Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2019 is:emote \ih-MOHT\ verb: to give expression to emotion especially in actingExamples:"It's not always immediately obvious, but sometimes you fall in love with a band for the way the singers emote." — James Reed, The Boston Globe, 24 Jan. 2012"Aiming for a higher quality than masks allowed, the makeup artist John Chambers developed a new type of foam rubber and created facial appliances that allowed actors to talk and emote." — Andrew R. Chow, The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2018Did You Know?Emote is an example of what linguists call a back-formation—that is, a word formed by trimming down an existing word (in this case, emotion). As is sometimes the case with back-formations, emote has since its coinage in the early 20th century tended toward use that is less than entirely serious. It frequently appears in humorous or deprecating descriptions of the work of actors, and is similarly used to describe theatrical behavior by nonactors. Though a writer sometimes wants us to take someone's "emoting" seriously, a phrase like "expressing emotion" avoids the chance that we will hear some snideness in the writer's words.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 February 18, 2019 is:prestigious \preh-STIH-juss\ adjective1 archaic : of, relating to, or marked by illusion, conjuring, or trickery2 : having an illustrious name or reputation : esteemed in general opinionExamples:Carla was overjoyed to receive an acceptance letter from the prestigious university."The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced 16 finalists for its closely watched SECA [Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art] Art Award for 2019. The awards are the region's most prestigious recognition for emerging artists." — Charles Desmarais, The San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Dec. 2018Did You Know?You may be surprised to learn that prestigious had more to do with trickery than with respect when it was first used in the mid-16th century. The earliest (now archaic) meaning of the word was "of, relating to, or marked by illusion, conjuring, or trickery." Prestigious comes to us from the Latin word praestigiosis, meaning "full of tricks" or "deceitful." The words prestige and prestigious are related, of course, though not as directly as you might think; they share a Latin ancestor, but they entered English by different routes. Prestige, which was borrowed from French in the mid-17th century, initially meant "a conjurer's trick," but in the 19th century it developed an extended sense of "blinding or dazzling influence." That change, in turn, influenced prestigious, which now means simply "illustrious or esteemed."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 February 17, 2019 is:disavow \dis-uh-VOW\ verb1 : to deny responsibility for : repudiate2 : to refuse to acknowledge or accept : disclaimExamples:It seems the college's president is now trying to disavow her previous statements."Last week in Beijing, ['Crazy Rich Asians'] director Jon M. Chu essentially disavowed every word in the film's title. 'The film is a satire,' Chu told the state-affiliated Global Times. 'It's not about "crazy rich" or "Asians" actually—it's about the opposite of that. It's about how all those things mean nothing and it comes down to our own relationships and finding love and our own families.'" — Rebecca Davis, Variety, 29 Nov. 2018Did You Know?If you trace the etymology of disavow back through Middle English to Anglo-French, you'll arrive eventually at the prefix des- and the verb avouer, meaning "to avow." The prefix des-, in turn, derives from the Latin prefix dis-, meaning "apart." That Latin prefix plays a significant role in many current English words, including disadvantage, disappoint, and disagree. Avouer is from Latin advocare, meaning "to summon," and is also the source of our word advocate.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 February 16, 2019 is:gibbous \JIB-us\ adjective1 a : marked by convexity or swellingb : of the moon or a planet : seen with more than half but not all of the apparent disk illuminated2 : having a hump : humpbackedExamples:The fresh layer of snow glistened under the light of the waxing gibbous moon."During the fourth lunar orbit, Anders was engaged in photographing the lunar surface when he noticed a slightly gibbous Earth rising above the surface as the spacecraft passed over from the moon's far side to its near side." — Alan Hale, The Alamogordo (New Mexico) Daily News, 23 Dec. 2018Did You Know?The adjective gibbous has its origins in the Latin noun gibbus, meaning "hump," and in the Late Latin adjective gibbosus, meaning "humpbacked," which Middle English adopted in the 14th century as gibbous. Gibbous has been used to describe the rounded body parts of humans and animals (such as the back of a camel) or to describe the shape of certain flowers (such as snapdragons). The term is most often identified, however, with the study of astronomy. A gibbous moon is one that is more than a half-moon but less than full.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 February 15, 2019 is:apotheosis \uh-pah-thee-OH-sis\ noun1 a : the perfect form or example of something : quintessenceb : the highest or best part of something : peak2 : elevation to divine status : deificationExamples:"Four decades after its box office debut, Grease remains a cultural phenomenon.… [Olivia] Newton-John is particularly stellar, with her charming persona and spotless soprano voice making the film the apotheosis of her '70s superstardom." — Billboard.com, 4 Oct. 2018"In 2018, this adaptation [of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451] speaks to the apotheosis of social media, to the approach of authoritarianism, and to any other anxieties about the self-surveillance state that you might harbor." — Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, 18 May 2018Did You Know?Among the ancient Greeks, it was sometimes thought fitting—or simply handy, say if you wanted a god somewhere in your bloodline—to grant someone or other "god" status. So they created the word apotheōsis, from the verb apotheoun, meaning "to deify." (The prefix apo- can mean "off," "from," or "away," and theos is the Greek word for "god.") There's not a lot of Greek-style apotheosizing in the 21st century, but there is hero-worship. Our extended use of apotheosis as "elevation to divine status" is the equivalent of "placement on a very high pedestal." Even more common these days is to use apotheosis in reference to a perfect example or ultimate form. For example, one might describe a movie as "the apotheosis of the sci-fi movie genre."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 February 14, 2019 is:heartstring \HAHRT-string\ noun: the deepest emotions or affections — usually used in pluralExamples:"While on Facebook, have you ever come across a posting that tugs at your heartstrings? Photos of adorable abandoned puppies, say, or a story about a cute little girl who didn't get any happy birthday wishes? You instinctively click the 'thumbs-up' or add a comment (Happy birthday!) and maybe even decide to share the posting." — Mary C. Hickey, Consumer Reports, June 2018"There are two moments in 'Mary Poppins Returns' when the grown-ups watching really lose it: Dick Van Dyke's arrival and when Angela Lansbury starts singing. Those are playing on a lifetime of heartstrings." — Lin-Manuel Miranda, quoted in USA Today, 27 Dec. 2018Did You Know?Before a song or movie or heart-shaped card accompanied by a box of chocolates could tug at your heartstrings, the job was more likely to be accomplished by a surgeon: the word heartstring used to refer to a nerve believed to sustain the heart. You might recognize the word's second syllable in the term hamstring, which refers to both a group of tendons at the back of the knee and to any of three muscles at the backs of the upper legs. It's also apparent in a rare dialect term for the Achilles' tendon: heel string. And in light of these terms, it's not surprising to know that string itself was at one time used independently to refer to cords like tendons and ligaments.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 February 13, 2019 is:cacophony \ka-KAH-fuh-nee\ noun1 : harsh or discordant sound : dissonance]; specifically : harshness in the sound of words or phrases2 : an incongruous or chaotic mixture : a striking combinationExamples:"But never in their most uneasy dreams did they expect the cacophony—a word which here means 'the sound of two metal pots being banged together by a nasty foreman standing in the doorway holding no breakfast at all'—that awoke them." — Lemony Snicket, The Miserable Mill, 2000"Divided into groups of ten or so, the students came forward for an opportunity to play the instruments. The cacophony that resulted was matched only by the children's broad smiles as they blew tubas, banged on drums or drew bows across violins." — Steven Felschundneff, The Claremont (California) Courier, 29 Nov. 2018Did You Know?Words that descend from the Greek word phōnē are making noise in English. Why? Because phōnē means "sound" or "voice." Cacophony comes from a joining of the Greek prefix kak- (from kakos,meaning "bad") with phōnē, so it essentially means "bad sound." Symphony, a word that indicates harmony or agreement in sound, traces to phōnē and the Greek prefix syn-, which means "together." Polyphony refers to a style of musical composition in which two or more independent melodies are juxtaposed in harmony, and it comes from a combination of phōnē and the Greek prefix poly-, meaning "many." And euphony, a word for a pleasing or sweet sound, combines phōnē with eu-, a prefix that means "good."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 February 12, 2019 is:teem \TEEM\ verb1 : to become filled to overflowing : abound2 : to be present in large quantityExamples:"On Friday, Tselikis stood in front of the Red's Best stall at Boston's Public Market, offering up tidbits about lobsters as they teemed inside a tank." — Gintautas Dumcius, MassLive.com, 10 June 2016"But beneath the surface, some of the rigs are teeming with biological life. Dozens of fish species, thousands of different kinds of invertebrates, and sea lions all call the rigs home." — Erik Olsen, Quartz, 17 Nov. 2018Did You Know?The verb teem and the noun team are not just homophones, they are also etymological kin. Teem is derived from Old English tīman or tæman, which originally meant "to bring forth offspring" or "to become pregnant." That word is related to the ancestor of team, the Old English noun tēam, meaning "offspring, lineage, or group of draft animals." Team can still be used to refer to a brood of young animals, especially pigs or ducks, but both teem and team have otherwise largely left their offspring-related senses behind.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 February 11, 2019 is:bardolater \bar-DAH-luh-ter\ noun: a person who idolizes ShakespeareExamples:The song retells the story of "Othello," but in such subtle language that only bardolaters are likely to recognize it."[W]hether you're a bona fide Bardolater or someone who uses Shakespeare as an excuse to eat brie on a blanket under the summer stars, here's a brief round-up of where to satisfy your appetite for Shakespeare this summer." — Jenny Terpsichore Abeles, The Recorder (Greenfield, Massachusetts), 15 June 2017Did You Know?George Bernard Shaw once described a William Shakespeare play as "stagy trash." Another time, Shaw said he'd like to dig Shakespeare from the grave and throw stones at him. Shaw could be equally scathing toward Shakespeare's adoring fans. He called them "foolish Bardolaters," wrote of "Bardolatrous" ignoramuses, and called blind Shakespeare worship "Bardolatry." Oddly enough, Shaw didn't despise Shakespeare or his work (on the contrary, he was, by his own admission, an admirer), but he disdained those who placed the man beyond reproach. The word bardolater, which Shaw coined by blending Shakespeare's epithet—"the Bard"—with an affix that calls to mind idolater, has stuck with us to this day, though it has lost some of its original critical sting.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 February 10, 2019 is:finicky \FIN-ih-kee\ adjective1 : extremely or excessively particular, exacting, or meticulous in taste or standards2 : requiring much care, precision, or attentive effortExamples:The young boy was a finicky eater, and his parents found it challenging to come up with ideas for healthy meals that he would enjoy."The 1970s, '80s, and '90s electronic components that are inside most pinball machines are aging and finicky, with a shrinking pool of techs able to decipher the machines' precise workings." — Zane Razzaq, The MetroWest Daily News (Framingham, Massachusetts), 27 Dec. 2018Did You Know?You may be familiar with an advertising campaign featuring Morris, the finicky housecat who would only eat a certain brand of cat food. Morris's tastes in cuisine are not only very particular, but very fine as well, and that's appropriate given the origin of finicky. The word came about as an alteration of finicking, itself an alteration of another adjective, finical. It's believed that finical derives from the adjective fine. Finicking also gives us finick, a somewhat rare verb meaning "to put on airs" or "to dawdle about."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 February 9, 2019 is:prescind \prih-SIND\ verb1 : to withdraw one's attention2 : to detach for purposes of thoughtExamples:"But to frame an abstract idea of happiness, prescinded from all particular pleasure, or of goodness, from everything that is good, this is what few can pretend to." — George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, 1710"Nooyi prescinded from the share price-obsessed practices associated with most conglomerates—and instead said she was focused on making PepsiCo the kind of company that would deliver a 'lasting impact' to society." — Edmund Heaphy, Quartz, 6 Aug. 2018Did You Know?Prescind derives from the Latin verb praescindere, which means "to cut off in front." Praescindere, in turn, was formed by combining prae- ("before") and scindere ("to cut" or "to split"). So it should come as no surprise that when prescind was first used during the 17th century, it referred to "cutting off" one's attention from a subject. An earlier (now archaic) sense was even clearer about the etymological origins of the word, with the meaning "to cut short, off, or away" or "to sever." Other descendants of scindere include rescind ("to take back or make void") and the rare scissile ("capable of being cut").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 February 8, 2019 is:wiseacre \WYZE-ay-ker\ noun: one who pretends to knowledge or cleverness; especially : smart aleckExamples:"Regardless of how they choose to do so, most people who contact Congress have legitimate concerns—but, as any staffer can tell you, there is a small but enduring subgroup of wiseacres and crackpots. Moore, the former congressional staffer, once took a call from a man who claimed, in all seriousness, to be the true and rightful owner of the moon." — Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2017"A French nobleman-soldier who is mad for love and poetry in roughly equal measure, a chivalric wiseacre adept at wordplay and swordplay alike, Cyrano requires an actor who is both physically and intellectually nimble." — Don Aucoin, The Boston Globe, 20 July 2018Did You Know?Given the spelling and definition of wiseacre, you might guess that the word derives from the sense of wise meaning "insolent" or "fresh"—the sense that also gives us wise guy, wisecrack, and wisenheimer. But, in fact, wiseacre came to English by a different route: it is derived from the Middle Dutch wijssegger, meaning "soothsayer." Wiseacre first appeared in English way back in the 16th century, while the "insolent" sense of wise and the words formed from it are products of the 19th century. The etymologies of wiseacre and wise are not completely distinct, however; the ancestors of wiseacre are loosely tied to the same Old English root that gave us wise.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 February 7, 2019 is:abstruse \ub-STROOSS\ adjective: difficult to comprehend : reconditeExamples:"Today's physics breakthroughs tend to be so abstruse that summarizing them is like trying to explain the financial-derivatives market to a three-year-old." — The National Review, 16 Apr. 2018"Before the Apple Macintosh, the first computer to popularize point-and-click, people using home computers had to familiarize themselves with abstruse text commands." — Clive Thompson, The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2018Did You Know?Look closely at the following Latin verbs, all of which are derived from the verb trudere ("to push, thrust"): extrudere, intrudere, obtrudere, protrudere. Remove the last two letters of each of these and you get an English descendant whose meaning involves pushing or thrusting. Another trudere offspring, abstrudere, meaning "to push away" or "to conceal," gave English abstrude, meaning "to thrust away," but that 17th-century borrowing has fallen out of use. An abstrudere descendant that has survived is abstruse, an adjective that recalls the meaning of its Latin parent abstrūsus, meaning "concealed."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 February 6, 2019 is:ratiocination \rat-ee-oh-suh-NAY-shun\ noun1 : the process of exact thinking : reasoning2 : a reasoned train of thoughtExamples:"It is beginning to look like television may soon kill not only the theater and the movies but radio, books, magazines, newspapers, and finally articulate speech and all the processes of ratiocination." — Aldous Huxley, letter, 14 Feb. 1949"Ratiocination is a trained, disciplined procedure of arriving at truth—a use of reason and perspicacity so precise it's almost supernatural." — Virginia Heffernan, Wired, June 2018Did You Know?Edgar Allan Poe is said to have called the 1841 story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" his first "tale of ratiocination." Many today agree with his assessment and consider that Poe classic to be literature's first detective story. Poe didn't actually use ratiocination in "Rue Morgue," but the term does appear three times in its 1842 sequel, "The Mystery of Marie Roget." In "Marie Roget," the author proved his reasoning ability (ratiocination traces to ratio, Latin for "reason" or "computation"). The second tale was based on an actual murder, and as the case unfolded after the publication of Poe's work, it became clear that his fictional detective had done an amazing job of reasoning through the crime.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 February 5, 2019 is:mettlesome \MET-ul-sum\ adjective: full of vigor and stamina : spiritedExamples:"'I like this place because everything they have can kill you,' Edith Pearlman says, perusing the menu of a Brookline pub on a recent gray afternoon. The remark proves fitting introduction to both the septuagenarian author and her work: at once mischievous and mettlesome, with a twist near the end." — Leah Hager Cohen, The Boston Globe, 10 Apr. 2012"He was convinced that [the director] John Huston decided after the first week that the film was a dud and if he could kill or seriously injure his star it would be cancelled and the insurance would pay up. He had Hurt riding over rough terrain on mettlesome horses." — John Boorman, The Guardian, 17 Dec. 2017Did You Know?The 17th-century adjective mettlesome (popularly used of spirited horses) sometimes appeared as the variant metalsome. That's not surprising. In the 16th century and for some time after, mettle was a variant spelling of metal—that is, the word for substances such as gold, copper, and iron. (Metal itself dates from the 14th century and descends from a Greek term meaning "mine" or "metal.") The 16th century was also when metal—or mettle—acquired the figurative sense of "spirit," "courage," or "stamina." However, by the early 18th century, dictionaries were noting the distinction between metal, used for the substance, and mettle, used for "spirit," so that nowadays the words mettle and mettlesome are rarely associated with metal.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 February 4, 2019 is:condone \kun-DOHN\ verb: to regard or treat (something bad or blameworthy) as acceptable, forgivable, or harmlessExamples:The school handbook explicitly states that bullying will not be condoned."Forgiving those who have hurt us, or our loved ones, does not mean we condone what they did. What it means is, we are willing to let go, giving ourselves permission to move forward and to take back control of our lives." — Mike Zimmer, The Record Observer (Centreville, Maryland), 28 Dec. 2018Did You Know?Since some folks don't condone even minor usage slips, you might want to get the meaning of this word straight. Although English speakers sometimes use condone with the intended meaning "approve of" or "encourage," the more established meaning is closer to "pardon" or "overlook." Condone comes from the Latin verb condonare, which means "to absolve." Condonare in turn combines the Latin prefix con-, indicating thoroughness, and donare, meaning "to give" or "to grant." Not surprisingly, donare is also the source of our words donate and pardon.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 February 3, 2019 is:senescence \sih-NESS-unss\ noun1 : the state of being old : the process of becoming old2 : the growth phase in a plant or plant part (such as a leaf) from full maturity to deathExamples:"The results revealed that some trees have shorter or longer sleep periods than 12 hours and others show slow continuous movement in one direction probably because of disease or senescence." — ScienceDaily, 20 Apr. 2018"Until we're all brain patterns on computers, there are still forces that do not bend to our wants, including senescence and death. (You'll talk like this, too, when you hit 40.)" — John Hodgman, The New York Times, 21 Dec. 2018Did You Know?Senescence can be traced back to Latin senex, meaning "old." Can you guess which other English words come from senex? Senile might (correctly) come to mind, as well as senior. But another one might surprise you: senate. This word for a legislative assembly dates back to ancient Rome, where the Senatus was originally a council of elders composed of the heads of patrician families. There's also the much rarer senectitude, which, like senescence, refers to the state of being old (specifically, to the final stage of the normal life span).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 February 2, 2019 is:portend \por-TEND\ verb1 : to give an omen or anticipatory sign of2 : indicate, signifyExamples:The old saying about a halo around the moon portending rain has some truth to it: the halo is caused by cirrus clouds drifting 20,000 feet or more above the Earth, and high cirrus clouds often precede stormy weather."To most people, a shore gas station carrying sushi was but a footnote. But Chris could see that that addition portended a changing demographic." — Rona Kobell, quoted in The Baltimore Sun, 8 Nov. 2018Did You Know?Portend has been used in English in the context of signs of things to come since the 15th century. The word derives from the Latin verb portendere, which means "to predict or foretell." That verb, in turn, developed as a combination of the prefix por- (meaning "forward") and the verb tendere (meaning "to stretch"). So you can think of portend as having a literal meaning of "stretching forward to predict." Additional descendants of tendere include extend, tendon, and tension, 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 February 1, 2019 is:largesse \lahr-ZHESS\ noun1 : liberal giving (as of money) to or as if to an inferior; also : something so given2 : generosityExamples:Thanks to their grandparents' largesse, both children were able to go to college without going into debt."Probably no surprise, given all this largesse over the Christmas period, spending at recycling and refuse stations was up 46.2 per cent on Boxing Day last year." — The New Zealand Herald, 28 Dec. 2018Did You Know?The word largesse, which also can be spelled largess, has been part of the English language since at least the 13th century. It derives via Anglo-French from the Latin word largus, meaning "abundant" or "generous." Largus is also the source of our word large. As far back as the 14th century, we used the word largeness as a synonym of largesse (meaning "liberal giving"), but largeness was also at that same time being used more frequently as it is now: to refer to physical magnitude and bulk rather than to magnanimity.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 31, 2019 is:raddled \RAD-uld\ adjective1 : being in a state of confusion : lacking composure2 : broken-down, wornExamples:We were met at the door by a raddled old man who turned out to be the actor's father, and who in his day had also been an estimable presence on the London stage."The real skill of Swan Song is the kaleidoscopic portrait it paints of its raddled hero. The narrative moves through time from Capote's tawdry childhood and friendship with Harper Lee to his withered end in Fu Manchu pyjamas." — Alex Preston, The Observer (London), 22 July 2018Did you know?The origin of raddled is unclear. Its participial form suggests verbal parentage, and indeed there is a verb raddle just a few decades older than raddled that seems a likely source. This raddle means "to mark or paint with raddle," raddle here being red ocher, or sometimes other pigments, used for marking animals. Raddle eventually came to mean "to color highly with rouge," the metaphor connecting the raddling of animal husbandry with immoderate makeup application: to be raddled thusly was not a compliment. The "confused" sense of raddled is often associated with the influence of alcohol or drugs. That connection is in keeping with the word's earliest known use, from a 1694 translation of French writer Francois Rabelais: "A … fellow, continually raddled, and as drunk as a wheelbarrow."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 30, 2019 is:proliferate \pruh-LIF-uh-rayt\ verb1 : to grow or cause to grow by rapid production of new parts, cells, buds, or offspring2 : to increase or cause to increase in number as if by proliferating : multiplyExamples:"Muskies in Lake St. Clair are a world-class presence because local folks 30 years ago got smart. They agreed on a catch-and-release ethic. Catch the muskie. Put it back into the water. And watch a species proliferate." — Lynn Henning, The Detroit News, 26 December 2018"The surge in the price of bitcoin, and of other cryptocurrencies, which proliferated amid a craze for initial coin offerings, prompted a commensurate explosion in the number of stories and conversations about this new kind of money…." — Nicholas Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2018Did you know?Proliferate is a back-formation of proliferation. That means that proliferation came first (we borrowed it from French in the 18th century) and was later shortened to form the verb proliferate. Ultimately these terms come from Latin. The French adjective prolifère ("reproducing freely") comes from the Latin noun proles and the Latin combining form -fer. Proles means "offspring" or "descendants," and -fer means "bearing." Both of these Latin forms gave rise to numerous other English words. Prolific and proletarian ultimately come from proles; aquifer and words ending in -ferous have their roots in -fer.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 29, 2019 is:charisma \kuh-RIZ-muh\ noun1 : a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (such as a political leader)2 : a special magnetic charm or appealExamples:The young singer had the kind of charisma that turns a performer into a star."Winner of seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, 'Evita' is the story of Eva Peron who used her charisma and charms to rise from her penniless origins to political power as the first lady of Argentina at the age of 27." — Oscar Sales, The Press Journal (Vero Beach, Florida), 19 Dec. 2018Did you know?The Greek word charisma means "favor" or "gift." It is derived from the verb charizesthai ("to favor"), which in turn comes from the noun charis, meaning "grace." In English, charisma has been used in Christian contexts since the mid-1500s to refer to a gift or power bestowed upon an individual by the Holy Spirit for the good of the Church, a sense that 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 28, 2019 is:sleuth \SLOOTH\ verb1 : to act as a detective : search for information2 : to search for and discoverExamples:"Farmer would go sleuthing in the archives of Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies to find evidence of an undiscovered landfall in Canada, and Ward could build a rig that trailed an 11-foot metal detector behind a combine, which is how they unearthed $1 million in pallasite fragments from several square miles of Alberta farmland." — Joshuah Bearman and Allison Keeley, Wired, January 2019"For more than five decades, Morse has sleuthed out long-lost family trees for a living. From his home base here in Haywood, Morse travels the world tracking down missing heirs." — Becky Johnson, The Mountaineer (Haywood County, North Carolina), 20 Nov. 2018Did you know?"They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" Those canine tracks in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles set the great Sherlock Holmes sleuthing on the trail of a murderer. It was a case of art imitating etymology. When Middle English speakers first borrowed sleuth from Old Norse, the term referred to "the track of an animal or person." In Scotland, sleuthhound referred to a bloodhound used to hunt game or track down fugitives from justice. In 19th-century U.S. English, sleuthhound became an epithet for a detective and was soon shortened to sleuth. From there, it was only a short leap to turning sleuth into a verb describing what a sleuth does.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 27, 2019 is:foray \FOR-ay\ noun1 : a sudden or irregular invasion or attack for war or spoils : raid2 : an initial and often tentative attempt to do something in a new or different field or area of activityExamples:"Although she debuted a line of jewelry last year, this is her first foray into creating her own makeup line." — Hayley Schueneman, The New York Magazine, 28 Nov. 2018"Edgardo Defortuna has been flying high for years, … erecting a string of ultra-luxury condo and hotel towers on his way to becoming one of Miami's most prominent developers. He recently announced his first foray outside South Florida, unveiling a design for a trio of luxury towers in Paraguay." — Andres Viglucci and Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald, 16 Dec. 2018Did you know?Foray comes from Middle English forrayen and probably traces back to an Anglo-French word that meant "raider" or "forager." It's related to the word forage, which commonly means "to wander in search of food (or forage)." Foray, in its earliest sense, referred to a raid for plunder. Relatively recently, foray began to take on a broader meaning. In a sense, foray still refers to a trip into a foreign territory. These days, though, looting and plundering needn't be involved in a foray. When you take a foray, you dabble in an area, occupation, or pastime that's new to you.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, 2019 is:doldrums \DOHL-drumz\ plural noun1 : a spell of listlessness or despondency2 often capitalized Doldrums : a part of the ocean near the equator abounding in calms, squalls, and light shifting winds3 : a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slumpExamples:"A vacation on a tropical island could be just the thing you need to fight against the winter doldrums," said Christine as she handed me the resort's brochure."At the time, the bourbon industry was in the process of emerging from a lengthy period of doldrums and rebranding itself as not just something old men drank." — The Kentucky Standard, 21 Nov. 2018Did you know?Almost everyone gets the doldrums—a feeling of low spirits and lack of energy—every once in a while. The doldrums experienced by sailors, however, are usually of a different variety. In the early-19th century, the word once reserved for a feeling of despondency came to be applied to certain tropical regions of the ocean marked by the absence of strong winds. Sailing vessels, reliant on wind propulsion, struggled to make headway in these regions, leading to long, arduous journeys. The exact etymology of doldrums is not certain, though it is believed to be related to the Old English dol, meaning "foolish"—a history it shares with our adjective dull.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, 2019 is:myopic \mye-OH-pik\ adjective1 : affected by myopia : of, relating to, or exhibiting myopia : nearsighted2 : lacking in foresight or discernment : narrow in perspective and without concern for broader implicationsExamples:"This is, on the whole, an encouraging finding. If children became myopic due to looking at objects too closely, then we'd be stuck with an unsolvable dilemma: choosing between teaching children to read and protecting their eyesight." — Brian Palmer, Slate, 16 Oct. 2013"But even the most myopic seer can foretell with near certainty that our traditional use of privately owned vehicles running on fossil fuels is going to be giving way to new mobility options, and soon." — John Gallagher, The Detroit Free Press, 9 Dec. 2018Did you know?Myopia is a condition in which visual images come to a focus in front of the retina of the eye, resulting in defective vision of distant objects. Those with myopia can be referred to as "myopic" (or, less formally, "nearsighted"). Myopic has extended meanings, too. Someone myopic might have trouble seeing things from a different perspective or considering the future consequences before acting. Myopic and myopia have a lesser-known relative, myope, meaning "a myopic person." All of these words ultimately derive from the Greek myōps, which comes from myein (meaning "to be closed") and ōps (meaning "eye, 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 24, 2019 is:adjudicate \uh-JOO-dih-kayt\ verb1 : to make an official decision about who is right in (a dispute) : to settle judicially2 : to act as judgeExamples:"… Nichols said in addition to the nine dogs brought to the shelter, it is housing 31 dogs that were confiscated in animal cruelty or neglect cases. She said the shelter has to board the dogs, feed them and care for them until the cases are adjudicated." — Russ Coreyemp, The Times Daily (Florence, Alabama), 16 Dec. 2018"To qualify as a couture house, which is an official designation like champagne, a brand must maintain an atelier of a certain number of artisans full time and produce a specific number of garments twice a year for a show. There are only a very few that can fulfill the requirements…. A lot have dropped out over the years …, and the governing organization that adjudicates this has relaxed some of its rules to admit younger, less resourced and guest designers…." — Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2018Did you know?Adjudicate is one of several terms that give testimony to the influence of jus, the Latin word for "law," on our legal language. Adjudicate is from the Latin verb adjudicare, from judicare, meaning "to judge," which, in turn, traces to the Latin noun judex, meaning "judge." English has other judex words, such as judgment, judicial, judiciary, and prejudice. If we admit further evidence, we discover that the root of judex is jus. What's the verdict? Latin "law" words frequently preside in English-speaking courtrooms. In addition to the judex words, jury, justice, injury, and perjury are all ultimately from Latin jus.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, 2019 is:imbroglio \im-BROHL-yoh\ noun1 a : an acutely painful or embarrassing misunderstandingb : a circumstance or action that offends propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with it : scandalc : a violently confused or bitterly complicated altercation : embroilmentd : an intricate or complicated situation (as in a drama or novel)2 : a confused massExamples:"He was close to scandal—GOP chairman during the Watergate years, vice president during the Iran-Contra imbroglio—yet was not tainted by it." — David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe, 1 Dec. 2018"The present imbroglio follows protracted struggles over the budget of the sheriff's office, the fate of the 911 system, the county role in reducing blight and who should pay what for animal control." — Rockford (Illinois) Register Star, 13 Dec. 2018Did you know?Imbroglio and embroilment are more than just synonyms; they're also linked through etymology. Both descend from the Middle French verb embrouiller (which has the same meaning as embroil), from the prefix em-, meaning "thoroughly," plus brouiller, meaning "to mix" or "to confuse." (Brouiller is itself a descendant of an Old French word for "broth.") Early in the 17th century, English speakers began using embroil, a direct adaptation of embrouiller, as well as the noun embroilment. Meanwhile, the Italians were using their own alteration of embrouiller: imbrogliare, meaning "to entangle." In the mid-18th century, English speakers embraced the Italian noun imbroglio 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 January 22, 2019 is:cumulate \KYOO-myuh-layt\ verb1 : to gather or pile in a heap2 : to combine into one3 : to build up by addition of new materialExamples:"In the alternative, the company may provide greater input to minority shareholders by allowing shareholders to cumulate their votes and cast them all for one director." — Gregory Monday, The Milwaukee Business Journal, 5 Mar. 2018"The report … compares various income estimates and reaches a similar conclusion: Most Americans have realized small annual increases that ultimately cumulated into meaningful gains." — Robert Samuelson, The Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine), 12 Dec. 2018Did you know?Cumulate and its far more common relative accumulate both come from the Latin word cumulare, meaning "to heap up." Cumulare, in turn, comes from cumulus, meaning "mass." (Cumulus functions as an English word in its own right as well. It can mean "heap" or "accumulation," or it can refer to a kind of dense puffy cloud with a flat base and rounded outlines.) Cumulate and accumulate overlap in meaning, but you're likely to find cumulate mostly in technical contexts. The word's related adjective, cumulative, however, is used more widely.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, 2019 is:substantive \SUB-stun-tiv\ adjective1 : having substance : involving matters of major or practical importance to all concerned2 : considerable in amount or numbers : substantial3 a : real rather than apparent : firm; also : permanent, enduringb : belonging to the substance of a thing : essentialc : expressing existence4 a : having the nature or function of a nounb : relating to or having the character of a noun or pronominal term in logic5 : creating and defining rights and dutiesExamples:"How many more carefully researched reports will need to be released before we finally act in a substantive way to protect our only home, planet Earth?" — Edwin Andrews, The New York Times, 14 Dec. 2018"These are the moments—funny, yet substantive and cuttingly insightful—that will remain in the collective memory long after Ralph Breaks the Internet leaves cinemas and many of its meme jokes lose their relevance." — Jim Vejvoda, IGN (ign.com), 20 Nov. 2018Did you know?Substantive was borrowed into Middle English from the Anglo-French adjective sustentif, meaning "having or expressing substance," and can be traced back to the Latin verb substare, which literally means "to stand under." Figuratively, the meaning of substare is best understood as "to stand firm" or "to hold out." Since the 14th century, we have used substantive to speak of that which is of enough "substance" to stand alone, or be independent. By the 19th century, the word evolved related meanings, such as "enduring" and "essential." It also shares some senses with substantial, such as "considerable in quantity."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, 2019 is:wherewithal \WAIR-wih-thawl\ noun: means or resources for purchasing or doing something; specifically : financial resources : moneyExamples:If I had the wherewithal, I'd buy that empty lot next door and put in a garden."Typically, when a person makes more money and has more savings, they add credit such as signing up for a new card or taking on a car loan. That's because they're confident they have the financial wherewithal to pay back the debt." — Janna Herron, USA Today, 5 Dec. 2018Did you know?Wherewithal has been with us in one form or another since the 16th century. It comes from our still-familiar word where, and withal, a Middle English combination of with and all, meaning "with." Wherewithal has been used as a conjunction meaning "with or by means of which" and as a pronoun meaning "that with or by which." These days, however, it is almost always used as a noun referring to the means or resources—especially financial resources—one has at one's disposal.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, 2019 is:gargantuan \gahr-GAN-chuh-wuhn\ adjective: tremendous in size, volume, or degree : gigantic, colossalExamples:"In 1920, the town council of Chamonix … decided to change the municipality's name to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, thus forging an official link to the mountain … with a summit that soars 12,000 feet above the town center. The council's goal was to prevent their Swiss neighbors from claiming the mountain's glory, but there was really no need: It's impossible when you're in Chamonix to ignore the gargantuan, icy beauty that looms overhead." — Paige McClanahan, The New York Times, 13 Dec. 2018"Due to our gargantuan scope, Houston is a haven for live music. As the nation's fourth largest city, we have become a destination for touring acts by default—it certainly isn't because of our collective reputation as an audience…." — Matthew Keever, The Houston Press, 17 Dec. 2018Did you know?Gargantua is the name of a giant king in François Rabelais's 16th-century satiric novel Gargantua, the second part of a five-volume series about the giant and his son Pantagruel. All of the details of Gargantua's life befit a giant. He rides a colossal mare whose tail switches so violently that it fells the entire forest of Orleans. He has an enormous appetite: in one memorable incident, he inadvertently swallows five pilgrims while eating a salad. The scale of everything connected with Gargantua gave rise to the adjective gargantuan, which since William Shakespeare's time has been used of anything of tremendous size or volume.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, 2019 is:teetotaler \TEE-TOH-tuh-ler\ noun: one who practices or advocates teetotalism : one who abstains completely from alcoholic drinksExamples:"… he is one of those fit older people who have redefined what 74 can look like. It probably helps that he is a teetotaler, a choice he made as a young man, having been disturbed by the effect that alcohol had on members of his family." — David Kamp, Vanity Fair, December 2017"The names Rockefeller and Diego Rivera are forever intertwined thanks to the Mexican artist's infamous mural at Rockefeller Center, which the family commissioned in 1932 and had demolished two years later—due in part to its depiction of the teetotaler John D. Rockefeller Jr. sipping a martini." — Adam Rathe, Town & Country, May 2018Did you know?A person who abstains from alcohol might choose tea as his or her alternative beverage, but the word teetotaler has nothing to do with tea. More likely, the "tee" that begins the word teetotal is a reduplication of the letter "t" that begins total, emphasizing that one has pledged total abstinence. In the early 1800s, tee-total and tee-totally were used to intensify total and totally, much the way we now might say, "I'm tired with a capital T." "I am now … wholly, solely, and teetotally absorbed in Wayne's business," wrote the folklorist Parson Weems in an 1807 letter. Teetotal and teetotaler first appeared with their current meanings in 1834, eight years after the formation of the American Temperance Society.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, 2019 is:farouche \fuh-ROOSH\ adjective1 : unruly or disorderly : wild2 : marked by shyness and lack of social gracesExamples:"Though she wrote three 'novels' (more extended free associations than novels as we know them), she is best thought of as a poet of small, farouche poems illustrated with doodles…." — Rosemary Dinnage, The New York Review of Books, 25 June 1987"Jeremy Irons's natural mode as an actor is fastidious rather than farouche, but he perfectly captures James Tyrone's professional extravagance and personal meanness." — Michael Arditti, The Sunday Express, 11 Feb. 2018Did you know?In French, farouche can mean "wild" or "shy," just as it does in English. It is an alteration of the Old French word forasche, which derives via Late Latin forasticus ("living outside") from Latin foras, meaning "outdoors." In its earliest English uses, in the middle of the 18th century, farouche was used to describe someone who was awkward in social situations, perhaps as one who has lived apart from groups of people. The word can also mean "disorderly," as in "farouche ruffians out to cause trouble."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, 2019 is:nomothetic \nah-muh-THET-ik\ adjective: relating to, involving, or dealing with abstract, general, or universal statements or lawsExamples:"Moreover, there is the often-incorrect assumption that crimes and offenders are sufficiently similar to be lumped together for aggregate study. In such cases the resulting nomothetic knowledge is not just diluted, it is inaccurate and ultimately misleading." — Brent E. Turvey, Criminal Profiling, 2011"First, they can expect to find an investigation of the ways in which males and females differ universally: that is, of the nomothetic principles grounded in biology and evolutionary psychology that govern sex-differentiated human development." — Frank Dumont, A History of Personality Psychology, 2010Did you know?Nomothetic is often contrasted with idiographic, a word meaning "relating to or dealing with something concrete, individual, or unique." Where idiographic points to the specific and unique, nomothetic points to the general and consistent. The immediate Greek parent of nomothetic is a word meaning "of legislation"; the word has its roots in nomos, meaning "law," and -thetēs, meaning "one who establishes." Nomos has played a part in the histories of words as varied as metronome, autonomous, and Deuteronomy. The English contributions of -thetēs are meager, but -thetēs itself comes from tithenai, meaning "to put," and tithenai is the ancestor of many common words ending in -thesis—hypothesis, parenthesis, prosthesis, synthesis, and thesis itself—as well as theme, epithet, and apothecary.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, 2019 is:liaison \LEE-uh-zahn\ noun1 : a binding or thickening agent used in cooking2 a : a close bond or connection : interrelationshipb : an illicit sexual relationship : affair3 a : communication for establishing and maintaining mutual understanding and cooperation (as between parts of an armed force)b : a person who establishes and maintains communication for mutual understanding and cooperation4 : the pronunciation of an otherwise absent consonant sound at the end of the first of two consecutive words the second of which begins with a vowel sound and follows without pauseExamples:"Brennan and Alejandro Castro agreed on a series of steps to build confidence. One called for the Cubans to post an officer in Washington to act as a formal liaison between the two countries' intelligence agencies." — Adam Entous, The New Yorker, 19 Nov. 2018"… the book offers vignettes that describe Smith's childhood as the youngest of seven Irish-American kids in Chicago; his sister's short liaison with a married British man who shared the surname Smith; and a panicked hashish trip in Amsterdam." — Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2018Did you know?If you took French in school, you might remember that liaison is the term for the phenomenon that causes a silent consonant at the end of one word to sound like it begins the next word when that word begins with a vowel, so that a phrase like beaux arts sounds like \boh zahr\. We can thank French for the origin of the term, as well. Liaison derives from the Middle French lier, meaning "to bind or tie," and is related to our word liable. Our various English senses of liaison apply it to all kinds of bonds—from people who work to connect different groups to the kind of relationship sometimes entered into by two people who are attracted to one 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 January 14, 2019 is:mea culpa \may-uh-KOOL-puh\ noun: a formal acknowledgment of personal fault or errorExamples:The mayor's public mea culpa for his involvement in the scandal didn't satisfy his critics."The internal investigation ended with a mea culpa from the sheriff's department and a reprimand and reassignment for a deputy overseeing the property room." — Allie Morris, The Houston Chronicle, 15 Nov. 2018Did you know?Mea culpa, which means "through my fault" in Latin, comes from a prayer of confession in the Catholic Church. Said by itself, it's an exclamation of apology or remorse that is used to mean "It was my fault" or "I apologize." Mea culpa is also a noun, however. A newspaper might issue a mea culpa for printing inaccurate information, or a politician might give a speech making mea culpas for past wrongdoings. Mea culpa is one of many English terms that derive from the Latin culpa, meaning "guilt." Some other examples are culpable ("meriting condemnation or blame especially as wrong or harmful"), culprit ("one guilty of a crime or a fault"), and exculpate ("to clear from alleged fault or guilt").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, 2019 is:clement \KLEM-unt\ adjective1 : inclined to be merciful : lenient2 : not severe : mildExamples:The judge decided to be clement and said she would forgive the young defendants so long as they paid back the money they stole from the fundraiser."Eagle Scout Michael Eliason completed his project by literally blazing a trail: he created a half-mile-long trail along a Heights park still being developed along the Yellowstone River, Dover Park. 'We rototilled and used pickaxes on it, and we had to wait until the weather was clement,' he said." — Mike Ferguson, The Billings Gazette, 24 Nov. 2014Did you know?Defendants in court cases probably don't spend much time worrying about inclement weather. They're too busy hoping to meet a clement judge so they will be granted clemency. They should hope they don't meet an inclement judge! Clement, inclement, and clemency all derive from the Latin clemens, which means "mild" or "calm." All three terms can refer to an individual's degree of mercy or to the relative pleasantness of the weather.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, 2019 is:boycott \BOY-kaht\ verb: to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (a person, a store, an organization, etc.) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditionsExamples:"Chinese boycotted Norwegian salmon over the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the late dissident writer Liu Xiaobo. They stopped buying fruit from the Philippines amid a dispute over territory in the South China Sea." — Associated Press, 13 Dec. 2018"[Saul] Bellow … showed up at President Johnson's White House Festival of the Arts in the summer of 1965, which other writers, such as Philip Roth (a friend and follower) and Robert Lowell, boycotted to protest against the war in Vietnam." — Benjamin Markovits, The Spectator, 17 Nov. 2018Did you know?In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of the crisis. Retired British army captain Charles Boycott had the misfortune to be acting as an agent for an absentee landlord at the time, and when he tried to evict tenant farmers for refusing to pay their rent, he was ostracized by the League and community. His laborers and servants quit, and his crops began to rot. Boycott's fate was soon well known, and his name became a byword for that particular protest strategy.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, 2019 is:syllogism \SIL-uh-jiz-um\ noun1 : a deductive scheme of a formal argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion2 : a subtle, specious, or crafty argument3 : deductive reasoningExamples:"Plato's pupil Aristotle developed the techniques of logical analysis that still enable us to get at the knowledge hidden within us. He examined propositions by stating possible contradictions and developed the syllogism, a method of proof based on stated premises." — Mary Lefkowitz, The New York Times Book Review, 23 Jan. 2000"In some states … there are calls to eliminate courses in literature, philosophy, history and other fields of the humanities. Students want and need technical, employable skills, not sonnets or syllogisms, it is said." — Scott D. Miller, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia), 3 June 2018Did you know?For those trained in formal argument, the syllogism is a classical form of deduction, specifically an argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion. One example is the inference that "kindness is praiseworthy" from the premises "every virtue is praiseworthy" and "kindness is a virtue." Syllogism came to English through Anglo-French from Latin syllogismus, which in turn can be traced back to the Greek verb syllogizesthai, meaning "to infer." In Greek logizesthai means "to calculate" and derives from logos, meaning "word" or "reckoning." Syl- comes from syn-, meaning "with" or "together."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, 2019 is:venal \VEE-nul\ adjective1 : capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable consideration : purchasable; especially : open to corrupt influence and especially bribery : mercenary2 : originating in, characterized by, or associated with corrupt briberyExamples:"We have to prove that our institutions are more important than our ideologies, that the dream, the whisper, the precious possibility of America cannot be trampled by the corrupt and the fraudulent, the venal and the lecherous." — Charles M. Blow, The New York Times, 9 Dec. 2018"He held combative press conferences outlining … corporate malpractice and passed along to journalists dossiers that described the way venal oligarchs engaged in asset stripping, wasteful spending, and share dilutions." — Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2018Did you know?If you are given the choice between acts that are venal and those that are venial, go for the venial. Although the two words look and sound alike, they have very different meanings and histories. Venal demonstrates the adage that anything can be had if the price is high enough and the morals are low enough. That word originated with the Latin venum, which simply referred to something that was sold or for sale. Some of those transactions must have been rather shady because by the mid-1600s, venal had gained the sense of corruption it carries today. Venial sins, on the other hand, are pardonable, the kind that show that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. That forgiving term descends from venia, Latin for "favor," "indulgence," or "pardon."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, 2019 is:behest \bih-HEST\ noun1 : an authoritative order : command2 : an urgent promptingExamples:"Let's be clear on this, in the case of a foreclosure sale, while you might not think of it as a 'sale' because it is not a voluntary action taken by the homeowner, but rather a forced action at the behest of the lender, for tax purposes a foreclosure is treated exactly the same as a voluntary sale by the buyer." — Tony Nitti, Forbes, 19 Nov. 2018"He is being detained at the behest of Japanese prosecutors after Nissan alleged that he had understated his earnings and misused company assets." — The Economist, 24 Nov. 2018Did you know?Today's word first appeared in Old English and was formed from the prefix be- and the verb hātan ("to command" or "to promise"). While behest was originally used only in the sense of "promise," it acquired the additional sense of "command" among speakers of Middle English. Among contemporary English speakers, behest is no longer used in the sense of "promise" but rather denotes an authoritative or urgent request or command. Old English hātan also gave English the now-archaic words hest (meaning "command") and hight ("being called or named").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, 2019 is:malinger \muh-LING-gur\ verb: to pretend or exaggerate incapacity or illness (as to avoid duty or work)Examples:Sarah's prospects for promotion aren't helped by her well-known tendency to malinger."[Writer Jaroslav] Hašek's meandering, unfinished comedy tells the story of a dog thief turned soldier, who blusters, pranks and malingers his way through the early days of the war." — Daniel Mason, The Guardian (London), 14 Nov. 2018Did you know?Do you know someone who always seems to develop an ailment when there's work to be done? Someone who merits an Academy Award for his or her superb simulation of symptoms? Then you know a malingerer. The verb malinger comes from the French word malingre, meaning "sickly," and one who malingers feigns illness. In its earliest uses in the early 19th century, malinger usually referred to a soldier or sailor pretending to be sick or insane to shirk duty. Later, psychologists began using malingering as a clinical term to describe the feigning of illness in avoidance of a duty or for personal gain. Today, malinger is used in just about any context in which someone fakes sickness or injury to get out of an undesirable task.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, 2019 is:demotic \dih-MAH-tik\ adjective1 : of, relating to, or written in a simplified form of the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing2 : of or relating to people and especially their speech : popular, common3 : of or relating to the form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speechExamples:"[The Rosetta Stone] features three columns of the same inscription in three languages: Greek, hieroglyphs and demotic Egyptian—and is the text of a decree written by priests in 196 BC, during the reign of pharaoh Ptolemy V." — Ashley Lime, BBC.com, 23 Nov. 2018"When it came time to make her own wine …, she continued taking the natural path, bent earnestly to the task of revitalizing California winemaking with a demotic, punk-rock spirit." — Jeff Gordinier et al., Esquire, 25 Apr. 2017Did you know?You may recognize the root of demotic from words like democracy and demography. The source of these words is the Greek word dēmos, meaning "people." Demotic is often used of everyday forms of language (as opposed to literary or highbrow versions). It entered English in the early 1800s and originally designated a form of ancient Egyptian cursive script which by the 5th century BCE had come into use everywhere in Egypt for business and literary purposes (in contrast to the more complex, hieratic script retained by the clergy). Demotic has a newer specialized sense, as well, referring to a form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech and that since 1976 has been the official language of Greece.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, 2019 is:paradigm \PAIR-uh-dyme\ noun1 : example, pattern; especially : an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype2 : an example of a conjugation or declension showing a word in all its inflectional forms3 : a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated; broadly : a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kindExamples:"I was just obsessed as a kid with David and Goliath. It's probably the ultimate conflict paradigm in literature. But I was always on the side of Goliath. I loved Goliath. I didn't like David at all and I wished Goliath could win." — Lee Child, quoted in The Spectator, 1 Dec. 2018"Phoebe has a talent for taking a musical or poetic paradigm and tilting it, inverting the norm in a way that expands and challenges the boundaries of the standard. Her songs marry convention with experimentation, both with a musical arrangement and production, and in the actual poetry of the songs." — Julien Baker, quoted in New York Magazine, 26 Oct. 2018Did you know?Paradigm traces to a Greek verb meaning "to show," and has been used in English to mean "example" or "pattern" since the 15th century. Some debate exists, however, about what kind of example qualifies as a paradigm. Some people say it's a typical example, while others insist it must be an outstanding or perfect example. The scientific community has added to the confusion by using it to mean "a theoretical framework," a sense popularized by American scientist Thomas S. Kuhn in the second edition of his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, published in 1970. In that work, Kuhn admitted that he had used paradigm in 22 different ways. Some usage commentators now advise avoiding the term entirely on the grounds that it is overused.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, 2019 is:eclectic \ih-KLEK-tik\ adjective1 : composed of elements drawn from various sources; also : heterogeneous2 : selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or stylesExamples:The new downtown restaurant offers an eclectic menu of items at reasonable prices."Since December 2016, including the most recent property deal, Google has now spent at least $237 million buying an eclectic array of industrial and retail sites, vacant lots, and even residential properties." — George Avalos, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 3 Dec. 2018Did you know?Eclectic comes from the Greek eklektikos (meaning "selective"), from the verb eklegein, "to select." Eclectic was originally applied to ancient philosophers who were not committed to any single system of philosophy but instead selected whichever doctrines pleased them from every school of thought. Later, the word's use broadened to cover other selective natures. "Hard by, the central slab is thick with books / Diverse, but which the true eclectic mind / Knows how to group, and gather out of each / Their frequent wisdoms...." In this 19th century example from a poem by Arthur Joseph Munby, for example, the word is applied to literature lovers who cull selective works from libraries.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, 2019 is:abominable \uh-BAH-muh-nuh-bul\ adjective1 formal : worthy of or causing disgust or hatred : detestable2 : very bad or unpleasantExamples:The children were informed that they had lost all television and computer privileges for a week because of their abominable treatment of the babysitter."In the original [movie "Overboard"], Goldie Hawn … stars as a spoiled, insufferable heiress who hires carpenter Kurt Russell to remodel a closet on her yacht. She's abominable to him at every turn, refuses to pay him and eventually pushes him off the ship." — Jeanne Jakle, The San Antonio Express News, 3 May 2018Did you know?The tendency to hate evil omens is a vital part of the history of abominable. The word descends from the Latin verb abominari, which means "to deprecate as an ill omen" or "to detest"; abominari itself comes from ab- plus omin- ("from an omen"). When English speakers adopted abominable in the 14th century, they used it to express their disgust over evil or truly detestable things—and for 500 years that's the way things stood. In the 17th century, the word's meaning moderated, so that Scottish novelist William Black could write in A Princess of Thule (1873), "Sheila had nothing to do with the introduction of this abominable decoration." Other descendants of abominari are abominate ("to hate or loathe intensely") and abomination ("something odious or detestable").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, 2019 is:rapporteur \ra-por-TER\ noun: a person who gives reports (as at a meeting of a learned society)Examples:"The rapporteur was particularly scathing about bungled efforts to streamline the way welfare payments are made to individual recipients after delays in a shift to a new system … led thousands of people to fall into poverty." — Patrick Kingsley, The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2018"It's appropriate that the U.N. special rapporteur devoted to adequate housing has visited encampments in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Mumbai—and San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley." — Rich Lowry, The National Review, 6 Nov. 2018Did you know?Rapporteur was adopted into English in the 16th century and is a descendant of the Middle French verb rapporter, meaning "to bring back, report, or refer." Other descendants of rapporter in English include rapportage (a rare synonym of reportage, in the sense of "writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events") and rapport ("a harmonious relationship," as in "The young teacher had a good rapport with the students"). The words report, reporter, reportage, etc., are also distant relatives of rappouteur; all can ultimately be traced back to the Latin prefix re-, meaning "back, again, or against," and the Latin word portare, meaning "to carry."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, 2019 is:campestral \kam-PESS-trul\ adjective: of or relating to fields or open country : ruralExamples:"Just about any amateur naturalist who pays attention to the birds … in campestral Maine will find an eye-opener or two here." — Dana Wilde, The Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 26 Oct. 2009"When in Southeast England, depriving yourself of a chance to see Dover's famous white cliffs would be a big mistake. And so the towering chalk cliffs … were on my agenda when I embarked on a brief driving tour of the coast. I was able to thoroughly enjoy the region's rolling, campestral beauty in a three-town tour." — Lucas Peterson, The New York Times, 26 Jul. 2017Did you know?Scamper across an open field, and then, while catching your breath, ponder this: scamper and campestral both ultimately derive from the Latin noun campus, meaning "field" or "plain." Latin campester is the adjective that means "pertaining to a campus." In ancient Rome, a campus was a place for games, athletic practice, and military drills. Scamper probably started with a military association as well (it is assumed to have evolved from an unattested Vulgar Latin verb, excampare, meaning "to decamp"). In English, campestral took on an exclusively rural aspect upon its introduction in the late 17th century, while campus, you might say, became mainly academic.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, 2019 is:handsel \HAN-sul\ noun1 : a gift made as a token of good wishes or luck especially at the beginning of a new year2 : something received first (as in a day of trading) and taken to be a token of good luck3 a : a first installmentb : a token or sample of what is to come : earnest, foretasteExamples:Celebrating the New Year in the Scottish tradition, Jessica gave out a handsel of one silver dollar coin to each of her nieces and nephews."The lads, dressed like their fathers, seemed uncomfortable in their new clothes (many that day had received the handsel of their first pair of boots); and beside them, speaking not a word, wearing the white gown of their first communion lengthened for the occasion, were some … girls of fourteen or sixteen…." — Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, 1856Did you know?According to an old custom in the British Isles, the first Monday of the New Year is Handsel Monday, a day to give a small gift or good luck charm to children or to those who have served you well. As long ago as the 13th century, English speakers were using the ancestor of handsel in the context of omens and luck, eventually leading to the meaning of a good luck charm given to one at the start of some new situation or condition. By the 18th century, traders were using handsel for the first cash they earned in the morning—to them, an omen of good things to follow. Nowadays, it can also be used for something that gives a taste of things to come.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.