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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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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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Mar 15, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 6, 2018 is:
scarify ? \SKAIR-uh-fye\ ? verb
1 : to make scratches or small cuts in (something, such as the skin)
2 : to lacerate the feelings of
3 : to break up, loosen, or roughen the surface of (something, such as a field or road)
4 : to cut or soften the wall of (a hard seed) to hasten germination
Examples:
"Recent harvests on city-owned land have removed on average about 50 percent of the standing biomass, which is not low-impact forestry. It is done with large, commercial-scale logging equipment that reduces biodiversity and scarifies the forest soil." — Ralph Baker, The Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg, Massachusetts), 18 July 2017
"Canna seeds need to be scarified by filing through the hard shells before they germinate." — Tony Tomeo, The Chico (California) Enterprise-Record, 5 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
You get two words for the price of one with scarify. The first scarify appeared in English in the 15th century with the meaning "to make scratches or cuts in" and later developed a figurative application of "cutting" someone emotionally. This word is ultimately derived from a Greek verb meaning "to scratch an outline." The second homograph turned up in the late 18th century and gained currency by the 20th century. This scarify
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Mar 13, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 4, 2018 is:
cursory ? \KER-suh-ree\ ? adjective
: rapidly and often superficially performed or produced : hasty
Examples:
James gave the instructions only a cursory look before he began to assemble the shelves and didn't realize until he was partway through that he would need a power drill.
"The police report has been filed, but a detective won't be on the case until Tuesday. Knowing LA, there are so many automobile thefts that it may not get much more than a cursory acknowledgement from the police." — Bradley Brownell, Jalopnik, 28 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Cursory and its synonyms superficial and shallow all mean "lacking in depth or care"—but these words are not used in exactly the same way in all cases. Cursory, which comes from the Latin verb currere ("to run"), implies speed and stresses a lack of attention to detail. While cursory suggests a lack of thoroughness, superficial implies a concern only with surface aspects or obvious features. An analysis of a problem might be labeled "superficial" if it considers only the obvious and fails to dig deeper into the issue. Shallow is more generally derogatory in implying lack of depth in knowledge, reasoning, emotions, or character, as in "insensitive and shallow comments."
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Mar 13, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 4, 2018 is:
cursory ? \KER-suh-ree\ ? adjective
: rapidly and often superficially performed or produced : hasty
Examples:
James gave the instructions only a cursory look before he began to assemble the shelves and didn't realize until he was partway through that he would need a power drill.
"The police report has been filed, but a detective won't be on the case until Tuesday. Knowing LA, there are so many automobile thefts that it may not get much more than a cursory acknowledgement from the police." — Bradley Brownell, Jalopnik, 28 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Cursory and its synonyms superficial and shallow all mean "lacking in depth or care"—but these words are not used in exactly the same way in all cases. Cursory, which comes from the Latin verb currere ("to run"), implies speed and stresses a lack of attention to detail. While cursory suggests a lack of thoroughness, superficial implies a concern only with surface aspects or obvious features. An analysis of a problem might be labeled "superficial" if it considers only the obvious and fails to dig deeper into the issue. Shallow is more generally derogatory in implying lack of depth in knowledge, reasoning, emotions, or character, as in "insensitive and shallow comments."
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Mar 09, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 28, 2018 is:
exegesis ? \ek-suh-JEE-sis\ ? noun
: exposition, explanation; especially : an explanation or critical interpretation of a text
Examples:
"He has … a real gift for exegesis, unpacking poems in language that is nearly as eloquent as the poet's, and as clear as faithfulness allows." — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 2 May 2016
"Every participant was expected to read a passage from his/her holy text. And then, rather than a scholarly interpretation or exegesis rooted in centuries of tradition, they share what they personally understood from it." — Ali R. Cadir, The Houston Chronicle, 22 Oct. 2017
Did you know?
Theological scholars have long been preoccupied with interpreting the meanings of various passages in the Bible. In fact, because of the sacred status of the Bible in both Judaism and Christianity, biblical interpretation has played a crucial role in both of those religions throughout their histories. English speakers have used the word exegesis—a descendant of the Greek term exegeisthai, meaning "to explain" or "to interpret"—to refer to explanations of Scripture since the early 17th century. Nowadays, however, academic writers interpret all sorts of texts, and exegesis is no longer associated mainly with the Bible.
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Mar 09, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 28, 2018 is:
exegesis ? \ek-suh-JEE-sis\ ? noun
: exposition, explanation; especially : an explanation or critical interpretation of a text
Examples:
"He has … a real gift for exegesis, unpacking poems in language that is nearly as eloquent as the poet's, and as clear as faithfulness allows." — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 2 May 2016
"Every participant was expected to read a passage from his/her holy text. And then, rather than a scholarly interpretation or exegesis rooted in centuries of tradition, they share what they personally understood from it." — Ali R. Cadir, The Houston Chronicle, 22 Oct. 2017
Did you know?
Theological scholars have long been preoccupied with interpreting the meanings of various passages in the Bible. In fact, because of the sacred status of the Bible in both Judaism and Christianity, biblical interpretation has played a crucial role in both of those religions throughout their histories. English speakers have used the word exegesis—a descendant of the Greek term exegeisthai, meaning "to explain" or "to interpret"—to refer to explanations of Scripture since the early 17th century. Nowadays, however, academic writers interpret all sorts of texts, and exegesis is no longer associated mainly with the Bible.
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Mar 09, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 28, 2018 is:
exegesis ? \ek-suh-JEE-sis\ ? noun
: exposition, explanation; especially : an explanation or critical interpretation of a text
Examples:
"He has … a real gift for exegesis, unpacking poems in language that is nearly as eloquent as the poet's, and as clear as faithfulness allows." — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 2 May 2016
"Every participant was expected to read a passage from his/her holy text. And then, rather than a scholarly interpretation or exegesis rooted in centuries of tradition, they share what they personally understood from it." — Ali R. Cadir, The Houston Chronicle, 22 Oct. 2017
Did you know?
Theological scholars have long been preoccupied with interpreting the meanings of various passages in the Bible. In fact, because of the sacred status of the Bible in both Judaism and Christianity, biblical interpretation has played a crucial role in both of those religions throughout their histories. English speakers have used the word exegesis—a descendant of the Greek term exegeisthai, meaning "to explain" or "to interpret"—to refer to explanations of Scripture since the early 17th century. Nowadays, however, academic writers interpret all sorts of texts, and exegesis is no longer associated mainly with the Bible.
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Mar 08, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 27, 2018 is:
tenebrous ? \TEN-uh-brus\ ? adjective
1 : shut off from the light : dark, murky
2 : hard to understand : obscure
3 : causing gloom
Examples:
"Stay close to me," said my brother as we walked through the tenebrous alley alongside the apartment building.
"HBO's newest critical hit, which … centers on a serial-killer case in a story that unfolds over 17 years, is haunting and tenebrous, with compelling acting, brilliant dialogue and ethereal scenery." — Robert Zullo, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9 Mar. 2014
Did you know?
Tenebrous means "obscure" or "murky," but there's nothing unclear about its history. Etymologists know that the word derives from the Latin noun tenebrae, which means "darkness." Tenebrous has been used in English since the 15th century, and in the 20th century it was joined by some interesting relations. Tenebrionid is the name of a nocturnal beetle that is usually dark-colored and is also called a darkling beetle. Tenebrism refers to a style of painting—associated with the Italian painter
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Mar 07, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2018 is:
validate ? \VAL-uh-dayt\ ? verb
1 a : to make legally valid : ratify
b : to grant official sanction to by marking
c : to confirm the validity of (an election); also : to declare (a person) elected
2 a : to support or corroborate on a sound or authoritative basis
b : to recognize, establish, or illustrate the worthiness or legitimacy of
Examples:
"Reaching home, I anxiously handed my report card to Mother. Validating my angst, she took it and reached into a battered shoebox containing the report cards of my older sister Tanja." — Charles van der Horst, The Herald-Sun (Durham, North Carolina), 6 Nov. 2017
"Recognizing outstanding teachers establishes a culture that rewards excellence in teaching and validates the work of the teacher. It gives students a sense of pride in their teachers, displays teachers as positive role models, and encourages students to think about teaching as a career." — The Yankton (South Dakota) Daily Press & Dakotan, 11 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Validate, confirm, corroborate, substantiate, verify, and authenticate all mean to attest to the truth or validity of something. Validate implies establishing validity by authoritative affirmation or factual proof ("a hypothesis validated by experiments").
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Mar 07, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2018 is:
validate ? \VAL-uh-dayt\ ? verb
1 a : to make legally valid : ratify
b : to grant official sanction to by marking
c : to confirm the validity of (an election); also : to declare (a person) elected
2 a : to support or corroborate on a sound or authoritative basis
b : to recognize, establish, or illustrate the worthiness or legitimacy of
Examples:
"Reaching home, I anxiously handed my report card to Mother. Validating my angst, she took it and reached into a battered shoebox containing the report cards of my older sister Tanja." — Charles van der Horst, The Herald-Sun (Durham, North Carolina), 6 Nov. 2017
"Recognizing outstanding teachers establishes a culture that rewards excellence in teaching and validates the work of the teacher. It gives students a sense of pride in their teachers, displays teachers as positive role models, and encourages students to think about teaching as a career." — The Yankton (South Dakota) Daily Press & Dakotan, 11 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Validate, confirm, corroborate, substantiate, verify, and authenticate all mean to attest to the truth or validity of something. Validate implies establishing validity by authoritative affirmation or factual proof ("a hypothesis validated by experiments").
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Mar 02, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 21, 2018 is:
demarcate ? \dih-MAHR-kayt\ ? verb
1 : to fix or define the limits of : delimit
2 : to set apart : distinguish
Examples:
Treaty negotiations are underway, and both parties have agreed to accept whatever boundaries are demarcated in that document.
"These so-called stelae, some roughly 10 stories high with intricately carved stone, are thought to have demarcated royal burial places." — Marcus Eliason, The Denver Post, 14 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Demarcate is set apart by its unique history. Scholars think it may have descended from the Italian verb marcare ("to mark"), which is itself of Germanic origin (the Old High German word for boundary, marha, is a relative). Marcare is the probable source of the Spanish marcar (also "to mark"), from which comes the Spanish demarcar ("to fix the boundary of"). In 1494, a Spanish noun, demarcación, was used to name the meridian dividing New World territory between Spain and Portugal. Later (about 1730), English speakers began calling this boundary the "line of demarcation," and eventually we began applying that phrase to other dividing lines as well
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Mar 02, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 21, 2018 is:
demarcate ? \dih-MAHR-kayt\ ? verb
1 : to fix or define the limits of : delimit
2 : to set apart : distinguish
Examples:
Treaty negotiations are underway, and both parties have agreed to accept whatever boundaries are demarcated in that document.
"These so-called stelae, some roughly 10 stories high with intricately carved stone, are thought to have demarcated royal burial places." — Marcus Eliason, The Denver Post, 14 Jan. 2018
Did you know?
Demarcate is set apart by its unique history. Scholars think it may have descended from the Italian verb marcare ("to mark"), which is itself of Germanic origin (the Old High German word for boundary, marha, is a relative). Marcare is the probable source of the Spanish marcar (also "to mark"), from which comes the Spanish demarcar ("to fix the boundary of"). In 1494, a Spanish noun, demarcación, was used to name the meridian dividing New World territory between Spain and Portugal. Later (about 1730), English speakers began calling this boundary the "line of demarcation," and eventually we began applying that phrase to other dividing lines as well
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Mar 01, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2018 is:
refection ? \rih-FEK-shun\ ? noun
1 : refreshment of mind, spirit, or body; especially : nourishment
2 a : the taking of refreshment
b : food and drink together : repast
Examples:
"… I should prefer that even in the 'Children's Houses' which are situated in tenements and from which little ones, being at home, can go up to eat with the family, school refection should be instituted." — Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, 1912
"The transparency of the venue is a testament to its promise of offering 'fresh and healthy' choices—being able to intimately view the process of preparation and see the fresh ingredients used to concoct your food will make you feel reassured that you'll be biting into a crisp, original, unprocessed refection." — Vasudha Diojode, The Daily Californian (University of California, Berkeley), 19 June 2014
Did you know?
Whether you sit down for nourishment or sustenance, aliment or pabulum, a meal or a repast, you are unlikely to encounter a shortage of English words for food or the partaking of food. Refection is just such a word. It was first borrowed by Middle English (as refeccioun) from Anglo-French refectiun, which in turn was derived from Latin refectio (meaning "r
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Feb 28, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2018 is:
sanguine ? \SANG-gwun\ ? adjective
1 : bloodred
2 a : consisting of or relating to blood
b : bloodthirsty, sanguinary
c : ruddy
3 : having blood as the predominating bodily humor; also : having the bodily conformation and temperament held characteristic of such predominance and marked by sturdiness, ruddy color, and cheerfulness
4 : confident, optimistic
Examples:
The coach insisted that he was sanguine about his team's chances in the playoffs, even though his star player was injured.
"Some of us hear the term AI [artificial intelligence] and picture a dystopian future where people lose jobs and control to robots who possess artificial—and superior—intelligence to human beings. Others are more sanguine about our ability to control and harness technology to achieve more and greater things." — Georgene Huang, Forbes, 27 Sept. 2017
Did you know?
If you're the sort of cheery soul who always looks on the bright side
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Feb 22, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 13, 2018 is:
nuts ? \NUTS\ ? adjective
1 : enthusiastic, keen
2 : insane, crazy
Examples:
"On Friday nights, when my kids … were younger, we would sit and watch a film. It's a fantastic feeling when you see them getting drawn into something you love. My husband, Phil, and I are nuts about West Wing, and we've gradually got my son into that as well." — Rebecca Front, quoted in Good Housekeeping (UK), April 2016
"I think the most irresponsible thing I did was invest in a company that was going nowhere.… It kept falling apart. People kept telling me I was nuts. I kept pushing forward." — Jessica Alba, quoted in Cosmopolitan, 1 Mar. 2016
Did you know?
The informal adjective nuts dates to the early 1900s but developed from an earlier 17th-century slang meaning often found in phrases like "nuts to me" and "nuts for me," where it referred to a source of delight, as in this quote from English satirist Jonathan Swift's A Journal to Stella (1766): "Why, we had not one word of quarrel; only he railed at me when I was gone: and Lord Keeper and Treasurer teased me for a week. It was nuts to them; a serious thing with a vengeance." The use likely had something to do with the taste of the dry fruit or seed since early figurative examples of the noun include the expression "nuts and cheese." Adjectival use,
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Feb 21, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2018 is:
adust ? \uh-DUST\ ? adjective
: scorched, burned
Examples:
The adust landscape of volcanic rock and sand can be particularly beautiful at sunset.
"These arid and adust creatures, looking like the mummies of some antediluvian animals, … had to all appearance come out from this long tempest of trial unscathed and unharmed." — Thomas De Quincey, Revolt of the Tartars, 1837
Did you know?
Adust comes from Latin adustus, the past participle of adurere ("to set fire to"), a verb formed from the Latin prefix ad- and the verb urere ("to burn"). It entered the English language in the early 15th century as a medical term related to the four bodily humors—black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow bile—which were believed at the time to determine a person's health and temperament. Adust was used to describe a condition of the humors in which they supposedly became heated or combusted. Adust black bile in particular was believed to be a source of melancholy. The association with melancholy gave rise to a sense of adust meaning "of a gloomy appearance or disposition," but that se
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Feb 21, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2018 is:
adust ? \uh-DUST\ ? adjective
: scorched, burned
Examples:
The adust landscape of volcanic rock and sand can be particularly beautiful at sunset.
"These arid and adust creatures, looking like the mummies of some antediluvian animals, … had to all appearance come out from this long tempest of trial unscathed and unharmed." — Thomas De Quincey, Revolt of the Tartars, 1837
Did you know?
Adust comes from Latin adustus, the past participle of adurere ("to set fire to"), a verb formed from the Latin prefix ad- and the verb urere ("to burn"). It entered the English language in the early 15th century as a medical term related to the four bodily humors—black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow bile—which were believed at the time to determine a person's health and temperament. Adust was used to describe a condition of the humors in which they supposedly became heated or combusted. Adust black bile in particular was believed to be a source of melancholy. The association with melancholy gave rise to a sense of adust meaning "of a gloomy appearance or disposition," but that se
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Feb 21, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2018 is:
adust ? \uh-DUST\ ? adjective
: scorched, burned
Examples:
The adust landscape of volcanic rock and sand can be particularly beautiful at sunset.
"These arid and adust creatures, looking like the mummies of some antediluvian animals, … had to all appearance come out from this long tempest of trial unscathed and unharmed." — Thomas De Quincey, Revolt of the Tartars, 1837
Did you know?
Adust comes from Latin adustus, the past participle of adurere ("to set fire to"), a verb formed from the Latin prefix ad- and the verb urere ("to burn"). It entered the English language in the early 15th century as a medical term related to the four bodily humors—black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow bile—which were believed at the time to determine a person's health and temperament. Adust was used to describe a condition of the humors in which they supposedly became heated or combusted. Adust black bile in particular was believed to be a source of melancholy. The association with melancholy gave rise to a sense of adust meaning "of a gloomy appearance or disposition," but that se
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Feb 15, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 6, 2018 is:
logomachy ? \loh-GAH-muh-kee\ ? noun
1 : a dispute over or about words
2 : a controversy marked by verbiage
Examples:
"All politics is local, and that goes double for school politics. But just what does 'local' mean? Georgians are going to have an argument about that word between now and the November referendum on the proposed Opportunity School District. A great logomachy over localism, if you like." — Kyle Wingfield, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11 Sept. 2016
"Not that anyone could accuse this city of lacking logophiles—that's 'lovers of words,' if you have to ask. But where could word warriors go to engage in spirited logomachy?" — Ron Fletcher, The Boston Globe, 29 Apr. 2007
Did you know?
It doesn't take much to start people arguing about words, but there's no quarrel about the origin of logomachy. It comes from the Greek roots logos, meaning "word" or "speech," and machesthai, meaning "to fight," and it entered English in the mid-1500s. If you're a word enthusiast, you probably know that logos is the root of many English words (monologue, neologism, logic, and most words ending in -logy
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Feb 14, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 5, 2018 is:
spavined ? \SPAV-ind\ ? adjective
1 : affected with swelling
2 : old and decrepit : over-the-hill
Examples:
The team is sadly spavined, and the new coaching staff will have to look to rebuild over the next couple of seasons.
"Large and medium-sized canvases in varying stages of completion covered most of the wall space in the studio, a long, windowless room that was once an auto-body shop, and the floor was a palimpsest of rags, used paper palettes, brushes, spavined art books, … and other debris." — Calvin Tomkins and Dodie Kazanjian, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2017
Did you know?
"His horse [is] … troubled with the lampas, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins...." Petruchio's poor, decrepit horse in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is beset by just about every known equine malady, including a kind of swelling in the mouth (lampas), skin lesions (fashions), tumors on his fetlocks (windgalls), and bony enlargements on his hocks (spavins). The spavins alone can be enough to render a horse lame and useless. In the 17th century, "spavined" horses brought to mind other things that are obsolete, out-of-date, or long past their pri
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Feb 14, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 5, 2018 is:
spavined ? \SPAV-ind\ ? adjective
1 : affected with swelling
2 : old and decrepit : over-the-hill
Examples:
The team is sadly spavined, and the new coaching staff will have to look to rebuild over the next couple of seasons.
"Large and medium-sized canvases in varying stages of completion covered most of the wall space in the studio, a long, windowless room that was once an auto-body shop, and the floor was a palimpsest of rags, used paper palettes, brushes, spavined art books, … and other debris." — Calvin Tomkins and Dodie Kazanjian, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2017
Did you know?
"His horse [is] … troubled with the lampas, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins...." Petruchio's poor, decrepit horse in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is beset by just about every known equine malady, including a kind of swelling in the mouth (lampas), skin lesions (fashions), tumors on his fetlocks (windgalls), and bony enlargements on his hocks (spavins). The spavins alone can be enough to render a horse lame and useless. In the 17th century, "spavined" horses brought to mind other things that are obsolete, out-of-date, or long past their pri
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Feb 12, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 3, 2018 is:
tucket ? \TUCK-ut\ ? noun
: a fanfare on a trumpet
Examples:
"By this time the tucket was sounding cheerily in the morning, and from all sides Sir Daniel's men poured into the main street and formed before the inn." — Robert Louis Stevenson, The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses, 1888
"… Leonard Bernstein came on to lead a thunderous performance of 'Fanfare for the Common Man,' a series of ear-blasting tuckets and bass-drum explosions that Mr. Copland wrote in 1943...." — Donal Henahan, The New York Times, 15 Nov. 1985
Did you know?
Tucket can be found most notably in the stage directions of several of William Shakespeare's plays. In King Lear, for example, a tucket sounds to alert the Earl of Gloucester of the arrival of the Duke of Cornwall (Act II, Scene i). The word tucket likely derives from the obsolete English verb tuk, meaning "to beat the drum" or "to sound the trumpet." These days, the word fanfare itself refers to a sounding of trumpets made, for example, in celebration or to alert one of another's arrival. The presence of fanfare might be the reason that tucket is rarely used in contemporary English.
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Feb 09, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 31, 2018 is:
irrupt ? \ih-RUPT\ ? verb
1 : to rush in forcibly or violently
2 : (of a natural population) to undergo a sudden upsurge in numbers especially when natural ecological balances and checks are disturbed
3 : to become active or violent especially suddenly : erupt
Examples:
"Montaigne was attuned to the kind of 'involuntary' memory that would one day fascinate Proust: those blasts from the past that irrupt unexpectedly into the present, perhaps in response to a long-forgotten taste or smell." — Sarah Bakewell, How to Live, 2010
"Purple finches and pine siskins both are expected to irrupt southward due to poor cone crops in the Northeast and Canada." — James McCarthy, Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 3 Oct. 2016
Did you know?
Irrupt and erupt have existed side-by-side since the former entered the English language in the 1800s (erupt had been a part of the language for over two centuries at that point). Both are descendants of the Latin verb rumpere, which means "to break," but irrupt has affixed to it the prefix ir- (in the sense "into") while erupt begins with the prefix e- (meaning "out"). So "to irrupt" was o
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Feb 08, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 30, 2018 is:
tincture ? \TINK-cher\ ? noun
1 : a solution of a medicinal substance in an alcoholic solvent
2 a : a characteristic quality : cast
b : a slight admixture : trace
3 : color, tint
4 : a heraldic metal, color, or fur
Examples:
"You can find turmeric in powder culinary spice form and in its whole root form, as well as in tincture, tablets, and capsules." — Aly Walansky, PopSugar, 21 Dec. 2017
"Yet, while there is nothing Roth despises more than the cheap turn of 'consolation'—the moments in a play or a book where everyone discovers love and feels better—the real arc of Roth's career, as he presents it here, has a tincture of hope." — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2017
Did you know?
Tincture derives from the same root as tint and tinge—the Latin verb tingere, meaning "to moisten or dip." Tincture specifically derives via Middle English from the Latin tinctus, the past participle of tingere. When the word first appeare
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Feb 08, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 30, 2018 is:
tincture ? \TINK-cher\ ? noun
1 : a solution of a medicinal substance in an alcoholic solvent
2 a : a characteristic quality : cast
b : a slight admixture : trace
3 : color, tint
4 : a heraldic metal, color, or fur
Examples:
"You can find turmeric in powder culinary spice form and in its whole root form, as well as in tincture, tablets, and capsules." — Aly Walansky, PopSugar, 21 Dec. 2017
"Yet, while there is nothing Roth despises more than the cheap turn of 'consolation'—the moments in a play or a book where everyone discovers love and feels better—the real arc of Roth's career, as he presents it here, has a tincture of hope." — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2017
Did you know?
Tincture derives from the same root as tint and tinge—the Latin verb tingere, meaning "to moisten or dip." Tincture specifically derives via Middle English from the Latin tinctus, the past participle of tingere. When the word first appeare
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Feb 06, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 28, 2018 is:
popinjay ? \PAH-pin-jay\ ? noun
: a strutting supercilious person
Examples:
"Who does that guy think he is?" Amanda asked in regard to the popinjay who strolled into the restaurant demanding to be seated instantly.
"[Ryan] Gosling plays the motormouthed popinjay, a tough talker who's actually quite skittish about his bloody job." — Sean P. Means, The Salt Lake Tribune, 23 May 2016
Did you know?
Popinjays and parrots are birds of a feather. Popinjay, from the Middle French word papegai, is the original name for a parrot in English. The French word, in turn, came from the Arabic word for the bird, babgha'. Parrot, which English speakers adopted later, is probably a modification of the Middle French perroquet, which is also the source of the English parakeet. In the days of Middle English, parrots were rare and exotic, and it was quite a compliment to be called a popinjay after such a beautiful bird. But by the 1500s, parrots had become more commonplace, and their gaudy plumage and vulgar mimicry helped popinjay develop the pejorative sense we use today.
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Feb 02, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 24, 2018 is:
contrite ? \KAHN-tryte\ ? adjective
: feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming
Examples:
"… York did in fact say he was sorry and was contrite about making that mistake." — Mark Purdy, The San Jose Mercury News, 1 Jan. 2017
"… several lawmakers called for stronger rules that compel companies to meet minimum cybersecurity standards…. But, as in years past, these efforts have yet to produce any new laws. In the meantime, the average person can do little except monitor their credit reports and hope that contrite companies—shamed by security researchers—will learn from their mistakes." — Hayley Tsukayama, The Daily Herald (Everett, Washington), 23 Dec. 2017
Did you know?
A person who is contrite may have rubbed someone the wrong way and caused bruised feelings—and there is a hint about the origins of the word in that thought. Contrite came to English by way of Anglo-French from the Latin verb conterere, meaning "to grind" or "to bruise." Conterere, in turn, was formed by combining the prefix com-, meaning "with" or "together," and terere, "to rub." If you've guessed that trite is a cousin of contrite (through terere), you are correct. Other terere descendants in English include detriment and very possibly the familiar verb
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Jan 31, 2018
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2018 is:
leonine ? \LEE-uh-nyne\ ? adjective
: of, relating to, suggestive of, or resembling a lion
Examples:
"Jamie has a leonine aspect, with a high clear brow and soft curls eddying over his ears and along his collar." — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Harper's, March 2009
"You're a kid; you want to escape. Maybe to Edwardian England, maybe to an island of dancing lemurs, maybe through the rear of a magical wardrobe into a land of snow and ice waiting for a leonine king to bring back the sun." — Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer, 9 Mar. 2017
Did you know?
Leonine derives from Latin leo, meaning "lion," which in turn comes from Greek leon. Leon gave us an interesting range of words: leopard (which derives from leon combined with pardos, a Greek word for a panther-like animal); dandelion (which came by way of the Anglo-French phrase dent de lion—literally, "lion's tooth"); and chameleon (which combines leon with the Greek chamai, meaning "on the ground"); as well as the names Leo, Leon, and Leonard. But the dancer's and gymnast's leotard is not named for its wearer's cat-like movements. Rather, it was simply named after its inventor
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