Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 27, 2011 is: censure • \SEN-sher\ • verb : to find fault with and criticize as blameworthy Examples: He was censured by the board for his failure to report the problem. "A United Nations committee censured Tehran for what it said was an accelerating crackdown on its opponents." -- From an article by Jay Solomon and Farnaz Fassihi in the Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2010 Did you know? "Censure" and its synonyms "criticize," "reprehend," "condemn," and "denounce" all essentially mean "to find fault with openly." Additionally, "censure" carries a strong suggestion of authority and often refers to an official action. "Criticize" implies finding fault with someone’s methods, policies, or intentions, as in "the commentator criticized the manager’s bullpen strategy." "Reprehend" implies sharp criticism or disapproval, as in "a teacher who reprehends poor grammar." "Condemn" usually suggests a final unfavorable judgment, as in "the group condemned the court’s decision to execute the criminal." "Denounce" adds to "condemn" the implication of a public declaration, as in "her letter to the editor denounced the corrupt actions of the mayor’s office." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2011 is: bathetic • \buh-THET-ik\ • adjective : characterized by triteness or sentimentalism Examples: The author has presented us with another bathetic coming-of-age love story. “Just before Ms. MacGraw utters the deathless catchphrase ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry,’ Crimson Key members loudly implore her, ‘Don’t say it!’ At the conclusion, when Mr. O’Neal repeats her bathetic utterance, they shout, ‘Plagiarist!’ And so it goes.” -- From an article by Thomas Vinciguerra in the New York Times, August 20, 2010 Did you know? When English speakers turned "apathy" into "apathetic" in the 1700s, using the suffix "-etic" to turn the noun into the adjective, they were inspired by "pathetic," the adjectival form of "pathos," from Greek "pathētikos." People also applied that bit of linguistic transformation to coin "bathetic." In the 19th century, English speakers added the suffix "-etic" to "bathos," the Greek word for "depth," which in English has come to mean "triteness" or "excessive sentimentalism." The result: the ideal adjective for the incredibly commonplace or the overly sentimental. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2011 is: lobscouse • \LAHB-skouss\ • noun : a sailor's dish of stewed or baked meat with vegetables and hardtack Examples: Tucked away in a box in the attic were old recipes from Grandpa's father, including one for lobscouse. "Mam knows that I don’t like lobscouse. All those bits of grey meat and white bone and potato and carrot in watery stock with globules of grease floating on top. It reminds me of washing-up water and I can’t eat any of it." -- From Mari Strachan's 2009 novel, The Earth Hums in B Flat Did you know? The description of "lobscouse" in our second example sounds anything but appetizing, but some version of this dish has been around for at least 300 years and it is a specialty of Liverpool, England. ("Lobscouse" is also called "scouse," and Liverpudlians are sometimes referred to as "Scousers.") The origin of "lobscouse" is not known for certain. Although it's been suggested that the first syllable of the word comes from an English dialect word "lob" meaning "to boil," the more popular theory is that "lobscouse" comes from a Norwegian stew called "Lapskaus." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 24, 2011 is: telegenic • \tel-uh-JEN-ik\ • adjective : well-suited to the medium of television; especially : having an appearance and manner that are markedly attractive to television viewers Examples: This year's playoffs will feature some very telegenic rookies playing alongside veterans destined for the Hall of Fame. "What readers remember from the rolling thunder of Mailer's extravagant prose production … was the enshrouding of J.F.K. as the first movie-star politician, the avatar and launch vehicle for the suppressed libido of the country's Hollywood dream life after the long lullaby of the Eisenhower era. With J.F.K., telegenic charisma became part of the package deal." -- From an article by James Wolcott in Vanity Fair, September 2010 Did you know? "Telegenic," which first appeared in print in 1939, is essentially a compound formed out of "television" and "photogenic." "Photogenic" is also the word that caused the addition of a new sense to "-genic," namely "suitable for production or reproduction by a given medium" (as in the occasionally seen "videogenic": "The '80s were a time that created a lot of videogenic bands who weren't necessarily compelling live artists...." -- Ron Shapiro, quoted in Entertainment Weekly, September 25, 1998). "Telegenic" may seem like a word that would primarily refer to people, but there is evidence for telegenic events (such as popular sports), objects, and responses. Occasionally, one even sees reference to a telegenic attitude or other intangible. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 23, 2011 is: adversary • \AD-ver-sair-ee\ • noun : one that contends with, opposes, or resists : enemy Examples: Susan dreaded meeting her adversary at the negotiating table again, because she had come out on the losing side every time so far. "New START is not explicitly about improving relations with a former cold-war adversary, but rather reducing stockpiles of dangerous weapons, some of which could be at risk of falling into terrorists' hands." -- From an article by Howard LaFranchi in The Christian Science Monitor, December 20, 2010 Did you know? If you've ever had someone turn on you and become your adversary, you've inadvertently lived out the etymology of "adversary." The word is from the Latin adjective "adversarius" ("turned toward" or "antagonistic toward"), which in turn can be traced back to the verb "advertere," meaning "to turn to." "Advertere" itself derives from "ad-" and "vertere" ("turn"), and "vertere" is the source of a number of English words. Along with obvious derivatives like "inadvertently" and "adverse" are some surprises, such as "anniversary," "prose," and "vertebra," among others. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2011 is: imbue • \im-BYOO\ • verb 1 : to tinge or dye deeply 2 : endow Examples: The singer imbued her voice with a profound sadness for the haunting ballad. "Friedlander suggests that if only the business schools, their deans and students had studied Nelson Mandela's inspiring life, and if only they had learned how he had generated his enormous moral authority and had honed his leadership and negotiating skills, then perhaps this would have helped imbue in everyone the qualities that so many of their graduates lacked in the high-profile scams." -- From an article in American Consumer News, December 8, 2010 Did you know? Like its synonym "infuse," "imbue" implies the introduction of one thing into another so as to affect it throughout. A nation can be imbued with pride, for example, or a photograph might be imbued with a sense of melancholy. In the past "imbue" has also been used synonymously with "imbrue," an obscure word meaning "to drench or stain," but etymologists do not think the two words are related. "Imbue" derives from the Latin verb "imbuere," meaning "to dye, wet, or moisten." "Imbrue" has been traced back through Anglo-French and Old French to the Latin verb "bibere," meaning "to drink." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2011 is: cavalier • \kav-uh-LEER\ • adjective 1 : debonair 2 : marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of important matters Examples: Matthew’s cavalier disregard for other people’s property was evident when he took his sister’s car without asking permission. "My bandmates are sitting around me while I reset the grenade’s pin and pull it once again, as I have done ten times back at the camp.… Pete, who has been watching me with growing anger and apprehension at my cavalier attitude toward a potential weapon of death, scoops up the grenade from the truck-bed floor and hurls it into the already life-threatening countryside." -- From singer Rick Springfield’s 2010 memoir Late, Late at Night Did you know? According to a dictionary prepared by Thomas Blount in 1656, a cavalier was "a knight or gentleman, serving on horseback, a man of arms." That meaning is true to the history of the noun, which traces back to the Late Latin word "caballarius," meaning "horseman." By around 1600, it had also come to denote "a roistering swaggering fellow." In the 1640s, English Puritans applied it disdainfully to their adversaries, the swashbuckling royalist followers of Charles I, who sported longish hair and swords. Although some thought those cavaliers "several sorts of Malignant Men,… ready to commit all manner of Outrage and Violence," others saw them as quite suave -- which may explain why "cavalier" can be either complimentary or a bit insulting. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 20, 2011 is: ninja • \NIN-juh\ • noun : a person trained in ancient Japanese martial arts and employed especially for espionage and assassinations Examples: Ninjas are thought to be able to run faster than ordinary people, scale impossible walls, and endure the severest of pain. "Simon Baldry has practiced ninjutsu on and off for 15 years and, despite his brown belt, he still wouldn't call himself a ninja. That is an honour earned after many years of experience, he says humbly." -- From an article by Hayley Hannan in The Auklander, December 3, 2010 Did you know? Ninjas may seem mysterious, but the origin of their name is not. The word "ninja" derives from the Japanese characters "nin" and "ja." "Nin" initially meant "persevere," but over time it developed the extended meanings "conceal" and "move stealthily." In Japanese, "ja" is the combining form of "sha," meaning "person." Ninjas originated in the mountains of Japan over 800 years ago as practitioners of ninjutsu, a martial art sometimes called "the art of stealth" or "the art of invisibility." They often served as military spies and were trained in disguise, concealment, geography, meteorology, medicine, and also other martial arts. Popular legends still associate them with espionage and assassinations, but modern ninjas are most likely to study ninjutsu to improve their physical fitness and self-defense skills. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2011 is: snitty • \SNIT-ee\ • adjective : disagreeably ill-tempered Examples: She's nice but her sister is outright snitty. "I'm sorry, that was a little snitty, wasn't it? I've had a lot of things bottled up inside for a while and that can make things come out weird sometimes." -- From Robert Morrow's 2010 novel Ringing True Did you know? Those of Germanic descent might know the word "snit" as a noun meaning "an apple slice," but this doesn't help etymologists much. In fact, it just gets them into a "snit" (a "state of agitation"). No matter how they slice and dice the word "snitty," they can't get to its core. All we know is that "snit" was being used as early as 1939 and "snitty" appeared some 40 years later, and that both words are mainly used in the United States. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2011 is: gloaming • \GLOH-ming\ • noun : twilight, dusk Examples: Crickets were chirping in the gloaming as the newlyweds walked home holding hands. "Nighttime, not the late hours but the gloaming, when the sun was setting and dinner must be prepared and the long evening stretched out before her -- that's when the loneliness settled in like the ache in her hip on a rainy day, when the regrets, the bad memories, sometimes came to call." -- From Lisa Unger's 2010 novel Fragile Did you know? If "gloaming" makes you think of tartans and bagpipes, well lads and lasses, you've got a good ear and a good eye; we picked up "gloaming" from the Scottish dialects of English back in the Middle Ages. The roots of the word trace to the Old English word for twilight, "glōm," which is akin to "glōwan," an Old English verb meaning "to glow." In the early 1800s, English speakers looked to Scotland again and borrowed the now-archaic verb "gloam," meaning "to become twilight" or "to grow dark." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2011 is: procrastinate • \pruh-KRAS-tuh-nayt\ • verb 1 : to put off intentionally and habitually 2 : to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done Examples: Somehow, despite procrastinating, Melody managed to hand her assignment in on time. "Some high school students procrastinate on college applications because they are intimidated by the essays. Other students procrastinate because the myriad of college choices is overwhelming, making it difficult to prioritize what colleges to apply to." -- From an article in PR Newswire, December 16, 2010 Did you know? We won't put off telling you about out the origins of "procrastinate." English speakers borrowed the word in the 16th century from Latin "procrastinatus," which itself evolved from the prefix "pro-," meaning "forward," and "crastinus," meaning "of tomorrow." Like its synonyms "delay," "lag," "loiter," "dawdle," and "dally," "procrastinate" means to move or act slowly so as to fall behind. It typically implies blameworthy delay especially through laziness or apathy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2011 is: ossify • \AH-suh-fye\ • verb 1 : to become or change into bone or bony tissue 2 : to become or make hardened or set in one's ways Examples: When a baby is born, many of the bones in its body have yet to ossify. "But too many businesses are surviving because credit costs nothing, and bankers care little whether their borrowers are profitable or not. That has two damaging consequences: it ossifies corporate culture, and it drags down productivity." -- From an article in The Economist, November 18, 2010 Did you know? The skeletons of mammals originate as soft cartilage that gradually transforms into hard bone (in humans, the process begins in the womb and continues until late adolescence). English speakers have referred to this bone-building process as "ossification" since the late 17th century, and the verb "ossify" arrived soon after the noun. English speakers began to use "ossification" and "ossify" for more figurative types of hardening (such as that of the heart, mind, or soul) in the 19th century. Both words descend from the Latin root "os," meaning "bone." "Os" is also an English word that appears in scientific contexts as a synonym of "bone," and the Latin term is an ancestor of the word "osseous," which means "consisting of or resembling bone." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 15, 2011 is: charisma • \kuh-RIZ-muh\ • noun 1 : a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (as a political leader) 2 : a special magnetic charm or appeal Examples: The young singer had the kind of charisma that turns a performer into a star. "On one level, 'Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson' is an irreverent, bratty rock musical about our seventh president as a baby rock star who loves his tight jeans and a sociopath who loves his big gun. Embedded in the Wild West satire, however, are serious questions about the importance of charisma in the selection of American leaders and the justifications our forebears used to grab land in the fancy name of Manifest Destiny." -- From a review by Linda Winer in Newsday, December 15, 2010 Did you know? The Greek word "charisma" means "favor" or "gift." In English, it has been used in Christian contexts since about 1640 to refer to a gift or power bestowed upon an individual by the Holy Spirit for the good of the Church. (This sense is now very rare.) The earliest nonreligious use of "charisma" that we know of occurred in a German text, a 1922 publication by sociologist Max Weber. The sense began appearing in English contexts shortly after Weber’s work was published. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2011 is: jubilate • \JOO-buh-layt\ • verb : rejoice Examples: When the basketball team finally won a game after nine straight losses, they jubilated as if they'd won the state championship. "They moved some dirt around, dropped a few seeds here and there, and jubilated as Michelle led the merry band." -- From Laura Ingraham's 2010 book The Obama Diaries Did you know? When things are going your way, you may want to shout for joy. "Jubilate" testifies to the fact that people have had the urge to give (loud) voice to their happiness for centuries. Although "jubilate" first appeared in print around the middle of the 17th century, its connection to vocal joy goes back much farther; it is derived from the Latin verb "jubilare," which means "to shout for joy." "Jubilare" has also played a role in the development of a few other closely related joyful English words, including "jubilant" (the earliest meaning was "making a joyful noise," though it is now most often used to mean simply "exultant") and "jubilation" ("an act of rejoicing"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 13, 2011 is: guttural • \GUTT-uh-rul\ • adjective 1 : articulated in the throat 2 : formed with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate 3 : being or marked by utterance that is strange, unpleasant, or disagreeable Examples: The only response we could get from him was an inarticulate guttural grunt. "Four thuggish-looking Klingons, sporting gnarled foreheads and robed regalia and clutching spears and scimitars, looked on as the two 'Hamlet' renditions were performed side by side -- a minute or two of the grating, guttural Klingon version, followed by a minute or two of the English one." -- From a theater review by Celia Wren in The Washington Post, September 27, 2010 Did you know? Though it is now used to describe many sounds or utterances which strike the listener as harsh or disagreeable, the adjective "guttural" was originally applied only to sounds and utterances produced in the throat. This is reflected in the word's Latin root -- "guttur," meaning "throat." Despite the similarity in sound, "guttural" is not related to the English word "gutter," which comes (by way of Anglo-French) from Latin "gutta," meaning "drop." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 12, 2011 is: plinth • \PLINTH\ • noun 1 : the lowest part of the base of an architectural column 2 : a block used as a base (as for a statue) Examples: The museum workers reverently set the newly restored statue back onto an imposing plinth. "Anthony put on his glasses and bent down, searching for a minute label taped to the marble plinth on which the Atlas figures stood." -- From Rose Tremain's 2010 novel Trespass Did you know? "These ivy-clad arcades -- / These mouldering plinths ... are they all -- / All of the famed, and the colossal left…?" In these lines from "The Coliseum," Edgar Allan Poe alludes to a practical feature of classical architecture. The plinth serves the important purpose of raising the base of the column it supports above the ground, thus protecting it from dampness and mold. The humble plinth is usually a mere thick block. It’s humbly named, too, for the Greek word "plinthos" means simply "tile" or "brick." English writers have used "plinth," a shortened version of the Latin form "plinthus," since the beginning of the 17th century. The meaning was extended to bases for statues, vases, or busts in the 18th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 11, 2011 is: glabrous • \GLAY-brus\ • adjective : smooth; especially : having a surface without hairs or projections Examples: Unlike the fuzzy peach, the nectarine has a glabrous skin. "Wounds that involve the glabrous surface of the hand ideally are replaced with skin that possesses the same characteristics as the adjacent skin." -- From Thomas R. Hunt's 2010 book Operative Techniques in Hand, Wrist, and Forearm Surgery Did you know? "Before them an old man, / wearing a fringe of long white hair, bareheaded, / his glabrous skull reflecting the sun's / light...." No question about it -- the bald crown of an old man's head (as described here in William Carlos Williams's poem "Sunday in the Park") is "a surface without hairs." William's use isn't typical, though. More often "glabrous" appears in scientific contexts, such as the following description of wheat: "The white glumes are glabrous, with narrow acuminate beaks." And although Latin "glaber," our word's source, can mean simply "bald," when "glabrous" refers to skin with no hair in scientific English, it usually means skin that never had hair (such as the palms of the hands). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 10, 2011 is: issuable • \ISH-oo-uh-bul\ • adjective 1 : open to contest, debate, or litigation 2 : authorized for issue 3 : possible as a result or consequence Examples: When they created their new LLC, the owners decided to start with 1,000 issuable shares. "At the time of the first prospectus, a total of nearly 14 million shares were issued or issuable, and Nouri, his family, and his offshore partner controlled half of them." -- From David E. Y. Sarna's 2010 book History of Greed: Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff Did you know? Although "issuable" now tends to appear in financial contexts (such as in reference to shares that are eligible to be issued, or made available, according to a company's articles of incorporation), it was originally used in the late 16th century as a legal term: an issuable matter was one that was open to contest, debate, or litigation. Within a century, though, the word had taken on the meaning that it most commonly has today, "authorized for issue." In making its home in the world of finance, "issuable" is carrying on a family tradition. In the early 14th century, its predecessor "issue" was used in plural to refer to proceeds from a source of revenue, such as an estate. "Issue" itself traces back to Latin "exire," meaning "to go out." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 9, 2011 is: rapscallion • \rap-SKAL-yun\ • noun : rascal, ne’er-do-well Examples: The rapscallions who hung around the deserted parking lot at night were nothing but trouble. "Being evil is serious business, and business is goooood for Gru. He's a feared and loathed rapscallion of the highest degree who's been responsible for some of the greatest heists in recent history." -- From a movie review of Despicable Me by Melissa Bobbitt in Creators Syndicate, July 8, 2010 Did you know? The word "rascal" has been part of English since the 15th century, but on its own it apparently didn’t quite capture the disagreeable nature of the wily knaves of yore. By the 17th century, English speakers had modified "rascal" to create "rascallion." But it seems that even that term didn’t sound quite mischievous enough. By the century’s end, "rascallion" had been further altered to create "rapscallion." Today, "rapscallion" is still commonly used as a synonym for "blackguard," "scoundrel," and "miscreant." "Rascallion" is still around as well, but it’s very rare. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2011 is: woebegone • \WOH-bih-gahn\ • adjective 1 : strongly afflicted with woe : woeful 2 : exhibiting great woe, sorrow, or misery 3 : being in a sorry state Examples: Jerry's face had the woebegone expression of a man who had just lost a beloved pet. "The Giants also were able to shake off Kevin Boss' early fumble and kept the woebegone Seahawks from gaining any life from it." -- From an article by Vinny DiTrani in The Record (Bergen County, NJ), November 9, 2010 Did you know? At first glance, "woebegone" looks like a word that has its meaning backwards; after all, if "begone" means "go away," shouldn't "woebegone" mean "devoid of woe," or "happy"? Not exactly. The word derives from the Middle English phrase "wo begon." The "wo" in this phrase simply means "woe," but "begon" (deriving from Old English "begān") is a past participle meaning "beset." Someone who is "woebegone," therefore, is beset with woe. Since the early 19th century, the word has also been used to describe things that appear to express sadness, as in "a woebegone face." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 7, 2011 is: dander • \DAN-der\ • noun 1 : dandruff; specifically : minute scales from hair, feathers, or skin that may be allergenic 2 : anger, temper Examples: "That sort of arrogance really gets my dander up!" exclaimed Janice. "As regulars of this column are well aware, nothing gets my dander and bad cholesterol up more than hearing ill-informed people echo the idea that modern commercial aircraft are all but completely automated, with pilots on hand merely as a backup." -- From a column by Patrick Smith in Salon, November 16, 2010 Did you know? How did "dander" acquire its "temper" sense? Etymologists have come up with a few possibilities, but nothing is known for sure. Some experts have proposed, tongue-in-cheek, that the meaning stems from the image of an angry person tearing out his or her hair by the fistful, scattering dandruff in the process. Some think it may come from a West Indian word "dander," which refers to a kind of ferment and suggests "rising" anger (in English, "ferment" can mean either "an agent capable of causing fermentation" or "a state of unrest or excitement"). Yet another proposed possibility is that the anger sense was imported to America by early Dutch colonists and is from their phrase "op donderen," meaning "to burst into a sudden rage." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2011 is: aureate • \OR-ee-ut\ • adjective 1 : of a golden color or brilliance 2 : marked by grandiloquent and rhetorical style Examples: Matthew tried to get into the novel that Stephanie had recommended, but he found reading the author's aureate prose too much of a slog. "Still low over the flatland east, the sun threw long aureate light across the field." -- From Jeffrey Stepakoff's 2010 novel Fireworks Over Toccoa Did you know? "Aureate" is among several adjectives in English pertaining to gold that derive from the Latin name for the metal, "aurum." While its relatives "auriferous" and "auric" are more likely to appear in scientific contexts to describe substances containing or made from gold (or "Au," to use its chemical symbol), "aureate" has tended to have a more literary allure since it was first used in English in the early 15th century. Over time, the word's use was extended from "golden" to "resplendent," and it finally lost some of its luster as it came to mean "grandiloquent." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 5, 2011 is: proselytize • \PRAH-suh-luh-tyze\ • verb 1 : to induce someone to convert to one's faith 2 : to recruit someone to join one's party, institution, or cause Examples: Eliza is a staunch environmentalist who always feels the need to proselytize to anyone who doesn't recycle or drive a hybrid automobile. "There is also no denying that in some of its iterations, the pacifism that [John] Lennon championed can seem truly beautiful. So long as the world is plagued by hate and war, people are going to look fondly upon those who proselytize for peace and love." -- From an article by John McMillian in the Boston Globe, December 5, 2010 Did you know? "Proselytize" comes from the noun "proselyte" (meaning "a new convert"), which comes from the Late Latin noun "proselytus." "Proselytus" means "stranger" or "alien resident," and comes from a similar Greek word ("prosēlytos"). When "proselytize" entered English in the 17th century, it had a distinctly religious connotation and meant simply "to recruit religious converts." This meaning is still common, but today one can also proselytize in a broader sense -- recruiting converts to one's political party or pet cause, for example. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 4, 2011 is: netroots • \NET-roots\ • noun : the grassroots political activists who communicate via the Internet especially by blogs Examples: Inarguably, it was the campaigning by the netroots that helped the senator get elected. "The netroots has developed a message and approach to politics that doesn't get heard in the world of broadcast TV, where the same pundit retreads dominate." -- Markos Moulitsas, quoted in an article by Tim Fernholz in The American Prospect, April 2010 Did you know? In July of 1912 McClure's Magazine reported, "From the Roosevelt standpoint, especially, it was a campaign from the 'grass roots up'. The voter was the thing." A little more than 90 years later, the Internet was the thing and the grassroots voters had gone virtual: "June 23rd is going to be the official launch of Gov. Dean's campaign for President -- we want to use this day as a demonstration of the netroots and grassroots across the nation" (The Hotline, June 2003). It was Howard Dean's campaign that tapped into the wellspring of person-to-person electronic communication and brought us "netroots," a word that joins the "net" of "Internet" with the "roots" of "grassroots." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 3, 2011 is: concrete • \kahn-KREET\ • adjective 1 : naming a real thing or class of things 2 : formed by coalition of particles into one solid mass 3 : relating to or involving specific people, things, or actions rather than general ideas or qualities 4 : relating to or made of concrete Examples: The use of concrete examples will often help your readers to better visualize what it is you are trying to get across. "Castor and I go to the pool, which is big and concrete and shaped like an eight." -- From Gil Adamson's 2010 novel Help Me, Jacques Cousteau Did you know? We can trace "concrete" back to the Latin verb "concrescere," meaning "to grow together." Appropriately, when if first entered English "concrete" could mean "connected by growth." Logicians and grammarians also applied "concrete" to words that expressed a quality viewed as being united with the thing it describes. That in turn led to the sense of "concrete" which we now contrast with "abstract" -- concrete words express actual things ("rock," "lizard, "harpsichord"), while abstract words express qualities apart from actual things ("bliss," "freedom," "turpitude"). It was not until the 19th century that the noun "concrete," and its related adjective, began to be used for the building material composed of cementing material and sand, gravel, or similar materials. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2011 is: flummox • \FLUM-uks\ • verb : confuse Examples: Ruth was flummoxed by the angry outburst and wild accusations that greeted her mild complaint. "Several traffic signals around the county seem to be less intuitive than others, judging by some of the mail the Doc receives. One that regularly flummoxes drivers is on northbound Seminole Boulevard at the intersection of Ulmerton Road." -- From an article by Lorrie Lykins in St. Petersburg Times (Florida), November 14, 2010 Did you know? No one is completely sure where the word "flummox" comes from, but we do know that its first known use is 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." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 1, 2011 is: grandee • \grand-DEE\ • noun : a man of elevated rank or station Examples: After winning the golf tournament, it was expected that the young player would shake hands and pose for pictures with the grandees who had supplied the prize fund. "[George] Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention (1787), helped sell the notion of a strong and united nation to his fellow Virginia grandees, and served two terms (1789-1797) as our nation’s first president before retiring to his beloved Mount Vernon." -- From a book review by Peter Rowe in The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 7, 2010 Did you know? In Medieval Spain and Portugal, the "grandes" ("great ones," from Latin "grandis," meaning "great") were at the pinnacle of the ranks of rich and powerful nobles. A grandee (as it came to be spelled in English) could wear a hat in the presence of the king and queen -- the height of privilege -- and he alone could address a letter directly to royalty. (Even Christopher Columbus had to direct his reports of the New World to an important noble at court, who read them to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.) Today the term can still be applied to nobility, but it can also be used for anyone of importance and influence anywhere, such as the "pin-striped grandees of London's financial district." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2010 is: meld • \MELD\ • verb : merge, blend Examples: Simmer the sauce until the flavors have melded together. "This work is described as a collaborative, interdisciplinary project melding the contemporary visions of a choreographer, a filmmaker, a visual artist, and a fashion designer." -- From a review by Jennifer Edwards on The Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com), November 24, 2010 Did you know? As a verb meaning "to blend or merge," "meld" dates only to the 1930s. In its early days, the word attracted some unfavorable attention. Those who didn't like it tended to perceive it as a misuse of an older "meld" meaning "to declare or announce (a card or cards) for a score in a card game (as pinochle or gin rummy)." But the new "meld," a blend of "melt" and "weld," was an entirely new coinage suggesting a smooth and thorough blending of two or more things into a single, homogeneous whole. The word is no longer controversial. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2010 is: mahatma • \muh-HAHT-muh\ • noun 1 : a person to be revered for high-mindedness, wisdom, and selflessness 2 : a person of great prestige in a field of endeavor Examples: Film directors regard Alfred Hitchcock as the mahatma of the suspense thriller and still often borrow his plot devices and filming techniques. "Vince Lombardi -- one of the Seven Blocks of Granite at Fordham, the coaching saint, the mahatma of Green Bay -- is the subject of a new play, and its producers plan to bring it to Broadway late next year." -- From an article by Richard Sandomir in The New York Times, November 7, 2009 Did you know? "Mahatma" is an adaptation of the Sanskrit word "mahātman," which literally meant "great-souled." As a general, uncapitalized English noun, "mahatma" can refer to any great person; in India, it is used as a title of love and respect. When capitalized, however, it usually refers to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the great leader who helped guide India to independence in 1947. Renowned for his policy of nonviolent protest, he was widely known as "Mahatma Gandhi" or "the Mahatma." The title was reportedly conferred on him by poet Rabindranath Tagore in 1915, but spiritual leader and author Paramahansa Yogananda claimed that Gandhi didn’t embrace it himself. According to Yogananda, Gandhi never referred to himself as "Mahatma," but rather "made some humble, and witty, protests about the title." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2010 is: plummy • \PLUMM-ee\ • adjective 1 a : full of plums b : choice, desirable 2 a : having a plum color b : rich and mellow often to the point of affectation Examples: She got a plummy job as a lifeguard over the summer. "His impossibly smooth, domed head, chiseled features and plummy voice make him instantly recognizable in the regal, authoritative roles he so often plays." -- From a theater review by Scott Kraft in the Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2010 Did you know? During the 18th century the word "plum" became a delectable ingredient in the English language. The word for the sweet, juicy fruit denoted such things as a fortune of 100,000 pounds, a rich person, and, by the early 19th century, anything desirable. "Plummy" blossomed in the mid-18th century with the meaning "full of plums" and had branched out as an adjective for desirable things by the century's end. By the late 19th century it was being used to describe rich, mellow voices. The sweetness of the word did eventually sour, however, when people began to use it to describe stilted or affected speech, as in "the teacher used a plummy voice when he talked to the students' parents." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 28, 2010 is: galumph • \guh-LUMF\ • verb : to move with a clumsy heavy tread Examples: Mary's teenage son galumphed into the house and flung himself onto the couch, sighing heavily. "Marmots reside near the panoramic summits of Colorado's high mountains. They look like beavers, but galumph among the boulders a mile above the ponds…." -- From an article by David Olinger in The Denver Post, September 13, 2010 Did you know? Bump, thump, thud. There's no doubt about it, when someone or something galumphs onto the scene, ears take notice. "Galumph" first lumbered onto the English scene in 1872 when Lewis Carroll used the word to describe the actions of the vanquisher of the Jabberwock in Through the Looking Glass: "He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back." Etymologists suspect Carroll created "galumph" by altering the word "gallop," perhaps throwing in a pinch of "triumphant" for good measure (in its earliest uses, "galumph" did convey a sense of exultant bounding). Other 19th-century writers must have liked the sound of "galumph," because they began plying it in their own prose, and it has been clumping around our language ever since. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 27, 2010 is: funambulism • \fyoo-NAM-buh-liz-um\ • noun 1 : tightrope walking 2 : a show especially of mental agility Examples: As a game-show contestant Brenda amazed us all with her funambulism, answering every question correctly to win the $10,000 first prize. "I have some personal experience with funambulism, as both a performer and an instructor. When new students step onto the rope or cable (depending upon the particular rigging), they almost always begin with the same flawed game plan. They stare down at the wire to make sure that they have the proper footing. And so they fall." -- From Dan Thurmon's 2010 book Off Balance on Purpose: Embrace Uncertainty and Create a Life You Love Did you know? Back in ancient Rome, tightrope walking was a popular spectacle at public gatherings. The Latin word for "tightrope walker" is "funambulus," from the Latin "funis," meaning "rope," plus "ambulare," meaning "to walk." It doesn't take any funambulism on our part to see how the word for an impressive act of physical skill and agility came to mean an impressive act of mental skill or agility. That extended sense of the word has been around since at least 1886, when British academic and writer Augustus Jessopp described the act of diagramming sentences as "horrible lessons of ghastly grammar and dreary funambulism." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2010 is: embarrass • \im-BAIR-us\ • verb 1 : to confuse or disconcert 2 : to involve in financial difficulties 3 : to cause to experience self-conscious distress 4 : to hinder or impede Examples: She embarrassed her grandson by showing his baby pictures to his friends. "She wasn't about to embarrass herself in front of a man she hardly knew. Gracie had learned years ago that if she couldn't make herself invisible, a tough exterior was her second best defense." -- From Lorelle Marinello's 2010 novel Salting Roses Did you know? If you've ever been so embarrassed that you felt like you were caught up in a noose of shame you may have some insight into the origins of the word "embarrass." The word can be traced back through French and Spanish to the Portuguese word "embaraçar," which was itself probably formed as a combination of the prefix "em-" (from Latin "in-") and "baraça," the Portuguese word for "noose." Though "embarrass" has had various meanings throughout its history in English, these days it most often implies making someone feel or look foolish. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2010 is: nosegay • \NOHZ-gay\ • noun : a small bunch of flowers Examples: The young man presented a nosegay of red, white, and yellow roses to his sweetheart. “The bride carried a nosegay of green hydrangeas, Gerbera daisies, and coral roses hand-tied in turquoise ribbon.” -- From a wedding announcement in Mississippi Magazine, January 2010 Did you know? "Nosegay" is a homegrown word -- that is, it originated in English. Fifteenth-century Middle English speakers joined "nose" (which meant then what it does today) with "gay" (which at the time meant "ornament"). That makes "nosegay" an appropriate term for a bunch of flowers, which is indeed an ornament that appeals to the nose. Today the word "nosegay" is especially common in the bridal business, where it usually refers to a specific type of bouquet: a round, tight bunch of flowers as opposed to a cascading bouquet or other type of arrangement. Occasionally, the word is used metaphorically for things that somehow resemble a bouquet. For example, a compact collection of enjoyably lighthearted short stories might be called "a nosegay of a book." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 24, 2010 is: invincible • \in-VIN-suh-bul\ • adjective : incapable of being conquered, overcome, or subdued Examples: Susan loved stories of invincible superheroes and determined sidekicks. "When the title was on the line in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Johnson and his team looked more invincible than vulnerable." -- From an article by Rick Minter in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 23, 2010 Did you know? The origins of "invincible" are easily subdued. The word derives, via Middle French, from Late Latin "invincibilis," which was itself formed by combining the negative prefix "in-" with "vincere," meaning "to conquer." Other descendants of "vincere" in English include "convince," "evince," "vanquish," and even "victor." "Vincere" also gave English "vincible," meaning (unsurprisingly) "capable of being overcome or subdued," though it is significantly less common than "invincible." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 23, 2010 is: supererogation • \soo-per-air-uh-GAY-shun\ • noun : the act of performing more than is required by duty, obligation, or need Examples: I have already stated my opinion and thoroughly explained my reasoning, so it would be an act of supererogation to provide further details. "To redistribute from wealthy to poor across national boundaries, or to invest economically in a defeated state, may be an ethical obligation, a work of supererogation, ethically neutral, or even ethically wrong." -- From the 2010 book Global Ethics: An Introduction by Kimberly Hutchings Did you know? English speakers took "supererogation" from the Medieval Latin verb "supererogare," which means "to perform beyond the call of duty." That Latin word, in turn, derives from the prefix "super-," meaning "over and above," plus "erogare," meaning "to expend public funds after asking the consent of the people." The earliest English uses of "supererogation" occurred in religious contexts, where it often referred to the doing of good deeds beyond those required for salvation. By the late 1500s, "supererogation" was being applied to any act performed above and beyond obligation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 22, 2010 is: numinous • \NOO-muh-nus\ • adjective 1 : supernatural, mysterious 2 : filled with a sense of the presence of divinity : holy 3 : appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense : spiritual Examples: As she listened to the choir sing in the candlelit sanctuary, Marianne was overcome by a sense of numinous awe. "The instrumental interlude is notated as a musical staff drawn in a circle with eight more musical staffs protruding as 'musical rays.' It’s hard to follow but easy to understand, a thing of numinous visual and aural beauty." --From a review by Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2010 Did you know? "Numinous" is from the Latin word "numen," meaning "divine will" or "nod" (it suggests a figurative nodding, of assent or of command, of the divine head). English speakers have been using "numen" for centuries with the meaning "a spiritual force or influence." We began using "numinous" in the mid-1600s, subsequently endowing it with several senses: "supernatural" or "mysterious" (as in "possessed of a numinous energy force"), "holy" (as in "the numinous atmosphere of the catacombs"), and "appealing to the aesthetic sense" (as in "the numinous nuances of her art"). We also created the nouns "numinousness" and "numinosity," although these are rare. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 21, 2010 is: ekphrasis • \EK-fruh-sis\ • noun : a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art Examples: As an assignment for her Rhetoric & Composition class, Samantha wrote an ekphrasis on the theme of emotional isolation in the paintings of Edward Hopper. "As a genre, ekphrasis attempts to describe the painted image of Medusa, to put the other that Medusa is into words. Starting from Shelley’s poem, Mitchell proposes that ekphrasis is at once a minor and obscure genre (through which images are rendered verbally) and the principle of poetic art: poetry makes us ‘see’ literary images." -- From Anca Parvulescu's 2010 book Laughter: Notes on a Passion Did you know? Although "ekphrasis" (also spelled "ecphrasis") is a relatively new entry in our dictionary, the practice of using words to comment on a piece of visual art is an ancient one. One of the earliest and most commonly cited forms of ekphrasis occurs in The Iliad, when Homer provides a long and discursive account of the elaborate scenes embossed on the shield of Achilles. It should be no surprise, then, that the term "ekphrasis" derives from Greek, where it literally means "description" and was formed by combining the prefix "ex-" ("out") with the verb "phrazein" ("to point out or explain"). "Ekphrasis" first appeared in English in the early 18th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 20, 2010 is: exemplary • \ig-ZEM-pluh-ree\ • adjective 1 : deserving imitation especially because of excellence : commendable 2 : serving as a warning 3 : serving as an example, instance, or illustration Examples: Members of the community who have demonstrated exemplary public service will be honored at the ceremony. "Our military and our government has responded, I believe, in exemplary fashion. We got Marines and aid workers and helicopters and food and, you know, clean water facilities. We got those down in record time." -- U.S. President Barack Obama, from the CNN transcript of a town hall meeting in the state of New Hampshire on February 2, 2010 Did you know? Since the late 1500s, "exemplary" has been used in English for things deserving imitation. The word (and its close relatives "example" and "exemplify") derives from the Latin noun "exemplum," which means "example." Usage commentators have sometimes warned against using "exemplary" as if it were simply a synonym of "excellent," but clear-cut instances of such usage are hard to come by. When "exemplary" describes something excellent, as it often does, it almost always carries the further suggestion that the thing described is worthy of imitation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 19, 2010 is: welter • \WEL-ter\ • verb 1 : writhe, toss; also : wallow 2 : to become deeply sunk, soaked, or involved 3 : to be in turmoil Examples: Seasick passengers took to their cabins as the ship weltered upon the waves of the stormy sea. "No wonder you weltered about for years in depression, addiction, serial unemployment, fragmentation, futility." -- From Sarah Gabriel's 2009 memoir Eating Pomegranates Did you know? "Welter" can be used both as a noun (meaning "turmoil" or "chaos") and a verb. Which part of speech is older? The verb. It has been part of English since at least the 1300s, while the earliest uses of the noun date from the late 1590s. Both noun and verb have roots related to Dutch and Germanic terms meaning "to roll," and both have found a place in English literature. The verb helps demonstrate extreme despair in the early Arthurian legend Morte Arthure ("He welterys, he wristeles, he wrynges hys handes!"), and in 1837 Thomas Carlyle used the noun in The French Revolution ("I leave the whole business in a frightful welter: … not one of them understands anything of government"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2010 is: cohesive • \koh-HEE-siv\ • adjective : exhibiting or producing a condition in which people or things are closely united Examples: Theirs was a cohesive and loving family, sticking together through bad times and good. "Put simply, arts and culture initiatives are essential to creating vibrant, prosperous and socially cohesive communities." -- From an article by Neil Darwin in Local Government Chronicle (LGC), September 30, 2010 Did you know? Our first example sentence contains a hint about the "sticky" origins of today's word -- "cohesive" ultimately derives from Latin "haerēre," meaning "to stick." Other descendants of "haerēre" in English include "adhere" ("to stick"), "inhere" ("to belong by nature or habit"), and even "hesitate." "Haerēre" teamed up with the prefix "co-" to form "cohaerēre," an ancestor of "cohesive," "cohesion" ("a sticking together"), "cohere" ("to stick together"), and "coherent" ("able to stick together" or "logically consistent"). Quiz content: See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2010 is: philately • \fuh-LAT-uh-lee\ • noun : the collection and study of postage and imprinted stamps : stamp collecting Examples: Given his interests in both philately and football, Michael was excited to learn about the post office’s new series of stamps featuring legendary quarterbacks. "Those who imagine philately as boring probably have never examined a stamp, seen the intricacy of the design or researched the story behind the postal issue." -- From an article by Mark A. Kellner in The Washington Times, August 17, 2010 Did you know? Who wouldn't love something tax free? George Herpin did. He was a French stamp fancier back in the 1860s, when stamps were a fairly new invention. Before stamps, the recipient of a letter -- not the sender -- had to pay the postage. Stamps forced the sender to foot the bill, and created a lot of stamp lovers among folks on the receiving end of the mail -- and a mania for stamp collecting. "Timbromania" was toyed with as a term to affix to this new hobby -- from the French word for stamp, "timbre." But when Herpin suggested "philatélie" (anglicized to "philately"), combining the Greek root "phil-," meaning "loving," with Greek "ateleia," meaning "tax-exemption," stamp lovers everywhere took a fancy to it and the name stuck. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2010 is: vermicular • \ver-MIK-yuh-ler\ • adjective 1 : resembling a worm in form or motion 2 : of, relating to, or caused by worms Examples: Students will observe and document the vermicular decomposition of vegetative waste. "I tasted the smallest atoms of life in those few quiet minutes, drinking tea and waiting with the chickens before the rest of the world raised its head…. Despite the dust, the earthy pungency of the chicken manure, the remains of bones and shells and everything else they unearthed in their endless, restless scratching for vermicular treats, the shed and the run was a pleasant place." -- From Debra Adelaide's 2008 novel The Household Guide to Dying Did you know? What does the word "vermicular" have in common with the pasta on your plate? If you're eating vermicelli (a spaghetti-like pasta made in long thin strings) the answer is "vermis," a Latin noun meaning "worm." If you dig deep enough, you'll find that "vermis" is the root underlying not only "vermicular" and "vermicelli," but also "vermiculate" (which can mean either "full of worms" or "tortuous") and even "worm" itself. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2010 is: quincunx • \KWIN-kunks\ • noun : an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle with one at each corner and one in the middle Examples: The tables were arranged in a quincunx, with the hosting family at the center table and guests at the four corners. "As we walked along the geometric beds -- many of them planted in an ancient Roman quincunx pattern -- I made notes on the beautiful crops I had never grown." -- From an article by Anne Raver in the New York Times, June 30, 2010 Did you know? As our second example sentence suggests, today's word has its origins in ancient Rome. To the Romans, a "quincunx" was a coin whose name comes from the Latin roots "quinque," meaning "five," and "uncia," meaning "one twelfth." The weight of the coin equaled five twelfths of a libra, a unit of weight similar to our pound. The ancients used a pattern of five dots arranged like the spots on a die as a symbol for the coin, and English speakers applied the word to arrangements similar to that distinctive five-dot mark. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2010 is: bogus • \BOH-gus\ • adjective : not genuine : counterfeit, sham Examples: Kelly knew that the letter informing her that she was a grand prize winner was bogus, so she threw it in the trash immediately. "The scheme appears aimed at getting the food business operator to make a confirmation phone call that would allow others to create a false identity and set up an auction site on the Internet to sell bogus items." -- From an article by Larry Carson in The Baltimore Sun, November 2, 2010 Did you know? You may know "bogus" as a slang word meaning "uncool" or simply "no good," but did you know that "bogus" has actually been a part of English since the early 1800s? Not only was the word coined then, it was actually doing some coining of its own, so to speak. Back then, a "bogus" was a machine used to make counterfeit coins. No one knows for sure how this coin-copying contraption got its name, but before long "bogus" had also become a popular noun for funny money itself or for a fraudulent imitation of any kind. The more general "phony" adjective followed shortly thereafter. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2010 is: woolgathering • \WOOL-gath-uh-ring\ • noun : indulgence in idle daydreaming Examples: My woolgathering was abruptly interrupted by a question from the flight attendant. "Devoted mothers have little time for themselves, and their children have little time for free play, imaginative woolgathering or secret lives of their own, all things that are such an important part of childhood." -- From an article by Barbara Almond, M.D., published November 5, 2010 at psychologytoday.com. Did you know? "Woolgathering" once literally referred to the act of gathering loose tufts of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences as sheep passed by. Woolgatherers must have seemed to wander aimlessly, gaining little for their efforts, for in the mid-16th century "woolgathering" began to appear in figurative phrases such as "my wits (or my mind) went a-woolgathering" -- in other words, "my mind went wandering aimlessly." From there, it wasn't long before the word "woolgathering" came to suggest the act of indulging in purposeless mind-wandering. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2010 is: gulosity • \goo-LAH-suh-tee\ • noun : excessive appetite : greediness Examples: After Bobby helped himself to a third serving of mashed potatoes, his father asked incredulously, "Does your gulosity know no bounds?" "This new generation of activists will need to devise methods of shattering the shields of apathy and gulosity that encase so many Americans…." -- From Tom H. Hastings's 2006 book The Lessons of Nonviolence: Theory and Practice in a World of Conflict Did you know? "Gulosity" is a rare word for gluttony that sees only occasional use in English these days. It derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from the Latin adjective "gulosus" ("gluttonous") and ultimately from the noun "gula" ("gullet"). It was apparently a favorite word of famed 18th-century author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, who has been falsely credited with coining "gulosity," even though evidence for the word’s use dates back to the 15th century. According to his biographer, James Boswell, Johnson was no light eater himself: he “indulged with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins of his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration was visible.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2010 is: comity • \KAH-muh-tee\ • noun : friendly civility : courtesy Examples: In the interests of neighborhood comity, everyone agreed to a block-wide tag sale. "Two years after an election that seemed to portend a new era of comity, American politics has resumed what now appears to be its permanent condition of polarization, quite possibly worsened by widening rifts within the two major parties." -- From an essay by Sam Tanenhaus in The New York Times, October 24, 2010 Did you know? "Our country soweth also in the field of our breasts many precious seeds, as … honest behavior, affability, comity," wrote English clergyman Thomas Becon in 1543. Becon's use is the earliest documented appearance of "comity" -- a word derived from Latin "comitas," meaning "courteousness" (and probably related to the Sanskrit word for "he smiles"). "Comity" is largely used in political and judicial contexts. Since 1862 "comity of nations" has referred to countries bound by a courteous relationship based on mutual recognition of executive, legislative, and judicial acts. And, in legal contexts, "comity" refers to the recognition by courts of one jurisdiction of the laws and judicial decisions of another. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2010 is: shilly-shally • \SHIL-ee-SHAL-ee\ • verb 1 : to show hesitation or lack of decisiveness or resolution 2 : dawdle Examples: Don't shilly-shally like a fool. Just make up your mind and buy the car. "When then-gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy met with Tim Bannon a few weeks before Election Day and offered him what could be considered the second most-powerful position in state government, Bannon jumped at the opportunity. 'I didn't have to shilly-shally much in responding to that,' Bannon said of his job as Gov.-elect Malloy's chief of staff." -- From an article by Brian Lockhart, published November 20, 2010 on ctpost.com (Connecticut Post) Did you know? Shall I? Shall I? When you just don't know what to do, it may feel as if asking that question twice will somehow help you decide. The early 1600s saw the use of the phrase "stand shall I, shall I" to describe vacillation or indecision. By 1700, the phrase had been altered to "shill I, shall I," most likely because people just liked the vowel alteration (that's the same process that gave us "dillydally" and "wishy-washy"). Soon after, the adverbial "shilly-shally" made the jump from slang to literature, and by the late 1700s it was being used not only as an adverb, but also as an adjective, a noun, and a verb. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 9, 2010 is: burke • \BERK\ • verb 1 : to suppress quietly or indirectly 2 : bypass, avoid Examples: The governor attempted to discreetly burke all inquiries into his alleged misuse of state funds. "Meanwhile, I beg and beseech and instruct and order you, to see that the letter addressed to the Chief of Police is not burked." -- From Percival Christopher Wren's classic adventure novel Beau Geste Did you know? When an elderly pensioner died at the Edinburgh boarding house of William Hare in 1827, the proprietor and his friend William Burke decided to sell the body to a local anatomy school. The sale was so lucrative that they decided to make sure they could repeat it. They began luring nameless wanderers (who were not likely to be missed) into the house, getting them drunk, then smothering or strangling them and selling the bodies. The two disposed of at least 15 victims before murdering a local woman whose disappearance led to their arrest. At Burke's execution (by hanging), irate crowds shouted "Burke him!" As a result of the case, the word "burke" became a byword first for death by suffocation or strangulation and eventually for any cover-up. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.