PLAY PODCASTS
circuitous
Episode 4309

circuitous

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day · Merriam-Webster

August 11, 20181m 47s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (rss.art19.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 11, 2018 is:


circuitous \ser-KYOO-uh-tus\ adjective

1 : having a circular or winding course

2 : not being forthright or direct in language or action


Examples:

While either method will yield the correct answer, one is far less circuitous and therefore considered superior.

"The path has been circuitous and turbulent, but Andersen is back on a football field, back in those comfortable colors and trademark visor, and back at Utah." — Christopher Kamrani, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah), 9 Mar. 2018


Did you know?

If you guessed that circuitous is related to circuit, you're right—both words come from Latin circuitus, the past participle of the verb circumire, meaning "to go around." Circumire is derived, in turn, from Latin circum, meaning "around," plus ire, which means "to go." Other circum descendants making the rounds in English include circumference ("the perimeter of a circle"), circumvent (one meaning of which is "to make a circuit around"), circumlocution ("the act of 'talking around' a subject"), and circumnavigate ("to go around"). There's also the prefix circum-, which means "around" or "about," and the familiar word circumstance, which describes a condition or event that "stands around" another.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Topics

WORDWEBSTERDICTIONARYENGLISHMERRIAM-WEBSTERMERRIAMLANGUAGEVOCABULARYWORD A DAYWORD OF THE DAYWORDS