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Aug 16, 2018
Story of black-ops unit escorting whistleblower through dangerous streets should be first-class action flick — instead it's an incoherent, chaotic rant
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Aug 15, 2018
Filmmaker Bing Liu chronicles his (and his best friends') life on a skateboard — and beautifully charts how we look at modern masculinity
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Aug 15, 2018
Story of young man and his furry Canis lupis friend separated from their respective packs is just the coming-of-Ice-Age movie we didn't know we needed
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Aug 14, 2018
Adaptation of Meg Wolitzer's novel of long-suffering spouse who hits her breaking point is blessed with a tour-de-force performance
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Aug 13, 2018
Breezy story of a Chinese-American meeting her boyfriend's extravagantly wealthy family is perfect way to end the summer moviegoing season
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Aug 09, 2018
Story of British ex-pat literally fighting for survival in Bangkok cellblocks is brutal, beautiful
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Aug 09, 2018
How do you make a blockbuster movie starring a superhuman action star and a giant prehistoric monster that's so deadly dull? Let us count the ways
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Aug 06, 2018
The filmmaker turns true story of an African-American cop who infiltrated the white supremacy group in 1970s into an incendiary indictment of our current moment
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Aug 03, 2018
The now-grown boy of A.A. Milne's 'Winnie the Pooh' stories reunites with his childhood friends in this alternately wonderful and disturbing Disney movie
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Aug 02, 2018
Instead of the Velvet Underground era, we get the iconic chanteuse's autumn years — and that makes all the difference
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Jul 31, 2018
Sundance jury-prize winner about youth sent to "pray the gay away" camps is heartfelt, tender and too close to an 'Afterschool Special' for comfort
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Jul 30, 2018
'SNL' veteran and costar Mila Kunis are left stranded in this flat espionage farce that should have stayed undercover
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Jul 27, 2018
Portrait of Scotty Bowers, a legendary "pimp to the stars" and fixture of Hollywood's gay underground, is less a doc than endless marquee-name dish
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Jul 24, 2018
'Call Me By Your Name' star's earlier coming-of-age work does the young actor no favors
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Jul 20, 2018
Sequel to the 2014 adaptation of TV show finds our man correcting even more imbalances - and this time it's personal
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Jul 19, 2018
Doc on the late designer Alexander McQueen is ravishing, haunting and a must-see
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Jul 19, 2018
Not even the mighty Cher can keep this jukebox-musical from from feeling like an S.O.S.
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Jul 18, 2018
'Hamilton' star Daveed Diggs and poet Rafael Casal give their hometown a valentine in story of ex-con, his best friend and a rapidly changing city
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Jul 16, 2018
Latest in spy-vs.-spy franchise finds its star once again saving the world - and the summer movie season
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Jul 13, 2018
Rob Reiner's chronicle of two reporters fighting an administration's war on reality should be the Fourth Estate movie we need - so why isn't it?
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Jul 12, 2018
Joaquin Phoenix and director Gus Van Sant turn a biopic of quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan into something tender, unique
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Jul 11, 2018
Bo Burnham's story about a 14-year-old misfit is one of the funniest, saddest and most heartfelt teen movies ever
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Jul 11, 2018
Dwayne Johnson gets serious in disaster film-meets-'Die Hard' blockbuster - and slightly misses the mark
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Jul 05, 2018
Kevin Macdonald's doc on Whitney Houston drops a shocking revelation - but his look at how she fell apart is anything but sensationalistic
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Jul 03, 2018
Boots Riley's brilliant, take-no-prisoners comedy skewers social norms, racial strife and the media - then things get really weird
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Jul 03, 2018
Horror franchise takes viewers back to Purge-day ground zero - and takes its B-movie premise into incendiary territory
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Jun 29, 2018
Jessica Chastain tries her best to save this factually inaccurate portrait of a frontier activist/Sitting Bull cohort Caroline Weldon
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Jun 29, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2018 is:
balmy ? \BAH-mee\ ? adjective
1 a : having the qualities of balm : soothing
b : mild, temperate
2 : crazy, foolish
Examples:
"Men often don't moisturize their skin during the hotter months, but should. It's a misconception that oily skin doesn't get dehydrated. Use a lightweight moisturizer that isn't heavy or sticky in balmy weather." — Joane Amay, Ebony, June 2018
"He arose with the first peep of day, and sallied forth to enjoy the balmy breeze of morning...." — Thomas Love Peacock, Headlong Hall, 1816
Did you know?
It's no secret that balmy is derived from balm, an aromatic ointment or fragrance that heals or soothes. So when did it come to mean "foolish," you might wonder? Balmy goes back to the 15th century and was often used in contexts referring to weather, such as "a balmy breeze" or, as Mark Twain wrote in Tom Sawyer, "The balmy summer air, the restful quiet...." Around the middle of the 19th century, it developed a new sense suggesting a weak or unbalanced mind. It is uncertain if the soft quality or the soothing effect of balm influenced this use. But later in the century, balmy be
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Jun 29, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2018 is:
balmy ? \BAH-mee\ ? adjective
1 a : having the qualities of balm : soothing
b : mild, temperate
2 : crazy, foolish
Examples:
"Men often don't moisturize their skin during the hotter months, but should. It's a misconception that oily skin doesn't get dehydrated. Use a lightweight moisturizer that isn't heavy or sticky in balmy weather." — Joane Amay, Ebony, June 2018
"He arose with the first peep of day, and sallied forth to enjoy the balmy breeze of morning...." — Thomas Love Peacock, Headlong Hall, 1816
Did you know?
It's no secret that balmy is derived from balm, an aromatic ointment or fragrance that heals or soothes. So when did it come to mean "foolish," you might wonder? Balmy goes back to the 15th century and was often used in contexts referring to weather, such as "a balmy breeze" or, as Mark Twain wrote in Tom Sawyer, "The balmy summer air, the restful quiet...." Around the middle of the 19th century, it developed a new sense suggesting a weak or unbalanced mind. It is uncertain if the soft quality or the soothing effect of balm influenced this use. But later in the century, balmy be
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Jun 29, 2018
Debra Granik's drama about a damaged war vet and his teen daughter living off the grid is hypnotic, haunting and one of the year's best
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Jun 28, 2018
Portrait of three brothers separated at birth and reunited 19 years later starts as a human-interest story - then turns into a nightmare
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Jun 28, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2018 is:
quail ? \KWAIL\ ? verb
1 : to give way : falter
2 : to recoil in dread or terror : cower
Examples:
"It wasn't so long ago that book publishers and bookstore owners were quailing about the coming of e-books, like movie theatre owners at the dawn of the television age." — Michael Hiltzik, The Gulf Times, 10 May 2017
"I've a Pooh in me, blundering about, trying to think large thoughts, making pronouncements I hope won't be challenged. And I'm sometimes a Piglet, quailing in front of imaginary dangers, or figuratively jumping up and down to squeak, 'I'm here! What about me?'" — Jim Atwell, The Cooperstown (New York) Crier, 15 June 2017
Did you know?
Flinch, recoil, and wince are all synonyms of quail, but each word has a slightly different use. When you flinch, you fail to endure pain or to face something dangerous or frightening with resolution ("she faced her accusers without flinching"). Recoil implies a start or movement away from something through shock, fear, or disgust ("he recoiled at the suggestion of stealing"). Wince usually suggests a slight involuntary physical reaction to something ("she winced as the bright light suddenly hit her eyes"). Quai
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Jun 28, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2018 is:
quail ? \KWAIL\ ? verb
1 : to give way : falter
2 : to recoil in dread or terror : cower
Examples:
"It wasn't so long ago that book publishers and bookstore owners were quailing about the coming of e-books, like movie theatre owners at the dawn of the television age." — Michael Hiltzik, The Gulf Times, 10 May 2017
"I've a Pooh in me, blundering about, trying to think large thoughts, making pronouncements I hope won't be challenged. And I'm sometimes a Piglet, quailing in front of imaginary dangers, or figuratively jumping up and down to squeak, 'I'm here! What about me?'" — Jim Atwell, The Cooperstown (New York) Crier, 15 June 2017
Did you know?
Flinch, recoil, and wince are all synonyms of quail, but each word has a slightly different use. When you flinch, you fail to endure pain or to face something dangerous or frightening with resolution ("she faced her accusers without flinching"). Recoil implies a start or movement away from something through shock, fear, or disgust ("he recoiled at the suggestion of stealing"). Wince usually suggests a slight involuntary physical reaction to something ("she winced as the bright light suddenly hit her eyes"). Quai
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Jun 28, 2018
Follow-up to 2016 Feds-versus-cartels thriller is bloody, bombastic - and crosses a line with its immorality
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Jun 27, 2018
Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly bring thrills, spills and screwball-comedy sparks to a breezy Marvel movie
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Jun 27, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18, 2018 is:
jabberwocky ? \JAB-er-wah-kee\ ? noun
: meaningless speech or writing
Examples:
Amanda learned to ignore her critics, dismissing their attacks as the jabberwocky of minds with nothing more important to think of about.
"When LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh stepped into the crowded room, fashionably late, jabberwocky ceased and the only sound you heard was the whir and click of cameras." — Greg Cote, The Miami Herald, 28 Sept. 2010
Did you know?
In a poem titled "Jabberwocky" in the book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), Lewis Carroll warned his readers about a frightful beast:
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
This nonsensical poem caught the public's fancy, and by 1908 jabberwocky was being used as a generic term for meaningless speech or writing. The word bandersnatch has also seen some use as a general noun, with the meaning "a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual." It's a much rarer word than jabberwocky, though, and is entered only in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.
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Jun 22, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2018 is:
mantic ? \MAN-tik\ ? adjective
: of or relating to the faculty of divination : prophetic
Examples:
The magician mesmerized the crowd with her sleight-of-hand tricks as well as her mantic predictions.
"Like everyone else, I was in awe of her mantic abilities, and I think she looked upon my storytelling endeavors with indulgence, having known both my father and my grandfather in their prime." — Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, The Storyteller of Marrakesh, 2011
Did you know?
The adjective mantic comes from the Greek word mantikos, which itself derives from mantis, meaning "prophet." The mantis insect got its name from this same source, supposedly because its posture—with the forelimbs extended as though in prayer—reminded folks of a prophet. Not surprisingly, the combining form -mancy, which means "divination in a (specified) manner" (as in necromancy and pyromancy), is a relative of mantic. A less expected, and more distant, relative is mania, meaning "excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity, disorganized behavior, and elevated mood" or "excessive or unreasonable enthusiasm." Mania descends from Greek mainesthai ("to be mad"), a word akin to mant
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Jun 22, 2018
Actor helps push this familiar story of dysfunctional father-daughter relationship and stoner-comedy bonding past its limits
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Jun 20, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2018 is:
abrogate ? \AB-ruh-gayt\ ? verb
1 : to abolish by authoritative action : annul
2 : to treat as nonexistent
Examples:
"U.S. deterrence in the Taiwan Strait used to resemble U.S. deterrence elsewhere: Washington had a formal alliance with the Republic of China and stationed troops in Taiwan. But the United States abrogated the alliance treaty when it broke official ties with the Republic of China in 1979." — Scott Kastner, The Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2018
"While we must not engage in partisan political acts such as endorsing candidates and parties, to remain silent on the pressing issues of our time is to abrogate our moral responsibility." — Rabbi Dan Fink, The Idaho Statesman, 21 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
If you can't simply wish something out of existence, the next best thing might be to "propose it away." That's more or less what abrogate lets you do—etymologically speaking, at least. Abrogate comes from the Latin root rogare, which means "to propose a law," and ab-, meaning "from" or "away." We won't propose that you try to get away from the fact that rogare is also an ancestor in the family tree of prerogative and interrogate. Abrogate first appeared in English as a verb in the 16th century; it was preceded by an adjective sense meaning "annulled" or "cancelled," whic
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Jun 20, 2018
Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki compares state of our nation to rock icon's demise - and asks where we all went wrong
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Jun 20, 2018
Actor scores in this weird, WTF story of true love, tiny horses and frontier madness
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Jun 20, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2018 is:
abrogate ? \AB-ruh-gayt\ ? verb
1 : to abolish by authoritative action : annul
2 : to treat as nonexistent
Examples:
"U.S. deterrence in the Taiwan Strait used to resemble U.S. deterrence elsewhere: Washington had a formal alliance with the Republic of China and stationed troops in Taiwan. But the United States abrogated the alliance treaty when it broke official ties with the Republic of China in 1979." — Scott Kastner, The Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2018
"While we must not engage in partisan political acts such as endorsing candidates and parties, to remain silent on the pressing issues of our time is to abrogate our moral responsibility." — Rabbi Dan Fink, The Idaho Statesman, 21 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
If you can't simply wish something out of existence, the next best thing might be to "propose it away." That's more or less what abrogate lets you do—etymologically speaking, at least. Abrogate comes from the Latin root rogare, which means "to propose a law," and ab-, meaning "from" or "away." We won't propose that you try to get away from the fact that rogare is also an ancestor in the family tree of prerogative and interrogate. Abrogate first appeared in English as a verb in the 16th century; it was preceded by an adjective sense meaning "annulled" or "cancelled," whic
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Jun 20, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2018 is:
abrogate ? \AB-ruh-gayt\ ? verb
1 : to abolish by authoritative action : annul
2 : to treat as nonexistent
Examples:
"U.S. deterrence in the Taiwan Strait used to resemble U.S. deterrence elsewhere: Washington had a formal alliance with the Republic of China and stationed troops in Taiwan. But the United States abrogated the alliance treaty when it broke official ties with the Republic of China in 1979." — Scott Kastner, The Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2018
"While we must not engage in partisan political acts such as endorsing candidates and parties, to remain silent on the pressing issues of our time is to abrogate our moral responsibility." — Rabbi Dan Fink, The Idaho Statesman, 21 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
If you can't simply wish something out of existence, the next best thing might be to "propose it away." That's more or less what abrogate lets you do—etymologically speaking, at least. Abrogate comes from the Latin root rogare, which means "to propose a law," and ab-, meaning "from" or "away." We won't propose that you try to get away from the fact that rogare is also an ancestor in the family tree of prerogative and interrogate. Abrogate first appeared in English as a verb in the 16th century; it was preceded by an adjective sense meaning "annulled" or "cancelled," whic
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Jun 19, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2018 is:
roseate ? \ROH-zee-ut\ ? adjective
1 : resembling a rose especially in color
2 : overly optimistic : viewed favorably
Examples:
"Sometimes mistaken for a flamingo, the roseate spoonbill has lots of pink shades that can fool you." — Lyle Johnson, The Gonzales Weekly Citizen (Ascension, Louisiana), 26 Apr. 2018
"… the Catalan channels, richly funded by the local parliament and putting nationalist devotees in charge, has created a roseate picture of independence that simply doesn't fit the facts." — Peter Preston, The Observer (London), 10 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
"Everything's coming up roses." "He views the world through rose-tinted glasses." "She has a rosy outlook on life." In English, we tend to associate roses and rose color with optimism, and roseate is no exception. Roseate comes from the Latin adjective roseus, and ultimately from the noun rosa, meaning "rose." Figurative use of roseate (with the meaning "happy" or "smiling") began in the 18th century, but the literal sense of the term has been in the language since the 15th century. It's especially well-suited to literary descriptions of sunrises and sunsets: "through yon peaks of cloud-like snow / The roseate sunlight quivers," wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley in Prometheus Unbound. And in an early short story, Edith Wharton wrote, "The sunset was perfect and a roseate light, transfiguring the distant spire, lingered late in the west."
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Jun 18, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 9, 2018 is:
shenanigan ? \shuh-NAN-ih-gun\ ? noun
1 : a devious trick used especially for an underhand purpose
2 a : tricky or questionable practices or conduct — usually used in plural
b : high-spirited or mischievous activity — usually used in plural
Examples:
The CEO resigned amid accusations of financial shenanigans and dubious deals.
"And the protesters outside were just the start of the shenanigans. Inside the building, one person attended the hearing dressed in a Russian troll costume." — Kevin Roose, The New York Times, 16 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
The history of shenanigan is as tricky and mischievous as its meaning. Etymologists have some theories about its origins, but no one has been able to prove 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 "tricky or questionable practices" (as in "political shenanigans") and "high-spirited behavior" (as in "youthful shenanigans").
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Jun 15, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2018 is:
unbeknownst ? \un-bih-NOHNST\ ? adjective
1 : happening or existing without the knowledge of someone specified — usually used with to
2 : not known or not well-known : unknown
Examples:
"… Travis was the one who paid the bills—and he often used credit cards to cover them, unbeknownst to Vonnie." — Penny Wrenn, Forbes.com, 9 Oct. 2013
"… Senate Bill 15, approved unanimously by that House committee Thursday, hopes to help homeowners who find themselves the victim of 'squatting'—people who illegally move into a home, often unbeknownst to the homeowner." — Marianne Goodland, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado), 12 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
Unbeknownst is an irregular variant of the older unbeknown, which derives from beknown, an obsolete synonym of known. But for a word with a straightforward history, unbeknownst and the now less common unbeknown have caused quite a stir among usage commentators. In spite of widespread use (including appearances in the writings of Charles Dickens, A. E. Housman, and E. B. White), the grammarian H. W. Fowler in 1926 categorized the two words as "out of use except in dialect or uneducated speech." The following year, G. P. Krapp called them "humorous, colloquial, and dialectal." Our evidence, however, shows that both words are standard even in formal prose.
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Jun 14, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 5, 2018 is:
fustigate ? \FUSS-tuh-gayt\ ? verb
1 : to beat with or as if with a short heavy club : cudgel
2 : to criticize severely
Examples:
Matthew was thoroughly fustigated for failing to reserve a table large enough to accommodate all of the visitors from the corporate main office.
"Ontario Court Justice Charles Vaillancourt … fustigated them all, effectively characterizing the charges against Duffy as an abuse of power. " — Neil Macdonald, CBC.ca, 23 Apr. 2016
Did you know?
Though it won't leave a bump on your head, severe criticism can be a blow to your self-esteem. It's no wonder that fustigate, when it first appeared in the 17th century, originally meant "to cudgel or beat with a short heavy stick," a sense that reflects the word's derivation from the Latin noun fustis, which means "club" or "staff." The "criticize" sense is more common these days, but the violent use of fustigate was a hit with earlier writers like George Huddesford, who in 1801 told of an angry Jove who "cudgell'd all the constellations, ... / Swore he'd eject the man i' the moon ... / And fustigate him round his orbit."
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Jun 12, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2018 is:
opportune ? \ah-per-TOON\ ? adjective
1 : suitable or convenient for a particular occurrence
2 : occurring at an appropriate time
Examples:
Kristin seized upon the first opportune moment to approach her boss about a raise.
"We believe that the recent momentum and widespread recognition the concept has received makes it an opportune time to introduce the brand to Sacramento." — David Leuterio, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 5 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
To choose any port in a storm is sometimes the most opportune way of proceeding in a difficult situation—and appropriately so, etymologically speaking. Opportune descends from the Latin opportunus, which means "favoring one's needs," "serviceable," and "convenient." Originally, opportunus was probably used of winds with the literal meaning of "blowing in the direction of a harbor." The word is a combination of the prefix ob-, meaning "to," and portus, "port" or "harbor." Latin portus is also at the root of English port. Opportune and port both made their way to English via Anglo-French, with port arriving before the 12th century, and opportune arriving in the 15th century.
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Jun 12, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2018 is:
opportune ? \ah-per-TOON\ ? adjective
1 : suitable or convenient for a particular occurrence
2 : occurring at an appropriate time
Examples:
Kristin seized upon the first opportune moment to approach her boss about a raise.
"We believe that the recent momentum and widespread recognition the concept has received makes it an opportune time to introduce the brand to Sacramento." — David Leuterio, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 5 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
To choose any port in a storm is sometimes the most opportune way of proceeding in a difficult situation—and appropriately so, etymologically speaking. Opportune descends from the Latin opportunus, which means "favoring one's needs," "serviceable," and "convenient." Originally, opportunus was probably used of winds with the literal meaning of "blowing in the direction of a harbor." The word is a combination of the prefix ob-, meaning "to," and portus, "port" or "harbor." Latin portus is also at the root of English port. Opportune and port both made their way to English via Anglo-French, with port arriving before the 12th century, and opportune arriving in the 15th century.
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Jun 07, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2018 is:
flummox ? \FLUM-uks\ ? verb
: confuse
Examples:
"A computer glitch at the IRS knocked offline the agency's ability to process many tax returns filed electronically, a stunning breakdown that left agency officials flummoxed and millions of Americans bewildered." — Jeff Stein, Damian Paletta, and Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, 17 Apr. 2018
"The reason for math's bad rap is that the very same teachers and parents who have psychic scars from their own inability to correctly memorize their multiplication tables in the fourth grade are today completely flummoxed by elementary school kids' homework." — Esther J. Cepeda, The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey), 26 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
No one is completely sure where the word flummox comes from, but we do know that early use can be found in Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers and that it had become quite common in both British and American English by the end of the 19th century. One theory expressed by some etymologists is that it was influenced by flummock, a word of English dialectical origin used to refer to a clumsy person. This flummock may also be the source of the word lummox, which also means "a clumsy person."
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Jun 07, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2018 is:
flummox ? \FLUM-uks\ ? verb
: confuse
Examples:
"A computer glitch at the IRS knocked offline the agency's ability to process many tax returns filed electronically, a stunning breakdown that left agency officials flummoxed and millions of Americans bewildered." — Jeff Stein, Damian Paletta, and Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, 17 Apr. 2018
"The reason for math's bad rap is that the very same teachers and parents who have psychic scars from their own inability to correctly memorize their multiplication tables in the fourth grade are today completely flummoxed by elementary school kids' homework." — Esther J. Cepeda, The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey), 26 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
No one is completely sure where the word flummox comes from, but we do know that early use can be found in Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers and that it had become quite common in both British and American English by the end of the 19th century. One theory expressed by some etymologists is that it was influenced by flummock, a word of English dialectical origin used to refer to a clumsy person. This flummock may also be the source of the word lummox, which also means "a clumsy person."
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Jun 06, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2018 is:
sacrosanct ? \SAK-roh-sankt\ ? adjective
1 : most sacred or holy : inviolable
2 : treated as if holy : immune from criticism or violation
Examples:
"Cowperwood's private office … was a solid cherry-wood box in which he could shut himself completely—sight-proof, sound-proof. When the door was closed it was sacrosanct." — Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, 1914
"The launch of Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center … was the latest in a series of milestones reviving interest in space. It happened on the sacrosanct stretch of sand along the Florida coast that has witnessed so many epic flights out of the atmosphere." — Christian Davenport, The Washington Post, 11 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
That which is sacrosanct is doubly sacred. Sacrosanct is derived from the Latin sacrosanctus, which is probably from the phrase sacro sanctus ("hallowed by a sacred rite"). The first element of this phrase, sacro, is the ablative case of sacrum ("a sacred rite") and means "by a sacred rite" (sacrum lives on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which literally means "holy bone"). The second element, sanctus, is the past participle of the Latin sancire, w
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Jun 05, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2018 is:
arrogate ? \AIR-uh-gayt\ ? verb
1 a : to claim or seize without justification
b : to make undue claims to having : assume
2 : to claim on behalf of another : ascribe
Examples:
The city council has accused the mayor of arrogating decision-making authority to himself that rightly belongs with the council.
"Teenage girls rule in the tart but sweet new Broadway musical Mean Girls. But their system of high-school government is far from a democracy: It's a reign of terror, angst and mall fashions, where popularity is arrogated and then ruthlessly enforced." — Adam Feldman, TimeOut New York, 8 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
Arrogate comes from Latin arrogatus, a past participle of the verb arrogare, which means "to appropriate to one's self." The Latin verb, in turn, was formed from the prefix ad- ("to" or "toward") and the verb rogare ("to ask"). You may have noticed that arrogate is similar to the more familiar arrogant. And there is, in fact, a relationship between the two words. Arrogant comes from Latin arrogant- or arrogans, the present participle of arrogare. Arrogant is often applied to that sense of superiority which comes from someone claiming (or arrogating) more consideration than is due to that person'
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Jun 02, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2018 is:
cajole ? \kuh-JOHL\ ? verb
1 a : to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance : coax
b : to obtain from someone by gentle persuasion
2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises
Examples:
"Wertheim and the 60 Minutes crew were only permitted into the building's circular library, despite an attempt to cajole former Lampoon president Alice Ju to grant them further access." — Brit McCandless Farmer, CBSNews.com, 8 Apr. 2018
"Designers call the ways marketers and developers cajole and mislead us into giving up our data 'dark patterns,' tactics that exploit flaws and limits in our cognition." — Christopher Mims, The Wall Street Journal, 22 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
Cajole comes from a French verb, cajoler, which has the same meaning as the English word. You might not think to associate cajole with cage, but some etymologists theorize that cajoler is connected to not one but two words for "cage." One of them is the Anglo-French word cage, from which we borrowed our own cage. It comes from Latin cavea, meaning "cage." The other is the Anglo-French word for "birdcage," which is gaiole. It's an ancestor of our word jail, and it derives from Late Latin caveola, which means "little cage." Anglo-French spea
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Jun 01, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2018 is:
petard ? \puh-TAHRD\ ? noun
1 : a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall
2 : a firework that explodes with a loud report
Examples:
"The metal walls of the narrow corridor would scatter ricochets and shrapnel in every direction, and any intact panels of reflex armor would ignite grenades and petards in counterfire…." — John C. Wright, The Judge of Ages, 2014
"I ran back and seized a tin box which had been filled with candles. It was about the size of my busby—large enough to hold several pounds of powder. Duroc filled it while I cut off the end of a candle. When we had finished, it would have puzzled a colonel of engineers to make a better petard." — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, 1896
Did you know?
Aside from historical references to siege warfare, and occasional contemporary references to fireworks, petard is almost always encountered in variations of the phrase "hoist with one's own petard," meaning "victimized or hurt by one's own scheme." The phrase comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet: "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petar." Hoist in this case is the past participle of the verb hoise, meaning "to lift or raise," and petar(d) refers to an explosive device used in siege warfare. Hamlet uses the example of the
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Jun 01, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2018 is:
petard ? \puh-TAHRD\ ? noun
1 : a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall
2 : a firework that explodes with a loud report
Examples:
"The metal walls of the narrow corridor would scatter ricochets and shrapnel in every direction, and any intact panels of reflex armor would ignite grenades and petards in counterfire…." — John C. Wright, The Judge of Ages, 2014
"I ran back and seized a tin box which had been filled with candles. It was about the size of my busby—large enough to hold several pounds of powder. Duroc filled it while I cut off the end of a candle. When we had finished, it would have puzzled a colonel of engineers to make a better petard." — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, 1896
Did you know?
Aside from historical references to siege warfare, and occasional contemporary references to fireworks, petard is almost always encountered in variations of the phrase "hoist with one's own petard," meaning "victimized or hurt by one's own scheme." The phrase comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet: "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petar." Hoist in this case is the past participle of the verb hoise, meaning "to lift or raise," and petar(d) refers to an explosive device used in siege warfare. Hamlet uses the example of the
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Jun 01, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2018 is:
petard ? \puh-TAHRD\ ? noun
1 : a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall
2 : a firework that explodes with a loud report
Examples:
"The metal walls of the narrow corridor would scatter ricochets and shrapnel in every direction, and any intact panels of reflex armor would ignite grenades and petards in counterfire…." — John C. Wright, The Judge of Ages, 2014
"I ran back and seized a tin box which had been filled with candles. It was about the size of my busby—large enough to hold several pounds of powder. Duroc filled it while I cut off the end of a candle. When we had finished, it would have puzzled a colonel of engineers to make a better petard." — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, 1896
Did you know?
Aside from historical references to siege warfare, and occasional contemporary references to fireworks, petard is almost always encountered in variations of the phrase "hoist with one's own petard," meaning "victimized or hurt by one's own scheme." The phrase comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet: "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petar." Hoist in this case is the past participle of the verb hoise, meaning "to lift or raise," and petar(d) refers to an explosive device used in siege warfare. Hamlet uses the example of the
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May 31, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2018 is:
garrulous ? \GAIR-uh-lus\ ? adjective
1 : given to prosy, rambling, or tedious loquacity : pointlessly or annoyingly talkative
2 : using or containing many and usually too many words : wordy
Examples:
Bob's garrulous and outgoing nature is a stark contrast to his brother's more retiring demeanor.
"Travel impresses on the memory a kaleidoscope of disparate images…. Men in long gray shirts and trousers play cards. In a dusty, narrow street, an old woman sells vegetables. Garrulous gray and black crows look for food along the sewage canal." — Krista Kafer, The Denver Post, 1 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
English has many adjectives that share the meaning "given to talk" or "talking." Talkative may imply a readiness to talk or a disposition to enjoy conversation, while loquacious suggests the power of expressing oneself articulately, fluently, or glibly. Voluble suggests a free, easy, and unending talkativeness, and garrulous implies talkativeness that is dull, rambling, or tedious. Garrulous, by the way, derives from the Latin verb garrire, which means "to chatter" or "to talk rapidly."
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May 22, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2018 is:
nascent ? \NASS-unt\ ? adjective
: coming or having recently come into existence
Examples:
"At this point, the scholarly reexamination of the Bible met up with another movement, the nascent Protestant Reformation." — James L. Kugel, How to Read the Bible, 2007
"Bezos starts by upending the world of books with his start-up Amazon, using the nascent Internet to challenge brick-and-mortar book chains like Barnes and Noble." — Chris Impey, The Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2018
Did you know?
Nascent comes from nascens, the present participle of the Latin verb nasci, which means "to be born." It is a relative newcomer to the collection of English words that derive from that Latin verb. In fact, when the word nascent was itself a newborn, in the first quarter of the 17th century, other nasci offspring were already respectably mature. Nation, native, and nature had been around since the 1300s; innate and natal, since the 1400s. More recently, we picked up some French descendants of nasci: née in the 1700s and
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May 17, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2018 is:
menagerie ? \muh-NAJ-uh-ree\ ? noun
1 a : a place where animals are kept and trained especially for exhibition
b : a collection of wild or foreign animals kept especially for exhibition
2 : a varied mixture
Examples:
"Joe proved a quick country convert, taking ownership of the grounds and the growing menagerie, which now includes eight Icelandic sheep, eight Bantam chickens, and two collies." — Caroline Collins McKenzie, Country Living, December 2017
"I can never find my keys in the four pockets in my pants. So the typical golf bag, with its menagerie of zippers and storage, presents a particular nightmare of lost essentials." — Tom Chiarella, Popular Mechanics, June 2017
Did you know?
Back in the days of Middle French, ménagerie meant "the management of a household or farm" or "a place where animals are tended." By the late 1600s, English speakers had adopted the word but dropped its housekeeping aspects, applying it specifically to the places where circuses and other exhibitions kept show animals. Later, menagerie was generalized to refer to any varied mixture, especially one that includes things that are strange or foreign to one's experience.
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May 16, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2018 is:
decimate ? \DESS-uh-mayt\ ? verb
1 : to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2 : to exact a tax of 10 percent from
3 a : to reduce drastically especially in number
b : to cause great destruction or harm to
Examples:
Budget cuts have decimated public services in many towns and cities throughout the state.
"We must do everything we can to eliminate the diseases that have potential to decimate our population if we do not take action." — Kacie L. Pauls, The Kansas City (Missouri) Star, 22 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
The connection between decimate and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome. A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by the selection and execution of one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. It's no surprise that the word for this practice came from Latin decem, meaning "ten." From this root we also get our words decimal and decade, as well as December, so named because it was originally the tenth month of the calendar before the addition of January and February. In its extended uses, decimate strayed from its "tenth" meaning and
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May 16, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2018 is:
decimate ? \DESS-uh-mayt\ ? verb
1 : to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2 : to exact a tax of 10 percent from
3 a : to reduce drastically especially in number
b : to cause great destruction or harm to
Examples:
Budget cuts have decimated public services in many towns and cities throughout the state.
"We must do everything we can to eliminate the diseases that have potential to decimate our population if we do not take action." — Kacie L. Pauls, The Kansas City (Missouri) Star, 22 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
The connection between decimate and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome. A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by the selection and execution of one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. It's no surprise that the word for this practice came from Latin decem, meaning "ten." From this root we also get our words decimal and decade, as well as December, so named because it was originally the tenth month of the calendar before the addition of January and February. In its extended uses, decimate strayed from its "tenth" meaning and
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May 15, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2018 is:
remuneration ? \rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun\ ? noun
: the act or fact of paying an equivalent to for a service, loss, or expense : recompense, pay
Examples:
The actor was offered a modest speaking fee by the host as remuneration for giving her speech at the awards ceremony.
"Travelers who are bumped from an overbooked flight can seek remuneration—as can people who were delayed more than three hours by a 'technical difficulty.'" — Melanie Lieberman, Travel Leisure, 6 Mar. 2018
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 other 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." (Renumeration, a very rare word, means "the act of enumerating [counting or listing] again.") It pays to know that the -mun- in remuneration is from Latin munus, meaning "gift," a root it shares with munificent, an adjective which means "very liberal in giving."
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May 14, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2018 is:
agonistic ? \ag-uh-NISS-tik\ ? adjective
1 : of or relating to the athletic contests of ancient Greece
2 : argumentative
3 : striving for effect : strained
4 : of, relating to, or being aggressive or defensive social interaction (such as fighting, fleeing, or submitting) between individuals usually of the same species
Examples:
Artie Kopelman … has also noticed non-hunting uses of bubbles in his humpback-whale encounters. In one instance last summer, he and a small group were drifting in a boat when suddenly a ring of bubbles surrounded them. 'This might have been an agonistic display, or an attempt to build a wall around us,' says Kopelman…." — Erica Cirino, The Atlantic, 28 June 2017
"In agonistic discourse, a political rival is seen and talked about as an adversary—an adversary to be beaten, for sure—but still an adversary, with the same right to be in the political arena as one's self." — Eddie Glenn, The Tulsa (Oklahoma) World, 19 Oct. 2016
Did you know?
Agonistic has its roots in ancient Greece—specifically in the agonistic (to use the oldest sense of the word) athletic contests called agons featured at public festivals. From physical conflict to verbal jousting, agonistic came to be used as a synonym for argumentative and later to mean "striving for ef
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May 14, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2018 is:
agonistic ? \ag-uh-NISS-tik\ ? adjective
1 : of or relating to the athletic contests of ancient Greece
2 : argumentative
3 : striving for effect : strained
4 : of, relating to, or being aggressive or defensive social interaction (such as fighting, fleeing, or submitting) between individuals usually of the same species
Examples:
Artie Kopelman … has also noticed non-hunting uses of bubbles in his humpback-whale encounters. In one instance last summer, he and a small group were drifting in a boat when suddenly a ring of bubbles surrounded them. 'This might have been an agonistic display, or an attempt to build a wall around us,' says Kopelman…." — Erica Cirino, The Atlantic, 28 June 2017
"In agonistic discourse, a political rival is seen and talked about as an adversary—an adversary to be beaten, for sure—but still an adversary, with the same right to be in the political arena as one's self." — Eddie Glenn, The Tulsa (Oklahoma) World, 19 Oct. 2016
Did you know?
Agonistic has its roots in ancient Greece—specifically in the agonistic (to use the oldest sense of the word) athletic contests called agons featured at public festivals. From physical conflict to verbal jousting, agonistic came to be used as a synonym for argumentative and later to mean "striving for ef
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May 11, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2018 is:
palindrome ? \PAL-un-drohm\ ? noun
: a word, verse, or sentence (such as "Able was I ere I saw Elba") or a number (such as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward
Examples:
The teacher asked the class if anyone could think of a single word palindrome with 7 letters. After a couple minutes, Mia raised her hand and said "repaper."
"He went on to create Noxon Tools, named for a small Montana town.… Noxon is a palindrome—spelled the same way forward or backward." — Cindy Hval, The Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), 13 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
Palindromic wordplay is nothing new. Palindromes have been around since at least the days of ancient Greece, and our name for them comes from two Greek words, palin, meaning "back" or "again," and dramein, meaning "to run." Nowadays, we can all appreciate a clever palindrome (such as "Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard" or "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama"), or even a simple one like "race car," but in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Until well into the 19th century some folks thought palindromes were actually magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets to protect people or property from harm.
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May 11, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2018 is:
palindrome ? \PAL-un-drohm\ ? noun
: a word, verse, or sentence (such as "Able was I ere I saw Elba") or a number (such as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward
Examples:
The teacher asked the class if anyone could think of a single word palindrome with 7 letters. After a couple minutes, Mia raised her hand and said "repaper."
"He went on to create Noxon Tools, named for a small Montana town.… Noxon is a palindrome—spelled the same way forward or backward." — Cindy Hval, The Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), 13 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
Palindromic wordplay is nothing new. Palindromes have been around since at least the days of ancient Greece, and our name for them comes from two Greek words, palin, meaning "back" or "again," and dramein, meaning "to run." Nowadays, we can all appreciate a clever palindrome (such as "Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard" or "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama"), or even a simple one like "race car," but in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Until well into the 19th century some folks thought palindromes were actually magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets to protect people or property from harm.
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May 10, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 1, 2018 is:
eventuate ? \ih-VEN-chuh-wayt\ ? verb
: to come out finally : result, come about
Examples:
The accident eventuated from a cascade of mistakes that could easily have been prevented with better operator training.
"Charles Dickens is at his best when he compares events in London and Paris during a period of revolution. While the historian may help us to understand the social context that eventuates in a revolution, it is a novel that shows the personal tragedies that come from the breakdown of social order." — Allan Powell, The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland), 7 Apr. 2016
Did you know?
Eventuate started life as an Americanism in the late 18th century, and was stigmatized in the 19th century. One British commentator called it "another horrible word, which is fast getting into our language through the provincial press." Other British grammarians, and even some Americans, agreed that it was horrible. Eventuate is less controversial these days, though its use is still regarded by the occasional critic as pompous, ponderous, and unnecessary. In any case, eventuate has a perfectly respectable history. It is derived from the Latin noun eventus ("event"), which in turn traces to the verb evenire, meaning "to happen."
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May 10, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 1, 2018 is:
eventuate ? \ih-VEN-chuh-wayt\ ? verb
: to come out finally : result, come about
Examples:
The accident eventuated from a cascade of mistakes that could easily have been prevented with better operator training.
"Charles Dickens is at his best when he compares events in London and Paris during a period of revolution. While the historian may help us to understand the social context that eventuates in a revolution, it is a novel that shows the personal tragedies that come from the breakdown of social order." — Allan Powell, The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland), 7 Apr. 2016
Did you know?
Eventuate started life as an Americanism in the late 18th century, and was stigmatized in the 19th century. One British commentator called it "another horrible word, which is fast getting into our language through the provincial press." Other British grammarians, and even some Americans, agreed that it was horrible. Eventuate is less controversial these days, though its use is still regarded by the occasional critic as pompous, ponderous, and unnecessary. In any case, eventuate has a perfectly respectable history. It is derived from the Latin noun eventus ("event"), which in turn traces to the verb evenire, meaning "to happen."
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May 09, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2018 is:
chivalry ? \SHIV-ul-ree\ ? noun
1 : mounted men-at-arms
2 : gallant or distinguished gentlemen
3 : the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood
4 : the qualities of the ideal knight : chivalrous conduct
Examples:
"Coutts was founded in 1692. Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, commissioned it to make ornate ceremonial chains and badges for the knights of the Thistle, an order of chivalry." — Simon Clark and Phillipa Leighton-Jones, The Wall Street Journal, 15 Mar. 2018
"At the centre of the opera is Quixote's quest to retrieve the beautiful Dulcinea's stolen necklace from a gang of thieves. Quixote believes that if he can complete this act of chivalry, he will win her heart and hand in marriage." — Ben Neutze, Time Out Sydney (Australia), 21 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
In days of old when knights were bold, Anglo-French speakers used the word chevaler (an ancestor of our word chevalier) for a knight or horseman. By the 14th century, English speakers had adopted the slightly modified spelling chivalry to describe their own well-armored, mounted warriors. Nowadays, when we say that chivalry is not dead, we are alluding to the high standard of character and conduct typically associated
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May 09, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2018 is:
chivalry ? \SHIV-ul-ree\ ? noun
1 : mounted men-at-arms
2 : gallant or distinguished gentlemen
3 : the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood
4 : the qualities of the ideal knight : chivalrous conduct
Examples:
"Coutts was founded in 1692. Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, commissioned it to make ornate ceremonial chains and badges for the knights of the Thistle, an order of chivalry." — Simon Clark and Phillipa Leighton-Jones, The Wall Street Journal, 15 Mar. 2018
"At the centre of the opera is Quixote's quest to retrieve the beautiful Dulcinea's stolen necklace from a gang of thieves. Quixote believes that if he can complete this act of chivalry, he will win her heart and hand in marriage." — Ben Neutze, Time Out Sydney (Australia), 21 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
In days of old when knights were bold, Anglo-French speakers used the word chevaler (an ancestor of our word chevalier) for a knight or horseman. By the 14th century, English speakers had adopted the slightly modified spelling chivalry to describe their own well-armored, mounted warriors. Nowadays, when we say that chivalry is not dead, we are alluding to the high standard of character and conduct typically associated
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May 04, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2018 is:
slew ? \SLOO\ ? noun
: a large number
Examples:
Daniel regularly receives a slew of clothing catalogs as part of his junk mail.
"We had two weeks off and wanted to take a fun mother-daughter trip to Europe but didn't want to grapple with the slew of flights we'd have to take to visit multiple cities or the constant unpacking and packing involved on such a trip." — Shivani Vora, The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
Slew appeared as an American colloquialism in the early 19th century. Its origins are unclear, but it is perhaps taken from the Irish slua, a descendant of Old Irish slúag, meaning "army," "host," or "throng." Slew has several homographs (words that are spelled alike but different in meaning, derivation, or pronunciation) in English. These include: slew as the past tense of the verb slay; slew as a spelling variant of slough, a word which is also commonly pronounced \SLOO\ and which means "swamp," "an inlet on a river," or "a creek in a marsh or tide flat"; and the verb slew, meaning "to turn, veer, or skid."
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May 04, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2018 is:
slew ? \SLOO\ ? noun
: a large number
Examples:
Daniel regularly receives a slew of clothing catalogs as part of his junk mail.
"We had two weeks off and wanted to take a fun mother-daughter trip to Europe but didn't want to grapple with the slew of flights we'd have to take to visit multiple cities or the constant unpacking and packing involved on such a trip." — Shivani Vora, The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
Slew appeared as an American colloquialism in the early 19th century. Its origins are unclear, but it is perhaps taken from the Irish slua, a descendant of Old Irish slúag, meaning "army," "host," or "throng." Slew has several homographs (words that are spelled alike but different in meaning, derivation, or pronunciation) in English. These include: slew as the past tense of the verb slay; slew as a spelling variant of slough, a word which is also commonly pronounced \SLOO\ and which means "swamp," "an inlet on a river," or "a creek in a marsh or tide flat"; and the verb slew, meaning "to turn, veer, or skid."
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May 03, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2018 is:
loath ? \LOHTH\ ? adjective
: unwilling to do something contrary to one's ways of thinking : reluctant
Examples:
My grandfather was naturally very proud of the company he had built, so he was loath to admit that it was time to think about selling it and retiring.
"It seems like a lot of film directors are loath to embrace VR for the same reason that Roger Ebert famously dismissed video games as a form of art: They think it's a gimmick that punishes artistry in the name of the medium's requirements." — Alex McLevy, The A.V. Club, 15 Mar. 2018
Did you know?
Many usage commentators point out that the spelling of loath, the adjective, is distinct from loathe, the verb that means "to dislike greatly." Merriam-Webster dictionaries do record loathe (along with loth) as a variant spelling for the adjective, but at the same time indicate that the loath spelling is the most common one. The adjective and the verb both hark back to Old English, and the "e" ending in each has come and gone over the centuries—but if you want to avoid the ire of those who like to keep the language tidy, stick with loath for the adjective and loathe for the verb.
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May 02, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2018 is:
cathexis ? \kuh-THEK-sis\ ? noun
: investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea
Examples:
"In 2004, Bowie had a heart attack, and he was recently rumored to be in poor health. Leading up to the release of 'The Next Day,' a jittery cathexis formed. Do we judge Bowie as we always have, by his own standards? Would a new album be received reverentially, like those of the post-motorcycle-crash Bob Dylan?" — Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2013
"… young lovers who marry during the giddy rush of cathexis, when the hormonal highs of romantic love prompt them to be in love with being in love, often find there's no cement to tightly bind their relationship." — Mike Masterson, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 25 Dec. 2016
Did you know?
You might suspect that cathexis derives from a word for "emotion," but in actuality the key concept is "holding." Cathexis comes to us by way of New Latin (Latin as used after the medieval period in scientific description or classification) from the Greek word kathexis, meaning "holding." It can ultimately be traced back (through katechein, meaning "to hold fast, occupy") to the Greek verb echein, meaning "to have" or "to hold." Cathexis first appeared in print in 1922 in a book about Freud's psychological theories (which also established the plural as cathexes, as is consistent with Latin), and it is still often used in scientific and specifically psychological contexts.
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Apr 26, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2018 is:
onomatopoeia ? \ah-nuh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh\ ? noun
1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz, hiss)
2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense
Examples:
"The 'whiz'—or is it the 'whoosh,' or maybe 'sh-sh-sh-sh-sh'?—of an ace being served is described … by rival tennis players in the opening moments of Anna Ziegler's 'The Last Match.' The speakers concede, though, that an onomatopoeia doesn't do the job of explaining what it's like to have a meteoric ball hurtling past your ears, shattering your hopes if not the sound barrier." — Ben Brantley, The New York Times, 26 Oct. 2017
"[James] Chapman pointed out that what looks like variation in onomatopoeia is sometimes simply a rearranging of discrete sounds: clap clap in English becomes plec plec in Portuguese." — Uri Friedman, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2015
Did you know?
Onomatopoeia came into English via Late Latin and ultimately traces back to Greek onoma, meaning "name," and poiein, meaning "to make." (Onoma can be found in such terms as onomastics, which refers to the study of proper names and their origins, while poiein gave us such words as poem and poet.) English speakers have only used the word onomatopoeia since the mid-1500s, but people have been creat
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Apr 26, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2018 is:
onomatopoeia ? \ah-nuh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh\ ? noun
1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz, hiss)
2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense
Examples:
"The 'whiz'—or is it the 'whoosh,' or maybe 'sh-sh-sh-sh-sh'?—of an ace being served is described … by rival tennis players in the opening moments of Anna Ziegler's 'The Last Match.' The speakers concede, though, that an onomatopoeia doesn't do the job of explaining what it's like to have a meteoric ball hurtling past your ears, shattering your hopes if not the sound barrier." — Ben Brantley, The New York Times, 26 Oct. 2017
"[James] Chapman pointed out that what looks like variation in onomatopoeia is sometimes simply a rearranging of discrete sounds: clap clap in English becomes plec plec in Portuguese." — Uri Friedman, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2015
Did you know?
Onomatopoeia came into English via Late Latin and ultimately traces back to Greek onoma, meaning "name," and poiein, meaning "to make." (Onoma can be found in such terms as onomastics, which refers to the study of proper names and their origins, while poiein gave us such words as poem and poet.) English speakers have only used the word onomatopoeia since the mid-1500s, but people have been creat
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Apr 24, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2018 is:
founder ? \FOUN-der\ ? verb
1 : to make or become disabled or lame
2 : to give way : collapse
3 : to become submerged : sink
4 : to come to grief : fail
Examples:
As the vessel began to founder, the captain ordered everyone on board to prepare to abandon ship.
"If you adore New York City, you can't stand Los Angeles—and vice-versa, or so the myth goes. But the Jennifer Aniston-Justin Theroux marriage, according to People, may have foundered on just that urban divide." — Michael H. Hodges, The Detroit News, 17 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
Founder comes from Middle English foundren, meaning "to send to the bottom" or "collapse." That word came from the Middle French verb fondrer, and ultimately from the Latin noun fundus, meaning "bottom." When something founders, it usually hits the bottom in one sense or another. A foundering horse—that is, a disabled one—is likely to collapse to the ground. When a ship founders, it sinks to the bottom of the sea. Founder has a broader, figurative sense, too—if someone's marriage or career is foundering, it isn't doing well and is therefore headed downward.
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Apr 20, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11, 2018 is:
defer ? \dih-FER\ ? verb
1 : put off, delay
2 : to postpone induction of (a person) into military service
Examples:
"She made suggestions including deferring the decision again, as well as opening the opportunity for more applicants to be considered…." — Kelly Fisher, The Tennessean, 17 Jan. 2018
"He said funds are needed now, in large part, because deferring the maintenance will increase repair costs in the future." — Anthony Warren, The Northside Sun (Jackson, Mississippi), 23 Mar. 2017
Did you know?
There are two words spelled defer in English. The other defer, which means "to delegate to another for determination or decision" or "to submit to another's wishes or opinion" (as in "I defer to your superior expertise"), is derived from the Latin verb deferre, meaning "to bring down." The defer we're featuring today is derived from Latin differre, which itself has several meanings including "to postpone" and "to differ." Not surprisingly, differre is also the source of our word differ, meaning "to be different."
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Apr 18, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 9, 2018 is:
maladroit ? \mal-uh-DROYT\ ? adjective
: lacking skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations : inept
Examples:
Any project, however carefully planned, is doomed to fail under maladroit management.
"[Lucy Atkins'] tale of a high-flying television historian entangled with a socially maladroit and manipulative 60-something housekeeper is smart and horrifying in equal measure." — Geordie Williamson, The Australian, 16 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
To understand the origin of maladroit, you need to put together some Middle French and Old French building blocks. The first is the word mal, meaning "bad," and the second is the phrase a droit, meaning "properly." You can parse the phrase even further into the components a, meaning "to" or "at," and droit, meaning "right, direct, or straight." Middle French speakers put those pieces together as maladroit to describe the clumsy among them, and English speakers borrowed the word intact back in the 17th century. Its opposite, of course, is adroit, which we adopted from the French in the same century.
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Apr 18, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 9, 2018 is:
maladroit ? \mal-uh-DROYT\ ? adjective
: lacking skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations : inept
Examples:
Any project, however carefully planned, is doomed to fail under maladroit management.
"[Lucy Atkins'] tale of a high-flying television historian entangled with a socially maladroit and manipulative 60-something housekeeper is smart and horrifying in equal measure." — Geordie Williamson, The Australian, 16 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
To understand the origin of maladroit, you need to put together some Middle French and Old French building blocks. The first is the word mal, meaning "bad," and the second is the phrase a droit, meaning "properly." You can parse the phrase even further into the components a, meaning "to" or "at," and droit, meaning "right, direct, or straight." Middle French speakers put those pieces together as maladroit to describe the clumsy among them, and English speakers borrowed the word intact back in the 17th century. Its opposite, of course, is adroit, which we adopted from the French in the same century.
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Apr 13, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 4, 2018 is:
career ? \kuh-REER\ ? verb
: to go at top speed especially in a headlong manner
Examples:
The nervous passengers gripped their seats and exchanged anxious looks as the bus careered down the icy road.
"The year continued apace, as Hollywood careered haphazardly between wildly unexpected successes and 'sure things' that bombed just as dramatically." — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
Chances are you're familiar with the verb careen as used in the sense of "to go forward in a headlong or uncontrolled manner." Similarly, you likely know the noun career meaning "a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling." What you may not know is that the noun career (from Middle French carriere) originally referred to a course or passage (as in "the sun's career across the sky") and to the speed used to traverse such a course. In the context of medieval tournaments, career referred to the charge of mounted knights as well as to the courses they rode. Verb use eventually developed with a general "to go fast" meaning, and later the more specific sense of moving in a reckless or headlong manner. (If you're wondering, career is not etymologically related to careen; careen has nautical origins, tracing to the Lat
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Apr 12, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3, 2018 is:
sensibility ? \sen-suh-BIL-uh-tee\ ? noun
1 : ability to receive sensations : sensitiveness
2 : peculiar susceptibility to a pleasurable or painful impression (as from praise or a slight) — often used in plural
3 : awareness of and responsiveness toward something (such as emotion in another)
4 : refined or excessive sensitiveness in emotion and taste
Examples:
"In 1973, while heading the New York Philharmonic, he replaced the orchestra members' chairs with rugs and cushions, the better to appeal to the sensibilities of a young, post-hippie audience that regarded classical music as stuffy and pedantic." — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Jan. 2016
"His guest appearances mark something more than the usual exchange of core audiences between individual artists, though they are definitely that; they're a chance to enlarge the sensibility of rap itself, to remind himself that, however hard and successfully he strains to be the biggest rapper, rap as a whole is always bigger than he is." — Frank Guan, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
From Latin sentire ("to feel"), the meanings of sensibility run the gamut from mere sensation of the sense organs to excessive sentimentality. In between is a capacity for delicate appreciation, a sense often pluralized. In Jane Austen's books, sensibility, a word much appreciated by the novelist, is mostly an admirable quality she attributed to or found l
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Apr 12, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3, 2018 is:
sensibility ? \sen-suh-BIL-uh-tee\ ? noun
1 : ability to receive sensations : sensitiveness
2 : peculiar susceptibility to a pleasurable or painful impression (as from praise or a slight) — often used in plural
3 : awareness of and responsiveness toward something (such as emotion in another)
4 : refined or excessive sensitiveness in emotion and taste
Examples:
"In 1973, while heading the New York Philharmonic, he replaced the orchestra members' chairs with rugs and cushions, the better to appeal to the sensibilities of a young, post-hippie audience that regarded classical music as stuffy and pedantic." — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Jan. 2016
"His guest appearances mark something more than the usual exchange of core audiences between individual artists, though they are definitely that; they're a chance to enlarge the sensibility of rap itself, to remind himself that, however hard and successfully he strains to be the biggest rapper, rap as a whole is always bigger than he is." — Frank Guan, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
From Latin sentire ("to feel"), the meanings of sensibility run the gamut from mere sensation of the sense organs to excessive sentimentality. In between is a capacity for delicate appreciation, a sense often pluralized. In Jane Austen's books, sensibility, a word much appreciated by the novelist, is mostly an admirable quality she attributed to or found l
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Apr 11, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 2, 2018 is:
abide ? \uh-BYDE\ ? verb
1 a : to bear patiently : tolerate
b : to endure without yielding : withstand
2 : to wait for : await
3 : to accept without objection
4 : to remain stable or fixed in a state
5 : to continue in a place : sojourn
Examples:
Susan has been a vegetarian for years and can no longer abide even the smell of cooked meat.
"They plainly abided a situation that was intolerable, and they shouldn't have done it." — Robert F. Bauer, The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
Abide may sound rather old-fashioned these days. The word has been around since before the 12th century, but it is a bit rare now, except in certain specialized uses. Even more archaic to our modern ear is abidden, the original past participle of abide. Today, both the past tense and the past participle of abide are served by either abode or abided, with abided being the more frequent choice. Abide turns up often in the phrase "can't (or couldn't) abide." The expression abide by, which means "to conform
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Apr 11, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 2, 2018 is:
abide ? \uh-BYDE\ ? verb
1 a : to bear patiently : tolerate
b : to endure without yielding : withstand
2 : to wait for : await
3 : to accept without objection
4 : to remain stable or fixed in a state
5 : to continue in a place : sojourn
Examples:
Susan has been a vegetarian for years and can no longer abide even the smell of cooked meat.
"They plainly abided a situation that was intolerable, and they shouldn't have done it." — Robert F. Bauer, The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
Abide may sound rather old-fashioned these days. The word has been around since before the 12th century, but it is a bit rare now, except in certain specialized uses. Even more archaic to our modern ear is abidden, the original past participle of abide. Today, both the past tense and the past participle of abide are served by either abode or abided, with abided being the more frequent choice. Abide turns up often in the phrase "can't (or couldn't) abide." The expression abide by, which means "to conform
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Apr 06, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 28, 2018 is:
delegate ? \DEL-uh-gayt\ ? verb
1 : to entrust to another
2 : to appoint as one's representative
3 : to assign responsibility or authority
Examples:
"He said the current board seems to delegate rather than take input and make decisions based on what the community wants…." — Derek Lacey, BlueRidgeNow.com (Henderson, North Carolina), 14 Feb. 2018
"What's appropriate for your boss to delegate to you, and what's not? Especially when your boss asks you to do simple tasks—as in: very basic duties that are part of their job—they're walking a thin line between what's fair for you to do and what's not." — The Cut, 9 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
To delegate is, literally or figuratively, to send another in one's place, an idea that is reflected in the word's origin; it is a descendant of Latin legare, meaning "to send as an emissary." Other English words that can be traced back to legare include legate ("an emissary usually having official status"), legacy, colleague, and relegate. (The related Latin noun legatus refers to an ambassador, deputy, or provincial governor.) The noun
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Apr 05, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2018 is:
grandiose ? \gran-dee-OHSS\ ? adjective
1 : characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration
2 : impressive because of uncommon largeness, scope, effect, or grandeur
Examples:
The committee eventually scaled back the most outlandish parts of its plans for the festival, including a grandiose scheme to bring in live peacocks for the event.
"I wonder if Louise ever imagined the magnitude of influence her work was to have on the planet. Probably not; for greatness such as hers is more likely to be born of purpose than of grandiose design." — Suzy Singh, Business World, 2 Sept. 2017
Did you know?
Grandiose, magnificent, imposing, stately, majestic, and grand all can mean very large and impressive. Grand adds to greatness of size the implications of handsomeness and dignity, as in "a grand staircase." Magnificent implies an extreme and impressive largeness without sacrifice of dignity or good taste ("magnificent paintings"). Imposing implies great size and dignity but especially stresses impressiveness ("an imposing edifice"). Stately may suggest poised dignity, ere
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Apr 05, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2018 is:
grandiose ? \gran-dee-OHSS\ ? adjective
1 : characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration
2 : impressive because of uncommon largeness, scope, effect, or grandeur
Examples:
The committee eventually scaled back the most outlandish parts of its plans for the festival, including a grandiose scheme to bring in live peacocks for the event.
"I wonder if Louise ever imagined the magnitude of influence her work was to have on the planet. Probably not; for greatness such as hers is more likely to be born of purpose than of grandiose design." — Suzy Singh, Business World, 2 Sept. 2017
Did you know?
Grandiose, magnificent, imposing, stately, majestic, and grand all can mean very large and impressive. Grand adds to greatness of size the implications of handsomeness and dignity, as in "a grand staircase." Magnificent implies an extreme and impressive largeness without sacrifice of dignity or good taste ("magnificent paintings"). Imposing implies great size and dignity but especially stresses impressiveness ("an imposing edifice"). Stately may suggest poised dignity, ere
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Apr 04, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2018 is:
bravado ? \bruh-VAH-doh\ ? noun
1 a : blustering swaggering conduct
b : a pretense of bravery
2 : the quality or state of being foolhardy
Examples:
The quiet, reserved actor is primarily known for playing characters who radiate bravado and swagger.
"Some compete for money, with first-prize purses of up to $500 on a recent race day. But most are amateurs, who put thrills and bravado above the ever-present risk of spinning out and slipping sideways across the ice." — Michael Hill, The Chicago Tribune, 28 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Bravado ultimately traces to the Old Italian adjective bravo, meaning "courageous" or "wild." Nowadays, the wildness once associated with bravado has been tamed to an overbearing boldness that comes from arrogance or a position of power. Celebrities, political or corporate giants, and the schoolyard bully may all show bravado (though they often turn out to be not so tough after all). Bravado is also used for show-offish, daring acts that seem reckless and inconsistent with good sense, but might nonetheless be applauded with shouts of "Bravo!" when successful (the spectacular feats of stuntmen, for example).
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Apr 04, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2018 is:
bravado ? \bruh-VAH-doh\ ? noun
1 a : blustering swaggering conduct
b : a pretense of bravery
2 : the quality or state of being foolhardy
Examples:
The quiet, reserved actor is primarily known for playing characters who radiate bravado and swagger.
"Some compete for money, with first-prize purses of up to $500 on a recent race day. But most are amateurs, who put thrills and bravado above the ever-present risk of spinning out and slipping sideways across the ice." — Michael Hill, The Chicago Tribune, 28 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Bravado ultimately traces to the Old Italian adjective bravo, meaning "courageous" or "wild." Nowadays, the wildness once associated with bravado has been tamed to an overbearing boldness that comes from arrogance or a position of power. Celebrities, political or corporate giants, and the schoolyard bully may all show bravado (though they often turn out to be not so tough after all). Bravado is also used for show-offish, daring acts that seem reckless and inconsistent with good sense, but might nonetheless be applauded with shouts of "Bravo!" when successful (the spectacular feats of stuntmen, for example).
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Apr 03, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2018 is:
thimblerig ? \THIM-bul-rig\ ? verb
1 : to cheat by trickery
2 : to swindle by a trick in which a small ball or pea is quickly shifted from under one to another of three small cups to fool the spectator guessing its location
Examples:
"Thimblerigging the market was such an accepted practice some traders were even taunted for not stealing enough." — Leah McGrath Goodman, The Asylum, 2011
"As the Ames brothers, Oakes (1804-73) and Oliver (1807-77), shovel-makers from Massachusetts, joined Sidney Dillon and Dr. Durant in thimblerigging the Credit Mobilier, none of the participants wished to be satisfied with a modest profit." — John F. Stover, American Railroads (2nd Edition), 1997
Did you know?
The game of thimblerig seems innocent enough. The thimblerigger places a little ball, pea, or other small object under one of three thimbles or cups. He or she deftly scoots the cups around on a table, then asks the player to bet on which one hides the object. But thimbleriggers are masters of sleight of hand and can move and manipulate the object unfairly—so the guileless player doesn't stand a chance of winning. (The poor bettor is probably unaware that rig has meant "to manipulate or control usually by deceptive or dishonest means" since the 1800s.) When the same sham is played with nutshells, it's called a
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Mar 31, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 22, 2018 is:
lugubrious ? \loo-GOO-bree-us\ ? adjective
1 : mournful; especially : exaggeratedly or affectedly mournful
2 : dismal
Examples:
"Most of the interviewees talk in the lugubrious tones of the defeated. We all know the story ends badly." — Bing West, The New York Post, 19 Sept. 2017
"In the new movie, Liam Neeson plays Felt with a kind of lugubrious sincerity. He's an unhappy man, beset by professional and personal woes, and he makes his secret alliance with Woodward for reasons that are both admirable and vengeful." — Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, 26 Sept. 2017
Did you know?
"It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery," wrote Publilius Syrus in the first century B.C.E. Perhaps this explains why lugubrious is so woeful—it's all alone. Sure, we can dress up lugubrious with suffixes to form lugubriously or lugubriousness, but the word remains essentially an only child—the sole surviving English offspring of its Latin ancestors. This wasn't always the case, though. Lugubrious once had a linguistic living relative in luctual, an adjective meaning sad or sorrowful. Like lugubrious, luctual traced ultimately to the Latin verb lugere, meaning "to mourn." Luctual, however, faded into obsolescence long ago, leaving lugubrious to
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Mar 30, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 21, 2018 is:
cadre ? \KAD-ray\ ? noun
1 : a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and to train others; broadly : a group of people having some unifying relationship
2 : a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party
3 : a member of a cadre
4 : frame, framework
Examples:
"As an articulate woman proposing solutions to the ills of society, Lucy was no lone figure on the city's political landscape. Still, within a public arena of competing ideas and legislative initiatives, she occupied a prominent niche—a revolutionary cadre of one—and fought to stay in the headlines and on the front page." — Jacqueline Jones, Goddess of Anarchy, 2017
"As Jon Gruden continues to build his coaching staff, his latest hire fits right in with the cadre of football minds with whom Gruden has had extensive experience. He has hired long time draft prep training specialist, Tom Shaw as the team's strength coach." — Pro Football Weekly, 15 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
To understand cadre, we must first square our understanding of the word's Latin roots. Cadre traces to the Latin quadrum, meaning "square." Squares can make good frameworks—a fact that makes it easier to understand why first French speakers and later Engl
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Mar 30, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 21, 2018 is:
cadre ? \KAD-ray\ ? noun
1 : a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and to train others; broadly : a group of people having some unifying relationship
2 : a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party
3 : a member of a cadre
4 : frame, framework
Examples:
"As an articulate woman proposing solutions to the ills of society, Lucy was no lone figure on the city's political landscape. Still, within a public arena of competing ideas and legislative initiatives, she occupied a prominent niche—a revolutionary cadre of one—and fought to stay in the headlines and on the front page." — Jacqueline Jones, Goddess of Anarchy, 2017
"As Jon Gruden continues to build his coaching staff, his latest hire fits right in with the cadre of football minds with whom Gruden has had extensive experience. He has hired long time draft prep training specialist, Tom Shaw as the team's strength coach." — Pro Football Weekly, 15 Feb. 2018
Did you know?
To understand cadre, we must first square our understanding of the word's Latin roots. Cadre traces to the Latin quadrum, meaning "square." Squares can make good frameworks—a fact that makes it easier to understand why first French speakers and later Engl
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Mar 27, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 18, 2018 is:
farce ? \FAHRSS\ ? noun
1 : a savory stuffing : forcemeat
2 : a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot
3 : the broad humor characteristic of farce
4 : an empty or patently ridiculous act, proceeding, or situation
Examples:
"The company's guarantee is a farce," Jay complained. "The replacement they sent broke even more quickly than the original."
"Congress approved the funding with few reservations, and years passed before lawmakers seemed to comprehend their role in the farce." — Mark Mazzetti, The Atlantic, 27 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
When farce first appeared in English, it had to do with cookery, not comedy. In the 14th century, English adopted farce from Middle French with its original meaning of "forcemeat" or "stuffing." The comedic sense of farce in English dates from the 16th century, when English imported the word again, this time to refer to a kind of knockabout comedy already popular in France. This dramatic genre had its origins in the 13th-century practice of augmenting, or "stuffing," Latin church texts with explanatory phrases. By the 15th century, a similar practice had arisen of inserting unscripted buffoonery into religious plays. Such farces—which included clowning, acrobatics, reversal of social roles, and indecency—soon developed into a distinct dramatic genre and spread rapid
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Mar 23, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 14, 2018 is:
invigilate ? \in-VIJ-uh-layt\ ? verb
1 : to keep watch; especially : to supervise students at an examination
2 : supervise, monitor
Examples:
Professors will take turns invigilating exams during the finals period.
"Since I have so often been asked about the mechanics of the job [of restaurant reviewer], it seems worth mentioning a few here…. In places designed for group eating, I often made up a group, though I tended to invigilate what was ordered: duplicate orders were banned and no one got to say, 'I think I'll have a steak.'" — Peter Calder, The New Zealand Herald, 24 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
Keep your eyes open and you're sure to spot a few relatives of today's word. Invigilate is a descendant of the Latin verb vigilare, meaning "to stay awake." As you may have guessed, vigilare is the ancestor of our adjective vigilant ("alertly watchful"), and it also gives us reveille ("a signal to wake up in the morning," via French réveillez) and surveillance ("close watch, supervision," via French surveiller). Invigilate has been a member of the English language since the mid-16th century.
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Mar 22, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 13, 2018 is:
laudable ? \LAW-duh-bul\ ? adjective
: worthy of praise : commendable
Examples:
Thanks to the laudable efforts of dozens of volunteers, the town's Winter Carnival was an enjoyable event for everyone.
"Exposing your children to art and culture during Miami Art Week is a laudable idea. Letting a pack of 6-year-olds run around through the crowded aisles of Art Miami is something entirely different." — Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald, 11 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
Both laudable and laudatory derive ultimately from Latin laud- or laus, meaning "praise." Laudable and laudatory differ in meaning, however, and usage commentators warn against using them interchangeably. Laudable means "deserving praise" or "praiseworthy," as in "laudable efforts to help the disadvantaged." Laudatory means "giving praise" or "expressing praise," as in "a laudatory book review." People occasionally use laudatory in place of laudable, but this use is not considered standard.
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Mar 21, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 12, 2018 is:
Croesus ? \KREE-sus\ ? noun
: a very rich man
Examples:
"Our young, handsome hero is an international man of mystery, fresh off the boat from London with no introduction but a note for a thousand pounds sterling, a fortune worthy of Croesus and enough to break a trading house." — Karen Heller, The Washington Post, 1 Aug. 2017
"I'd marry Lord Merton…. He's the silverest of silver foxes. He's richer than Croesus. He's charming." — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 25 Jan. 2015
Did you know?
The original Croesus was a 6th-century B.C. king of Lydia, an ancient kingdom in what is now Turkey. Croesus conquered many surrounding regions, grew very wealthy, and became the subject of legends. In one legend, he was visited by Solon, the wise Athenian lawgiver. (Historians say this isn't chronologically possible, but it makes a good story.) Solon supposedly told Croesus, who thought he had everything: "Account no man happy before his death." These words made Croesus angry, and he threw the lawmaker out of his court. Croesus would rethink Solon's pronouncement later when his empire was overthrown by the Persians. Croesus' name shows up in the phrase "rich as Croesus," meaning "filthy rich," and it has also entered English as a generic term for someone extremely wealthy.
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Mar 20, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 11, 2018 is:
scilicet ? \SKEE-lih-ket\ ? adverb
: that is to say : to wit, namely
Examples:
The organization's charter clearly states that "any changes to the structure of the organization's meetings must be unanimously approved by the executive board, scilicet, the chair and the board's six other members."
"Their objection—they claimed—was to the parcelling out of the top state jobs among the political (scilicet: the other political) parties." — The Economist, 13 Jan. 1979
Did you know?
Scilicet is a rare word that most often occurs in legal proceedings and instruments. It is from Latin scire ("to know") and licet ("it is permitted"), which is also a root of videlicet—a synonym of scilicet. Licet, in turn, descends from the Latin verb licere, which means "to be permitted" and is the ultimate source of the English words leisure, by way of the Anglo-French leisir ("to be permitted"), and license, which comes to us through Anglo-French from the Latin licens, the present participle of licere. Scire has also made other contributions to English, giving us such words as conscience
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