Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 12, 2018 is:admonish \ad-MAH-nish\ verb1 a : to indicate duties or obligations to b : to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner2 : to give friendly earnest advice or encouragement to3 : to say (something) as advice or a warningExamples:The teacher admonished the students to not speak over one another."Ringo Starr rocked, he rolled, he sang, he spoke, he admonished us all to embrace peace and love, not as a tired cliché, but as a tool for the times." — John W. Barry, The Poughkeepsie (New York) Journal, 21 Sept. 2018Did you know?We won't admonish you if you don't know the origins of today's word—its current meanings have strayed slightly from its history. Admonish was borrowed in the 14th century (via Anglo-French amonester) from Vulgar Latin admonestāre, which itself is probably a derivative of admonestus, the past participle of the Latin verb admonēre, meaning "to warn." Admonēre, in turn, was formed by the combination of the prefix ad- and monēre, "to warn." Other descendants of monēre in English include monitor, monitory ("giving a warning"), premonition, and an archaic synonym of admonish, monish. Incidentally, admonish has a number of other synonyms as well, including reprove, rebuke, reprimand, reproach, and chide.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 November 11, 2018 is:valorous \VAL-uh-russ\ adjective1 : possessing or acting with bravery or boldness : courageous2 : marked by, exhibiting, or carried out with courage or determination : heroicExamples:For carrying three wounded members of his squadron out of harm's way, the lieutenant was presented with an award that recognized his valorous actions in the heat of battle."Why are we so sure that reading books to kids is a valorous act, far superior to cuing up the nefarious iPad? Yes, story time can be tender, and the iPad a mechanized babysitter. But my kids … can seem as mindlessly hooked on the narrative technology of the picture book as on the exploits of the PAW Patrol." — Julia Turner, The New York Times, 18 May 2018Did you know?If you are boldly seeking synonyms for brave, consider valorous as well as courageous, intrepid, dauntless, and bold—all of which mean "having or showing no fear when faced with danger or difficulty." Brave is the most straightforward of these, implying lack of fear in alarming or difficult circumstances. Courageous carries a sense of stout-hearted resolution in the face of danger, while intrepid suggests downright daring in confronting peril. Dauntless suggests determination and resolution despite danger. Bold typically indicates a forward or defiant tendency to thrust oneself into dangerous situations. Valorous, which comes from Middle English valour, meaning "worth, worthiness, or bravery," suggests illustrious bravery and sometimes has an archaic or romantic ring.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 November 10, 2018 is:furlong \FER-lawng\ noun: a unit of distance equal to 220 yards (about 201 meters)Examples:"They tramped on again. But they had not gone more than a furlong when the storm returned with fresh fury." — J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954"Entered in the nine-furlong Pennsylvania Derby is a mix of local runners taking a shot at at least a portion of the $1 million purse and high-profile horses that have been running in graded stakes…." — Teresa Genaro, Forbes, 18 Sept. 2018Did you know?Furlong is an English original and can be traced back to Old English furlang, a combination of the noun furh ("furrow") and the adjective lang ("long"). Though now standardized as a length of 220 yards (or 1/8th of a mile), the furlong was originally defined less precisely as the length of a furrow in a cultivated field. This length was equal to the long side of an acre—an area originally defined as the amount of arable land that could be plowed by a yoke of oxen in a day, but later standardized as an area measuring 220 yards (one furlong) by 22 yards, and now defined as any area measuring 4,840 square yards. In contemporary usage, furlong is often encountered in references to horse racing.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 November 9, 2018 is:boustrophedon \boo-struh-FEE-dahn\ noun: the writing of alternate lines in opposite directions (as from left to right and from right to left)Examples:The archaeologist noticed that the text on the tablet was written in boustrophedon."A few days later the same Captain Pasha gave them a gift of an ancient boustrophedon inscription which had been at the door of a Greek chapel; many generations of peasants had rubbed against it, believing it relieved their rheumatism." — Sally Emerson, Independent on Sunday (London), 13 May 2001Did you know?Before the standardization of writing from left to right, ancient Greek inscribers once used a style called boustrophedon, a word meaning literally "turning like oxen in plowing." When they came to the end of a line, the ancient Greeks simply started the next line immediately below the last letter, writing the letters and words in the opposite direction, and thus following the analogy of oxen plowing left to right, then right to left. Reverse boustrophedon writing has also been found in which the inscribers turned the document 180 degrees before starting a new line so that the words are always read left to right with every half turn. The word boustrophedon itself is formed from the Greek word for the ox or cow, bous, and the verb strephein, which means "to turn."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 November 8, 2018 is:palmary \PAL-muh-ree\ adjective: outstanding, bestExamples:A daughter of missionaries, Pearl S. Buck wrote many works about Chinese life and culture, with her palmary novel, The Good Earth, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1932."The palmary case of telling someone what to do is to issue, for instance, the simple imperative 'Go away'—an utterance which may or may not have the effect of making its addressee go away, but at any rate tells him to." — G. J. Warnock, Contemporary Moral Philosophy, 1967Did you know?It was the ancient Romans who first used palmarius to describe someone or something extraordinary. Palmarius literally translates as "deserving the palm." But what does that mean exactly? Was it inspired by palms of hands coming together in applause? That would be a good guess, but the direct inspiration for palmarius was the palm leaf given to a victor in a sports competition. That other palm—the one on the hand—is loosely related. The Romans thought the palm tree's leaves resembled an outstretched palm of the hand; they thus used their word palma for both meanings, just as we do with palm in English. Now, when we award a noun with the modifier palmary, it signifies that thing as the choicest among possible examples.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 November 7, 2018 is:derring-do \dair-ing-DOO\ noun: daring action : daringExamples:"They're two of the most celebrated climbers in the world, struggling to find the right words to describe an astonishing act of human derring-do: On June 3, 2017, Honnold ascended the Freerider route of El Capitan, a nearly 3,000-foot rock face in Yosemite National Park, noted for its glassy-smooth granite and holds that extend only to the fingertips. And he did it all without a rope." — Scott Tobias, The New York Magazine, 26 Sept. 2018"But Ben Macintyre, a journalist who specialises in books about spies and derring-do, has crafted his story as a real-life thriller, as tense as John le Carré's novels, or even Ian Fleming's.… 'The Spy and the Traitor' is a gripping reconstruction, even for those with only a cursory interest in the secret world." — The Economist, 22 Sept. 2018Did you know?Derring-do is a quirky holdover from Middle English that came to occupy its present place in the language by a series of mistakes and misunderstandings. In Middle English, dorring don meant simply "daring to do." For example, Geoffrey Chaucer used dorring don around 1374 when he described a knight "daring to do" brave deeds. The phrase was misprinted as derring do in a 16th-century edition of a 15th-century work by poet John Lydgate, and Edmund Spenser took it up from there, assuming it was meant as a substantive, or noun phrase. (A glossary to Spenser's work defined it as "manhood and chevalrie.") Sir Walter Scott and others in the 19th century got the phrase from Spenser and brought it into modern use.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 November 6, 2018 is:umbrage \UM-brij\ noun1 : a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult2 : shady branches : foliage3 : shade, shadow4 a : an indistinct indication : vague suggestion : hintb : a reason for doubt : suspicionExamples:"Often, after an active morning, she would spend a sunny afternoon in lying stirless on the turf, at the foot of some tree of friendly umbrage." — Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, 1849"If you can find one of these big roosts, the birds are quite entertaining to watch. When they settle in for the evening, they're noisy and quarrelsome and seem to take umbrage at many things." — Jim Wright, The Daily Record (Morristown, New Jersey), 26 July 2018Did you know?"Deare amber lockes gave umbrage to her face." This line from a poem by William Drummond, published in 1616, uses umbrage in its original sense of "shade or shadow," a meaning shared by its Latin source, umbra. (Umbella, the diminutive form of umbra, means "a sunshade or parasol" in Latin and is an ancestor of our word umbrella.) Beginning in the early 17th century, umbrage was also used to mean "a shadowy suggestion or semblance of something," as when William Shakespeare, in Hamlet, wrote, "His semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more." In the same century, umbrage took on the pejorative senses "a shadow of suspicion cast on someone" and "displeasure, offense"; the latter is commonly used today in the phrases "give umbrage" or "take umbrage."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 November 5, 2018 is:mordant \MOR-dunt\ adjective1 : biting and caustic in thought, manner, or style : incisive2 : acting as a mordant (as in dyeing)3 : burning, pungentExamples:"When Clementine tried to tell him that the result might well be a blessing in disguise, Winston Churchill maintained his normal standards of mordant wit by replying that 'at the moment it's certainly very well disguised.'" — Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography, 2001"For Lucas Hedges, acting is a kind of ongoing education in how to live in the world. Take his performance as a troubled and mordant young man who's just lost his father in Kenneth Lonergan's gorgeously melancholy 2016 film Manchester by the Sea, which Hedges calls 'the most formative role of my life.'" — Adam Green, Vogue, 24 Sept. 2018Did you know?The etymology of mordant certainly has some bite to it. That word, which came to modern English through Middle French, ultimately derives from the Latin verb mordēre, which means "to bite." In modern parlance, mordant usually suggests a wit that is used with deadly effectiveness. Mordēre puts the bite into other English terms, too. For instance, that root gave us the tasty morsel ("a tiny bite"). But nibble too many of those and you'll likely be hit by another mordēre derivative: remorse ("guilt for past wrongs"), which comes from Latin remordēre, meaning "to bite again."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 November 4, 2018 is:gridiron \GRID-eye-ern\ noun1 : a grate for broiling food2 : something consisting of or covered with a network3 : a football fieldExamples:"Despite his prowess on the gridiron, he received little attention from Division-I football programs." — Tom Layberger, Forbes, 14 Sept. 2018"[Thomas] Jefferson wanted wide streets, lots of land reserved for public space, and a rectangular pattern of streets. L'Enfant insisted on radial avenues that intersect a gridiron of streets at odd angles. Many city planners believe that if Jefferson's plan had been adopted, there would be fewer traffic problems in Washington, D.C., today." — Ann Feetham, Cobblestone, 1 Sept. 2012Did you know?Modern gridirons are covered in football players when they're in use, but the original gridirons were more likely to be covered with meat or fish; they were metal gratings used for broiling food over an open fire. In Middle English, such a grating was called a gredil, a root that gave modern English both gridiron and griddle. How did gridiron become associated with football? That happened in the late 1800s, when a white grid pattern was added to football fields to help enforce new rules about how many yards a team had to gain to keep possession of the ball. From high up in the stands, the lines made the playing fields look like cooking gridirons.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 November 3, 2018 is:sinew \SIN-yoo\ noun1 : tendon; especially : one dressed for use as a cord or thread2 a : solid resilient strength : powerExamples:"This roast from the shoulder was beefy and juicy…. A thin line of sinew was the only unpleasant distraction." — Cook's Country, June 1995"Among the materials [American explorer John Wesley Powell] left in Bloomington … were beaded moccasins, baskets woven from grass and willow, a bow studded with metal tacks and strung with intact string made from sinew and an arrow quiver." — Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Sept. 2018Did you know?Many parts of the body have come to have figurative meanings in English. One can have an eye for interior design, for example, or lack the stomach for horror movies. Muscle, of course, can mean "strength," and so can sinew, a word for the tissue that ties muscle to bone—more commonly known as a tendon. For a while, sinew and nerve were used in a synonymous manner for both tendons and nerves, but the use of sinew in the sense of "nerve" is now obsolete, and nerve in the sense of "sinew" or "tendon" is now primarily found only in certain phrases such as "strain every nerve" (which implies making every possible effort). The use of sinew to mean "the chief supporting force" ties into its anatomical function as a stabilizing unit. Sinew derives via Middle English from Old English seono; it is also related to Old High German senawa ("sinew") and Sanskrit syati ("he binds").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 November 2, 2018 is:connive \kuh-NYVE\ verb1 : to pretend ignorance of or fail to take action against something one ought to oppose2 a : to be indulgent or in secret sympathy : winkb : to cooperate secretly or have a secret understanding3 : conspire, intrigueExamples:"Arnold worked out a plan not only to turn over the fort and its men to the British but at the same time to connive at the British capture of George Washington." — Gordon S. Wood, The Weekly Standard, 1 June 2018"Officers who connive and cheat to pad their paychecks aren't just stealing money. They're also eroding the crucial bond between the public and those sworn to protect and serve them." — The Boston Globe, 16 July 2018Did you know?Connive may not seem like a troublesome term, but it was to Wilson Follett, a usage critic who lamented that the word "was undone during the Second World War, when restless spirits felt the need of a new synonym for plotting, bribing, spying, conspiring, engineering a coup, preparing a secret attack." Follett thought connive should only mean "to wink at" or "to pretend ignorance." Those senses are closer to the Latin ancestor of the word: connive comes from the Latin connivēre, which means "to close the eyes" and which is descended from -nivēre, a form akin to the Latin verb nictare, meaning "to wink." But many English speakers disagreed, and the "conspire" sense is now the word's most widely used meaning.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 November 1, 2018 is:verbose \ver-BOHSS\ adjective1 : containing more words than necessary : wordy; also : impaired by wordiness  2 : given to wordinessExamples:"[The] text … is verbose and vague, and so comically overheated that it can feel like a parody of late Tennessee Williams, when that playwright's florid style had graduated to full rococo." — Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times, 20 Sept. 2018"But Tuesday's overly verbose—let's call it a diatribe—portrayed Brown in a light we haven't seen to this point. He was visibly frustrated and completely exasperated, as if, in that particular moment, he decided to unfurl eight years of pent up anger and indignation." — Pro Football Weekly, 13 June 2018Did you know?There's no shortage of words to describe wordiness in English. Diffuse, long-winded, prolix, redundant, windy, repetitive, rambling, and circumlocutory are some that come to mind. Want to express the opposite idea? Try succinct, concise, brief, short, summary, terse, compact, or compendious. Verbose, which falls solidly into the first camp of words, comes from Latin verbosus, from verbum, meaning "word." Other descendants of verbum include verb, adverb, proverb, verbal, and verbicide (that's the deliberate distortion of the sense of a word).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 October 31, 2018 is:lycanthropy \lye-KAN-thruh-pee\ noun1 : a delusion that one has become a wolf2 : the assumption of the form and characteristics of a wolf held to be possible by witchcraft or magicExamples:The 1941 film The Wolf Man starred Lon Chaney, Jr., as a man cursed with lycanthropy."Born in 1859, Alfred Edward Housman came from a talented family…. His sister Clemence's novella, The Were-Wolf, is one of the most powerful stories ever written about lycanthropy." — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post, 13 July 2017Did you know?If you happen to be afflicted with lycanthropy, the full moon is apt to cause you an inordinate amount of distress. Lycanthropy can refer to either the delusional idea that one is a wolf or to the werewolf transformations that have been the stuff of superstitions for centuries. In some cultures, similar myths involve human transformation into other equally feared animals: hyenas and leopards in Africa, for example, and tigers in Asia. The word lycanthropy itself, however, comes from the Greek words lykos, meaning "wolf," and anthrōpos, meaning "human being." Werewolf myths are usually associated with the phases of the moon; the animal nature of the werewolf (or lycanthrope) is typically thought to take over when the moon is 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 October 30, 2018 is:caterwaul \KAT-er-wawl\ verb1 : to make a harsh cry2 : to protest or complain noisilyExamples:The woods were quiet until the sound of a chainsaw caterwauling in the distance broke the calm."Between begging calls, the young birds made more practice launches, flapping their wings and jumping. Paired adults were re-forming their relationships; returning birds went in for bouts of head flicking and kissing. Neighbors were in dispute, caterwauling above the din." — Tim Dee, The New York Review of Books, 11 Sept. 2018Did you know?An angry (or amorous) cat can make a lot of noise. As long ago as the mid-1300s, English speakers were using caterwaul for the act of voicing feline passions. The cater part is, of course, connected to the cat, but scholars disagree about whether it traces to Middle Dutch cāter, meaning "tomcat," or if it is really just cat with an "-er" added. The waul is probably imitative in origin; it represents the feline howl itself. English's first caterwaul was a verb focused on feline vocalizations, but by the 1600s it was also being used for similar non-cat noises and for noisy 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 October 29, 2018 is:shambles \SHAM-bulz\ noun1 : slaughterhouse2 a : a place of mass slaughter or bloodshedb : a scene or a state of great destruction : wreckagec : a scene or a state of great disorder or confusiond : great confusion : messExamples:"The scene is reminiscent of the opening of the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones flees a cave half a step ahead of a giant boulder. Instead of running from a rock, Croft spends the game running through a city that crumbles around her as the world is reduced to shambles." — Bob Fekete, Newsweek, 21 Sept. 2018 "Career success does not exist in a vacuum. If the home life is a mess and the children and bills and house are in shambles, then it's very hard, if not impossible, to succeed at work." — Gail Saltz, quoted in Psychology Today, 1 May 2018Did you know?How does a word meaning "footstool" turn into a word meaning "mess"? Start with the Latin scamillum, meaning "little bench." Modify the spelling and you get the Old English sceamol, meaning "footstool" or "a table used for counting money or exhibiting goods." Alter again to the Middle English shameles, and the meaning can easily become more specific: "a table for the exhibition of meat for sale." Pluralize and you have the base of the 15th-century term shambles, meaning "meat market." A century takes shambles from "meat market" to "slaughterhouse," then to figurative use referring to a place of terrible slaughter or bloodshed (say, a battlefield). The scene of a slaughter can get messy, so it's logical for the word to pick up the modern sense "mess" or "state of great confusion." Transition accomplished.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 October 28, 2018 is:multitudinous \mul-tuh-TOO-duh-nus\ adjective1 : including a multitude of individuals : populous2 : existing in a great multitude3 : existing in or consisting of innumerable elements or aspectsExamples:The author's appearance is expected to attract a multitudinous gathering that will fill the entire auditorium."First and foremost are the hiking trails, which while multitudinous and beautiful, are remarkably hard to navigate." — Jamie Hale, The Oregonian, 24 June 2018Did you know?Multitudinous is one of many English words that make use of the combining form multi-, from Latin multus, meaning "much" or "many." Multicolor, multifunction, and multimillionaire are just a few of the others. Multitudinous is the kind of highly expressive word that you can rely upon when you want something a little more emphatic than plain old numerous. Among its synonyms are multiple and multifold, two more members of the multi- family.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 October 27, 2018 is:pamphleteer \pam-fluh-TEER\ verb1 : to write and publish pamphlets2 : to engage in partisan arguments indirectly in writingsExamples:Though he is remembered today for his novels and essays, George Orwell was also known to pamphleteer for causes important to him."After the pamphlet wars between supporters of Louis XIII and Marie de Medicis, in 1618-19, several pamphleteers were sentenced to death, and the attempt to arrest unlicensed booksellers led many to flee the country. More broadly, the political chaos brought about by pamphleteering in France contributed to the absolutism of Louis XIV, who used the printing press as a tool of state control." — Stephen Marche, The New Yorker, 23 Apr. 2018Did you know?Pamphlets—unbound printed publications with no covers or with paper covers—are published about all kinds of subjects, but our word pamphlet traces back to one particular document. It derives from the title of a short Latin love poem of the 12th century: Pamphilus, seu De Amore, which can be translated as "Pamphilus, or On Love." The name Pamphilus referred to a Greek god whose name means "loved by all." Following from this, the original pamphlets were handwritten poems, tracts, or treatises, often consisting of several pages bound together. Pamphleteer, which can be both a noun and a verb, combines pamphlet with the -eer suffix found in such words as engineer and puppeteer.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 October 26, 2018 is:holy writ \HOH-lee-RIT\ noun1 often capitalized Holy Writ : Bible2 : a writing or utterance having unquestionable authorityExamples:"But just because these people claim to be experts doesn't mean their every utterance should be treated as holy writ." — James Delingpole, The Spectator, 7 Apr. 2018"Holy Writ is a text we read and engage with fully. In an imaginative appropriation of the text of Scripture, and through the workings of grace, we somehow understand beyond articulation…." — Edward T. Wheeler, Commonweal, 6 Oct. 2017Did you know?Holy Writ has been used in English as a synonym for Bible for more than a thousand years. The term traces to the Venerable Bede, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon scholar, historian, and theologian who wrote a history of England in which he dated events from the birth of Christ. Bede's history was translated from Latin to English around the year 900, and it is in that translated text that we find the earliest evidence for holy writ. William Shakespeare used holy writ in Othello: "Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ." And Alexander Pope used it in his Wife of Bath: "And close the sermon, as beseem'd his wit, with some grave sentence out of holy writ."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 October 25, 2018 is:fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shus\ adjective: lasting a short time : evanescentExamples:The rock band's rise in popularity turned out to be fugacious, and within two years its members had moved on to other careers."The maple leaves are a yellow light signaling me to slow down and take in the last pulse of color of a fugacious fall." — David Johnson, The Daily News of Newburyport (Massachusetts), 26 Nov. 2013Did you know?Fugacious is often used to describe immaterial things like emotions, but not always. Botanists, for example, use it to describe plant parts that wither or fall off before the usual time. Things that are fugacious are fleeting, and etymologically they can also be said to be fleeing. Fugacious derives from the Latin verb fugere, which means "to flee." Other descendants of fugere include fugitive, refuge, and subterfuge.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 October 24, 2018 is:indoctrinate \in-DAHK-truh-nayt\ verb1 : to instruct especially in fundamentals or rudiments : teach2 : to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principleExamples:"Clearly, [in the television series 'The Handmaid's Tale'] the Sons of Jacob have been scarily successful in indoctrinating Americans—or, more specifically, young former Americans—to accept a new set of social mores." — Elena Nicolaou, Refinery29.com, 24 May 2018"There were two academies in the frigate. One comprised the apprentice boys, who, upon certain days of the week, were indoctrinated in the mysteries of the primer by an invalid corporal of marines, a slender, wizzen-cheeked man, who had received a liberal infant-school education." — Herman Melville, White Jacket, 1850Did you know?Indoctrinate simply means "brainwash" to many people. But its meaning isn't always so negative. When this verb first appeared in English in the 17th century, it simply meant "to teach"—a meaning that followed logically from its Latin root. The "doc" in the middle of indoctrinate derives from the Latin verb docēre, which also means "to teach." Other offspring of docēre include docent (referring to a college professor or a museum guide), docile, doctor, doctrine, and document. It was not until the 19th century that indoctrinate began to see regular use in the sense of causing someone to absorb and take on certain opinions or principles.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 October 23, 2018 is:mawkish \MAW-kish\ adjective1 : lacking flavor or having an unpleasant taste2 : exaggeratedly or childishly emotionalExamples:"Naomi Watts gives a committed, grounded performance as a single mother who finds herself surprisingly agreeable to doing whatever it takes to stay connected to her beloved older son. Few films aspire to be both a mawkish tearjerker and a Hitchcockian thriller, and The Book Of Henry makes a pretty convincing case why more shouldn't." — Tim Grierson, Screen International, 15 June 2017"Now for the tears of joy, the kind to which mawkish septuagenarians fall prey. First was the experience of taking the grandchildren to Giffords Circus…. " — Max Hastings, The Spectator, 26 Aug. 2017Did you know?The etymology of mawkish really opens up a can of worms—or, more properly, maggots. The first part of mawkish derives from Middle English mawke, which means "maggot." Mawke, in turn, developed from the Old Norse word mathkr, which had the same meaning as its descendant. The majority of English speakers eventually eschewed the word's dipteran implications (mawk still means "maggot" in some dialects of British English), and began using it figuratively instead. As language writer Ivor Brown put it in his 1947 book Say the Word, "Time has treated 'mawkish' gently: the wormy stench and corruption of its primal state were forgotten and 'mawkish' became sickly in a weak sort of way instead of repulsive and revolting."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 October 22, 2018 is:brouhaha \BROO-hah-hah\ noun: a state of commotion or excitement : hubbub, uproarExamples:There was much brouhaha in the tabloids over the young actor's sudden marriage to the woman who had been his high school sweetheart."But where do you go, when the temperatures are soaring and you want to cool off but without all of the brouhaha that comes along with a trip to one of our more popular, crowded city beaches?" — Ji Suk Yi, The Chicago Sun-Times, 25 July 2018Did you know?Some etymologists think brouhaha is onomatopoeic in origin, but others believe it comes from the Classical Hebrew phrase barukh habba', meaning "blessed be he who arrives" (Psalms 118:26). Although we borrowed brouhaha directly from French in the late 18th century, etymologists have connected the French derivation to that frequently recited Hebrew phrase, distorted to something like brouhaha by worshippers whose knowledge of Hebrew was limited. The word eventually came to be used in a sense similar to "applause" and in the sense of "a noisy confusion of sound"—the latter being the sense that was later extended in English to refer to any tumultuous and confused situation.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 October 21, 2018 is:rebuff \rih-BUFF\ verb: to reject or criticize sharply : snubExamples:"The wait at [Sushi Sho in the Ritz-Carlton] is worth it for a chance to dine with the chef most famously known for rebuffing Michelin inspectors back home and eschewing the stars they'd have borne." — Cliff Lee, The Globe and Mail (Canada), 14 July 2018"When the 49ers first tried to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo early in the 2017 offseason, general manager John Lynch was rebuffed by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who told Lynch that Garoppolo was unavailable." — Eric Ting, SFGate.com (San Francisco), 28 Aug. 2018Did you know?Occurring frequently in news articles and headlines, rebuff derives (via Middle French rebuffer) from Old Italian ribuffare, meaning "to reprimand," and ultimately from the imitative verb buffare, meaning "to puff." (You might guess that the verb buff, meaning "to polish," is a buffare descendant, but it is actually unrelated. It is derived from Middle French buffle, meaning "wild ox.") A similar word, rebuke, shares the "criticize" sense of rebuff, but not the "reject" sense (one can rebuke another's actions or policies, but one does not rebuke the advances of another, for example). Like rebuke, rebuff can also be used as a noun, as in "His proposal was met with a stern rebuff from the Board of Trustees."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 October 20, 2018 is:superjacent \soo-per-JAY-sunt\ adjective: lying above or upon : overlyingExamples:"Village streets threaded around the hillside, eternally watched over by the superjacent castle." — Evan Rail, The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2011"Article 56 of the convention provides that … the coastal State has … sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources … of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil…." — Costas Stamatiou and Yiota Georgiou, Mondaq Business Briefing, 5 June 2018Did you know?You're probably familiar with adjacent, and if you guessed that it's a relative of superjacent, you're right. Both derive from the Latin verb jacēre, meaning "to lie." Adjacent, which is both the more popular and the earlier word (it first appeared in print in the 15th century, while superjacent turned up in the late 16th century), comes from jacēre and the prefix ad-, meaning "near." Superjacent, on the other hand, was formed by combining jacēre with the prefix super-, meaning "over," "above," or "on top of." In case you were wondering, jacēre descendants are also available for other possible configurations: subjacent means "lying below," and circumjacent means "lying near on all sides" or "surrounding."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 October 19, 2018 is:linchpin \LINCH-pin\ noun1 : a locking pin inserted crosswise (as through the end of an axle or shaft)2 : one that serves to hold together parts or elements that exist or function as a unitExamples:Investors are betting that the new product line will be the linchpin that secures the company's place in the very competitive market in the years and decades to come. "Saudi Arabia planned to take its giant oil company, Saudi Aramco, to the public markets. It was to be the linchpin of a grand economic vision, generating billions of dollars to pay for future-proofing the kingdom's economy, including huge investments in technology." — Michael J. de la Merced, The New York Times, 25 Aug. 2018Did you know?In his 1857 novel, Tom Brown's School Days, Thomas Hughes describes the "cowardly blackguard custom" of "taking the linch-pins out of the farmers' and bagmens' gigs at the fairs." The linchpin in question held the wheel on the gig and removing it made it likely that the wheel would come off as the vehicle moved. Such a pin was called a lynis in Old English; Middle English speakers added pin to form lynspin. By the early 20th century, English speakers were using linchpin for anything as critical to a complex situation as a linchpin is to a wagon, as when Winston Churchill, in 1930, wrote of Canada and the role it played in the relationship between Great Britain and the United States, that "no state, no country, no band of men can more truly be described as the linchpin of peace and world progress."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 October 18, 2018 is:de rigueur \duh-ree-GUR\ adjective: prescribed or required by fashion, etiquette, or custom : properExamples:"[Emma] Stone, who patiently smiled through the de rigueur photo shoot in front of a backdrop emblazoned with the logos of the festival and its sponsors, should be extra light on her feet these days after singing and dancing with co-star Ryan Gosling in one of the opening night movies, 'La La Land.'" — Paul Liberatore, The Marin Independent Journal (Marin County, California), 6 Oct. 2016"It's fascinating to compare not only the speeches that Robert and the king's heir give before heading into combat, but also Robert's words with those Gibson's Wallace delivers in 'Braveheart.' So much has changed in nearly a quarter century's time that Mackenzie's idea of blockbuster heroism robs his 'Outlaw King' of the bombastic pep talk that would have been de rigueur for a studio movie." — John Simon, The Weekly Standard, 2 Mar. 2018Did you know?If you're invited to a ball or other social function and the invitation includes the French phrase costume de rigueur, you are expected to adhere to a very strict dress code—typically, a white tie and tails if you're a man and a floor-length evening gown if you're a woman. In French, de rigueur means "out of strictness" or "according to strict etiquette"; one definition of our word rigor, to which rigueur is related, is "the quality of being strict, unyielding, or inflexible." In English, we tend to use de rigueur to describe a fashion or custom that is so commonplace within a context that it seems a prescribed, mandatory part of it.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 October 17, 2018 is:acceptation \ak-sep-TAY-shun\ noun1 : acceptance; especially : favorable reception or approval2 : a generally accepted meaning of a word or understanding of a conceptExamples:"About 40 fine arts students filled out a two-page application to be a part of the project, Rodriguez said.... Some have done commissioned work and sold their art on Etsy. One received an automatic acceptation to a prestigious art school in Chicago on National Portfolio Day last fall." — Laura Gutschke, The Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News, 8 Apr. 2018"For its primary definition of 'money,' the same source states, 'In usual and ordinary acceptation it means gold, silver, or paper money used as circulating medium of exchange, and does not embrace notes, bonds, evidences of debt, or other personal or real estate.'" — Tom Egan, The Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, 1 June 2017Did you know?Acceptation is older than its synonym _acceptance_; it first appeared in print in the 15th century, whereas acceptance makes a 16th-century appearance. Grammarian H. W. Fowler insisted in 1926 that acceptation and acceptance were not actually synonymous (he preferred to reserve acceptation for the "accepted meaning" use), but the earliest meaning of acceptation was indeed acceptance. Both words descend from the Anglo-French word accepter ("to accept"), but acceptation took an extra step. Anglo-French added the -ation ending, which was changed to form acceptacioun in Middle English. (English embraced the present-day -ation ending later.) Acceptance simply comes from accepter plus the Anglo-French -ance.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 October 16, 2018 is:nary \NAIR-ee\ adjective: not any : not oneExamples:"I must have it back as I have nary other copy." — Flannery O'Connor, letter, 1961"Under harsh fluorescent hangar lights that would make even a brand-new Mercedes appear to have been painted with a broom, Symmetry reveals nary ripple nor flaw." — Stephan Wilkinson, Popular Science, March 2004Did you know?Nary, most often used in the phrase "nary a" to mean "not a single," is an 18th-century alteration of the adjectival phrase "ne'er a," in which ne'er is a contraction of never. That contraction dates to the 13th century, and the word it abbreviates is even older: never can be traced back to Old English nǣfre, a combination of ne ("not" or "no") and ǣfre ("ever"). Old English ne also combined with ā ("always") to give us nā, the Old English ancestor of our no. Ā, from the Latin aevum ("age" or "lifetime") and Greek aiōn ("age"), is related to the English adverb aye, meaning "always, continually, or ever." This aye (pronounced to rhyme with say) is unrelated to the more familiar aye (pronounced to rhyme with sigh) used as a synonym of yes.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 October 15, 2018 is:tergiversation \ter-jiv-er-SAY-shun\ noun1 : evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement : equivocation2 : desertion of a cause, position, party, or faithExamples:"Two chapters stand out. One covers the grinding combat in southern Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010, where the horrific daily reality for fighting soldiers is nicely juxtaposed with the tergiversations of generals and officials safe in Kabul and Washington." — Jason Burke, The Spectator, 3 Feb. 2018"The emotional leitmotif of Frankel's book is the Wilde-Douglas love story, one of vacillations and tergiversations, perhaps the most spectacular in the annals of literary history. There were various times when each of the lovers declared he would kill the other, only to rush back into his outstretched arms." — John Simon, The Weekly Standard, 2 Mar. 2018Did you know?The roots of tergiversation are about an unwillingness to pick a course and stay on it. The Latin verb tergiversari means "to show reluctance," and it comes from the combining of tergum, meaning "back," and versare, meaning "to turn." (While versare and its related form, vertere, turn up in the etymologies of many English words, including versatile and invert, tergum is at the root of only a few, among them tergal, an obscure synonym of dorsal.) While the "desertion" meaning of tergiversation is both older and a better reflection of the meanings of its etyma, the word is more frequently used as a synonym of equivocation. The related verb tergiversate is a somewhat rare synonym of equivocate.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 October 14, 2018 is:crapulous \KRAP-yuh-lus\ adjective1 : marked by intemperance especially in eating or drinking2 : sick from excessive indulgence in liquorExamples:"Helena she was called. She was Czech. I, on the other hand, was crapulous and reeked strongly—even to myself—of the odours of the tavern." — Jeremy Clarke, The Spectator, 24 May 2008"Your former acquaintance with Deane may perhaps put it in your power to render our country the service of recovering those books. It would not do to propose it to him as for Congress. What other way would best bring it about, you know best. I suppose his distresses and his crapulous habits will not render him difficult on this head [understanding]." — Thomas Jefferson, letter, 2 Mar. 1789Did you know?Crapulous may sound like a word that you shouldn't use in polite company, but it actually has a long and perfectly respectable history (although it's not a particularly kind way to describe someone). It is derived from the Late Latin adjective crapulosus, which, in turn, traces back to the Latin word crapula, meaning "intoxication." (The decidedly impolite word crap is unrelated; it comes from a British dialect term meaning "residue from rendered fat.") Crapula itself comes from a much older Greek word for the headache one gets from drinking too much alcohol. Crapulous first appeared in print in the 1530s. Approximately 200 years later, its close cousin crapulence arrived on the scene as a word for sickness caused by excessive drinking. Crapulence later acquired the meaning "great intemperance especially in drinking," but it is not an especially common word.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 October 13, 2018 is:quip \KWIP\ noun1 a : a clever usually taunting remark : gibeb : a witty or funny observation or response usually made on the spur of the moment2 : quibble, equivocation3 : something strange, droll, curious, or eccentric : oddityExamples:To almost every comment I made, Adam responded with a quip and a smile."The cancellation of the CW network's 'Veronica Mars' after three precious, ratings-starved seasons was a TV tragedy. Viewers reluctantly moved on, but we did not forget the girl who was quick with a quip, and perhaps even quicker with a taser." — Karla Peterson, The San Diego Union Tribune, 25 Aug. 2018Did you know?Quip is an abbreviation of quippy, a noun that is no longer in use. Etymologists believe that quippy derived from the Latin quippe, a word meaning "indeed" or "to be sure" that was often used ironically. The earliest sense of quip, referring to a cutting or sarcastic remark, was common for approximately a century after it first appeared in print in the early 1500s. It then fell out of use until the beginning of the 19th century, when it underwent a revival that continues to the present day.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 October 12, 2018 is:emblazon \im-BLAY-zun\ verb1 a : to inscribe or adorn with or as if with heraldic bearings or devicesb : to inscribe (something, such as heraldic bearings) on a surface  2 : celebrate, extolExamples:Outside the stadium in the hours before the game, thousands of fans wearing shirts and hats emblazoned with the hometown team's logo gathered."Berkshire County knows David York as the man just daring enough to open a museum dedicated to dogs and emblazon the sides of a stretch limousine with a depiction of a dachshund." — Adam Shanks, The Berkshire Eagle (Massachusetts), 19 June 2018Did you know?English speakers have been using the heraldic sense of emblazon since the late 16th century, and before that there was the verb blazon ("to describe heraldically") and the noun blazon ("a heraldic coat of arms"), which descend from Anglo-French blason. Emblazon still refers to adorning something with an emblem of heraldry, but it is now more often used for adorning or publicizing something in any conspicuous way, whether with eye-catching decoration or colorful words of praise.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 October 11, 2018 is:by and large \BYE-und-LAHRJ\ adverb: on the whole : in generalExamples:"Studies have shown that, by and large, when hospitals lose financial resources, they make cuts that could harm some patients." — Austin Frakt, The New York Times, 29 Aug. 2018"The action is, by and large, wordless (a TV set provides the occasional scrolling quote), with amplified sound and Carberry's playing of prepared instruments adding atmosphere." — Thom Dibdin, The Stage (London), 9 Aug. 2018Did you know?By and large is originally a sailing term meaning "alternately close-hauled and not close-hauled." A ship that is sailing "close-hauled" is sailing as directly into the wind as possible (typically within about 45 degrees of the wind). The by part of the phrase means "close-hauled." (This by also appears in the term full and by, meaning "sailing with all sails full and as close to the wind as possible.") Large, by contrast, refers to a point of sail in which the wind is hitting the boat "abaft the beam," or behind the boat's widest point. A 1669 example of a variant spelling of by and large gives us a sense of the range implied: "Thus you see the ship handled in fair weather and foul, by and learge" (S. Sturmy, Mariners Magazine). The suggestion of a wide range carries over into the term's "in general" sense.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 October 10, 2018 is:Luddite \LUH-dyte\ noun: one of a group of early 19th-century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly : one who is opposed to especially technological changeExamples:Responding to an interview question in Parade, July 2008, actress/screenwriter Emma Thompson jested, "I'm a Luddite, and I write longhand with an old fountain pen.""It's not that firefighters are Luddites. But in life-and-death situations, they can't afford to rely on solutions that haven't been thoroughly field-tested." — Carolyn Said, The San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Aug. 2018Did you know?Luddites could be considered the first victims of corporate downsizing. The Luddite movement began in the vicinity of Nottingham, England, toward the end of 1811 when textile mill workers rioted for the destruction of the new machinery that was slowly replacing them. Their name is of uncertain origin, but it may be connected to a (probably mythical) person known as Ned Ludd. According to an unsubstantiated account in George Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth (1847), Ned Ludd was a Leicestershire villager of the late 1700s who, in a fit of insane rage, rushed into a stocking weaver's house and destroyed his equipment; subsequently, his name was proverbially connected with machinery destruction. With the onset of the information age, Luddite gained a broader sense describing anyone who shuns new technology.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 October 9, 2018 is:ambivalent \am-BIV-uh-lunt\ adjective: having or showing simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward something : characterized by ambivalenceExamples:Bianca was ambivalent about starting her first year away at college—excited for the new opportunities that awaited but sad to leave her friends and family back home."A new study from LinkedIn found that many people feel ambivalent in their careers—wondering if they should stay in the same job or take time to invest in learning new skills or even change to a new path altogether." — Shelcy V. Joseph, Forbes, 3 Sept. 2018Did you know?The words ambivalent and ambivalence entered English during the early 20th century in the field of psychology. They came to us through the International Scientific Vocabulary, a set of words common to people of science who speak different languages. The prefix ambi- means "both," and the -valent and -valence parts ultimately derive from the Latin verb valēre, meaning "to be strong." Not surprisingly, an ambivalent person is someone who has strong feelings on more than one side of a question or issue.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 October 8, 2018 is:Occident \AHK-suh-dunt\ noun: regions or countries lying to the west of a specified or implied point of orientationExamples:"… [We] begin in Jerusalem and skip to Istanbul, from where the Orient Express sets off on its long and winding route to the grayer delights of the Occident." — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2017"Look up Tangier in any atlas and you can see what makes it special. It's the crossroads of the ancient world, where Orient and Occident collide." — William Cook, _The Spectator_, 16 Nov. 2013Did you know?You may not be reflecting on the history of the word Occident as you watch a beautiful sunset, but there is a connection. Occident, which comes from Latin occidere, meaning "to fall," once referred to the part of the sky in which the sun goes down. Geoffrey Chaucer used the word in that now-obsolete sense around 1390 in The Man of Law's Tale. In an earlier work, The Monk's Tale, which was written circa 1375, he used the word in the "western regions and countries" sense that we still use. Exactly what is meant by "western" is not always the same. Originally, Occident referred to western Europe or the Western Roman Empire. In modern times, it usually refers to some portion of Europe and North America as distinct from Asia. The opposite of Occident is Orient, which comes from Latin oriri ("to rise").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 October 7, 2018 is:scintillate \SIN-tuh-layt\ verb1 : to emit sparks : spark2 : to emit quick flashes as if throwing off sparks : sparkle3 : to throw off as a spark or as sparkling flashesExamples:The critics praised Doreen's performance in the play, declaring that she took a rather mundane script and made it scintillate with wit and excitement."Stephen Strasburg scintillated with seven scoreless innings in which he allowed two hits with three walks and six strikeouts over 105 pitches." — Mike Puma, The New York Post, 4 July 2017Did you know?The history of scintillate begins with Latin scintilla, which means "spark." Scintilla, in turn, sparked the development of the verb scintillare, meaning "to sparkle." Scintillate is the English version of scintillare. Though it sometimes means literally "to sparkle," it more often means "to sparkle" in a figurative sense—that is, to be lively, or to perform brilliantly. Scintillate is not the only word we get from scintilla. There is also scintilla itself (used as a noun meaning "a little bit"), scintillant (an adjective describing something that scintillates), and scintillation (which, among other things, means "a brilliant outburst").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 October 6, 2018 is:gloaming \GLOH-ming\ noun: twilight, duskExamples:"It was in the gloaming at Duke University in late fall of 1966. There was a wet chill in the air, most of the trees were leafless, and a low cloud cover added to the gloom. " — Bob Williams, The Chronicle (Duke University), 20 Aug. 2018"Afterward, we meandered up Lincoln Way in the gloaming, and I was delighted at the music sponsored by the Auburn Arts Commission—at Central Square and the Clock Tower. But before we reached the Clock Tower, I saw that the lights were on in Winston Smith. Auburn's bookstore open at an odd hour? Yes, yes, of course that works for me." — Susan Rushton, The Auburn (California) Journal, 3 August 2018Did you know?If gloaming makes you think of tartans and bagpipes, you've got a good ear and a good eye; we picked up gloaming from the Scottish dialects of English back in the Middle Ages. The roots of the word trace to the Old English word for "twilight," glōm, which is akin to glōwan, an Old English verb meaning "to glow." In the early 1800s, English speakers looked to Scotland again and borrowed the now-archaic verb gloam, meaning "to become dusk" or "to grow dark."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 5, 2018 is:peripeteia \pair-uh-puh-TEE-uh\ noun: a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary workExamples:The novel is populated by a number of secondary characters, each of whom plays a crucial role in the protagonist's peripeteia."Before ever writing Chapter one, he will write synopsis after synopsis, for up to a year, ironing out all the wrinkles, developing not just plot and peripeteia (or twists) but character." — Andy Martin, The Independent, 25 Nov. 2016Did you know?Peripeteia comes from Greek, in which the verb peripiptein means "to fall around" or "to change suddenly." It usually indicates a turning point in a drama after which the plot moves steadily to its denouement. In his Poetics, Aristotle describes peripeteia as the shift of the tragic protagonist's fortune from good to bad—a shift that is essential to the plot of a tragedy. The term is also occasionally used of a similar change in actual affairs. For example, in a 2006 article in The New York Times, Michael Cooper described William Weld's second term as Massachusetts' governor as "political peripeteia": it "began with a landslide victory and ended with frustrated hopes and his resignation."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 October 4, 2018 is:intestine \in-TESS-tin\ adjective: internal; specifically : of or relating to the internal affairs of a state or countryExamples:News reports of intestine disagreements between the country's two most powerful political factions led to murmurings that the country was on the precipice of civil war."Never, during the whole existence of the English nation, had so long a period passed without intestine hostilities. Men had become accustomed to the pursuits of peaceful industry, and, exasperated, as they were, hesitated long before they drew the sword." — Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England, 1848Did you know?We bet you thought intestine was a noun referring to a part of the digestive system! It is, of course, but naming that internal body part isn't the word's only function. Both the noun and the adjective intestine have been a part of English since the 15th century, and both trace to the Latin adjective intestinus, meaning "internal," and ultimately to intus, meaning "within." Though the adjective intestine turns up much less frequently than does its anatomical cousin, it does see occasional use, especially as a synonym for civil and domestic (in contrast to foreign) applied to wars and disturbances.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 October 3, 2018 is:weltschmerz \VELT-shmairts\ noun1 often capitalized Weltschmerz : mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state2 often capitalized Weltschmerz : a mood of sentimental sadnessExamples:Carson found himself plunging into a state of Weltschmerz as he grew older and discovered that the world was much more complicated than he had envisioned as a youth. "The mad narrator or central figure is in a world that may be experienced as confusing, grotesque or volatile; above all, it is private, closed in on itself, unavailable to outsiders.… The notion of insanity as a kind of extreme loneliness is good for a wallow in adolescent-romantic weltschmerz, if not much else." — Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, 29 June 2018Did you know?The word weltschmerz initially came into being as a by-product of the European Romanticism movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A combining of the German words for "world" (Welt) and "pain" (Schmerz), weltschmerz aptly captures the melancholy and pessimism that often characterized the artistic expressions of the era. The term was used in German by the Romantic author Jean Paul (pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) in his 1827 novel Selina, but it wasn't adopted into English until the middle of the 19th 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 October 2, 2018 is:cloister \KLOY-ster\ verb1 : to seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister2 : to surround with a cloisterExamples:"They share a desire to let their daughters have a normal childhood. Even as [Nicole] Kidman refuses to discuss them in detail ('Sunday jumps on things if she hears someone at school talking about something I said'), she doesn't want to cloister them either." — John Powers, Vogue, September 2017"It differs from traditional artist-in-residence programs in that founder Jessica Moss wanted to emphasize artists helping develop skills and activation in the community, rather than being cloistered away to create." — Emiene Wright, The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, 27 Aug. 2018Did you know?Cloister first entered the English language as a noun in the 13th century; it referred then (as it still does) to a convent or monastery. More than three centuries later, English speakers began using the verb cloister to mean "to seclude in or as if in a cloister." Today, the noun can also refer to the monastic life or to a covered and usually arched passage along or around a court. You may also encounter cloistered with the meaning "surrounded with a covered passage," as in "cloistered gardens." Cloister ultimately derives from the Latin verb claudere, meaning "to close." Other words that can be traced back to the prolific claudere include close, conclude, exclude, include, preclude, seclude, and recluse.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 October 1, 2018 is:manifesto \man-uh-FESS-toh\ noun: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuerExamples:"Mr. Eddie Lampert, the chairman of Sears Holdings and mastermind of the Kmart/Sears merger … famously published a 15-page manifesto in 2009 which covered everything from the economic meltdown to civil liberties, and contained a suggested reading list that included free-market Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek." — Mary Jane Quirk, Consumerist, 8 Jan. 2013"American Audacity is the rare example of a collection that coheres into a manifesto. Its essays were published during the last seven years, many in The New Republic and The Daily Beast, on topics as various as the art of hate mail, Herman Melville's life and the Boston Marathon bombing…." — Nathaniel Rich, The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2018Did you know?Manifesto is related to manifest, which occurs in English as a noun, verb, and adjective. Of these, the adjective, which means "readily perceived by the senses," is oldest, dating to the 14th century. Both manifest and manifesto derive ultimately from the Latin noun manus ("hand") and -festus, a combining form of uncertain meaning that is also found in the Latin adjective infestus ("hostile"), an ancestor of the English infest. Something that is manifest is easy to perceive or recognize, and a manifesto is a statement in which someone makes his or her intentions or views easy for people to ascertain. Perhaps the most well-known statement of this sort is the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to outline the platform of the Communist League.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 September 30, 2018 is:rodomontade \rah-duh-mun-TAYD\ noun1 : a bragging speech2 : vain boasting or bluster : rantExamples:"In the hands of the Philadelphia Artists' Collective, Maria Marten, or, Murder in the Red Barn becomes a rowdy lark full of rodomontade and dastardly deeds. Directed by Charlotte Northeast with gusto and goofiness, this is both a 19th-century melodrama and a burlesque of a 19th-century melodrama." — Toby Zinman, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 Jan. 2018"That he should credit such a rodomontade, and carry the pamphlet on his bosom and the words in his heart, is the clear proof of the man's lunacy." — Robert Louis Stevenson, The Master of Ballantrae, 1889Did you know?Rodomontade (which can also be spelled rhodomontade) originated in Italian poetry. Rodomonte was a fierce and boastful king in Orlando Innamorato, Count Matteo M. Boiardo's late 15th century epic, and later in the 1516 sequel Orlando Furioso, written by poet Lodovico Ariosto. In the late 16th century, English speakers began to use rodomont as a noun meaning "braggart." Soon afterwards, rodomontade entered the language as a noun meaning "empty bluster" or "bragging speech," and later as an adjective meaning "boastful" or "ranting."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 September 29, 2018 is:nocuous \NAH-kyuh-wus\ adjective: harmfulExamplesThe factory owners have said that they will upgrade the plant to comply with new regulations on nocuous emissions."Late summer means giving way to fall's colors. But one color that doesn't make everyone's favorite list is a layer of bright green floating on top of your favorite creek, river, pond or lake. These rafts of green material can be innocuous in some cases, and quite nocuous in others." — John Ferro, The Poughkeepsie Journal, 24 Sept. 2015Did you know?You are probably more familiar with the adjective innocuous, meaning "harmless," than with its antonymous relative nocuous. Both nocuous and innocuous have immediate Latin predecessors: nocuus and innocuus. (The latter combines nocuus with the negative prefix in-.) Both words can also be traced back to the Latin verb nocēre, meaning "to harm." Other nocēre descendants in English include the familiar innocent and the less familiar nocent, which means "harmful." Nuisance (which originally meant, and still can mean, "a harm or injury") is a more distant relative. Nocuous is one of the less common nocēre descendants, but it does turn up occasionally.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 September 28, 2018 is:trousseau \TROO-soh\ noun: the personal possessions of a bride usually including clothes, accessories, and household linens and waresExamples:I am fortunate to be in possession of various family heirlooms, including several items from my great-grandmother's trousseau."Sifting through these abandoned papers … one gets the sense of a community occupied primarily with day-to-day concerns: The price of wheat, the contents of a daughter's trousseau, news from a relative one hasn't heard from in a while, a dispute over grazing rights, the quality of a certain fabric from Morocco." — Michael David Lukas, The Forward (New York City, New York), 30 Mar. 2018Did you know?Trousseau is a descendant of the French verb trousser, meaning "to truss" or "to tuck up." Fittingly, a bride might truss, or bundle, a variety of items as part of her trousseau—and it is not too surprising that truss is also a trousser descendant. A less common descendant of trousser is retroussé, meaning "turned up," as in a "retroussé nose." The ultimate origin of trousser is likely the Latin verb torquēre, which means "to twist." Torquēre has many descendants in the language, among them a number of "tort" words (distort, contort, retort, extort), torque, and torture.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 September 27, 2018 is:orotund \OR-uh-tund\ adjective1 : marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound : sonorous2 : excessively elevated or inflated : pompous, bombasticExamples:"'This time, it's personal.' Yeah, yeah, you've no doubt heard that orotund threat before in movie trailers for the newest sequel to some action revenge movie starring Charles Bronson, Bruce Willis or Liam Neeson." — Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News, 15 Dec. 2017"She attacked 'Dopo notte, atra e funesta,' from Ariodante, with downright ferocity (the text partly describes a ship tossed in a tempest). It was an excellent display piece for her distinctive voice, which is deeply pitched and orotund of character, yet capable of finely calibrated coloratura." — James M. Keller, The Santa Fe New Mexican, 5 Jan. 2018Did you know?The Latin roots of orotund are related to two more common English words—oral and rotund. Latin or- means "mouth," and rotundus means "round" or "circular." The Roman poet Horace joined forms of those Latin terms to create the phrase ore rotundo, literally meaning "with round mouth," and figuratively meaning "with well-turned speech." Ore rotundo was modified to orotund and adopted into English in the late 18th century. It can indicate either strength of delivery or inflated wording.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 September 26, 2018 is:habiliment \huh-BIL-uh-munt\ noun1 plural : characteristic apparatus : trappings2 a : the dress characteristic of an occupation or occasion — usually used in pluralb : clothes — usually used in pluralExamples:"My riches are these poor habiliments, / Of which if you should here disfurnish me, / You take the sum and substance that I have." — William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1595"Kerr Gulch likes to have clothing delivered to her door by an online 'partner in personal style' called Stitch Fix. After sampling Stitch Fix's assortment of attire, Kerr holds onto the handsomest habiliments and boxes up the rest for shipment back to the company." — The Canyon Courier (Evergreen, Colorado), 28 Dec. 2017Did you know?Habiliment, from Middle French abillement, is a bit old-fashioned and is often used to describe complex, multi-pieced outfits like those of medieval times. For instance, a full suit of armor—which might include a helmet, a gorget, pallettes, brassard, a skirt of tasses, tuilles, gauntlets, cuisses, jambeaus, and sollerets, along with other pieces and plates—can be considered the habiliments of a knight. Nowadays, habiliment, which is usually used in its plural form, is also fitting for the dress of an occupation, such as the different vestments of a priest, or for clothes, such as elegant formal wear, worn on special occasions. When habiliment is used for plain old clothes, it is more than likely for jocular or poetic effect—as we see it being used by William Shakespeare in the first example below.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 September 25, 2018 is:secrete \sih-KREET\ verb1 : to deposit or conceal in a hiding place2 : to appropriate secretly : abstractExamples:The squirrel had secreted nuts all over the yard in preparation for winter, and as spring approached, more were still to be found."Then he allegedly sneaked the cash into a truck, moved the truck outside and covered the bag with his raincoat before secreting it away in his personal car." — Tina Moore et al., The New York Post, 27 July 2018Did you know?If you guessed that the secret to the origins of secrete is the word secret, you are correct. Secrete developed in the mid-18th century as an alteration of a now obsolete verb secret. That verb had the meaning now carried by secrete and derived from the familiar noun secret ("something kept hidden or unexplained"). The noun, in turn, traces back to the Latin secretus, the past participle of the verb secernere, meaning "to separate" or "to distinguish." Incidentally, there is an earlier and distinct verb secrete with the more scientific meaning "to form and give off (a secretion)." That secrete is a back-formation from secretion, another word that can be traced back to secernere.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 September 24, 2018 is:glade \GLAYD\ noun: an open space surrounded by woodsExamples:"Whenever they got a glimpse of the sun in an open glade they seemed unaccountably to have veered eastwards." — J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954"Park on the side of the road near the sign where possible, but try to avoid going too far off into the mud. Walk past the sign and across a glade before descending into the hollow." — James Baughn, The Southeast Missourian, 5 Apr. 2018Did you know?We know that glade has been with us since at least the early 1500s, though the word's origins remain a bit of a mystery. Glade, which originally was often used not just to indicate a clearing in the woods but one which was also filled with sunlight, may come from the adjective glad. In Middle English, glad also meant "shining," a meaning that goes back to the word's Old English ancestor, glæd. Glæd is akin to Old High German glat ("shining, smooth") and Old Norse glathr ("sunny"). It may also be a relative of Old English geolu, the ancestor of the modern English word yellow.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.