Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2019 is:disbursement \diss-BERSS-munt\ noun: the act of paying out money especially from a fund : the act of disbursing; also : funds paid outExamples:Stephanie receives a monthly disbursement from her parents' trust fund."The bank expanded the reach of its digital disbursements product by teaming up with PayPal." — The Banker, 1 Oct. 2018Did you know?Disbursement was minted in English in the late 16th century by melding the noun suffix -ment with the verb disburse. Disburse is a borrowing of the Middle French desbourser, which traces back to the Old French desborser, a combination of the negating prefix des- (equivalent to the English dis-) and borse, which, like its English cognate purse, ultimately traces back to the Medieval Latin bursa, meaning "money bag" and, in earlier Latin usage, "oxhide." During the 16th and 17th centuries, deburse, depurse, and dispurse were deposited in the English language bank as synonyms of disburse. Deburse and depurse were also used respectively to form debursement and depursement—but these synonyms of disburse and disbursement all quickly declined in value and were never redeemed. 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 May 29, 2019 is:bread \BRED\ noun1 : a usually baked and leavened food made of a mixture whose basic constituent is flour or meal2 : food, sustenance3 a : livelihoodb slang : moneyExamples:His brother was running low on bread, so Michael lent him some money through PayPal to tide him over."Once my mom started making some bread, we bought our first house, a midcentury modern, glass-sided, beautiful ranch house." — Lenny Kravitz, quoted on Hollywoodreporter.com, 2 Feb. 2018Did you know?Bread is a food consisting of flour or meal that is moistened, kneaded into dough, and often fermented using yeast, and it has been a major sustenance since prehistoric times. With the right ingredients, it can be a source of complex carbohydrates and B vitamins (add whole wheat, and you increase its nutritional value). Through synecdoche, its name rose to refer to any source of food or sustenance. Reference to a path to sustenance followed in the 18th century. "I was under no necessity of seeking my bread," recounts Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Dough had already been used to refer to money in 19th-century slang and, in a natural extension, bread was served with the same meaning in the jazz and beat slang of the mid-20th century ("Dean just raced in society, eager for bread and love," writes beatnik Jack Kerouac).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 May 28, 2019 is:lacuna \luh-KOO-nuh\ noun1 : a blank space or a missing part : gap; also : deficiency2 : a small cavity, pit, or discontinuity in an anatomical structureExamples:The osteocyte is a cell that is isolated in a lacuna of bone."During her investigation, Charlie disguises herself as a man, but it's not entirely clear why the private detective does this—the only lacuna in an otherwise well-handled plot." — Eve Ottenberg, The Washington (D.C.) City Paper, 8 Apr. 2019Did you know?Exploring the etymology of lacuna involves taking a plunge into the pit—or maybe a leap into the lacus (that's the Latin word for "lake"). Latin speakers modified lacus into lacuna and used it to mean "pit," "cleft," or "pool." English speakers borrowed the term in the 17th century. It is usually pluralized as lacunae; however, lacunas is an accepted variant plural. Another English word that traces its origin to lacuna is lagoon, which came to us by way of Italian and French.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 May 27, 2019 is:commemorate \kuh-MEM-uh-rayt\ verb1 : to call to remembrance2 : to mark by some ceremony or observation : observe3 : to serve as a memorial ofExamples:A plaque commemorates the battle that took place on this spot 200 years ago."The conference will feature presentations by educators and World War II history experts, along with discussions with veterans of the war. It will culminate with a remembrance ceremony at the World War II Memorial, where participants will commemorate veterans of that war." — Abigail Austin, The Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine), 15 Apr. 2019Did you know?When you remember something, you are mindful of it. It's appropriate, therefore, that commemorate and other related memory-associated words (including memorable, memorial, remember, and memory itself) come from the Latin root memor, meaning "mindful." Some distant older relatives are Old English gemimor ("well-known"), Greek mermēra ("care"), and Sanskrit smarati ("he remembers"). English speakers have been marking the memory of important events with commemorate since the late 16th 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 May 26, 2019 is:yen \YEN\ noun: a strong desire or propensity; also : urge, cravingExamples:"Charlie Partin grew up in the Florida Panhandle, lived for 20 years in New Port Richey, leaving his mark as an architect and an artist, before following a yen to create sculptures in the rolling hills of southeast Nebraska." — Michele Miller, The Tampa Bay Times, 16 Feb. 2019"The state Department of Agriculture created the Pennsylvania Pursue Your Scoops Ice Cream Trail that those with a yen for the sweet treat can follow to various independent, family owned creameries, sampling the tasty wares and getting a 'passport' stamped at each of the 12 stops along the way." — Linda Stein, Well + Good, 21 Mar. 2019Did you know?Although yen suggests no more than a strong longing these days (as in "a yen for a beach vacation"), at one time someone with a yen was in deep trouble indeed. The first meaning of yen was an intense craving for opium. The late 19th-century English term evolved from the Cantonese yīn-yáhn, which itself combines yīn, meaning "opium," and yáhn, meaning "craving." In English, the Chinese syllables were transformed to yen-yen and ultimately abbreviated to simply yen. Eventually, yen was generalized to the more innocuous meaning of "a strong desire," and the link to drug cravings was lost. (The name for the Japanese currency comes from Japanese en, an earlier Japanese word meaning "circle," referring to the shape of a coin.)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 May 25, 2019 is:disparage \dih-SPAIR-ij\ verb1 : to depreciate by indirect means (such as invidious comparison) : to speak slightingly about2 : to lower in rank or reputation : degradeExamples:"In the early 1990s the president of newly independent Estonia gave a speech in Hamburg. In it, he disparaged the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. A little-known Russian official was so outraged that he stormed out. It was Vladimir Putin." — The Economist, 2 Feb. 2019"Despite his own military background, Jackson did not unnecessarily glorify war or disparage peace. In his farewell address, he wrote, 'It is unquestionably our true interest to cultivate the most friendly understanding with every nation and to avoid by every honorable means the calamities of war.'" — Jeff Taylor, The American Conservative, 1 Jan. 2019Did you know?In Middle English, to "disparage" someone meant causing that person to marry someone of inferior rank. Disparage derives from the Anglo-French word desparager, meaning "to marry below one's class." Desparager, in turn, combines the negative prefix des- with parage (meaning "equality" or "lineage"), which itself comes from per, meaning "peer." The original "marriage" sense of disparage is now obsolete, but a closely-related sense (meaning "to lower in rank or reputation") survives in modern English. By the 16th century, English speakers (including William Shakespeare) were also using disparage to mean simply "to belittle."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 May 24, 2019 is:apposite \AP-uh-zit\ adjective: highly pertinent or appropriate : aptExamples:Before sending the final draft of his novel to his editor, Lyle searched for an apposite quotation that could serve as the book's epigraph."He brings to the story a modern intelligence, a modern interest, as well as much apposite historical information. And the result is a refreshing, civilized book, a notable homage to its great original." — Frank Kermode, The New York Review of Books, 1 Dec. 2005Did you know?Apposite and opposite sound so much alike that you would expect them to have a common ancestor—and they do. It is the Latin verb ponere, which means "to put or place." Adding the prefix ad- to ponere led to apponere, meaning "to place near" or "to apply to," and that branch of the ponere family tree budded apposite. The word is used to describe something that applies well to or is very appropriate for something else. To get opposite, the prefix ob- was added to ponere, and that combinition matured into opponere, meaning "to place against or opposite." The related Latin verb componere, meaning "to put together," gave us compound and composite.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 May 23, 2019 is:scavenger \SKAV-un-jer\ noun1 chiefly British : a person employed to remove dirt and refuse from streets2 : one that scavenges: such asa : a garbage collectorb : a junk collectorc : a chemically active substance acting to make innocuous or remove an undesirable substance3 : an organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrionExamples:My uncle, a habitual scavenger and clever handyman, found a broken exercise machine left on the curb and fixed it so that it works again."The 34-year-old scavenger has had to work longer and harder over the past year, underlining how a drastic decline in scrap metal and commodity prices has hurt even the poor who collect discarded metal to sell to scrap yards." — Brendan O'Brien, Reuters, 4 July 2016Did you know?You might guess that scavenger is a derivative of scavenge, but the reverse is actually true; scavenger is the older word, first appearing in English in the early 16th century, and the back-formation scavenge came into English in the mid-17th century. Scavenger is an alteration of the earlier scavager, itself from Anglo-French scawageour, meaning "collector of scavage." In medieval times, scavage was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that's how scavenger came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items.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 May 22, 2019 is:peer-to-peer \PEER-tuh-PEER\ adjective: relating to, using, or being a network by which computers operated by individuals can share information and resources directly without relying on a dedicated central serverExamples:"PayPal announced a new mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) payment platform called PayPal.me, which will allow users to create a personalized PayPal link and send it to peers for fast P2P transfers through PayPal." — Jaime Toplin and John Heggestuen, Business Insider, 1 Sep. 2015"The figures come from a paper presented at Federal Reserve Bank of New York's fintech conference in March, which found 27 percent of peer-to-peer lending dollars had displaced traditional bank lending." — Steven Harras, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, 7 Apr. 2019Did you know?The term peer-to-peer is a relatively recent addition to the English language, being little more than a half-century old. In its earliest known uses from the 1960s, it referred to something that occurs directly between human peers, people who are similar in age, grade, or status. It can still be found in this use in phrases such as "peer-to-peer tutoring." With the emergence of computer networking, peer-to-peer began to be used in reference to a system of computers that are able to communicate directly with one another without the mediation of a centralized server. Since the turn of the 21st century, peer-to-peer lending—the borrowing and lending of money through online services—has become increasingly common. You might also encounter peer-to-peer in the techy abbreviated form P2P, as in "P2P networking."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 May 21, 2019 is:pungle \PUNG-gul\ verb1 : to make a payment or contribution of (money) — usually used with up2 : pay, contribute — usually used with upExamples:We all decided to pungle up for pizza."In December 1849, Coffin formed Coffin & Co. and contracted with a New York builder for a … side-wheel steamer to ply the waters between Portland and San Francisco. When he and his partners failed to pungle up the final payment, however, the vessel was sold." — John Terry, The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 19 Aug. 2007Did you know?Pungle is from the Spanish word póngale, meaning "put it down," which itself is from the verb poner, meaning "to put" or "to place," and, more specifically, "to wager" or "to bet." The earliest uses of pungle are from the mid-1800s and are in reference to anteing up in games of chance. It did not take long for the word to be used in other contexts. We find it, for example, in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) when Huck's father says: "I'll make [Judge Thatcher] pungle, too, or I'll know the reason why." Nowadays, pungle is mainly used in the western part of 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 May 20, 2019 is:remittance \rih-MIT-unss\ noun1 a : a sum of money remittedb : an instrument by which money is remitted2 : transmittal of money (as to a distant place)Examples:"PayPal has everything it needs to send money to friends or family or to pay bills, even across borders. Its acquisition of Xoom in 2015 gave it a strong position in digital remittance." — Adam Levy, The Motley Fool, 14 Dec. 2018"Kit … knew that his old home was a very poor place…, and often indited square-folded letters to his mother, enclosing a shilling or eighteenpence or such other small remittance, which Mr Abel's liberality enabled him to make." — Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, 1841Did you know?Since the 14th century, the verb remit has afforded a variety of meanings, including "to lay aside (a mood or disposition)," "to release from the guilt or penalty of," "to submit or refer for consideration," and "to postpone or defer." It is derived from Latin mittere (meaning "to let go" or "to send"), which is also the root of the English verbs admit, commit, emit, omit, permit, submit, and transmit. Use of remittance in financial contexts referring to the release of money as payment isn't transacted until the 17th 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 May 19, 2019 is:coin of the realm \KOYN-uv-thuh-RELM\ noun phrase1 : the legal money of a country2 : something valued or used as if it were money in a particular sphereExamples:The coin of the realm changes from one country to the next, so travelers may turn to digital transactions through services like PayPal."The 'game' is to see who ultimately will rule from the Iron Throne. This addictive game often plays out like a suspenseful succession of high-stakes chess moves…. There are kings and queens, knights and pawns maneuvering for position, forming strategic alliances on these fictional continents where danger, duplicity, deception and deceit are the coin of the realm." — Mark Dawidziak, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 14 Apr. 2019Did you know?Coin of the realm gained currency in the English language during the 18th century as a term for the legal money of a country. Coin is ultimately from Latin cuneus, meaning "wedge," and entered English, via Anglo-French, in the 14th century with the meaning "cornerstone" or "quoin." By the latter part of that century, the word was being exchanged as a name for a device or impress stamped on flat pieces of metal used as money and, by extension, for the money itself. Realm entered English in the 13th century with the meaning "kingdom." Its spelling is an alteration of Old French reiame, which is based on the Latin word for "rule" or "government," regimen. In time, realm was generalized as the name for any sphere or domain, and coin of the realm came to signify something having value or influence in a particular sphere.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 May 18, 2019 is:tenacious \tuh-NAY-shus\ adjective1 a : not easily pulled apart : cohesiveb : tending to adhere or cling especially to another substance2 : persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired3 : retentiveExamples:Once Linda has decided on a course of action, she can be very tenacious when it comes to seeing it through."The demands on the men were extreme—no sleep, long distances to trek, limited supplies and a tenacious enemy are enough to test the cohesion of even the most disciplined teams." — Capt. Garrison Haning, Army Magazine, 1 Apr. 2019Did you know?For the more than 400 years that tenacious has been a part of the English language, it has adhered closely to its Latin antecedent: tenax, an adjective meaning "tending to hold fast." Almost from the first, tenacious could suggest either literal adhesion or figurative stick-to-itiveness. Sandburs are tenacious, and so are athletes who don't let defeat get them down. We use tenacious of a good memory, too—one that has a better than average capacity to hold information. But you can also have too much of a good thing. The addition in Latin of the prefix per- ("thoroughly") to tenax led to the English word pertinacious, meaning "perversely persistent." You might use pertinacious for the likes of rumors and telemarketers, 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 May 17, 2019 is:palimpsest \PAL-imp-sest\ noun1 : writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased2 : something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surfaceExamples:"Among those handwritten manuscripts are 130 that have additional secrets: They are palimpsests, documents in which the original text was erased and written over, the parchment considered more valuable than the text." — Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura, 29 Aug. 2017"Large and medium-sized canvases in varying stages of completion covered most of the wall space in the studio … and the floor was a palimpsest of rags, used paper palettes, brushes, metal tubs filled with defunct tubes of Old Holland oil paint, colored pencils and broken charcoal sticks, … and other debris." — Calvin Tomkins and Dodie Kazanjian, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2017Did you know?Long ago, writing surfaces were so rare that they were often used more than once. Palimpsest originally described an early form of recycling in which an old document was erased to make room for a new one when parchment ran short. (The word is from the Greek palimpsēstos, meaning "scraped again.") Fortunately for modern scholars, the erasing process wasn't completely effective, so the original could often be distinguished under the newer writing. De republica, by Roman statesman and orator Cicero, is one of many documents thus recovered from a palimpsest. Nowadays, the word palimpsest can refer not only to such a document but to anything that has multiple layers.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 May 16, 2019 is:countermand \KOUNT-er-mand\ verb1 : to revoke (a command) by a contrary order2 : to recall or order back by a superseding contrary orderExamples:"Although the Special Counsel regulations may not permit the Acting Attorney General to countermand certain decisions made by the Special Counsel, the Special Counsel remains subject to the Acting Attorney General's plenary supervision." — Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post Blogs, 13 Aug. 2018"The idea … was that there should be an extra layer of distance between the people and the choice of president—and that this layer should consist of a group of citizens (electors) who freely deliberate about the choice … with the outcome of those deliberations treated as legitimate by the people even when it countermands the result of the popular vote." — Damon Linker, The Week, 19 Sept. 2018Did you know?In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it's simply mandatory. The Latin verb mandare, meaning "to entrust" or "to order," is the authority behind countermand. It's also behind the words mandate, command, demand, commend (which can mean "to entrust" as well as "to praise"), and mandatory. Countermand came to English via Anglo French, where the prefix cuntre- ("against") was combined with the verb mander ("to command"). It has been a part of our language since the 1400s.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 May 15, 2019 is:glitch \GLITCH\ noun1 a : a usually minor malfunction; also : an unexpected defect, fault, flaw, or imperfection b : a minor problem that causes a temporary setback : snag2 : a false or spuriousExamples:The festival had an excellent lineup of performers, and the few glitches with the sound system did not seriously detract from the overall quality of the entertainment."A computer glitch delayed the start of the Saturday press run; by the time it was fixed, the judgment call was made to postpone distribution until Sunday, rather than send carriers out after dark on Saturday." — Jeff Pieters, The Post-Bulletin (Rochester, Minnesota), 9 Mar. 2019Did you know?There's a glitch in the etymology of glitch—the origins of the word are not known for sure, though it may derive from the Yiddish glitsh, meaning "slippery place." Glitch started showing up in print in English in the mid-20th century in reference to a brief unexpected surge of electrical current. The term was new enough in 1962 that the astronaut John Glenn, writing in the book Into Orbit, felt the need to explain the term to his readers: "Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a new load put on it." Today, you don't have to be an astronaut to be familiar with the word glitch, which can be used of any minor malfunction or snag.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 May 14, 2019 is:borne \BORN\ adjective: transported or transmitted by — used in combinationExamples:"By 2050, half the world's population could be at risk of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever or the [Zika virus, new research suggests." — Chelsea Harvey, Scientific American, 7 Mar. 2019"Tacoma had a population of 36,006 by 1890, a boom of 3,179.2 percent in just 10 years. But not to be outdone, Seattle had formed its own rail service, the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad, to feed off the profitable railroad-borne commerce." — Steve Dunkelberger, SouthSoundTalk.com (Pierce County, Washington), 28 Aug. 2018Did you know?Borne is, just like born, the past participle of the verb bear, which can mean (among other things) "to contain" or "to give birth to." At first, borne and born were variant spellings of the same adjective. Used as in water-borne (or water-born), it means "carried by." In the phrase "borne enemies" (or "born enemies"), it means "from birth." To add to the confusion, the spelling borne sees occasional use in the passive voice in the "to give birth to" sense, as in "two sons were borne by his wife." In combining forms, born is reserved for the adjective related to birth (as in newly-born and Massachusetts-born) and borne retains the sense of "carried" ("airborne passengers").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 May 13, 2019 is:regale \rih-GAIL\ verb1 : to entertain sumptuously : to feast with delicacies2 : to give pleasure or amusement to3 : to feast oneself : feedExamples:"Mickelson regaled the 1,000 or so spectators at Monday's trophy ceremony on the 18th green by sharing how his late grandfather, Al Santos, was an original caddie here when Pebble Beach opened 100 years ago." — Cam Inman, The East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, California), 11 Feb. 2019"The process of digestion, as I have been informed by anatomical friends, is one of the most wonderful works of nature. I do not know how it may be with others, but it is a great satisfaction to me to know, when regaling on my humble fare, that I am putting in motion the most beautiful machinery with which we have any acquaintance." — Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844Did you know?Regale has been an English verb since the early half of the 1600s; it was adapted from French régaler, which has the same meaning as regale. The French verb traces back to Middle French galer, which means "to have a good time," and, ultimately, to gale, meaning "pleasure." (Gala, meaning "a festive celebration," is from the same source.) Regale also has a history as a noun meaning "a sumptuous feast." Early use of the noun appears in a 1670 notice: "My Lord Duke will not be able to get away yet…, all the regales that are intended for him not being yet at an end." (The man referred to is the Duke of Buccleuch, whose regales ended once and for all 15 years later when he was beheaded.)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 May 12, 2019 is:darling \DAHR-ling\ noun1 : a dearly loved person2 : favoriteExamples:The youngest of three children, he was always his parents' little darling."Once reticent to share anything about herself with fans and the media, thinking it was cooler to be mysterious, the critical darling and dance world entrepreneur is now open and forthright…." — Katie Bain, Billboard.com, 28 Mar. 2019Did you know?The origins of darling can be found in the very heart of the English language, and examples of its use are found in Old English writings from the 9th century. The Old English dēorling was formed by attaching the Old English suffix -ling ("one associated with or marked by a specified quality") with the adjective dēore, the ancestor of our adjective dear ("regarded very affectionately or fondly," "highly valued or esteemed," "beloved"). English speakers appear to have developed a fondness for darling and have held on to it for well over a thousand years now. And though its spelling has changed over time—including variations such as dyrling, derlinge, and dearling—darling has maintained its original sense of "one dearly loved."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 May 11, 2019 is:incipient \in-SIP-ee-unt\ adjective: beginning to come into being or to become apparentExamples:"I read the motive as being dictated by the necessity of stifling an incipient scandal in order to protect the magic of the marketplace." — James Baldwin, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, 1985"As investment in the industry grows, partnerships and acquisitions are gaining speed, reports CB Insights. Over the past few years, Uber has partnered with five flying-car startups for its incipient flying-taxi service…." — Michael J. Coren, Quartz, 13 Oct. 2018Did you know?A good starting point for any investigation of incipient is the Latin verb incipere, which means "to begin." Incipient emerged in English in the 17th century, appearing in both religious and scientific contexts, as in "incipient grace" and "incipient putrefaction." Later came the genesis of two related nouns, incipiency and incipience, both of which are synonymous with beginning. Incipere also stands at the beginning of the words inception ("an act, process, or instance of beginning") and incipit, a term that literally means "it begins" and which was used for the opening words of a medieval text. Incipere itself derives from another Latin verb, capere, which means "to take" or "to seize."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 May 10, 2019 is:footle \FOO-tul\ verb1 : to talk or act foolishly2 : to waste time : trifle, foolExamples:"A very British invention…, the steam locomotive, derived as it was from [George] Stephenson's nippy Rocket machine on parallel tracks, and the experiments of a young boy called James Watt, who footled about with a spoon in the steam from his aunt's kettle." — John Lewis-Stempel, The Express Online (U.K.), 5 Aug. 2018"I left the convent with an ability to curtsey, two rubbish A-levels and a large repertoire of slightly scandalous songs. I footled around for a year, wasted three years at university, footled around a bit more and then finally did what I'd wanted to do all along—go to drama school…." — Dillie Keane, The Guardian (London), 19 Aug. 2015Did you know?Footle will be more familiar to speakers of British English than it is to speakers of American English. Its likely source is the seldom-used footer, meaning "to waste time." That word is etymologically connected with fouter (also spelled foutra), a word referring to something of little value or someone worthless or bungling. But the link between footle and footer is speculative. What we can say with confidence is that footle is a verb of 19th century origin that—along with the derivative adjective footling (as in "a footling amateur")—is still apt when discussing foolish or trifling people or things.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 May 9, 2019 is:stratagem \STRAT-uh-jum\ noun1 a : an artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemyb : a cleverly contrived trick or scheme for gaining an end2 : skill in ruses or trickeryExamples:As a stratagem to get the kids to do their chores, Melissa persuaded them to have a race to see which child could finish first."Perpetrators always have at their disposal a set of self-exculpatory stratagems that they can use to reframe their actions as provoked, justified, involuntary, or inconsequential." — Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, 2011Did you know?A stratagem is any clever scheme—sometimes one that's part of an overall strategy (i.e., a carefully worked out plan of action). The word stratagem entered English in the 15th century and was originally used in reference to some artifice, such as a military plan or maneuver, which was designed to deceive or outwit the enemy. This military sense can be traced back to the word's Greek ancestor stratēgēma, which is itself based on stratēgein, meaning "to act as a general." Stratēgein, in turn, comes from stratēgos (meaning "general"), which comes from stratos ("camp" or "army") and agein ("to lead"). Stratēgos is an ancestor of strategy as well.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 May 8, 2019 is:muse \MYOOZ\ verb1 : to become absorbed in thought; especially : to think about something carefully and thoroughly2 archaic : wonder, marvel3 : to think or say (something) in a thoughtful wayExamples:"On Twitter and Instagram, he's been acting like a moody teenager, posting photos of himself staring at scenic natural landscapes and musing about the nature of time itself." — Jacob Shamsian, Insider, 25 Mar. 2019"'Television brings people together, but television can also tear us apart,' [Jimmy] Kimmel mused." — Patrick Keefe, The New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2019Did you know?The Muses were the nine Greek goddesses who presided over the arts, including music and literature. A shrine to the Muses was called in Latin a Museum (which came to mean "a place for learned occupation"). An artist or poet about to begin work would call on a particular Muse for inspiration, and a poem itself might begin with such a call; thus, Homer's Odyssey begins, "Sing to me of the man, Muse" (that is, of Odysseus). Today, a muse may be one's special creative spirit, but some artists and writers have also chosen living human beings to serve as their muses.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 May 7, 2019 is:links \LINKS\ plural noun1 Scotland : sand hills especially along the seashore2 : golf course; especially : a golf course on linkslandExamples:"Now that spring is here, it means that it's once again time for golfers to hit the links." — Jonathan Saxon, The Herald (Dubois County, Indiana), 27 Mar. 2019"A giant 9-foot alligator surprised golfers Sunday at a course in Savannah, Georgia, when it suddenly appeared out of nearby brush and lumbered across the links." — Shelby Lin Erdman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 25 Mar. 2019Did you know?The game of golf originated on the sandy hills of Scotland on a type of terrain known as links or linksland. Eventually, the game's layout came to be called by the same name as the land, and links developed the meaning of "a golf course built on the coastline," which eventually broadened to include any golf course. Links is ultimately derived from the Old English word hlincas, the plural of hlinc, meaning "ridge," and teed off in 15th-century Scottish English as a name for sandy, hilly terrain. Britain has a number of old-fashioned links courses (built to resemble the Scottish landscape and located on the coastline), and there are a few in the United States as well.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 May 6, 2019 is:ephemeral \ih-FEM-uh-rul\ adjective1 : lasting a very short time2 : lasting one day onlyExamples:The young YouTube star's fame was ephemeral but surprisingly lucrative while it lasted."After winter, the garden comes to life with the planting of spring-blooming ephemeral bulbs such as naturalizing daffodils, crocus, tulips, snowdrops and hyacinths that appear before the tree canopy 'leafs out' and perennials burst forth…." — The Parry Sound (Ontario) North Star, 6 Mar. 2019Did you know?The mayfly (order Ephemeroptera) typically hatches, matures, mates, and dies within the span of a few short hours (though the longest-lived may survive a record two days); poets sometimes use this insect to symbolize life's ephemeral nature. When ephemeral (from the Greek word ephēmeros, meaning "lasting a day") first appeared in print in English in the late 16th century, it was a scientific term applied to short-term fevers, and later, to organisms (such as insects and flowers) with very short life spans. Soon after that, it acquired an extended sense referring to anything fleeting and short-lived, as in "ephemeral pleasures."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 May 5, 2019 is:trivial \TRIV-ee-ul\ adjective1 a : of little worth or importanceb : relating to or being the mathematically simplest case; specifically : characterized by having all variables equal to zero2 : commonplace, ordinary3 : of, relating to, or constituting a species and especially a biological speciesExamples:"A paper published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology examined how pettiness—being intentionally attentive to trivial details—affects relationships and the way people perceive one another." — Jamie Ducharme, Time, 6 Aug. 2018"From the very first episode, when they tried to score Lil Wayne tickets, Abbi and Ilana were each other's biggest fans…. With them, no topic was ever taboo or too trivial, and being friends meant there were zero boundaries." — Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 28 Mar. 2019Did you know?Trivial comes from a Latin word meaning "crossroads"—that is, where three roads come together. Since a crossroads is a very public place where all kinds of people might show up, trivialis came to mean "commonplace" or "vulgar." Today, the English word has changed slightly in meaning and instead usually describes something barely worth mentioning. Extending that meaning to the related noun might sound unnecessarily harsh for a word we associate with pub quizzes, but the original notion behind trivia was that whatever qualified wasn't something you should worry about not knowing. Before it became the name of a board game, trivial pursuit referred to something in which one takes an interest but that is ultimately inconsequential.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 May 4, 2019 is:hypermnesia \hye-perm-NEE-zhee-uh\ noun: abnormally vivid or complete memory or recall of the pastExamples:"Imagine being able to recall anything you've ever dreamt, tasted or read. That's the reality for a woman with a rare condition which means she can remember virtually every single detail of her life—even being able to recite all the Harry Potter books word-for-word. Rebecca Sharrock is one of just 80 people worldwide who have been identified as having … hypermnesia." — Erin Cardiff, The Mirror, 6 Oct. 2015"'Qui perd gagne!'…, which is translated as 'Loser Take All,' maintains its interest all the way through and awards the viewer with a nice little twist at the end.… Loriot has hypermnesia…. He remembers with total recall absolutely everything he has ever seen or heard, which could drive him crazy without the medication he must take." — Daniel Neman, The Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch, 2 Apr. 2005Did you know?Perhaps the most famous individual to exhibit hypermnesia was a Russian man known as "S," whose amazing photographic memory was studied for 30 years by a psychologist in the early part of the 20th century. Hypermnesia sometimes refers to cases like that of "S," but it can also refer to specific instances of heightened memory (such as those brought on by trauma or hypnosis) experienced by people whose memory abilities are unremarkable under ordinary circumstances. The word hypermnesia, which has been with us since about the mid-19th century, was created in New Latin as the combination of hyper- (meaning "beyond" or "super") and -mnesia (patterned after amnesia). It ultimately derives from the Greek word mnasthai, meaning "to remember."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 May 3, 2019 is:asperity \uh-SPAIR-uh-tee\ noun1 : roughness of manner or of temper : harshness of behavior or speech that expresses bitterness or anger2 : rigor, severity3 a : roughness of surface : unevennessb : roughness of soundExamples:When Shelia asked Roger to make a contribution, he glared and said with asperity, "I already contributed—thank you.""[Charles Portis's True Grit is] one of those rare American novels that can be enjoyed by young readers for action and dialogue and by older readers for the lowdown wit and the wonderful asperity of the narrator Mattie Ross, an elderly skinflint who spins out the tale of her long-ago adolescent pursuit of the outlaw wastrel who killed her father." — Casey Seiler, The Times-Union (Albany, New York), 2 Sept. 2018Did you know?The etymology of asperity is "rough." It is adapted from Middle English asprete, which was borrowed from the Anglo-French aspreté, and ultimately derives from the Latin word asper, which means "rough." Not only is asper the source of asperity, but it also underlies the English word exasperate (in fact, you can see asper nestled in the midst of that word). Although it is far less common than asperity and exasperate, the word asper itself is still occasionally used in English—it functions as a synonym of harsh, bitter, and stern.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 May 2, 2019 is:prodigious \pruh-DIJ-us\ adjective1 : resembling or befitting a prodigy : strange, unusual2 : causing amazement or wonder3 : extraordinary in bulk, quantity, or degree : enormousExamples:"Along with John Ashbery, his elder by two months, Mr. Merwin was one of the defining American poets of his generation, a prodigious and prolific talent who wrote two dozen books of poetry as well as story collections, memoirs, plays and acclaimed translations." — Harrison Smith, The Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2019"What you may have yet to encounter, or haven't fully noticed yet, is the growing group of current medical students who are perhaps on track to achieve even greater fame, through their prodigious and aggressive use of social media, particularly Instagram." — Vishal Kheptal, Slate, 29 Nov. 2018Did you know?Prodigious, monstrous, tremendous, and stupendous all mean extremely impressive. Prodigious suggests marvelousness exceeding belief, usually in something that is felt as going far beyond a previous maximum of goodness, greatness, intensity, or size ("acrobats performing prodigious aerial feats"). Monstrous implies a departure from the normal in size, form, or character ("a monstrous billboard"); it can also suggest that someone or something is ugly, cruel, or vicious ("a monstrous criminal"; "a monstrous crime"). Tremendous and stupendous both imply a power, the former to terrify or awe ("the singer has tremendous talent"), the latter to stun or astound ("the young cast gave a stupendous performance"). Prodigious and the related noun prodigy derive from the Latin prodigium, meaning "omen" or "monster"; at one time, both words were used in English to refer to portents, or omens, but these senses are now considered obsolete.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 May 1, 2019 is:valetudinarian \val-uh-too-duh-NAIR-ee-un\ noun: a person of a weak or sickly constitution; especially : one whose chief concern is his or her ill healthExamples:"Dukakis succeeds by balancing the over-the-top comedy with the right dose of realism. His Argan is at once exaggerated and recognizably human…. Paranoid about his health, this classic valetudinarian is really scared of dying alone and unloved." — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2016"Starting when he [John Updike] was in his late 50's, it sometimes amused him to pretend to be a fogey and a valetudinarian. His submissions to The New Yorker … were often accompanied by a little note declaring that the enclosed was not very good and would probably be his last, because the well was going dry, the tank was empty, the field was fallow." — Charles McGrath, The New York Times, 1 Feb. 2009Did you know?Oddly enough, valetudinarian, a word for someone who is sickly (or at least thinks he or she is), comes from valēre, a Latin word that means "to have strength" or "to be well." Most of the English offspring of valēre imply having some kind of strength or force—consider, for instance, valiant, prevail, valor, and value. But the Latin valēre also gave rise to valētūdō. In Latin, valētūdō refers to one's state of health (whether good or bad), but by the time that root had given rise to valetudinarian in the late 17th century, English-speaking pessimists had given it a decidedly sickly spin.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 April 30, 2019 is:circadian \ser-KAY-dee-un\ adjective: being, having, characterized by, or occurring in approximately 24-hour periods or cycles (as of biological activity or function)Examples:The presence and absence of light can greatly influence an organism's circadian rhythms."The circadian cycle is a period of approximately 24 hours. During that time, and keyed to the daily shift from light to dark and back again, the circadian clock influences rhythmic changes in both physiology and behavior." — Eve Glazier and Elizabeth Ko, The Bismarck Tribune, 3 July 2018Did you know?In 1959, a scientist formed the word circadian from the Latin words circa ("about") and dies ("day"), and it caught on quickly. Most often, it's seen and heard in the term circadian rhythm, which refers to the inherent cycle of about 24 hours that appears to control various biological processes, such as sleep, wakefulness, and digestive activity. If you want to impress your friends, you can also use the term circadian dysrhythmia, a fancy synonym of jet lag.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 April 29, 2019 is:accolade \AK-uh-layd\ noun1 a : a mark of acknowledgment : awardb : an expression of praise2 a : a ceremonial embraceb : a ceremony or salute conferring knighthood3 : a brace or a line used in music to join two or more staffs carrying simultaneous partsExamples:"Black Panther has become the No. 1 movie of the year in North America ($700 million) and No. 2 worldwide ($1.35 billion) and has earned a slew of accolades including Critics' Choice, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations." — Joi Childs, Hollywoodreporter.com, 7 Jan. 2019"One by one, members around the table gave accolades to Smedley for his assistance over the years in a number of areas, including grant writing, training and community events." — Linda Hall, The Daily Record (Wooster, Ohio), 8 Feb. 2017Did you know?Accolade was borrowed into English in the 16th century from French. The French noun, in turn, derives from the verb accoler, which means "to embrace," and ultimately from the Latin term collum, meaning "neck." (Collum is also an ancestor of the English word collar.) When it was first borrowed from French, accolade referred to a ceremonial embrace that once marked the conferring of knighthood. The term was later extended to any ceremony conferring knighthood (such as the more familiar tapping on the shoulders with the flat part of a sword's blade), and eventually extended to honors or awards in general.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 April 28, 2019 is:resuscitate \rih-SUSS-uh-tayt\ verb1 : to revive from apparent death or from unconsciousness; also : revitalize2 : come to, reviveExamples:Christine took a CPR class to learn how to resuscitate victims of heart attacks, near drowning, and other medical emergencies."The government's usual tactics to resuscitate growth—unleashing a wave of loans or spending on infrastructure—won't be much help for the service, financial and tech industries. Experts say the government will need to think of long-term policy reforms to get over this bump." — Alisha Haridasani Gupta, The New York Times, 14 Mar. 2019Did you know?The 16th century was a good one for words ending in the suffix -ate. Not only did our featured word, resuscitate, breathe life into the English language but so did the verbs anticipate ("to give advance thought, discussion, or treatment to"), eradicate ("to do away with completely"), estimate ("to esteem" or "to appraise"), and perpetuate ("to make perpetual"). It was a good century for words about words, too—vocabulary, quip, and hearsay all premiered as well.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 April 27, 2019 is:logy \adjective\ LOH-ghee: sluggish, groggyExamples:I was feeling logy after eating such a big meal, so I decided to take a brief nap."The movie is a diverting live-wire lark—one that, for my money, gets closer to the spirit of what Robin Hood is about than the logy 1991 Kevin Costner version or the dismal 2010 Russell Crowe version." — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 20 Nov. 2018Did you know?Based on surface resemblance, you might guess that logy (also sometimes spelled loggy) is related to groggy, but that's not the case. Groggy ultimately comes from "Old Grog," the nickname of an English admiral who was notorious for his cloak made of a fabric called grogram—and for adding water to his crew's rum. The sailors called the rum mixture grog after the admiral. Because of the effect of grog, groggy came to mean "weak and unsteady on the feet or in action." No one is really sure about the origin of logy, but experts speculate that it comes from the Dutch word log, meaning "heavy."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 April 26, 2019 is:putsch \PUTCH\ noun: a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a governmentExamples:The graduate-level seminar focuses on the events surrounding the August 1991 putsch against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev."[Christian Petzold's] thriller Transit twists modern concerns about national identity, immigration, and fascism into a personal, artsy mystery. Petzold starts with Georg …, an emotionally wounded German living in France, during a spookily contemporary, unspecified putsch, who seeks refuge in the Americas." — Armond White, National Review, 13 Mar. 2019Did you know?In its native Swiss German, putsch originally meant "knock" or "thrust," but these days both German and English speakers use it to refer to the kind of government overthrow also known as a coup d'état or coup. Putsch debuted in English shortly before the tumultuous Kapp Putsch of 1920, in which Wolfgang Kapp and his right-wing supporters attempted to overthrow the German Weimar government. Putsch attempts were common in Weimar Germany, so the word appeared often in the stories of the English journalists who described the insurrections. Adolf Hitler also attempted a putsch (known as the Beer Hall Putsch), but he ultimately gained control of the German government via other means.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 April 25, 2019 is:nonpareil \nahn-puh-REL\ adjective: having no equalExamples:The chef is well-known for his mastery at creating savory entrées, but it is his dessert creations that are nonpareil."Louis Armstrong was a God-gifted cultural amalgamation of all the best that America has to offer: He was an artist and humanitarian of the highest order.… [He] broke down artistic, racial, social, and cultural barriers. Using his nonpareil trumpet ability, he reinvented American music." — Jon Batiste, quoted in Billboard, 31 May 2017Did you know?Trace nonpareil back to its Middle French origins, and you'll find that it comes from a term meaning "not equal." Pareil itself comes from a Vulgar Latin form of par, which means "equal." Nonpareil has served as an English adjective since the 15th century, and since about the turn of the 16th century, it has also functioned as a noun describing an individual of unequaled excellence. In 1612, Captain John Smith used the term in that noun sense (but with a now-archaic spelling): "Pocahontas, Powhatan's daughter ... was the very Nomparell of his kingdome, and at most not past 13 or 14 years of age." And as you may know, nonpareil is also the name of a chocolate candy covered with white sugar pellets.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 April 24, 2019 is:writhe \RYTHE\ verb1 : to move or proceed with twists and turns2 : to twist from or as if from pain or struggling3 : to suffer keenlyExamples:Kelly watched the earthworm writhe across the driveway and toward the garden."When the coast is clear, start peeling off your wetsuit. This is easier said than done because sweat-soaked neoprene clings to your flesh like a second skin. So, as you writhe and squirm to free yourself, think of a beautiful butterfly emerging from its chrysalis." — Irv Oslin, The Ashland (Ohio) Times-Gazette, 21 Feb. 2019Did you know?Writhe wound its way into English from the Old English verb wrīthan ("to twist") and is akin to the Old English verb wrigian ("to turn or go"). Wrigian gave us our words wriggle, awry, and wry. When something wriggles, it twists from side to side with quick movements, like an earthworm. When something goes awry, it twists or winds off course, often toward catastrophe. Wry can mean "bent or twisted" but usually implies clever, ironic humor. These days, writhe often suggests the physical contortions one makes when enduring crippling pain or when trying to extract oneself from a tight grasp (as an animal from a predator's claws). Alternatively, it can imply an emotionally wrenching feeling (as of grief or fear) from which one seeks relief.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 April 23, 2019 is:inexorable \i-NEK-suh-ruh-bul\ adjective: not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped : relentlessExamples:"The question is, what is Nashville anymore, if not gritty joints that nurtured musicians and songwriters? Yes, change is the inexorable constant, but at such an accelerated pace, we are seeing the fabric of Nashville culture being ripped away and replaced with the glitz not of rhinestones, but of klieg lights and slick outsiders spoiling for a deal." — Jim Myers, The Nashville Ledger, 1 Mar. 2019"As the cost of public school leadership continues its inexorable rise, so do the taxpayer-funded pensions received by educators when they retire." — David McKay Wilson, lohud.com, 7 Mar. 2019Did you know?The Latin antecedent of inexorable is inexorabilis, which is itself a combination of the prefix in-, meaning "not," plus exorabilis, meaning "pliant" or "capable of being moved by entreaty." It's a fitting etymology for inexorable. You can beseech and implore until you're blue in the face, but that won't have any effect on something that's inexorable. Inexorable has been a part of the English language since the 1500s. Originally, it was often applied to people or sometimes to personified things, as in "deaf and inexorable laws." These days, it is usually applied to things, as in "inexorable monotony" or "an inexorable trend." In such cases, it essentially means "unyielding" or "inflexible."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 April 22, 2019 is:intoxicate \in-TAHK-suh-kayt\ verb1 : poison2 a : to excite or stupefy by alcohol or a drug especially to the point where physical and mental control is markedly diminished b : to excite or elate to the point of enthusiasm or frenzyExamples:"But, even as a child, [George] Benjamin preferred classical music: Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring,' Mussorgsky's 'Night on Bald Mountain,' Dukas's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice,' and Beethoven above all. He was 'intoxicated by music,' he told me, noting, 'If I had an afternoon off, I would spend it looking at scores, practicing the piano, writing music….'" — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 17 Sept. 2018"I ate the berries myself, my tongue carefully and eagerly pressing each one to my palate. The sweet, aromatic juice of each squashed berry intoxicated me for a second." — Varlam Shalamov, "Berries" in Kolyma Stories, 2018Did you know?For those who think that alcohol and drugs qualify as poisons, the history of intoxicate offers some etymological evidence to bolster your argument. Intoxicate traces back to toxicum, the Latin word for "poison"—and the earliest meaning of intoxicate was as an adjective describing something (such as the tip of an arrow or dart) steeped in or smeared with poison. That meaning dates to the 15th century; the related verb, meaning "to poison," occurs in the 16th. Both senses are now obsolete. Today, we talk about such harmless things as flowers and perfume having the power to intoxicate. Toxicum turns up in the etymologies of a number of other English words including toxic ("poisonous"), intoxicant ("something that intoxicates"), and detoxify ("to remove a poison from"), as well as a number of names for various poisons themselves.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 April 21, 2019 is:resurrection \rez-uh-REK-shun\ noun1 a (capitalized Resurrection) : the rising of Christ from the deadb (often capitalized Resurrection) : the rising again to life of all the human dead before the final judgmentc : the state of one risen from the dead2 : resurgence, revivalExamples:"After the ceremony was concluded upon the present occasion, I felt all the easier…. [All] the days I should now live would be as good as the days that Lazarus lived after his resurrection; a supplementary clean gain of so many months or weeks as the case might be." — Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851"Every few weeks I get a press release declaring that coal is going to make a comeback, but reports of the resurrection have been greatly exaggerated." — Chris Tomlinson, The Houston Chronicle, 11 Mar. 2019Did you know?In the 1300s, speakers of Middle English borrowed resurreccioun from Anglo-French. Originally, the word was used in specific Christian contexts to refer to the rising of Christ from the dead or to the festival celebrating this rising (now known as Easter). By the 1400s, the word was being used in the more general sense of "resurgence" or "revival." The Anglo-French resurreccioun comes from the Late Latin resurrectio ("the act of rising from the dead"), which is derived from the verb resurgere ("to rise from the dead"). In earlier Latin, resurgere meant simply "to rise again" and was formed by attaching the re- prefix to the verb surgere, meaning "to rise." Resurgere is also the source of English resurge and resurgence.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 April 20, 2019 is:propitious \pruh-PISH-us\ adjective1 : favorably disposed : benevolent2 : being a good omen : auspicious3 : tending to favor : advantageousExamples:With the economy emerging from a recession, it was a propitious time to invest in a start-up."My instincts tell me that this is a propitious moment in time, a time when people support and insist upon decisive action, a time when policymakers have the courage and commitment to move forward with ideas that may seem bold but are, in essence, sensible and straightforward." — James Aloisi, Commonwealth Magazine, 7 Mar. 2019Did you know?Propitious, which comes to us through Middle English from the Latin word propitius, is a synonym of favorable and auspicious. All three essentially mean "pointing toward a happy outcome," with some differences of emphasis. Favorable implies that someone or something involved in a situation is approving or helpful ("a favorable recommendation"), or that circumstances are advantageous ("favorable weather conditions"). Auspicious usually applies to a sign or omen that promises success before or at the start of an event ("an auspicious beginning"). Propitious may also apply to beginnings, but it often suggests a continuing promising condition ("propitious conditions for an alliance").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 April 19, 2019 is:ecstatic \ek-STAT-ik\ adjective: of, relating to, or marked by ecstasyExamples:Greta and Paul were ecstatic when their daughter called to tell them that they were soon going to be grandparents."Harold Pinter established himself as Britain's foremost dramatist by placing inscrutable characters in cryptic situations and he was bound to keep the production line in motion, knowing that his oblique scripts would be greeted by genuflecting reviewers, ecstatic professors of literature and shrewd thesps ululating with approval at every rehearsal." — Lloyd Evans, The Spectator, 24 Nov. 2018Did you know?Ecstatic has been used in our language since the late 16th century, and the noun ecstasy is even older, dating from the 1300s. Both derive from the Greek verb existanai ("to put out of place"), which was used in a Greek phrase meaning "to drive someone out of his or her mind." That seems an appropriate history for words that can describe someone who is nearly out of their mind with intense emotion. In early use, ecstatic was sometimes linked to mystic trances, out-of-body experiences, and temporary madness. Today, however, it typically implies a state of enthusiastic excitement or intense happiness.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 April 18, 2019 is:adversary \AD-ver-sair-ee\ noun: one that contends with, opposes, or resists : an enemy or opponentExamples:Despite the fact that they have been political adversaries for years, the two state senators worked together to rally bipartisan support for the bill."Try these strategies to engage your boss as a partner in your success rather than an adversary who's getting in your way." — Nate Regier, The Wichita Eagle, 7 Mar. 2019Did 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 adverāsarius ("turned toward" or "antagonistic toward"), which in turn can be traced back to the verb advertere, meaning "to turn toward." Advertere itself derives from ad- and vertere ("to turn"), and vertere is the source of a number of English words. Along with obvious derivatives, like inadvertent and adverse, are some surprises, including anniversary, vertebra, and prose—the last of which traces back to the Latin prosus, a contraction of proversus, the past participle of provertere ("to turn forward").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 April 17, 2019 is:gullible \GULL-uh-bul\ adjective: easily duped or cheatedExamples:"I'm not so gullible as to think I really won this cash sweepstakes," said Aunt Mary, though she went ahead and opened the envelope that told her she had won, just in case it wasn't a scam."The conclusion that some people are more gullible than others is the understanding in popular culture—but in the scientific world it's pitted against another widely believed paradigm, shaped by several counterintuitive studies that indicate we're all equally biased, irrational and likely to fall for propaganda, sales pitches and general nonsense." — Faye Flam, The Chicago Tribune, 4 Jan. 2019Did you know?Don't fall for anyone who tries to convince you that gullible isn't entered in the dictionary. It's right there, along with the run-on entries gullibility and gullibly. All three words descend from the verb gull, meaning "to deceive or take advantage of." The verb was borrowed into English from Anglo-French in the mid-16th century. Another relative is the noun gull, referring to a person who is easy to cheat—a word which is unrelated to the familiar word for a seabird, which is of Celtic origin.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 April 16, 2019 is:shanghai \shang-HYE\ verb1 a : to put aboard a ship by force often with the help of liquor or a drug b : to put by force or threat of force into or as if into a place of detention2 : to put by trickery into an undesirable positionExamples:Nate was shanghaied by his sister into helping her sell shirts at the lacrosse tournament after her friend bailed out."In time, the new novel, lurching around his psyche, dragged itself away and became real. How I loved to see him shanghaied like that, careening down the rum-soaked wharves of imagination…." — Diane Ackerman, Hundred Names for Love: A Memoir, 2011Did You Know?In the 1800s, long sea voyages were very difficult and dangerous, so people were understandably hesitant to become sailors. But sea captains and shipping companies needed crews to sail their ships, so they gathered sailors any way they could—even if that meant resorting to kidnapping by physical force or with the help of liquor or drugs. The word shanghai comes from the name of the Chinese city of Shanghai. People started to use the city's name for that unscrupulous way of obtaining sailors because the East was often a destination of ships that had kidnapped men onboard as crew.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 April 15, 2019 is:katzenjammer \KAT-sun-jam-er\ noun1 : hangover2 : distress, depression, or confusion resembling that caused by a hangover3 : a discordant clamorExamples:"I drank too much that night and woke up submerged in a post-wine katzenjammer the next morning. My head was buzzing, and every fiber of my body slowly shriveled and wilted as the alcohol exited it." — Mac Lethal, Texts from Bennett, 2013"The highest purpose of bar food, in all its cheesy, starchy, pinguid, deep-fried trashiness, is to sponge up as many bad decisions as possible before you wake up with a katzenjammer." — Mike Sula, Chicago Reader, 22 Mon. 2015Did You Know?Have you ever heard a cat wailing and felt that you could relate? Apparently some hungover German speakers once did. Katzenjammer comes from German Katze (meaning "cat") and Jammer (meaning "distress" or "misery"). English speakers borrowed the word for their hangovers (and other distressful inner states) in the first half of the 19th century and eventually applied it to outer commotion as well. The word isn't as popular in English today as it was around the mid-20th century, but it's well-known to many because of The Katzenjammer Kids, a long-running comic strip featuring the incorrigibly mischievous twins Hans and Fritz.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 April 14, 2019 is:veritable \VAIR-uh-tuh-bul\ adjective: being in fact the thing named and not false, unreal, or imaginary — often used to stress the aptness of a metaphorExamples:"The availability of movies and TV shows on streaming services is a veritable merry-go-round these days, with so many titles coming and going that it's hard to keep things straight." — Bryan Bishop, The Verge, 29 July 2016"Putting on shows at the amphitheater takes a large cohort of people, each with their own expertise, and I began to see that theatre was a veritable smorgasbord of options: lights, sound, props, costumes ... director, actor, stage manager, etc." — Casey Joiner, quoted in The Daily Toreador (Texas Tech University), 25 Feb. 2019Did You Know?Veritable, like its close relative verity ("truth"), came to English through Anglo-French from Latin. It is ultimately derived from verus, the Latin word for "true," which also gave us verify, aver, and verdict. Veritable is often used as a synonym of genuine or authentic ("a veritable masterpiece"), but it is also frequently used to stress the aptness of a metaphor, often in a humorous tone ("a veritable swarm of lawyers"). In the past, usage commentators have objected to the latter use, but today it doesn't draw much criticism.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 April 13, 2019 is:cubit \KYOO-bit\ noun: any of various ancient units of length based on the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger and usually equal to about 18 inches (46 centimeters)Examples:The teacher explained that the ancient Egyptians did not measure things in feet and yards as we do but rather calculated measurements using the cubi."Noah's big boat, 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high and jammed to its gunwales with wildlife, has been a favorite metaphor among books about biological diversity."   — David Quammen, The New York Times Book Review, 23 Apr. 1995Did You Know?The cubit is an ancient unit of length that may have originated in Egypt close to 5,000 years ago. Cubit can refer to various units used in the ancient world, the actual length of which varied from time to time and place to place, but which was generally equivalent to the length of the human arm from elbow to fingertip—roughly about a foot and a half. (Appropriately, the word's source is a Latin word meaning "elbow.") Starting with the Wycliffe Bible in 1382, cubit has been used as the English translation for the measurement known in Biblical Hebrew as the "ammah" and in Koine as the "péchus."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 April 12, 2019 is:thole \THOHL\ verbchiefly dialectal : endureExamples:"There was now temptation to resist, as well as pain to thole." — Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, 1886"They view bad weather—whether it be a temperature of minus 14 or the northerly wind that comes howling down the loch—as a pleasurable challenge rather than something to be tholed." — Peter Ross, The Scotsman, 1 Oct. 2012Did You Know?Thole has a long history in the English language. It existed in Middle English in its current form, and in Old English in the form tholian, but in these modern times, it tholes only in a few of England's northern dialects. It has, however, a linguistic cousin far more familiar to most English speakers: the word tolerate traces back to Latin tolerare, meaning "to endure, put up with," and tolerare and tholian share a kinship with the Greek verb tlēnai, meaning "to bear." Unrelated to our featured word thole, there is another (also very old) thole, which can be used as a synonym of peg or pin, or can refer to either of a pair of pins set in the gunwale of a boat to hold an oar in place.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 April 11, 2019 is:despot \DESS-putt\ noun1 a : a ruler with absolute power and authorityb : one exercising power tyrannically : a person exercising absolute power in a brutal or oppressive way2 a : a Byzantine emperor or princeb Christianity : a bishop or patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Churchc : an Italian hereditary prince or military leader during the RenaissanceExamples:"We like to think that, in a tyrannizing world, the best and the bravest thing is to beat the despots down. The worst thing, though, is that you become a tyrant yourself." — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 24 July 2017"Throughout the world, despots are … probably monitoring Internet traffic, communications and behavior—in many cases using surveillance technology supplied by U.S. and other Western companies." — Robert Morgus and Justin Sherman, The Washington Post, 17 Jan. 2019Did You Know?In his 1755 dictionary, Samuel Johnson said of despot, "the word is not in use, except as applied to some Dacian prince; as the despot of Servia." Indeed at that time, the word was mainly used to identify some very specific rulers or religious officials, and the title was an honorable one: it comes from a Greek word meaning "lord" or "master" and was originally applied to deities. That situation changed toward the end of the century, perhaps because French Revolutionists, who were said to have been "very liberal in conferring this title," considered all sovereigns to be tyrannical. When democracy became all the rage, despot came to be used most often for any ruler who wielded absolute and often contemptuous and oppressive power.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.