, according to Joel Kotkin, whose next book is called ‘The New Feudalism: The Coming Global Return to the Middle Ages.’ ‘Following a remarkable epoch of greater dispersion of wealth and opportunity, we are inexorably returning towards a more feudal era marked by greater concentration of wealth and property, reduced upward mobility, demographic stagnation, and increased dogmatism,’ Kotkin wrote on his website.” — Petula Dvorak, The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News, 31 Dec. 2021 Did you know? In English, redux describes things that have been brought back—metaphorically, that is. For example, if the relationship between two nations resembles that of the United States and the Soviet Union in the late 20th century, one might call the situation a “Cold War redux.” But a dog brought back home after running away would likely not be called “Buddy redux” going forward. The Latin redux did historically have more literal application, however. For example, the Romans used this sense of redux to characterize the goddess of chance, Fortuna; Fortuna Redux was trusted to bring those far from home back safely. Today, redux is also increasingly used as a noun with a meaning something similar to retread or echo, as in “His latest movie was just a poor redux of his earlier, more visionary work.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2023 is: redux • \ree-DUKS\  • adjective Redux is an adjective that means “brought back,” and it is usually used to describe an event or situation that closely resembles something from the past. Redux is always used postpositively, that is, after the word or phrase it describes. // Following a spell of unseasonably warm weather in late May, early June felt like spring redux as the region experienced a series of cool, rainy days. See the entry > Examples: “The seismic shift in our economic structure—a world of tech oligarchs with oceans of uber-serfs driving their gig economy—is feudalism redux, according to Joel Kotkin, whose next book is called ‘The New Feudalism: The Coming Global Return to the Middle Ages.’ ‘Following a remarkable epoch of greater dispersion of wealth and opportunity, we are inexorably returning towards a more feudal era marked by greater concentration of wealth and property, reduced upward mobility, demographic stagnation, and increased dogmatism,’ Kotkin wrote on his website.” — Petula Dvorak, The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News, 31 Dec. 2021 Did you know? In English, redux describes things that have been brought back—metaphorically, that is. For example, if the relationship between two nations resembles that of the United States and the Soviet Union in the late 20th century, one might call the situation a “Cold War redux.” But a dog brought back home after running away would likely not be called “Buddy redux” going forward. The Latin redux did historically have more literal application, however. For example, the Romans used this sense of redux to characterize the goddess of chance, Fortuna; Fortuna Redux was trusted to bring those far from home back safely. Today, redux is also increasingly used as a noun with a meaning something similar to retread or echo, as in “His latest movie was just a poor redux of his earlier, more visionary work.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2023 is: advocate • \AD-vuh-kayt\  • verb Advocate means "to support or argue for (a cause, policy, etc.); to plead in favor of." // The plan is advocated by several prominent city officials. // They formed a group advocating for improvements in the school system. See the entry > Examples: "Even when she's [Olympic track star Allyson Felix] done running, she's not done winning. Using her reign as a top-tier athlete, she's advocated for Black maternal health and women in sports, starting in 2019 when she stood up to former sponsor Nike for proposing a 70% cut to her contractual pay when she became pregnant." — Janelle Harris Dixon, TheGrio.com, 10 Nov. 2022 Did you know? Benjamin Franklin may have been a great innovator in science and politics, but on the subject of advocate, he was against change. In 1789, he wrote a letter to his compatriot Noah Webster complaining about a "new word": the verb advocate. Like others of his day, Franklin knew advocate primarily as a noun meaning "one who pleads the cause of another," and he urged Webster to condemn the verb's use. In truth, the verb wasn't as new as Franklin assumed (it dates back to at least the early 16th century), though it was apparently surging in popularity in his day. Webster evidently did not heed Franklin's plea: his famous 1828 dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, entered both the noun and the verb senses of advocate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 9, 2023 is: saturnine • \SAT-er-nyne\  • adjective Saturnine is a literary word that typically describes people who are glum and grumpy, or things that suggest or express gloom. It can also mean “slow to act or change.” // A walk in the sunshine can improve your mood significantly, raising the spirits of even the most saturnine among us. See the entry > Examples: “The canvases that surround you at the Rothko Chapel here can at first seem merely dark. Entering the space after nightfall on Saturday, the interior dimly lit, I struggled to see much of anything in them at all. But even in that calm gloom, my eyes slowly acclimated to the 14 grandly saturnine paintings, made by Mark Rothko in the late 1960s. Shadowy rectangles began to emerge, floating over shadow.” — Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times, 21 Feb. 2022 Did you know? Saturnine is far—even astronomically far—from the cheeriest of words. It has a long history of describing the glum and grouchy among us, and comes ultimately from Sāturnus, name of the Roman god of agriculture, who was often depicted as a bent old man with a stern, sluggish, and sullen nature. Saturn, the ringed gas giant that is one of five planets visible to the naked eye, is of course the namesake of Sāturnus, and Saturn does indeed seem to dawdle; it requires over 29 of our Earth years to orbit the sun. The ancient Romans (like some astrologists today) believed those who are born when Saturn is rising in the sky may tend toward being a Gloomy Gus or Debbie Downer. We don’t know A. A. Milne’s take on the influence of Saturn, but his gloomy, cynical gray donkey Eeyore is famously saturnine, a fact Eeyore himself would surely stoically accept as true if it were pointed out to him.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2023 is: etiquette • \ET-ih-kut\  • noun Etiquette refers to the rules of proper and polite behavior that are expected in social or official life. // Her failure to respond to the invitation was a serious breach of etiquette. See the entry > Examples: “Keeping manners top of mind makes a difference when facing a dissatisfaction while dining out. Jacqueline Whitmore, an etiquette expert … tells USA Today that ‘you can get more with honey than you can with vinegar, that’s the bottom line. When you’re rude, you’re calling attention to yourself in many cases and also you’re making other people feel terrible and you’re sometimes making yourself look bad,’ she said. Often, if you are kind and direct, a situation can be resolved at a restaurant. It’s important to understand that etiquette is situational. Every staff and management system has different procedures but their common goal is to keep diners happy. But ‘that doesn't give a diner permission to be rude to the waitstaff,’ Whitmore said.” — Morgan Hines, USA Today, 18 Oct. 2022 Did you know? If you’re looking for a polite topic of conversation to raise at your next gathering of word lovers, we’ve got just the ticket. The French word étiquette means “ticket”; its direct French ancestor also referred to a label attached to something for description or identification. Spaniards of the 16th-century adopted the French word (altering it to etiqueta), and used it to refer to the written protocols describing the behavior demanded of those who appeared at court. Eventually, etiqueta came to be applied to the court ceremonies themselves as well as to the documents which outlined their requirements. Word of this linguistic development got back to the French, who then expanded their word’s meaning to include “proper court behavior” along with its “label” sense. By the middle of the 18th century English speakers had taken on etiquette as their own, applying it to the rules that indicate the proper and polite way to behave, whether in the presence or royalty or not.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2023 is: etiquette • \ET-ih-kut\  • noun Etiquette refers to the rules of proper and polite behavior that are expected in social or official life. // Her failure to respond to the invitation was a serious breach of etiquette. See the entry > Examples: “Keeping manners top of mind makes a difference when facing a dissatisfaction while dining out. Jacqueline Whitmore, an etiquette expert … tells USA Today that ‘you can get more with honey than you can with vinegar, that’s the bottom line. When you’re rude, you’re calling attention to yourself in many cases and also you’re making other people feel terrible and you’re sometimes making yourself look bad,’ she said. Often, if you are kind and direct, a situation can be resolved at a restaurant. It’s important to understand that etiquette is situational. Every staff and management system has different procedures but their common goal is to keep diners happy. But ‘that doesn't give a diner permission to be rude to the waitstaff,’ Whitmore said.” — Morgan Hines, USA Today, 18 Oct. 2022 Did you know? If you’re looking for a polite topic of conversation to raise at your next gathering of word lovers, we’ve got just the ticket. The French word étiquette means “ticket”; its direct French ancestor also referred to a label attached to something for description or identification. Spaniards of the 16th-century adopted the French word (altering it to etiqueta), and used it to refer to the written protocols describing the behavior demanded of those who appeared at court. Eventually, etiqueta came to be applied to the court ceremonies themselves as well as to the documents which outlined their requirements. Word of this linguistic development got back to the French, who then expanded their word’s meaning to include “proper court behavior” along with its “label” sense. By the middle of the 18th century English speakers had taken on etiquette as their own, applying it to the rules that indicate the proper and polite way to behave, whether in the presence of royalty or not.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 7, 2023 is: blandishment • \BLAN-dish-munt\  • noun A blandishment is something said or done in order to coax or persuade an individual or group to do something. The word is usually used in its plural form, blandishments. // It's important that the mayor not be swayed by bribes and blandishments; decisions must be made for the overall good of the city. // No treat, soft words, or other blandishment could get the mule to move when it decided it would rather stay put. See the entry > Examples: “Justices across the ideological spectrum have been accused of failing to make pertinent financial disclosures, accepting dubious blandishments, rejecting well-founded calls for recusal, engaging in questionable political and financial activity, and much else that would raise the eyebrows of any reasonable observer.” — Bloomberg Opinion, 5 May 2023 Did you know? When Star Wars audiences first meet former smuggler Lando Calrissian—played iconically by Billy Dee Williams—in The Empire Strikes Back, he is full of blandishments, offering flattery (telling Leia “You truly belong here with us among the clouds”) and gifts to our heroes in the form of food and drink (“Will you join me for a little refreshment?”) in order to entice them into what we soon discover is a trap. Notably, before the whole sordid deal goes down (and before Lando’s eventual redemption), Han Solo calls him “an old smoothie.” Lando’s verbal smoothness can be linked to blandishment too: the word was formed from the verb blandish, meaning “to coax with flattery.” Blandish ultimately comes from the Latin adjective blandus, meaning “mild” or “flattering,” source too of our adjective bland, which typically describes things boring and flavorless but which can also mean “smooth and soothing in manner or quality”—a meaning that also applies to everyone’s favorite Cloud City administrator.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2023 is: trenchant • \TREN-chunt\  • adjective Trenchant is a formal word that is usually used to describe communication that is notably strong, clear, and perceptive, or in other words, “sharp.” // The author’s trenchant wit was very evident in the critique she wrote of the much-acclaimed film. // Trenchant insights made eloquently by the speaker clearly affected many of those in the audience. See the entry > Examples: “Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (a longtime collaborator of Halloween director John Carpenter), the film’s scares touch on ancient witchcraft and computer chips made out of Stonehenge fragments. The movie also takes some trenchant digs at TV advertising and emphasizes an odd and foreboding atmosphere over cheap shocks.” — David Sims, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2021 Did you know? There’s much to know about the word trenchant, but we’ll cut to the chase. The word trenchant comes from the Anglo-French verb trencher, meaning “to cut.” Hence, a trenchant sword is one with a keen edge. Nowadays, trenchant mostly describes things that don’t cut deep literally, but that are still felt: a trenchant remark is one that cuts close to the bone, and a trenchant observation is one that cuts to the heart of the matter. In addition to meaning “caustic” and “sharply perceptive,” trenchant also carries a sense meaning “very strong, clear, and effective” that may be used, for instance, to describe a persuasive essay written with intellectual rigor. If you find yourself forgetting these “edgy” definitions, you might dig up a familiar relative of trenchant: the noun trench, which refers to a long cut or ditch in the ground.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 5, 2023 is: yips • \YIPS\  • noun Yips is a plural noun that refers to a state of nervousness that affects an athlete (such as a golfer) when they're about to make an important move or play. It is almost always used in the phrase "the yips." // Afflicted with a sudden case of the yips, Doug tensed up and pulled his putt too far to the left. See the entry > Examples: "In his fourth season in Boston, [Daniel] Bard had a 6.22 ERA with 38 strikeouts, 43 walks and eight hit batters in 59⅓ innings. He had the yips, leading to a seven-year hiatus from the big leagues. He bounced around in the minor leagues trying to reclaim control before retiring from baseball in 2017 to become a player mentor and mental skills coach. Bard returned to the pros with the Rockies in 2020 and was named NL Comeback Player of the Year." — Cydney Henderson, USA Today, 31 Mar. 2023 Did you know? When it comes to sports, yips happen. We’re not sure who coined yips; we also can’t say if this plural noun has anything to do with the singular yip, a word of imitative origin that refers to a dog’s sharp bark. What we do know is that the yips have sported their name since at least the 1930s, and that the term first appeared in golf-related contexts. Anxious for similar language? Perhaps you’re familiar with twisties, a term popularized in 2021 during the Tokyo Olympic games when gymnastics GOAT Simone Biles suffered from an affliction akin to the yips in which gymnasts experience a mental block causing loss of spatial orientation. Twisties doesn’t yet meet our criteria for entry, however, so we’ll have to bench it for now.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 4, 2023 is: concatenate • \kahn-KAT-uh-nayt\  • verb Concatenate is a formal word that means “to link together in a series or chain.” // Most household garbage bags are concatenated on rolls and connected at their perforated edges for easy tearing. See the entry > Examples: “Smell is intimacy made sensate. Its knowledge precedes words. Smelling makes people uncomfortable because it mashes all the limbic buttons and leaves us bereft of language. Unlike vision, which surveys and controls a scene from an emotional distance, smells act on us instantly and make us relinquish our agency. All this can deepen immersion. Most importantly, smell matters because all our senses concatenate and build on each other. Smell is a ‘support’ sense: not always noticeable, but often operating powerfully under the radar, and easily activating strong emotions, judgments, and memories without conscious thought.” — Jude Stewart, Wired, 31 July 2022 Did you know? Concatenate is a fancy word for a simple thing: it means “to link together in a series or chain.” It’s Latin in origin, formed from a word combining con-, meaning “with” or “together,” and catena, meaning “chain. ” (The word chain is also linked directly to catena.) Concatenate can also function in English as an adjective meaning “linked together,” as in “concatenate strings of characters,” but it’s rare beyond technology contexts. More common than either concatenate is the noun concatenation, used for a group of things linked together in a series, as in “a concatenation of events led to the mayor’s resignation.” Concatenation, like concatenate, is used mostly in formal contexts, but you’re welcome to change that. We personally would be tickled if professional baseball players aspired to play in the “World Concatenation,” and people talked about the latest concatenation they’ve been binge-watching.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2023 is: meet-cute • \MEET-kyoot\  • noun Meet-cute is a term that refers to a cute, charming, or amusing first encounter between romantic partners. A meet-cute can be such an encounter as shown in a movie or television show, or one that happens in real life. // The elderly couple loved sharing the story of their hilarious meet-cute from 30 years ago. See the entry > Examples: “The star of E!'s new original TV movie Why Can’t My Life Be a Rom-Com? recently revealed the ‘pretty cute’ way she met her current partner, and the story is just like a meet-cute out of one of your favorite films.” — Brett Malec, E! Online, 19 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Isn’t it cute how two words can be introduced to each other and become an inseparable pair soon after? Well, that’s exactly what happened when meet and cute got together in 1952. The duo was spotted in The New York Times Book Review in 1952 in reference to an unexpected rendezvous: “This may well be, in magazine parlance, the neatest meet-cute of the week—the story of a ghost-writer who falls in love with a ghost.” Today the word is used often to refer to such encounters in films and television series (especially rom-coms and sitcoms). Writers of meet-cutes often develop plots by creating situations in which characters clash in personality, or by creating embarrassing situations in which two eventual romantic partners will meet, or by creating a misunderstanding between characters who will separate but become friends in the end.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2023 is: obstinate • \AHB-stuh-nut\  • adjective Obstinate at its most basic means "stubborn." It describes people who refuse to change their behavior or ideas in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion, and it describes things that are not easily fixed, removed, or dealt with. // The project that had been the group's main focus for weeks was temporarily stymied by one obstinate member's refusal to compromise. // The planning committee discussed ways to mitigate the obstinate problem of gentrification. See the entry > Examples: "... [Louise Bates] Ames has an uncanny way of capturing the essence of children at different developmental stages, and when you understand that it is your child's work to behave this way, that the behavior is serving growth and maturity, you are less likely to try to squash it. For instance, when you've nicely asked your 2-year-old to stop jumping on the couch and they look you in the eyes and keep jumping? It's helpful to know that this obstinate behavior is normal and is not a reason to double-down or punish your child. Instead, speak less, redirect and provide other things for your child to jump on." — Meghan Leahy, The Washington Post, 3 Aug. 2022 Did you know? English has no shortage of words to describe stubbornness, and obstinate is one you might want to latch onto. It suggests an unreasonable persistence and is often used negatively to describe someone who is unwilling to change course or to give up a belief or plan. Animals can be obstinate, too—for instance, say, a beloved pet cat that refuses to get out of your easy chair when you want to sit down. Such an example makes a lot of sense with regard to obstinate’s history, too: the word traces back to a combination of the Latin prefix ob-, meaning “in the way,” and a word related to stare, meaning "to stand." But if you’re adamant about describing Whiskers’ stubborn behavior in more faunal terms, allow us to suggest bullheaded, dogged, or mulish.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2023 is: gist • \JIST\  • noun Gist, which almost always appears in the phrase “the gist,” refers to the general or basic meaning of something written or said—in other words, its essence. // I didn’t catch every word, but I heard enough to get the gist of the conversation. See the entry > Examples: “Thanks to a student project at a Kirkland high school, Washington lawmakers are considering the impact of a ‘pink tax.’ The gist: Products for women often cost more than similar products designed for men. Senate Bill 5171 would allow the office of the state attorney general to review complaints and hand out fines to companies that demonstrate gender bias in their pricing.” — The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), 21 Jan. 2023 Did you know? The main point, overarching theme, essence—that’s gist in a nutshell. The gist of gist, if you will. The gist of a conversation, argument, story, or what-have-you is what we rely on when the actual words and details are only imperfectly recalled, inessential, or too voluminous to recount in their entirety. Gist was borrowed from the Anglo-French legal phrase laccion gist (“the action lies/is based [on]”) in the 17th century, and it was originally used in law as a term referring to the foundation or grounds for a legal action without which the action would not be legally sustainable.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2023 is: enthrall • \in-THRAWL\  • verb Enthrall means “to hold the attention of someone by being very exciting, interesting, or beautiful,” or in other words, “to charm.” It is often used in its past participle form, as in “I was enthralled by the beauty of the landscape.” // A captivating take on the human experience, the movie has enthralled audiences across the country. See the entry > Examples: “Judy Blume's books have captivated generations of readers. Anyone who has held one of her countless paperbacks will immediately recall her name. Blume's startling honesty has comforted and enthralled readers for decades ...” — Casey Abline, TAPinto (Elizabeth, New Jersey), 23 Apr. 2023 Did you know? The history of enthrall appeals far less than the word as we use it today might suggest. In Middle English, enthrallen meant “to deprive of privileges; to put in bondage.” Thrall then, as now, referred to bondage or slavery. An early figurative use of enthrall appeared in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape.” But we rarely use even this sense of mental or moral control anymore. More often, the word simply suggests a state of being generally captivated or delighted by some particular thing. Enthrall is commonly found in its past participle form enthralled, which can mean “spellbound,” as in “we listened, enthralled, to the elder's oral history.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2023 is: nemesis • \NEM-uh-siss\  • noun A nemesis is a formidable foe—an opponent or enemy who is very difficult to defeat. As a proper noun, Nemesis refers to the Greek goddess of vengeance. // She will be playing against her old nemesis for the championship. See the entry > Examples: "2020’s original Enola Holmes proved to be a surprisingly enjoyable twist on the world’s most famous detective [Sherlock Holmes], focusing instead on his overlooked sister, Enola. No surprise, then, that this follow-up is just as exciting a romp through Victorian London. Despite proving her skills in the first film, Enola struggles to establish her own detective credentials until a missing-person report leads her to a case that’s stumped even Sherlock, and sees her crossing paths with his arch nemesis, Moriarty." — Matt Kamen, WIRED, 10 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Nemesis was the Greek goddess of vengeance, a deity who doled out rewards for noble acts and punishment for evil ones. The Greeks believed that Nemesis didn't always punish an offender immediately but might wait generations to avenge a crime. In English, nemesis originally referred to someone who brought a just retribution, but nowadays people are more likely to see simple animosity rather than justice in the actions of a nemesis (consider the motivations of Batman’s perennial foe the Joker, for example).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2023 is: sacrosanct • \SAK-roh-sankt\  • adjective Sacrosanct is a formal word that describes things too important and respected to be changed or criticized. It can also mean “most sacred or holy.” // While the family's new matriarch aimed to maintain the familiar traditions of the holidays, she did not consider the details of their celebration to be sacrosanct. See the entry > Examples: “It might not have reached the needlessly high bar of Sony’s marketing push … but Evil Dead checked all the boxes for a successful remake. The critical reception, however, was decidedly mixed, perhaps because Raimi’s trilogy was regarded as sacrosanct by horror obsessives.” — Miles Surrey, The Ringer, 5 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Contrary to the beliefs of some, language is not sacrosanct; rather, it is subject to constant modification based on the needs, experiences, and even whims of those who use it. Take the word sacrosanct itself, which likely comes from the Latin phrase sacro sanctus meaning “made holy by a sacred rite.” There’s a definite semantic softening from that to the “too important and respected to be changed or criticized” meaning of sacrosanct. But holy moly, has sanctus led to a whole bunch of other English words with truly pious flavor, from saint and sanctimony to sanctify and sanctuary. Sacrum (“a sacred rite”), whence came the sacro in sacro sanctus, is no slouch either, living on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which literally means “holy bone.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2023 is: flavedo • \fluh-VEE-doh\  • noun Flavedo refers to the colored outer layer of the rind of a citrus fruit. // The lime's flavedo is full of essential oils that add a distinctive, earthy tang to desserts, drinks, and plenty of savory dishes, too. See the entry > Examples: “Cut citrus should always be refrigerated to prevent microbial overgrowth that could make you sick. One study that investigated the risk of foodborne illness from lemon and lime wedges commonly served with beverages at restaurants found that salmonella can survive on the flavedo (i.e., the zesty part of the peel) of lemons and limes for 24 hours at room temperature. Conversely, storing the wedges on ice or in the fridge decreased bacterial growth.” — Matthew Zuras, Epicurious.com, 7 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Based on its definition, you’d be forgiven for thinking flavedo is a combination of flavor and bravado—if any category of food can be said to embody “blustering swaggering conduct,” it’s sharp, assertive citrus. But flavedo instead comes from the New Latin word flāvēdō, meaning “yellow color,” the word’s etymology pointing to the shiny yellow rinds of the lemons you see in the grocery store. A citrus fruit’s flavedo (that is, its peel or rind) clings to its albedo, albedo referring to the pith—the whitish, spongy inner part of the rind of a citrus fruit. (Latin albēdō means “whiteness, white color.”) While flavor may seem like a likely relation of flavedo, the two have distinct Latin sources: flavor traces back not to flāvēdō but to Latin flatus meaning “breath,” or “the act of blowing,” a word which we are obliged to inform you also gave us another (indirectly) food-related word: flatulent.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2023 is: interpolate • \in-TER-puh-layt\  • verb Interpolate is a formal word used to talk about interjecting or inserting something, especially words or a musical element. A critic might interpolate a comment into a conversation, or an artist may interpolate a melody or lyric from one song into another. In mathematical contexts, the word can also mean “to estimate values of data or a function between two known values,” or “to make insertions (as of estimated values).” // She interpolated a highly critical comment into the discussion, which had been mostly positive to that point. See the entry > Examples: “But his reputation rested equally on his abilities as a composer and arranger for large ensembles, interpolating bebop's ... rhythms and extended improvisations into lush tapestries.” — Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times, 26 Jan. 2020 Did you know? When Henry Cockeram put interpolate in his 1623 The English Dictionary; or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words he defined it in a way we no longer use: “to polish.” Cockeram’s definition ties the word very closely to its Latin root, polire, “to polish,” but the English word has a more direct source in Latin interpolare, meaning “to refurbish or alter,” or “to alter or corrupt something by inserting new or foreign matter.” This latter meaning persists in our English word today, though modern use of interpolate usually simply suggests the insertion of something into an existing text, work, etc., as in “she interpolated her own commentary into the report.” Musical elements can be interpolated too, as when an artist inserts a melody, lyric, etc., from one song into another without directly sampling. For example, the Beatles interpolated part of their early hit “She Loves You” into the closing moments of their later hit “All You Need Is Love.” In mathematical contexts, to interpolate is to estimate the values of data or a function between two known values.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2023 is: sapient • \SAY-pee-unt\  • adjective Sapient is a formal word that means “possessing or expressing great wisdom.” // She was grateful to have in her mentor an ever-reliable source of sapient career advice. See the entry > Examples: “Many wise and sapient social historians have written on the American cult, and invention, of the weekend. It was only in the 1920s that the five-day work week began to take hold as an American innovation, and only after the Second World War that it became commonplace.” — Adam Gopnik, Town & Country Magazine, 21 July 2020 Did you know? We human beings certainly like to think we’re wise. It’s a fact reflected in the scientific name we’ve given our species, Homo sapiens, which comes in part from the Latin word sapiens, meaning “wise” or “intelligent.” Sapient (which is basically just a fancy synonym of wise) has the same source. Both words ultimately trace to the Latin verb sapere, meaning “to be wise,” and also “to taste.” Other sapere words pepper the language as well, among them sage (as in “sage advice”), savant, savvy, and savor.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2023 is: hobbyhorse • \HAH-bee-horss\  • noun Hobbyhorse usually refers to a topic that someone dwells on, returning to again and again, especially in conversation. // The so-called “Curse of the Bambino” was a favorite hobbyhorse of my Red Sox-loving grandfather until the team finally won the World Series in 2004. See the entry > Examples: “In the foreword to her book A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, the historian Barbara W. Tuchman offered a warning to people with simplistic ideas about what life was like in the medieval world. ... Her book was published in 1978 and won the National Book Award for History, but in the nearly half century since, the Middle Ages have been a common hobbyhorse for people of all political persuasions who suspect modernity might be leading us down the primrose path, especially as the internet has become a more central and inescapable element of daily life.” — Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 6 May 2022 Did you know? Does your favorite hobby involve a horse? Whether it does or not, the word hobby is undeniably equine: it’s a shortening of the older term hobbyhorse. And in a strange etymological twist, the word hobbyhorse is itself a product of an older word hobby that in the 1400s referred to a small or medium-sized horse, especially one that moved at a gentle pace. By the mid 1500s, hobby horse was being used to refer to a horse costume worn by a person participating in a morris dance or other performance, and then to a toy consisting of a stick with a toy horse's head at one end that a child pretends to ride. By the next century the literal horse was unneeded, and hobbyhorse could refer to a favorite pursuit or pastime—that is, our modern hobby. From pastime, the meaning of hobbyhorse was extended to “a subject that someone returns to repeatedly, especially in conversation.” This sense is typically encountered in such phrases as “get on one’s hobbyhorse” or “ride one’s hobbyhorse.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2023 is: adumbrate • \AD-um-brayt\  • verb Adumbrate is a formal verb with several meanings that all have to do with figurative shadows. It can mean “to foreshadow vaguely,” as in “a childhood interest in ants that adumbrated a career in biology”; it can mean “to suggest or outline partially,” as in “a few sentences that adumbrate the plan”; and it can mean “to overshadow or obscure,” as in “a cheerfulness not adumbrated by difficult circumstances.” // The movie's most impressive feat was to pull off a plot twist perfectly adumbrated by one rather forgettable scene. // The first chapter of the graphic novel deftly adumbrates her earliest memories. // The joyous occasion was adumbrated by knowledge of what the next day was to bring. See the entry > Examples: “The lines adumbrate the fact that freedom was not attained on a platter of gold, but as a result of the collaborative efforts of the freedom fighters, in a fierce battle with the oppressors.” — Mark Ogbinaka and Aghogho Akpome, Gender & Behaviour, 1 Apr. 2022 Did you know? Don’t throw shade our way if you’ve never crossed paths with adumbrate—the word's shadow rarely falls across the pages of casual texts. It comes from the Latin word umbra, meaning “shadow,” and is usually used in academic and political writing to mean “to foreshadow” (as in “protests that adumbrated a revolution”) or “to suggest or partially outline” (as in “a philosophy adumbrated in her early writings”). Adumbrate is a definite candidate for those oft-published lists of words you should know, and its relations range from the quotidian (umbrella) to the somewhat formal (umbrage) to the downright obscure (umbra). But it’s a word worth knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2023 is: bower • \BOW-er\  • noun Bower is a literary word that usually refers to a garden shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together. // Resting in the shade of the bower was the perfect way to cool off during the hot summer afternoon. See the entry > Examples: “Today, a café occupies part of the ground floor, its tables and chairs distributed under a leafy bower on the veranda.” — Samanth Subramanian, The New York Times, 9 June 2022 Did you know? If you visited someone’s bower a millennium ago, you’d likely have found yourself at an attractive rustic cottage. A few centuries later, a visit to a bower could have involved a peek into a lady’s personal hideaway within a medieval castle or hall—that is, her private apartment. Both meanings hark back to the word’s ancient roots: it comes from Old English būr, meaning “dwelling.” Today, bower is more familiar as a word for a garden shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together, a meaning that overlaps with that of arbor. (The adjective bowery, meaning “like a bower” or “full of bowers” is used to describe areas that resemble or are filled with these leafy pergola-like structures). Bower also features in the name of bowerbirds, any of approximately 20 different bird species native to Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, the males of which build more-or-less elaborate structures using twigs, moss, and other plant materials to woo potential mates during courtship.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2023 is: officious • \uh-FISH-us\  • adjective Officious typically describes a person who tends to offer unwanted advice in a way that annoys the advice recipients. It is a synonym of meddlesome. // After the boss told his workers what to do, his officious assistant stepped in to micromanage. See the entry > Examples: “Imagine, if you will, any professor from your past being told by some young, officious techie that his or her decades of training and teaching were about to be reimagined and transformed by the alchemy of the digital age into glitzy and compelling content sure to hold students’ attention and, at a minimum, entertain them if not educate them.” — Howard Tullman, Inc.com, 22 Mar. 2022 Did you know? If you’ve ever dreamed of having your financial officer officiate your office wedding—well, you’re officially alone there. But we won’t meddle in your business; if we suggested a more, um, “charming” location, we’d be sticking our nose where it doesn’t belong. We have our own offic word for such behavior: officious. As with some key words in your hypothetical dream wedding, officious comes from the Latin noun officium, meaning “service” or “office.” In its early use, officious meant “eager to serve, help, or perform a duty,” but that meaning is now obsolete, and the word today typically describes a person who offers unwanted advice or help. Since, again, we don’t want to be such a person, we definitely won’t suggest marrying at a banquet hall or botanical garden in lieu of the office, but we do applaud any consideration of that office-fave for your celebratory sweet, the humble sheet cake.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2023 is: gamut • \GAM-ut\  • noun A gamut is a range or series of related things. When we say that something “runs the gamut,” we are saying that it encompasses an entire range of related things. // I adore licorice, mints, lollipops, candy corn—the whole gamut of penny candy. // On that fateful day, her emotions ran the gamut from joy to despair. See the entry > Examples: “A PEN America paper, published last September, records 2,532 instances of book banning in thirty-two states between July, 2021, and June, 2022. The challenges are spread throughout the country but cluster in Texas and Florida. Their targets are diverse, running the gamut from earnestly dorky teen love stories and picture books about penguins to Pulitzer-winning works of fiction.” — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2023 Did you know? With the song “Do-Re-Mi,” the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music (adapted from the 1958 stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein) introduced millions of non-musicians to solfège, the singing of the sol-fa syllables—do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti—to teach the tones of a musical scale. Centuries earlier, however, the do in “Do-Re-Mi” was known as ut. Indeed, the first note on the scale of Guido d’Arezzo, an 11th century musician and monk who had his own way of applying syllables to musical tones, was ut. d’Arezzo also called the first line of his bass staff gamma, which meant that gamma ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma ut underwent a shortening to gamut, and later its meaning expanded first to cover all the notes of d’Arezzo’s scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 20, 2023 is: telegenic • \tel-uh-JEN-ik\  • adjective Someone or something described as telegenic is well-suited to the medium of television. Telegenic is often used to describe people whose appearance or manners are particularly attractive to television viewers. // Her favorite actor is so telegenic that he can make a bad series enjoyable. See the entry > Examples: “[Alison] Roman … learned at Bon Appétit that she was telegenic. She is the rare influencer who projects the same energy in person as she does on camera. Her wit and candor buoy the cooking video genre from informative to outright entertaining. Some of her fans comment that they tune in every week with no intention of making the recipes, just to watch Roman try to dislodge ingredients from her overstuffed refrigerator.” — Eliana Dockterman, Time, 19 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Telegenic debuted in the 1930s, a melding of television with photogenic, “suitable for being photographed especially because of visual appeal.” The word photogenic had other, more technical meanings before it developed that one in the early decades of the 20th century, but the modern meaning led to the use of -genic of interest here: “suitable for production or reproduction by a given medium.” (That sense is also found in the rarer videogenic, a synonym of telegenic.) Telegenic may seem like a word that would primarily be used to describe people, but there is evidence of telegenic describing events (such as popular sports), objects, and responses. Occasionally, one even sees reference to a telegenic attitude, presence, charisma, or other intangible.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 19, 2023 is: censure • \SEN-sher\  • verb To censure someone is to formally criticize or reprimand them for an act or failure, especially from a position of authority. // He was censured by the committee for his failure to report the problem. See the entry > Examples: “Aware of recent occurrences in Deltona, whose City Commission censured one of its members for naming a private citizen and posting insults and vulgar comments about him on social media, [Mayor Gary] Blair said Orange City should declare such behavior out of bounds.” — Al Everson, The West Volusia Beacon (DeLand, Florida), 9 Mar. 2023 Did you know? If you’re among those who confuse censure and censor, we don’t blame you. The two words are notably similar in spelling and pronunciation, and both typically imply acts of authority. It’s no surprise that they share a common ancestor: the Latin cēnsēre, meaning “to give as an opinion.” But here’s the uncensored truth: despite the similarities, censure and censor are wholly distinct in meaning. Censure means “to fault or reprimand,” often in an official way; censor means “to suppress or delete as objectionable.” So if you’re talking about removing objectionable content from a book or banning it from a library, the word you want is censor. And you can use censure to talk about criticizing, condemning, or reprimanding those pushing for censorship.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 18, 2023 is: zephyr • \ZEFF-er\  • noun A zephyr is a breeze blowing from the west. More loosely, a zephyr can be any gentle breeze. // We were relieved when a zephyr blew in just as the heat of the day was peaking, allowing us to remain comfortably on the beach for a little while longer. See the entry > Examples: “As I played [the video game Okami], I’d pause to manually draw a slash, loop, or other shape using a calligraphy-style brush, creating a tornado or a fire. … An ‘O’ around a tree’s naked branches made it burst with cherry blossoms, a vision of abundance. A curlicue in the air created a zephyr that gently riffled through the sky. The world was my sketchbook, and I wanted to beautify the game’s gorgeous woodblock and sumi-e ink art style.” — Nicole Clark, Polygon.com, 8 Feb. 2023 Did you know? To build on a classic lyric by Bob Dylan, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows—especially if you know that wind is a zephyr. You see, poets have eulogized Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind—and his “swete breeth” (in the words of Geoffrey Chaucer)—for centuries. Zephyrus, the personified west wind, eventually evolved into zephyr, a word for a breeze that is westerly or gentle, or both. Breezy zephyr blew into English with the help of such delightfully windy wordsmiths as William Shakespeare, who used the word in his play Cymbeline: “Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon’st / In these two princely boys! They are as gentle / As zephyrs blowing below the violet.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 17, 2023 is: rarefied • \RAIR-uh-fyde\  • adjective Something described as rarefied is understood or appreciated by only a small or select group of people; the word is a synonym of esoteric. Rarefied can also be used technically to mean “being less dense,” a use that is typically applied to air that has less oxygen in it because of high elevation. // She has never been comfortable in the rarefied world of art dealers. // The climbers knew that breathing in the rarefied air near the mountain's peak would be difficult. See the entry > Examples: “Quiet luxury fashion is on the rise, helped by the unbranded ‘stealth wealth’ styles favoured by the Roys in HBO’s hit TV show Succession and the louche-yet-elegant looks donned by Gwyneth Paltrow during her now infamous ski trip trial. There is, however, always a rule breaker where you least expect one, and this spring, it’s the ultimate ‘stealth’ brand, Rolex, that’s bending the rules and bringing a sense of playfulness to the rarefied milieu of haute luxury.” — Alexandra Zagalsky, The Week (London), 14 Apr. 2023 Did you know? In the upper reaches of Chomolungma, known more familiarly as Mount Everest, the air is so rarefied—so much less dense than at lower elevations—that most climbers use supplemental oxygen in order to successfully complete their climb. This sense of rarefied, a word that comes from a combination of the Latin words rarus (“thin” or “rare”) and facere (“to make”), has been in use since the 1500s. A second, figurative sense of rarefied developed in the following century to describe things that can only be understood by a small or select group, i.e. one “thinned” from the majority of people by dint of their unique experience, expertise, or status. It’s this sense that we use when we say that to successfully summit Chomolungma puts one in rarefied company—just over 6,000 people have made it to the top at the time of this writing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 16, 2023 is: disapprobation • \dis-ap-ruh-BAY-shun\  • noun Disapprobation refers to the act or state of disapproving or of being disapproved of. // There was widespread disapprobation of the city's plan to slash educational funding. See the entry > Examples: "Set in 19th-century Western Australia at the height of the pearl trade, this book paints a nuanced portrait of the era as the backdrop for a feminist epic. In her debut novel, [author Lizzie] Pook introduces us to Eliza Brightwell, a pearler's daughter living in the fictional Bannin Bay of Western Australia. Eliza stands out from the other women of Bannin Bay because of both her plain looks and her independent personality. She's the sort to walk around town in battered boots rather than ride in a carriage like other ladies of her class, much to the disapprobation of the townsfolk." — Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2022 Did you know? Disapprobation is not only a synonym of disapproval but a relative as well. Both words were coined in the 17th century by adding the prefix dis-, meaning "the opposite or absence of," to existing "approving" words: synonyms approbation and approval. The ultimate source of the foursome is the Latin verb approbare, meaning "to approve." Another descendant of approbare is approbate, which means "to express approval of formally or legally." Love it or lump it, approbare has proven itself useful.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 15, 2023 is: maudlin • \MAUD-lin\  • adjective Maudlin describes someone or something that expresses sadness or sentimentality in an exaggerated way. // The class had a hard time taking the maudlin poetry seriously. See the entry > Examples: “All seven musicians in the band complement each other so effortlessly that at times it’s like they all breathe together. The album is often dark, and in the hands of less skilled songwriters could be maudlin and self-indulgent, but I think you can hear just how much fun they have playing together.” — Rob McHugh, The Guardian (London), 3 Jan. 2023 Did you know? The history of maudlin is connected both to the Bible and the barroom. The biblical Mary Magdalene is often (though some say mistakenly) identified with the weeping sinner who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears to repent for her sins. This association led to the frequent depiction of Mary Magdalene as a weeping penitent, and even the name Magdalene came to suggest teary emotion to many English speakers. It was then that maudlin, an alteration of Magdalene, appeared in the English phrase “maudlin drunk” in the 16th century, describing a weepy, drunken state. Nowadays, maudlin is used to describe someone or something that expresses sadness or sentimentality in an exaggerated way; however, the “maudlin drunk” meaning was so intoxicating that it stuck around and became the “drunk enough to be emotionally silly” sense still in use today, as in “after a few glasses of port he became quite maudlin.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2023 is: engender • \in-JEN-der\  • verb Engender is a formal word that means “to produce; to cause to exist or to develop.” It is used especially when feelings and ideas are generated. // The annual company picnic featured activities, such as a scavenger hunt, meant to engender a sense of teamwork and camaraderie among employees. See the entry > Examples: “Student silence and compliance are often more comfortable and comforting for those who are invested in and benefit from the status quo, but it is truly anti-learning. ... Listening to students does not mean ‘giving in to students’ or treating students as customers. It’s a step toward fostering engagement and engendering responsibility. If we say we are listening, students are more likely to speak. We just have to be ready to absorb some things we might not want to hear.” — John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, 17 Oct. 2022 Did you know? A good paragraph about engender will engender understanding in the reader. Like its synonym generate, engender comes from the Latin verb generare, meaning “to generate” or “to beget,” and when the word was first used in the 14th century, engender meant “propagate” or “procreate.” That literal meaning having to do with creating offspring (which generate shared when it was adopted in the early 16th century) was soon joined by the “to cause to exist or develop; to produce” meaning most familiar to us today. Generare didn’t just engender generate and engender; regenerate, degenerate, and generation have the same Latin root. As you might suspect, the list of engender relatives does not end there. Generare comes from the Latin noun genus, meaning “origin” or “kind.” From this source we took our own word genus, plus gender, general, and generic, among other words.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2023 is: florescence • \flor-ESS-unss\  • noun Florescence refers to a state or period of being in bloom or of flourishing. // She remarked in her lecture on the florescence of Renaissance art and technology. See the entry > Examples: "Recently, the bright red fruits of two Titan Arums ... have ripened in China National Botanical Garden in China's capital Beijing. Records showed this is the first time that the plants produced fruits under cultivation in a botanical garden across China. Importantly, unlike other plants, Titan Arum flowers occasionally and its florescence is unpredictable, which makes it even more difficult to harvest its fruits." — Chen Na, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Oct. 2022 Did you know? The flowering of botany as a science in the 18th century produced a garden of English words, mostly adapted from Latin. Florescence is a radiant example, picked from the Latin flōrēscentia, meaning "blossoming." Botanists used it as a showy word to refer to the blooming of a flower. Less literal types appreciated the word too, and applied florescence to anything that seemed to be thriving or flourishing, as in "the highest florescence of a civilization." Flōrēscentia bloomed originally from Latin flōr- or flōs, meaning "flower" and "bloom" (among other things), which English has also to thank for flourish, florid, flora, and flower itself. The list unfurls bounty; from Florida to Florence, flōr-, flōs descendants thrive in abundance.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2023 is: cordial • \KOR-jul\  • adjective Cordial means “politely pleasant and friendly.” It also means “showing or marked by warm and often hearty friendliness, favor, or approval” and “sincerely or deeply felt.” // Despite past conflicts, the two nations now maintain cordial relations. See the entry > Examples: “On the way out, there were profuse thank-yous and cordial comments about future get-togethers, which never occurred.” — Peter Bart, Deadline, 16 Mar. 2023 Did you know? The Latin root cord- (or cor) is at the heart of the connection between cordial, concord (meaning “harmony”), and discord (meaning “conflict”). Cord- means “heart,” and each of these cord- descendants has something to do with the heart, at least figuratively. Concord, which comes from com- (meaning “together” or “with”) plus -cord, suggests that one heart is with another. Discord combines the prefix dis- (meaning “apart”) with -cord to imply that hearts are apart. Hundreds of years ago, cordial could mean simply “of or relating to the (literal) heart” (the -ial is simply an adjective suffix) but today anything described as cordial—be it a friendly welcome, a compliment, or an agreement—comes from the heart in a figurative sense. Cordial is also used as a noun to refer to a usually sweet liqueur, the name being inspired by the idea that a cordial invigorates the heart.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2023 is: aftermath • \AF-ter-math\  • noun Aftermath refers to the period of time shortly following a destructive event, or to a negative consequence or result. // It was almost noon before I felt ready to clean up the mess that remained in the aftermath of the previous night’s festivities. See the entry > Examples: “The ballad, stacked with layers of harmonies, establishes her independence in the aftermath of a relationship coming to an end.” — Larisha Paul, The Rolling Stone, 14 Apr. 2023 Did you know? At first glance, one might calculate aftermath to be closely related to mathematics and its cropped form math. But the math of mathematics (which came to English ultimately from Greek) and the math of aftermath grew from different roots. Aftermath dates to the late 1400s and was originally an agricultural term, an offshoot of the ancient word math, meaning “a mowing.” The original aftermath came, of course, after the math: it was historically the crop cut, grazed, or plowed under after the first crop of the season from the same soil. (Math is still used in some parts of the United Kingdom to refer to a mowing of a grass or hay crop, as well as to the crop that is mowed.) It wasn’t until the mid-1600s that aftermath came to have the meanings now familiar to us, referring to the period of time following a destructive event, or to a negative consequence or result.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2023 is: laden • \LAY-dun\  • adjective Laden describes things that are heavily loaded with something, literally or figuratively. // Airline passengers laden with luggage inched slowly through the gate. // His voice was heavily laden with sarcasm. See the entry > Examples: "While dating sites and apps can be convenient ways to meet a special someone, many singles find that the road to love is often laden with potholes and pitfalls." — Charanna Alexander, The New York Times, 14 Feb. 2020 Did you know? Something that is laden seems to be, or actually is, weighed down by the large amount of whatever it’s carrying: tree branches laden with fruit bend toward the ground; newspaper articles laden with technical jargon are hard to read; and sugar-laden cereal is very, very sweet. Laden has been used as an adjective to describe heavily loaded things for a millennium, but its source is an even older verb: lade, meaning primarily "to load something." Lade today mostly occurs in contexts relating to shipping; its related noun lading may be familiar from the phrase bill of lading, which refers to a document listing goods to be shipped and the terms of their transport. Laden is itself sometimes used as a verb meaning "to load something" (as in "ladening the truck with equipment"), and an adjectival form of that word sometimes appears too, as in "a truck ladened with equipment." Plain old laden is preferred in such cases though: "a truck laden with equipment."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2023 is: unctuous • \UNK-chuh-wus\  • adjective Unctuous is a formal word used to describe someone who speaks and behaves in a way that is meant to seem friendly and polite but that is unpleasant because it is obviously not sincere. It can also mean “fatty,” “oily,” and “smooth and greasy in texture or appearance.” // Politicians are often at their most unctuous during election years, full of empty promises made solely to win over certain voters. // Braising chicken thighs with their skins on creates a rich, unctuous sauce that can be spooned back over the finished dish. See the entry > Examples: “The fate of a sycophant is never a happy one. At first, you think that fawning over the boss is a good way to move forward. But when you are dealing with a narcissist … you can never be unctuous enough.” — Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, 18 June 2022 Did you know? Nowadays, unctuous usually has a negative connotation, but it originated as a term describing a positive act: that of healing. The word comes from the Latin verb unguere (“to anoint”), a root that also gave rise to the words unguent (“a soothing or healing salve”) and ointment. The oily nature of ointments may have led to the use of unctuous to describe things marked by an artificial gloss of sentimentality. An unctuous individual may mean well, but the person’s insincere effusiveness can leave an unwelcome residue—much like that of some ointments.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2023 is: deepfake • \DEEP-fayk\  • noun Deepfake refers to an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said. // The leaked video incriminating the school's dean was discovered to be a deepfake. See the entry > Examples: "All sorts of deepfakes are possible. Face swaps, where the face of one person is replaced by another. Lip synchronization, where the mouth of a speaking person can be adjusted to an audio track that is different from the original. Voice cloning, where a voice is being 'copied' in order to use that voice to say things." — Julia Bayer and Ruben Bouwmeester, DW.com, 14 Jan. 2022 Did you know? The old maxim "things aren’t always as they seem" seems more true than ever in the age of deepfakes. A deepfake is an image, or a video or audio recording, that has been edited using an algorithm to replace the person in the original with someone else (especially a public figure) in a way that makes it look authentic. The fake in deepfake is transparent: deepfakes are not real. The deep is less self-explanatory: this half of the term is specifically influenced by deep learning—that is, machine learning using artificial neural networks with multiple layers of algorithms.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2023 is: satiate • \SAY-shee-ayt\  • verb Satiate is a formal word that means “to satisfy (something, such as a need or desire) fully.” // My curiosity about Nicole’s Spring Fling costume, which she promised would be “corny,” was finally satiated when she arrived at the party dressed as an incredibly lifelike cob of corn, complete with tassels. See the entry > Examples: “Every time I near the end of dinner at Yangban Society, Katianna and John Hong’s Art District restaurant, I experience the same dilemma. I’m happily satiated. ... I couldn’t possibly eat another bite. The thought is actually painful. But for Katianna’s cheesecake, I persevere.” — Jenn Harris, The Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2022 Did you know? The time has come at last to share the “sad” history of satiate, by which we mean that the two words—sad and satiate—are etymologically connected, not that the details will have you reaching for the tissue box. Both satiate and sad are related to the Latin adjective satis, meaning “enough.” When we say our desire, thirst, curiosity, etc. has been satiated, we mean it has been fully satisfied (satisfy being another satis descendant)—in other words, we’ve had enough. Satiate and sate (believed to be an alteration and shortening of satiate) sometimes imply simple contentment, but often suggest that having enough has dulled interest or desire for more, as in “Years of globe-trotting satiated their interest in travel.” Sad, which in its earliest use could describe someone who was weary or tired of something, traces back to the Old English adjective sæd, meaning “sated,” and sæd shares an ancient root with Latin satis.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2023 is: fulcrum • \FULL-krum\  • noun In technical use, fulcrum refers to the support on which a lever moves when it is used to lift something. In figurative use, fulcrum refers to a person or thing that makes it possible for something to function or develop, or in other words, one who plays an essential role in something. // Although the lead actor was phenomenal, critics believe that the supporting cast was the real fulcrum of the show. See the entry > Examples: "For now, [Super Nintendo World] is entirely focused on Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom. ... According to [Shinya] Takahashi, while other properties have been considered ... it just made the most sense to start with Mario. 'When you think of Nintendo you think Mario,' he says. 'He's the fulcrum around which everything revolves.'" — Andrew Webster, TheVerge.com, 22 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Fulcrum, which means "bedpost" in Latin, comes from the verb fulcire, which means "to prop." When the word fulcrum was first used in the 17th century, it referred to the point on which a lever or similar device (such as the oar of a boat) is supported. The literal use easily supported figurative use, and it didn't take long for the word to develop a meaning referring to one deemed essential to the function or development of something. Despite fulcrum's multiple senses, the word's meanings have kept a steady theme. In zoology, fulcrum refers to a part of an animal that serves as a hinge or support, such as the joint supporting a bird's wing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2023 is: eponymous • \ih-PAH-nuh-mus\  • adjective Eponymous is used to describe something named for a person or group (as in “Merriam-Webster, an eponymous publishing company named for George and Charles Merriam and Noah Webster”), or a person or group whose name is used for something (as in “the company's eponymous founders”). // The band's eponymous debut album received critical acclaim. See the entry > Examples: “The Outer Banks of North Carolina made a name for themselves long before the eponymous Netflix show premiered in 2020.” — Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 26 Mar. 2023 Did you know? What’s in a name? If the name is eponymous, a name is in the name: an eponymous brand, café, river, or ice cream is named for someone or something. And because English is beastly sometimes, the one lending the name to the brand, café, river, or ice cream can also be described as eponymous. This means that if Noah Webster owns a bookstore called “Webster’s Books,” it’s an eponymous bookstore, and Noah himself is the bookstore’s eponymous owner. Most of the time, though, we see eponymous describing a thing named for a person—for example, an eponymous brand named for a designer, or a band’s eponymous album titled only with the band’s name. The related word eponym is less ambiguous: it refers to the one for whom someone or something is named. At our hypothetical “Webster’s Books,” Noah Webster is the bookstore’s eponym. Appropriately enough, the Greek root of both words is onyma, meaning “name.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 4, 2023 is: chivalry • \SHIV-ul-ree\  • noun Chivalry refers to the qualities of the ideal knight, such as honor, generosity, and courtesy—in other words, an honorable and polite way of behaving toward others. It is used especially to refer to such behavior as expressed by men toward women. // Some believe that holding doors open for others is an act of chivalry, but doing so only for women is considered patronizing by many. See the entry > Examples: “At a North Carolina charter school, all students follow the same curriculum. But their gender-specific uniform requirements—pants for boys, and skirts, skorts or jumpers for girls—separate them in a way a federal court on Tuesday deemed unconstitutional. The dress code … no longer can be enforced, Senior Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan wrote in a majority opinion. The school founder’s claim that the uniform rules promote chivalry ‘based on the view that girls are “fragile vessels” deserving of “gentle” treatment by boys’ was determined to be discriminating against female students in the 10-to-6 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.” — María Luisa Paúl and Anne Branigin, The Washington Post, 15 June 2022 Did you know? Chivalry is dead, they say. The statement is indisputably true in at least one sense: the word chivalry first referred to medieval knights, as in “the king was accompanied by his chivalry,” and we're quite certain those knights are all long gone. But the word’s meaning has shifted since the 14th century, with other meanings joining the first over the years. Today, chivalry typically refers to an honorable and polite way of behaving, especially by men toward women. And when people say “chivalry is dead” they’re usually bemoaning either a perceived lack of good manners among those they encounter generally, or a dearth of men holding doors for appreciative women. The word came to English by way of French, and is ultimately from the Late Latin word caballārius, meaning “horseback rider, groom,” ancestor too of another term for a daring medieval gentleman-at-arms: cavalier. In a twist, the adjective form of cavalier is often used to describe someone who is overly nonchalant about important matters—not exactly chivalrous.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 3, 2023 is: importune • \im-per-TOON\  • verb To importune someone is to annoy or pester them with repeated questions or requests. // Several students importuned the professor to extend the deadline of the lengthy essay assignment until she finally relented. See the entry > Examples: “We learned from Drew Lock at the end of the Denver Broncos' 2019 season that he planned to importune Peyton Manning for any advice, any tips on how to best attack the offseason.” — Chad Jensen, Sports Illustrated, 24 Jan. 2020 Did you know? “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Oh, bother. If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of this classic road-trip refrain, then you, friend, have been importuned. Importune is most often encountered in formal speech and writing, however, so you’re more likely to have responded “Stop bothering/pestering/annoying me!” (or just “No!”) than “Please cease importuning me while I’m driving!” Nevertheless, importune—like bother, pester, and annoy—conveys irritating doggedness in trying to break down resistance to a request for something, whether information (such as a precise ETA) or a favor, as in “repeated e-mails from organizations importuning me for financial help.” Importune also functions in the legal realm, where it is used for behavior that qualifies as pressing or urging another with troublesome persistence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2023 is: plausible • \PLAW-zuh-bul\  • adjective Plausible means "seemingly fair, reasonable, or valuable but often not so" or "appearing worthy of belief." // One problem with the horror movie is that the plot is barely plausible—there was no good reason for the kids to enter the abandoned mansion to begin with. See the entry > Examples: "The West Midlands is a region that is no stranger to myths. From the bustling motorway of the M5 to the quiet, secluded woods of Cannock Chase—you will hear tales of abnormal happenings. ... Some explanations are offered as to why such spooky events may be taking place. But others appear to be a mystery with no plausible explanation." — Jamie Brassington, Birmingham Live (UK), 16 Apr. 2022 Did you know? Put your hands together for plausible, a word with a sonorous history. Today the word usually means "reasonable" or "believable," but its origins lie in the sensory realm, rather than that of the mind. In fact, plausible comes to us from the Latin adjective plausibilis, meaning "worthy of applause," which in turn derives from the verb plaudere, meaning "to applaud or clap." Other plaudere words include applaud, plaudit (the earliest meaning of which was "a round of applause"), and explode (from the Latin explodere, meaning "to drive off the stage by clapping"). Will the evolution of plaudere continue? Quite plausibly, and to that we say "Bravo."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 1, 2023 is: Beltane • \BEL-tayn\  • noun Beltane refers to the Celtic May Day festival. // She looks forward to the festivities and traditions her town has kept alive to celebrate Beltane each year. See the entry > Examples: “A yearly cycle of rituals, known as sabbats, celebrate the beginning and height of each of the four seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. Each ritual encourages participants to celebrate the changes the seasons bring to nature and to reflect on how those changes are mirrored in their own lives. For example, at Beltane—which takes place May 1, at the height of spring—Wiccans celebrate fertility in both the Earth and in people’s lives. The rituals are constructed to not only celebrate the season but to put the participant in direct contact with the divine.” — Helen A. Berger, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6 Sept. 2021 Did you know? To the ancient Celts, May Day marked the start of summer, and a critical time when the boundaries between the human and supernatural worlds were removed, requiring that people take special measures to protect themselves against enchantments. The Beltane fire festival originated in a summer ritual in which cattle were herded between two huge bonfires to protect them from evil and disease. The word Beltane has been used in English since the 15th century, but the earliest known instance of the word in print—as well as the description of that summer ritual—is from 500 years previous: it appears in an Irish glossary commonly attributed to Cormac, a king and bishop who lived in the south of Ireland, near the end of the first millennium.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2023 is: sinecure • \SYE-nih-kyoor\  • noun Sinecure is a noun that refers to a usually paid job or position that requires little or no work. // The king was in the habit of rewarding his loyal supporters with sinecures. See the entry > Examples: “To make matters worse, the architects of failure are rarely, if ever, held accountable. Instead of acknowledging their mistakes openly, even discredited former officials can head off to corporate boards, safe sinecures, or lucrative consulting firms, hoping to return to power as soon as their party regains the White House. Once back in office, they are free to repeat their previous mistakes, backed by a chorus of pundits whose recommendations never change no matter how often they’ve failed.” — Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy, 3 Mar. 2021 Did you know? A sinecure (pronounced \SYE-nih-kyoor\) sounds like a pretty sweet deal: it’s a job or title that usually comes with regular money but with little or no work. Who wouldn’t want that? While the thing sinecure refers to might be desirable, the word itself is typically used with disdain—if someone refers to your job as a sinecure they don’t think you earn the money you collect by doing it. The word’s roots are likewise served with some side-eye: it comes from the Medieval Latin sine cura, meaning “without cure”—the lack of cure in this case being one for souls. The original sinecure was a church position that didn’t involve the spiritual care or instruction of church members (theoretically, the church’s sole purpose). Ecclesiastical sinecures have been a thing of the past since the late 19th century; positions referred to with the word these days are more likely to be board positions or academic appointments that require no teaching.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 29, 2023 is: expedite • \EK-spuh-dyte\  • verb To expedite something is to speed up its process or progress. Expedite can also mean “to carry out promptly.” // To expedite the processing of your request, please include your account number on all documents. See the entry > Examples: “Builders have been accused of using cheap materials and skirting building codes to expedite projects and fatten profits—erecting structures that could not survive quakes.” — Nimet Kirac, The New York Times, 17 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Need someone to do something in a hurry? You can tell that person to step on it—or you can tell them expedite it. Figurative feet are involved in both cases, though less obviously in the second choice. Expedite comes from the Latin verb expedire, meaning “to free from entanglement” or “to release (a person) especially from a confined position.” The feet come in at that word’s root: it traces back to Latin ped- or pes, meaning “foot.” Expedient and expedition also stepped into English by way of expedire.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2023 is: arboreal • \ahr-BOR-ee-ul\  • adjective Arboreal is a literary term that means “of or relating to trees.” It can also mean “living in or often found in trees,” as in “arboreal monkeys.” // Despite taking weekly hikes on the same trail, she never ceases to be amazed by the forest’s arboreal beauty. See the entry > Examples: “[The satanic leaf-tailed gecko's] mottled brown skin, replete with mossy splotches and vein-like ridges, makes it the perfect imitation of a decaying leaf. Any predator clever enough to see through its arboreal disguise and mount an attack will be in for a fright. The leafy gecko opens its mouth, sticking out a blood-red tongue and unleashing a chilling scream that will frighten off the boldest of predators.” — Holly Barker, Discover Magazine, 7 Oct. 2022 Did you know? Arboreal took root in English in the 17th century, at a time when language influencers were eager to see English take on words from Latin and Greek. Apparently unsatisfied with the now-obsolete word treen (“of, relating to, or derived from trees”), they plucked arboreal from the Latin arboreus, meaning “of a tree”; its ultimate root is arbor, meaning “tree.” That root arborized—that is, branched freely (to use the term figuratively): English abounds with largely obscure words that trace back to arbor, meaning “tree.” Generally synonymous with arboreal are arboraceous, arborary, arboreous, and arborous. Synonymous with arboreal specifically in the sense of “relating to or resembling a tree” are arborescent, arboresque, arborical, and arboriform. Arboricole is a synonym of arboreal in its “inhabiting trees” sense. (The influencers may have overdone it a bit.) Arboreal is far more common than any of these, but other arbor words also have a firm hold in the language: arborvitae refers to a shrub whose name translates as “tree of life”; arboretum refers to a place where trees are cultivated; and arboriculture is the cultivation of trees. And of course we can't forget Arbor Day, which since 1872 has named a day set aside for planting trees. Despite its spelling, however, the English word arbor, which refers to a garden shelter of tree boughs or vines twined together, has a different source: it came by way of Anglo-French from the Latin herba, meaning “herb” or “grass.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 27, 2023 is: vicissitudes • \vuh-SISS-uh-toodz\  • noun plural The word vicissitudes usually refers to events or situations that occur by chance. It can also apply specifically to the difficulties or hardships, usually beyond one's control, that are commonly encountered in a life, career, etc., or simply to the quality or state of being changeable. // Capricorns are often described as persistent, down-to-earth strivers, unlikely to be thrown off by the vicissitudes of life. See the entry > Examples: “Picture a majestic coniferous forest. The hierarchy in scale and time is pine needle, tree crown, patch, stand, whole forest, and biome. The needles change annually with the seasons. The tree crowns over several years. The patch after many decades. The stand every hundred years or so. The forest over a thousand years. And the biome over tens of thousands of years. The different layers allow the entire system to roll with the vicissitudes and stresses of crowding, parasites, weather, disease, and fire. Continuity is maintained without sacrificing adaptation.” — Jacob L. Taylor, SeekingAlpha.com, 28 Oct. 2022 Did you know? In one entry of his nine-volume biography of Walt Whitman’s later years, Horace L. Traubel quotes the Good Gray Poet remarking on an in-process manuscript: “If we keep pegging away slowly but persistently, the book must in the end come out—if I should last, and I guess I will. But we mustn’t crow until we’ve left the last limit of the woods behind us—till we’re clean out into the open. The vicissitudes are many—the certainties few.” Whitman’s reflection sheds some light on vicissitudes (the singular form vicissitude is rare but also extant), a word that can refer simply to the fact of change, or to instances of it, but that often refers specifically to hardships or difficulties brought about by change. To survive “the vicissitudes of life” is to survive life’s ups and downs, which is more than worth sounding one’s “barbaric yawp” about over the roofs of the world. The word is a descendant of the Latin vicis, meaning “change” or “alternation.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2023 is: carouse • \kuh-ROWZ ("OW" as in 'cow')\  • verb Carouse means "to drink alcohol, make noise, and have fun with other people." // After a long night of carousing around Puerto Vallarta, the travelers settled into their hotel room. See the entry > Examples: "While my best friend and I took in two rowdy Mardi Gras parades during our weekend trip, we didn't come just to carouse. I wanted to eat seafood po' boys and hear music and experience Cajun culture as we relished the early spring Southern greenery. We wanted to experience this singular American city." — Laura Johnston, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 19 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Sixteenth-century English revelers toasting each other's health sometimes drank a brimming mug of booze straight to the bottom—drinking an "all-out," they called it. German tipplers did the same and used the German expression for "all out"—gar aus. The French adopted the German term as carous, using the adverb in their expression boire carous ("to drink all out"). That phrase, with its idiomatic sense of "to empty the cup," led to carrousse, a French noun meaning "a large draft of liquor." And that's where English speakers picked up carouse in the 1500s, using it first as a direct borrowing of the French noun, which later took on the sense of a general "drunken revel," and then as a verb meaning "to drink freely." The verb later developed the "rowdy partying" use familiar to us today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2023 is: orthography • \or-THAH-gruh-fee\  • noun Orthography refers to “correct spelling,” or “the art of writing words with the proper letters according to standard usage.” // As the winner of several spelling bees, she impressed her teachers with her exceptional grasp of orthography. See the entry > Examples: “What makes [poet John] Ashbery difficult ... is nonetheless different from what makes his ‘modernist precursors’ like Pound and Eliot difficult. It requires no supplemental linguistic, historical, philosophical, or literary knowledge to appreciate. ... His verse rarely relies on outright violations of the norms of syntax, orthography, or page layout to achieve its effects. Rather, it tends to be composed of grammatically well-formed units combined in such a way as to produce semantically nonsensical wholes.” — Ryan Ruby, The Nation, 27 Jan. 2022 Did you know? The concept of orthography (a term that comes from the Greek words orthos, meaning “right or true,” and graphein, meaning “to write”) was not something that really concerned English speakers until the introduction of the printing press in England in the second half of the 15th century. From that point on, English spelling became progressively more uniform. Our orthography has been relatively stable since the 1755 publication of Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, with the notable exception of certain spelling reforms, such as the change of musick to music. Incidentally, many of these reforms were championed by Merriam-Webster’s own Noah Webster.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2023 is: reprehensible • \rep-rih-HEN-suh-bul\  • adjective Reprehensible is a formal word that means “worthy of or deserving blame or very strong criticism.” // A recent news article called for the mayor's resignation, citing the recent accusations of bribery as both plausible and reprehensible. See the entry > Examples: “The extraordinary blooms, visible from the 15 Freeway, led to people parking on the freeway shoulders and blocking city streets to walk into the hills. City officials tried offering shuttle buses and forming lines to the trails to manage the throngs, but some people ignored the trails and just scrambled up the hillsides, wading through the flowers and even dislodging rocks that rolled onto people below, according to news reports. That behavior was reprehensible, [Evan] Meyer said, and potentially devastating to the flowers everyone was clamoring to see.” — Nathan Solis, The Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2023 Did you know? It may be easy to grasp that reprehensible is all about blame, but the word’s origins tell a grabbier story. The word comes from the Latin reprehendere (literally “to hold back”), a combination of re- and prehendere, meaning “to grasp.” Prehendere is at the root of other grasp-related words, among them apprehend, used when grabbing hold of bad guys, comprehend, used when it’s concepts that are grasped, and prehensile, used to describe anatomical features—for example, a monkey’s tail or an elephant’s trunk—that grasp especially by wrapping around. Grasp these words, and there’s nothing reprehensible about your grasp on this little corner of the English lexicon.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2023 is: gravamen • \gruh-VAY-mun\  • noun Gravamen is a formal word that refers to the significant part of a complaint or grievance. // The gravamen of Walter’s letter to the editor was that the newspaper frequently reports on the school system's failures but rarely covers its successes and improvements. See the entry > Examples: “The only thing worse than living under a totalitarian Communist regime is outliving one. That seems to be the half-serious gravamen of ‘The Interim,’ a novel published in 2000 by the East German writer Wolfgang Hilbig (1941-2007) and now translated into supple, vivid English by Isabel Fargo Cole. It’s not a completely absurd grievance. Not everyone does well with the kind of freedom afforded by the free market.” — Caleb Crain, The New York Times, 2 Nov. 2021 Did you know? Gravamen is not a word you hear every day (even rarer is gravamina, the less expected of its two plural forms; gravamens is the other), but it does show up occasionally in modern-day publications. It comes from the Latin verb gravare, meaning “to burden,” and ultimately from the Latin adjective gravis, meaning “heavy.” Fittingly, gravamen refers to the part of a grievance or complaint that gives it weight or substance. In legal contexts, gravamen is used to refer to the grounds on which a legal action is allowed or upheld as valid. (The word is synonymous with a legal use of gist not found outside technical contexts). Gravis has given English several other heavy words that throw their weight around more frequently, including gravity, grieve, and the adjective grave, meaning “important” or “serious.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2023 is: beguile • \bih-GHYLE\  • verb To beguile is to attract or interest someone, or to trick or deceive them. // He beguiled the audience with his smooth and seductive voice. // She was cunning enough to beguile her classmates into doing the work for her. See the entry > Examples: “Recycling themes from ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ and ‘John Tucker Must Die,’ the movie [Mr. Malcolm’s List] follows two young women as they exact retribution on a snooty bachelor. The more Machiavellian of the pair is Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton), who early on endures a public snubbing by the coveted Mr. Malcolm (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù). Vexed, Julia summons an old school chum, Selina Dalton (Freida Pinto), and enlists her in a vindictive plot to beguile Malcolm and then break his heart as payback.” — Natalia Winkelman, The Boston Globe, 29 June 2022 Did you know? A number of English words have traveled a rather curious path from meanings related to deception or trickery to something less unwelcome. A prime example is beguile, which first appeared in English around the 13th century with the meaning “to lead or draw by deception.” For the next several centuries, most of the senses of the verb had to do, in one manner or another, with deceiving. Around the time of Shakespeare, however, a more appealing sense charmed its way into the English language and hasn’t left since: “to attract or interest someone,” or in other words, “to charm.” Nowadays, you’re just as likely to hear beguile applied to someone who woos an audience with charisma, as to a wily trickster who hoodwinks others to get their way.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 21, 2023 is: wistful • \WIST-ful\  • adjective To be wistful is to be full of or to inspire yearning or desire tinged with melancholy. Wistful can also mean “suggestive of sad thoughtfulness.” // As the car pulled away, Lea cast one last wistful glance at the house where she'd spent so many happy years. See the entry > Examples: “Josh Tillman, better known by stage name Father John Misty, dives headlong into big-band jazz on his sumptuous and melancholy fifth album [Chloë and the Next 20th Century]. With honeyed vocals and a potent dose of gallows humor, the shape-shifting crooner is reborn as a Sinatra-style lounge act, weaving wistful tales of heartache and tragedy over lush orchestrations.” — Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 30 Dec. 2022 Did you know? We see you there, dear reader, gazing silently up at the moon, heart aching to know the history of wistful, as if it could be divined on the lunar surface. And we’d like to ease your melancholy by telling you that the knowledge you seek—nay, pine for—is closer at hand. But the etymology of wistful, while intriguing, is not entirely clear. It’s thought that the word is a combination of wistly, a now-obsolete word meaning “intently” and, perhaps, the similar-sounding wishful. Wistly, in turn, may have come from whistly, an old term meaning “silently” or “quietly.” What’s more certain is that our modern wistful is a great word to describe someone full of pensive yearning, or something inspiring such yearning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2023 is: fortitude • \FOR-tuh-tood\  • noun Fortitude is a formal word that refers to the strength of mind that enables someone to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage. Less formal words with similar meanings include grit, fiber, and pluck. // To reach the summit of Denali requires not only great physical strength and training but the fortitude to persevere no matter the challenge. See the entry > Examples: “This emotional novel about forgiveness honors the immense fortitude manifested by families separated during wartime.” — review, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Fortitude comes from the Latin word fortis, meaning “strong,” and in English it has always been used primarily to describe strength of mind. For a time, the word was also used to mean “physical strength”; William Shakespeare used it that way in Henry VI, Part 1: “Coward of France! How much he wrongs his fame / Despairing of his own arm's fortitude.” But despite use by the famous bard himself, that meaning languished and is now considered obsolete. Even the familiar phrase “intestinal fortitude” is just a humorous way to refer to someone’s courage or mental stamina, not the literal strength of their digestive system. (If you’re looking to describe such a gastrointestinal tract, we might suggest “iron stomach.”)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2023 is: undergird • \un-der-GHERD\  • verb Undergird means “to strengthen or support (something) from below” or “to form the basis or foundation of.” // Their way of life is undergirded by religious faith. See the entry > Examples: “Genuine connection has always been scarce, but during the height of the pandemic in 2020 it became even more so. [Jake] Johnson wrote the screenplay for Self Reliance during this scary, unpredictable and lonely period. The lessons from isolation undergird the film’s emotional core.” — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Mar. 2023 Did you know? When undergird was a new word in the 16th century, it was ships that were undergirded—that is, made secure below—and the undergirding was done by passing a rope or chain underneath. That literal sense has long since fallen out of use, but in the 19th century undergird picked up the figurative “strengthen” or “support” meaning that we still use. Centuries before anything was undergirded, however, people and things could be girded—that is, encircled or bound with a flexible band, such as a belt. Girding today is more often about preparing oneself to fight or to do something difficult, as in “girding themselves for an ideological battle.” About as old as gird is the word’s close relation, girdle, which originally referred to an article of clothing that circles the body usually at the waist; the girdles of today address the same anatomical territory but with the squeezy aim of making the waist look thinner. Gird also gives us girder, a noun referring to a horizontal piece supporting a structure.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2023 is: dolorous • \DOH-luh-rus\  • adjective Dolorous means "causing, marked by, or expressing misery or grief." // The acerbic and dolorous writings of Charles Bukowski garnered praise among lovers of poetry depicting the lives of the downtrodden in American society. See the entry > Examples: "Having haunted arenas longer than some ghosts haunt cathedrals, the Cure have their live sound down to a towering tee. ... Featherlight guitar filigrees land like hammers, dolorous synth string drones rumble from the deep. [Robert] Smith’s agelessly yearning and yelping vocals, his lyrics steeped in suburban ennui and true love against the big, bad world, are the voice of the eternal moody teen." — Malcolm Jack, The Guardian (London), 5 Dec. 2022 Did you know? If you’ve ever studied a Romance language, you’ve likely run into words related to Latin dolor, meaning "pain" or "grief." Indeed, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian all refer to pain using descendants of dolor. English (which despite its many Latinate terms is categorized as a Germanic language) has dolor to thank for dolorous. When the word first appeared, it was linked to physical pain; as the British surgeon John Banister wrote in 1578, "No medicine may prevail … till the same dolorous tooth be … plucked up by the roots." The "causing pain" sense of dolorous coexisted with the "sorrowful" sense for centuries, but (to the dolor, perhaps, of some) its use is now rare.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2023 is: hackles • \HAK-ulz\  • noun Hackles are hairs along the neck and back of an animal (especially a dog) that are capable of being raised to a stiff, upright position (as when a dog is frightened or angry). The plural noun hackles is often used figuratively with raise or rise to describe a person's response to something that causes anger or annoyance; thus, hackles can also mean “temper” or “dander” (as in “don't get your temper/dander up”). // A number of the issues discussed in the political debate raised some hackles among members of the opposing party. See the entry > Examples: “If you want to raise someone's hackles, tell them how to spend, donate, or invest their money. Sure, we all want guidance, but few of us are open to obeying a total stranger.” — Dana George, The Motley Fool (Alexandria, Virginia), 6 Jan. 2023 Did you know? In its earliest uses in the 15th century, hackle referred to either the plumage along a bird's neck or to a device used to comb out long fibers of flax, hemp, or jute. Things took a turn in the 19th century when English speakers extended the word’s plural use to both dogs and people. Like the bird’s feathers, the hairs on the back of a dog’s neck stand up when the animal is agitated. With humans, use of the word hackles is usually figurative. So, if you heckle someone, you’ll likely raise their hackles in the process, meaning you’ll make them angry or put them on the defensive.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 16, 2023 is: pacify • \PASS-uh-fye\  • verb The verb pacify has several related definitions. Among the most common are “to soothe the anger or agitation of” (as in “pacify a crying child”) and “to appease” (“trying to pacify the enemy”). // Whenever there’s a thunderstorm I find that letting my dog sleep at the foot of the bed helps to pacify her. See the entry > Examples: “Sometimes, I like to pretend I have an extremely refined palate when picking an ice cream flavor, but sometimes, my taste buds just want to be pacified.” — Madeline Wells, SFGate.com, 29 Mar. 2022 Did you know? Pacify is the oldest of a set of soothing words that floated into English on the buoy of Latin pac- or pax, meaning “peace.” It arrived in the 15th century, and was followed by pacifier and pacific in the subsequent century. These words and other pac-/pax relations have proven useful. While 16th century pacifiers soothed and subdued in general ways, by the turn of the 20th century pacifier was being used with a new meaning referring specifically to a device for a baby to suck on. Also dating to around the turn of the 20th century are pacifist and pacifism. Pay also comes ultimately from this root (by way of Latin pacare, meaning “to pacify”), as does the gentlest of this lexical family, the word peace itself.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2023 is: contraption • \kun-TRAP-shun\  • noun A contraption is a usually mechanical or electronic device or gadget. // The students worked as a team to create a Rube Goldberg contraption that can fill a pet food bowl at the press of a lever. See the entry > Examples: “In October of last year, an enormous new creature appeared on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean, about 1,400 miles southwest of San Diego. It was a remote-controlled, 90-ton machine the size of a small house, lowered from an industrial ship on a cable nearly 3 miles long. Once it was settled on the ocean floor, the black, white, and Tonka-truck-yellow contraption began grinding its way forward, its lights lancing through the darkness, steel treads biting into the silt.” — Vince Beister, WIRED, 28 Feb. 2023 Did you know? In the words of one Little Mermaid, “I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty.” It would have been on-theme (though perhaps a bit clunky) for the aquatic princess to include in her siren song the word contraption. Synonymous with both gadget and gizmo, and widget too, in referring to mechanical and electronic devices, contraption is also one of a raft of terms people reach for when talking about various human-made bits and bobs, whether mechanical or not. (It's thought to have possibly been formed as a blend of contrivance, trap, and invention.) Want more thingamabob words? Try doohickey, thingamajig, dingus, or doodad.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2023 is: lackadaisical • \lak-uh-DAY-zih-kul\  • adjective Something or someone described as lackadaisical is lacking in life, spirit, or zest. // His teachers did not approve of his lackadaisical approach to homework. See the entry > Examples: "A song like the lackadaisical ‘Funny in Dreams’ could scan as too facile—who’d have thought that strange things happen in our dreams!—but she [folk singer, Nicole Rodriguez] deftly uses it as an opportunity for vivid introspection." — Rachel Saywitz, Pitchfork, 10 Feb. 2023 Did you know? We’re too enthusiastic about the lexicon to be lackadaisical about words, but lackadaisical itself is rooted in the sort of sorrow that can put a damper on one’s passion for vocabulary expansion. When folks living from the late 17th to the late 19th century had one of those days when nothing goes right, they could cry "Lackaday!" to express their sorrow and disappointment as a shortened form of the expression "alack the day." (Alack is an interjection used to express sorrow or regret.) By the mid-1700s, the adjective lackadaisical had been formed to describe these miserable ones and their doings and sayings. Around the same time, the word lackadaisy was introduced to the language as an interjection similar to lackaday; it was never as prevalent as lackaday, but it may have influenced the development of lackadaisical.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2023 is: MacGyver • \muh-GHYE-ver\  • verb To MacGyver something is to make, form, or repair it with materials that are conveniently on hand. // Social media websites are full of videos that show people MacGyvering everything from a life jacket out of a pair of pants to a stove using three metal cans and some dirt. See the entry > Examples: “The artist [Mimi Park] MacGyvered her small-scale sonic, kinetic, and fog-emitting bricolages, which are variously activated by the viewer’s presence or a timer, using a combination of found objects, toys, motors, sensors, and craft materials.” — Cassie Packard, Hyperallergic.com, 14 Mar. 2022 Did you know? Angus MacGyver, as portrayed by actor Richard Dean Anderson in the titular, action-packed television series MacGyver, was many things—including a secret agent, a Swiss Army knife enthusiast, and a convert to vegetarianism—but he was no MacGuffin (a character that keeps the plot in motion despite lacking intrinsic importance). In fact, so memorable was this man, his mullet, and his ability to use whatever was available to him—often simple things, such as a paper clip, chewing gum, or a rubber band—to escape a sticky situation or to make a device to help him complete a mission, that people began associating his name with making quick fixes or finding innovative solutions to immediate problems. Hence the verb MacGyver, a slang term meaning to “make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand.” After years of steadily increasing and increasingly varied usage following the show’s run from 1985 to 1992 (tracked in some detail here), MacGyver was added to our online dictionary in 2022.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 12, 2023 is: vicinity • \vuh-SIN-uh-tee\  • noun Vicinity is often used as a synonym of neighborhood meaning "the area around or near a particular place." It can also mean "the quality or state of being near" or "an approximate amount, extent, or degree." // They're looking at houses in the vicinity of the town's only elementary school. // She lives in Los Angeles, or somewhere in that vicinity. // They anticipate grant funding in the vicinity of fifty thousand dollars. See the entry > Examples: "The base is off limits to civilians, but soldiers in various uniforms were the main customers at several cafes, fast food joints and a convenience store in the vicinity." — Valerie Hopkins Nanna Heitmann, The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Howdy, neighbor! Today we cozy up to vicinity, a word with neighborly origins that was welcomed into English as a French import in the 16th century from Middle French vicinité. It comes ultimately from Latin vicus, meaning "row of houses" or "village," by way of Latin vicinus, meaning "neighboring." Other descendants of vicinus in English include vicinal (a synonym of local) and vicinage, a synonym of vicinity in the sense of "a neighboring or surrounding district." Both of these are formal and rare, but vicinage is notable for giving title to the Vicinage Clause, a segment of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution that entitles an accused person to "an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11, 2023 is: oracular • \aw-RAK-yuh-ler\  • adjective Oracular can describe something that is used to forecast or divine, or that resembles or relates to something used for such purposes. Oracular can also describe a person who resembles an oracle—a person (such as a priestess of ancient Greece) through whom a deity is believed to speak. // The students admired the professor's oracular wisdom. See the entry > Examples: "Salman Rushdie’s new novel, Victory City, purports to be the summary of a long-lost, 24,000-verse epic poem from 14th-century India. The hero and author of the poem is Pampa Kampana, who as a girl becomes the conduit for a goddess, channeling her oracular pronouncements and wielding her magical powers." — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 31 Jan. 2023 Did you know? When the ancient Greeks had questions or problems, they would turn to the gods for answers by consulting an oracle, a person through whom the gods communicated, usually in the form of cryptic verse. (Oracle also referred to the god's answer or to the shrine that worshippers approached when seeking advice; the word's root is the Latin verb orare, which means "to speak.") English speakers today can use oracle to simply refer to an authoritative pronouncement or to a person who makes such pronouncements—for example, "a designer who is an oracle of fashion." And the related adjective oracular is used in similar contexts: "a designer who is an oracular voice of fashion."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 10, 2023 is: foible • \FOY-bul\  • noun Foibles are minor flaws or shortcomings in character or behavior. In fencing, foible refers to the part of a sword's blade between the middle and point, which is considered the weakest part. // He was amused daily by the foibles of his eccentric neighbor. See the entry > Examples: "Films about important historical moments are often marked by a heavy solemnity, a sometimes suffocating respectfulness that can make one forget that these events involved real people, human beings with passions and foibles." — Michael Ordoña, The Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Many word lovers agree that the pen is mightier than the sword. But be they honed in wit or form, even the sharpest tools in the shed have their flaws. That’s where foible comes in handy. Borrowed from French in the 1600s, the word originally referred to the weakest part of a fencing sword, that part being the portion between the middle and the pointed tip. The English foible soon came to be applied not only to weaknesses in blades but also to minor failings in character. The French source of foible is also at a remove from the fencing arena; the French foible means "weak," and it comes from the same Old French term, feble, that gave us feeble.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 9, 2023 is: auspicious • \aw-SPISH-us\  • adjective Something described as auspicious is full of promise, showing or suggesting that future success or good results are likely. Auspicious can also mean “attended by good fortune.” // The young musician’s auspicious debut album reveals her songwriting as already more accomplished than that of artists twice her age and stature. // The high school gymnast had quite the auspicious year, taking gold or silver in nearly every competition. See the entry > Examples: “[Bassist, Ron] Carter turned 85 on May 4. To celebrate the milestone, he held a concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, performing with three different ensembles. … An elegant man of demure stature, Carter couldn’t have picked a more appropriate venue for this auspicious occasion than Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. From the first song of the night with his Golden Striker Trio, it was evident that the audience had come not just for jazz, but for Black American classical music.” — Matthew Allen, TheGrio.com, 11 May 2022 Did you know? Some word knowledge to crow about in your next tweetstorm: auspicious comes from Latin auspex, which literally means “bird seer” (from the words avis, meaning “bird,” and specere, meaning “to look at”). In ancient Rome, these “bird seers” were priests or augurs who studied the flight and feeding patterns of birds, then delivered prophecies based on their observations. The right combination of bird behavior indicated favorable conditions, but the wrong patterns spelled trouble. The English noun auspice, which originally referred to this practice of observing birds to discover omens, also comes from Latin auspex. Today, the plural form auspices is often used with the meaning “kindly support and guidance.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 8, 2023 is: circumscribe • \SER-kum-skrybe\  • verb Circumscribe means “to limit the size or amount of something,” or, in other words, “to constrict the range or activity of.” // His role as president was carefully circumscribed by the board. See the entry > Examples: “[Jane] Addams didn’t put much stock in being ideologically pure. In the best pragmatist tradition, she did the right thing according to the circumstance and the evidence and worked with people of all identities and ideologies to get there. That included people with views very different from her own. Addams wrote: ‘We know instinctively that if we grow contemptuous of our fellows and consciously limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people whom we have previously decided to respect, we not only circumscribe our range of life, but limit the scope of our ethics.’” — Eboo Patel, The Chicago Tribune, 21 Apr. 2022 Did you know? To circumscribe something is to limit its size, activity, or range, but the range of influence of the Latin ancestors of circumscribe knows no bounds. Circumscribe comes via Middle English from the Latin verb circumscribere (which roughly translates as “to draw a circle around”), which in turn comes from circum-, meaning “circle,” and scribere, meaning “to write or draw.” Among the many descendants of circum- are circuit, circumference, circumnavigate, circumspect, circumstance, and circumvent. Scribere gave us such words as scribe and scribble, as well as ascribe, describe, and transcribe, among others.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 7, 2023 is: equivocal • \ih-KWIV-uh-kul\  • adjective Equivocal means "having two or more possible meanings" or "difficult to understand or explain." It can also mean "uncertain." // When I asked Fatima how her job was going, she gave me an equivocal response: "Let's just say I won't be a sous-chef for much longer." // The most recent clinical trial produced equivocal results. See the entry > Examples: "Hitchhiking—that good old sustainable form of ride-sharing—has declined in popularity in recent years, stoked by equivocal legislation and shifting cultural attitudes. But, with climate change becoming an increasingly urgent crisis, the need for more creative transportation options has never been more pressing." — Brendan Sainsbury, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Jan. 2022 Did you know? If you're unsure about how to use equivocal properly, it may help to first remember its antonym, unequivocal, which is without a doubt the more common word of the two. As unequivocal means "leaving no doubt" or "unquestionable," it stands to reason that equivocal applies to language that is open to multiple, often differing interpretations. Equivocal can also have a sinister slant: equivocal language is usually used to mislead or confuse, its vagueness allowing the speaker to avoid committing to a firm position or opinion, and to later disavow anything listeners found objectionable if need be. To use a related verb, politicians are often accused of equivocating when, for example, they respond to yes-or-no questions with rambling, unrelated anecdotes.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 6, 2023 is: seder • \SAY-der\  • noun A seder (often capitalized as Seder) is a service held in a Jewish home or community that includes a ceremonial dinner and that is held on the first evening, or first and second evenings, of Passover in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. // Ari enjoys the stories, songs, and rituals that accompany dinner on the night of the seder. See the entry > Examples: “For years, I kept my disdain for brisket to myself for fear of committing Jewish culinary treason. Eventually, I needed to know what all the fuss was about—and to feed a crowd for the first Passover seder that I was hosting. So I pulled out some Jewish cookbooks and decided on Joan Nathan’s recipe for Moroccan-style brisket from her book ‘Jewish Cooking in America.’ … It was a hit and delicious in a way that I had no idea brisket could be.” — Julie Giuffrida, The Los Angeles Times, 17 Dec. 2022 Did you know? Order and ritual are very important in the seder—so important that they are even reflected in its name: the English word seder is a transliteration of the Hebrew word sēdher, meaning “order.” The courses in the meal, as well as blessings, prayers, stories, and songs, are recorded in the Haggadah, a book that lays out the order of the Passover feast and recounts the story of Exodus. Each food consumed as part of the seder recalls an aspect of the Israelites’ 13th century BCE exodus from Egypt. For instance, matzo (unleavened bread) represents the haste with which the Israelites fled; maror (a mix of bitter herbs) recalls the bitterness of enslaved life; and a mixture of fruits and nuts called charoset (also rendered as charoses or haroset/haroses) symbolizes the clay or mortar the Israelites worked with during their Egyptian enslavement.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 5, 2023 is: gerrymander • \JAIR-ee-man-der\  • verb To gerrymander is to divide a state, school district, etc. into political units or election districts that give one group or political party an unfair advantage. // When politicians gerrymander, stretching their districts into absurd shapes just to maintain power, citizens often suffer the negative consequences. See the entry > Examples: “The House has to redraw its lines every decade to account for population shifts, and that redistricting process has long been dominated by partisans of both sides gerrymandering seats to benefit their party.” — Cameron Joseph, Vice, 10 Nov. 2022 Did you know? Elbridge Gerry was a respected politician in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He signed the Declaration of Independence, served as governor of Massachusetts (1810-1811), and was elected vice president under James Madison. While governor, he tried to change the shape of voting districts to help members of his political party get elected. His system resulted in some very oddly shaped districts, including one (Gerry’s home district) that looked a little like a newt. Upon seeing a map of the bizarre regional divisions, a member of the opposing party drew feet, wings, and a head on Gerry’s district and said “That will do for a salamander!” Another member called out “Gerrymander!” Thus gerrymander became a term for such political schemes.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 4, 2023 is: belated • \bih-LAY-tud\  • adjective Belated means "happening or coming very late or too late." // Olivia called her friend on his birthday to let him know that a belated gift from her was on its way. See the entry > Examples: "Skating reached a pop-culture peak in the ... 1970s and '80s, before surging back into popularity during the pandemic as the ideal socially-distanced fitness activity. ... Still, Angela Tanner, the assistant executive director of the Roller Skating Association International, was enthusiastic about my belated leap onto the bandwagon: 'I think there's this perception that roller skating has exploded, but roller skating never really stopped,' she said." — Christine Emba, The Washington Post, 1 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Don't worry about being late to the party if you don't know the history of belated; you're right on time. Long ago, there was a verb belate, which meant "to make late." From the beginning, belate tended to mostly turn up in the form of its past participle, belated. When used as an adjective, belated originally meant "overtaken by night," as in "belated travelers seeking lodging for the night." This sense did not overstay its welcome; it was eventually overtaken by the "delayed" meaning we know today. As you may have guessed, belate and its descendant belated derive from the adjective late; belate was formed by simply combining the prefix be- ("to cause to be") with late.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3, 2023 is: infantilize • \in-FAN-tuh-lyze\  • verb To infantilize someone is to treat them as though they are an infant—in other words, to treat them as helpless, immature, or as one who lacks adult agency. // Infantilizing children by shielding them from taking risks can have detrimental effects on their growth and well-being. See the entry > Examples: “Countering negative stereotypes, in oneself and others, is a complex process. Replacing negative beliefs with positive ones may help ... but the nature of these beliefs matters. Seemingly positive stereotypes that infantilize the elderly (such as the ‘sweet old lady’ stereotype) can still have negative effects.” — Juliana Breines, Psychology Today, 20 Sep. 2021 Did you know? Infantilize is just a baby, linguistically speaking. It wasn’t until several decades into the 20th century that social scientists started using the term to discuss the ways in which treating humans as helpless can prolong or encourage their dependency on others. The adjective infantile, which gave birth to infantilize, is far more mature: it dates to the 17th century. (Infant dates to the 14th century and comes ultimately from a Latin word meaning “incapable of speech; young.”) Infantile sometimes literally means “relating to infants”—that is, to children in the first year of life—but it is also applied more broadly. If you chide someone for their infantile behavior, for example, you rebuke the person for acting immaturely or childishly; to chide someone for infantilizing behavior, on the other hand, is to rebuke them for acting as if others are not as mature or independent as they are.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 2, 2023 is: démarche • \day-MARSH\  • noun The word démarche refers to a course of action or a maneuver, and especially to a political or diplomatic maneuver. Démarche is also often used specifically for a petition or protest that is presented through diplomatic channels. // The speaker urged wealthy nations to heed the démarches of those less powerful countries bearing the brunt of climate change. See the entry > Examples: “… the two top American diplomats, Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, and Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary, issued a formal démarche to a senior Chinese diplomat, Zhu Haiquan, at the State Department around 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 1 over the balloon, telling him his government had to do something about it.” — Edward Wong, Julian E. Barnes, and Adam Entous, The New York Times, 16 Feb. 2023 Did you know? When it comes to international diplomacy, it’s important not only to talk the talk but to walk the walk—which makes démarche an especially fitting word for diplomatic contexts. The word comes from French, where it can mean “gait” or “walk,” among other things. In English it was first used in the 17th century generally in the sense of “a maneuver,” and it soon developed a specific use in the world of diplomacy. Some of the other diplomacy-related words we use that come from French include attaché, chargé d'affaires, communiqué, détente, and agrément—not to mention the words diplomacy and diplomat themselves.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 1, 2023 is: shenanigans • \shuh-NAN-ih-gunz\  • plural noun Shenanigans is an informal word used to refer to mischievous or bold activity or behavior, or to dishonest or questionable practices or conduct. Its oldest meaning, and the one most likely to be encountered as the singular shenanigan, is “a devious trick used especially for an underhanded purpose.” // Reunited at their class reunion, the school’s most notorious pranksters were instantly back to their old shenanigans, cracking up their former classmates with hilarious toasts during dinner. // The CEO resigned amid accusations of financial shenanigans and dubious deals. See the entry > Examples: “If ever there was one person who was the master of pulling off April Fools’ Day gimmicks, it was my mother. Yearly, I could count on her fooling me particularly when I was in grade school. She would disguise food in my lunch box. I thought I was getting something special, but when I removed the wrapping, I would find she had cleverly packaged a Band-Aid to make me think what she was giving me was something scrumptious and tasty. Did some of her shenanigans rub off on me?” — Paul J. Volkmann, The Latrobe (Pennsylvania) Bulletin, 30 Mar. 2023 Did you know? Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us. Either way, we call it shenanigans, employing a word whose history is as tricky and mischievous as its meaning. Etymologists have some theories about its origins, but no one has been able to prove any of them. All we can say for certain is that the earliest known uses of the word in print appeared in the mid-1800s. Although the “underhanded trick” sense of the word is oldest, the most common senses in use now are “dishonest or questionable practices” (as in “political shenanigans”) and “mischievous high-spirited behavior” (as in “youthful shenanigans”).