Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 4, 2018 is:slimsy \SLIM-zee\ adjective: flimsy, frailExamples:"For one thing, she'll have to make Daisy some clothes first, because Daisy hasn't got much to wear except what she's got on…. Just about all she's got to her name is that little slimsy gingham jumper she's wearing." — Erskine Caldwell, A Woman in the House, 1936"With Nebraska going out in the quarterfinals against Michigan—leaving the Cornhuskers with a slimsy resume nearly devoid of high-end wins—the Big Ten is poised to produce only four tournament teams for the first time since 2008." — Patrick Stevens, The Chicago Tribune, 5 Mar. 2018Did you know?The reasons why some words flourish and others fall by the lexical wayside are often unclear, but what is clear is that slimsy is firmly in the latter category: it has very little current use. This doesn't have to stop you from using it though; slimsy is a blend of slim and flimsy, and its meaning should be pretty much apparent to your audience if you're careful with the context. The word was first used in the mid-19th century and was at its peak of popularity in the early 20th. Who knows? Maybe the 21st century will see its revival.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 August 3, 2018 is:pacify \PASS-uh-fye\ verb1 a : to allay the anger or agitation of : sootheb : appease, propitiate2 a : to restore to a tranquil state : settleb : to reduce to a submissive state : subdueExamples:"To check on the health of a colony of bees it is usually necessary to open the hive, a procedure which involves using smoke to pacify the bees." — The Economist, 31 Mar. 2018"In the areas that were hardest for the army to pacify, former residents and monitoring groups report a rising tide of arrests." — Louisa Loveluck, The Washington Post, 27 May 2018Did you know?A parent who wants to win a little peace and quiet might give a fussy baby a pacifier. An employer seeking to avoid worker discontent might pay employees well. These actions may seem unrelated, but etymologically speaking, they have a lot in common. Both pacifier and pay are ultimately derived from pax, the Latin word for "peace." As you may have guessed, pax is also the source of our word peace. Pacify comes to us through Middle English pacifien, from the Latin verb pacificare, which derives from pax.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 August 2, 2018 is:agog \uh-GAHG\ adjective: full of intense interest or excitement : eagerExamples:We were all agog over the rumor that the famous actor would be coming to town for his next movie."As we went through the book, we felt like little children while turning page after page, agog at the incredible artwork! Although the subject of faeries might be considered for kids, this is not a book full of cute little Tinkerbells." — Ed and Cynthia Justus, The Garden Island (Lihue, Hawaii), 2 Mar. 2018Did you know?English speakers have been clamoring over the word agog for over 450 years. The word probably derives from the Middle French phrase en gogues, but the semantic link between en gogues (meaning "in a state of mirth") and the earliest English uses of agog, which exist in the phrase "to set agog" ("to excite, stimulate, make eager"), are not entirely clear. The -gog part of the word might make one wonder if agog has a connection to the verb goggle, meaning "to stare with wide or protuberant eyes," as in the manner of one who is intensely excited about something. That word actually has a different origin: the Middle English gogelen, meaning "to squint." In many instances, agog is followed by a preposition, such as over or 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 August 1, 2018 is:risorgimento \ree-zor-jih-MEN-toh\ noun1 often capitalized : the 19th century movement for Italian political unity2 : a time of renewal or renaissance : revivalExamples:"Aware of and influenced by the English poetry of the Risorgimento, Melville kept to his own preoccupations rather than merely echoing the political stances of other poets or his acquaintances…." — Hershel Parker, Melville: The Making of a Poet, 2007"If Mr. Smith offended professional historians, he found a receptive audience with Italian readers, who made 'Italy: A Modern History' a runaway best seller, one of the most popular academic works ever published in Italy. His ideas were greeted warmly by Italian leftists, who regarded the Risorgimento as a failed revolution, but his sheer readability also contributed to sales." — William Grimes, The New York Times, 2 Aug. 2017Did you know?During the period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars (1796-1815), the French dominated Italy and introduced many new reforms to the Italian states. After the wars, the states were restored to their former rulers, the Austrians, and took on a conservative character. In response, a number of secret societies arose as part of an ideological and literary movement in support of a united Italy free of foreign domination. This movement was given the name Risorgimento, which literally translates from Italian as "rising again." Although most modern use of the term still refers to this movement, the word also has broader application in English, referring to revivals or renewals of any sort. This second sense is occasionally capitalized in a nod to the earlier 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 July 31, 2018 is:musket \ MUSS-kut \ noun: a heavy large-caliber muzzle-loading usually smoothbore shoulder firearm; broadly : a shoulder gun carried by infantryExamples"They could see changes going on among the troops. There were marchings this way and that way. A battery wheeled leisurely. On the crest of a small hill was the thick gleam of many departing muskets." — Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, 1895"It's not the gun that kicked off the Revolution with that shot heard round the world, but it's similar. The musket is now in every history book. It's come to symbolize freedom and independence—even celebrated recently on Broadway, in the smash hit, Hamilton." — Lee Cowan, speaking on CBS, 13 Mar. 2016Did You Know?In the early era of firearms, cannons of lesser size such as the falconet were sometimes named for birds of prey. Following this pattern, Italians applied moschetto or moschetta, meaning "sparrow hawk," to a small-caliber piece of ordnance in the 16th century. Spaniards borrowed this word as mosquete, and the French as mosquet, but both applied it to a heavy shoulder firearm rather than a cannon; English musket was borrowed soon thereafter from French. The word musket was retained after the original matchlock firing mechanism was replaced by a wheel lock, and retained still after the wheel lock was replaced by the flintlock. As the practice of rifling firearms—incising the barrel with spiral grooves to improve the bullet's accuracy—became more common, the term musket gradually gave way to the newer word rifle in the 18th century.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 30, 2018 is:tempestuous \ tem-PESS-chuh-wus \ adjective: of, relating to, or resembling a violent storm : turbulent, stormyExamplesBecause the player's relationship with his manager had grown more tempestuous over the course of the season, the decision to trade him benefited everyone."The U.S. government stripped its embassy in Nicaragua down to bare-bone operations Monday after five days of deadly protests around the country, despite Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's efforts to calm his tempestuous nation." — Monique O. Madan and Glenn Garvin, The Miami Herald, 23 Apr. 2018Did You Know?Time is sometimes marked in seasons, and seasons are associated with the weather. This explains how tempus, the Latin word for "time," could have given rise to an English adjective for things turbulent and stormy. Tempus is the root behind Old Latin tempestus, meaning "season," and Late Latin tempestuosus, the direct ancestor of tempestuous. As you might expect, tempus is also the root, by way of the Latin tempestas ("season, weather, or storm"), of the noun tempest. Tempus may also be akin to the Latin verb temperare ("to moderate, mix, or temper"), which made its way through Anglo-French to become the English temper.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 July 29, 2018 is:gloss \ GLAHSS \ verb1 a : to provide a brief explanation or interpretation for : explain, defineb : interpret 2 : to dispose of by false or perverse interpretationExamplesAlthough not intended for the layperson, the text is relatively free of jargon and most of the technical vocabulary has been glossed. "At times, however, the author doesn't tell quite enough. For example, he glosses the phrase 'kickapoo joy juice' as sportswriter Red Smith's 'frontier euphemism for a blazing fastball.' He should have gone on to explain that Smith lifted the term from Al Capp, the creator of 'Li'l Abner.'" — Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post, 19 Apr. 2013Did You Know?You likely know gloss as a noun meaning "shine," or as part of the phrase gloss over, meaning "to treat or describe (something) as if it were not important," but those uses are unrelated to today's featured word. Today's verb comes from the noun gloss that refers primarily to a brief explanation. It is Greek in origin, coming from glossa or glotta, meaning "tongue," "language," or "obscure word." Glossary is from this same root, as are two anatomical terms: glottis refers to the elongated space between the vocal cords and also to the structures that surround this space; epiglottis refers to the thin plate of flexible cartilage in front of the glottis that folds back over and protects the glottis during swallowing.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 July 28, 2018 is:curfew \ KER-fyoo \ noun1 : the sounding of a bell at evening2 a : a regulation enjoining the withdrawal of usually specified persons (such as juveniles or military personnel) from the streets or the closing of business establishments or places of assembly at a stated hour  b : a signal to announce the beginning of a curfew  c : the hour at which a curfew becomes effectived : the period during which a curfew is in effectExamples"In addition to park areas designed for them, adolescents can go into almost all places in Berlin, including dance clubs and bars. There are some rules, including a curfew: teens under sixteen must be out of the clubs and restaurants by ten p.m., those under eighteen must leave by midnight." — Sara Zaske, Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children, 2017"He walked with her back to the chateau; the curfew had tolled for the laborious villagers of Fleurieres, and the street was unlighted and empty." — Henry James, The American, 1877Did You Know?In medieval Europe, a bell rang every evening at a fixed hour, and townspeople were required by law to cover or extinguish their hearth fires. It was the "cover fire" bell, or, as it was referred to in Anglo-French, coverfeu (from the French verb meaning "to cover," and the word for "fire"). By the time the English version, curfew, appeared, the authorities no longer regulated hearth fires, but an evening bell continued to be rung for various purposes—whether to signal the close of day, an evening burial, or enforcement of some other evening regulation. This "bell ringing at evening" became the first English sense of curfew. Not infrequently, the regulation signaled by the curfew involved regulating people's movement in the streets, and this led to the modern senses of the 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 July 27, 2018 is:reticent \ RET-uh-sunt \ adjective1 : inclined to be silent or uncommunicative in speech : reserved2 : restrained in expression, presentation, or appearance3 : reluctantExamplesUnlike the chatty, gregarious protagonist of his novel, the author is quite reticent in public."Tech companies, like Apple and Facebook, have been extremely reticent to lift barriers for investigators because they fear it will compromise user security." — Jake Kanter, Business Insider, 14 June 2018Did You Know?Reticent in the sense of "inclined to be silent or uncommunicative" first appeared in English in the early 19th century. About 50 years later, reticent took on the additional sense of "reluctant" which, while it is now well established, bothers some people, particularly because it has veered away from the word's Latin origins—reticent is from the verb reticēre, meaning "to keep silent." But there is some sense in the way the newer meaning developed. We first tended to use the "reluctant" sense of reticent when the context was speech (as in "reticent to talk about her past"), thus keeping the word close to its "silent" sense. Eventually, however, exclusive association with speech was abandoned. Now one can be reticent to do anything.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 July 26, 2018 is:inchmeal \ INCH-meel \ adverb: little by little, graduallyExamples"The big beam in the back room … came out with less trouble than Lydia had expected…. Cataracts of fine mortar dust fell continuously along most of its length as Lydia levered it inchmeal onto the cradle of scaffolding she had built." — Peter Dickinson, The Lively Dead, 1975"Judy fights against her own body to accomplish the smallest tasks, fighting battles inchmeal in a war she'll never win." — Serena Donadoni, The Village Voice, 22 June 2018Did You Know?"All the infections that the sun sucks up / From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him / By inch-meal a disease!" So goes one of the curses the hated and hateful Caliban hurls in the direction of Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The origin of inchmeal is simple; the inch half is the familiar measurement, and the meal is the suffix we know from the more common word piecemeal (which shares the "gradually" meaning of inchmeal, and has several other meanings as well). An old suffix that means "by a (specified) portion or measure at a time," -meal is related to the modern German word mal, meaning "time," as in the German word manchmal, meaning "sometimes."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 July 25, 2018 is:behemoth \ bih-HEE-muth \ noun1 often capitalized : a mighty animal described in Job 40:15-24 as an example of the power of God2 : something of monstrous size, power, or appearanceExamples"Dowd, who has lived in the same housing development since 1989, keeps a plot in the community garden: a mulchy oasis amid brick behemoths." — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 25 June 2018"Pietro's tiny shop has become a behemoth that sells goods in more than 160 countries, employs 40,000 people and makes 365,000 tons of Nutella per year." — Noah Kirsch, Forbes, 30 June 2018Did You Know?The original behemoth is biblical; it designates a mysterious river-dwelling beast in the Book of Job. Based on that description, scholars have concluded that the biblical behemoth was probably inspired by a hippopotamus, but details about the creature's exact nature are vague. The word first passed from Hebrew into Late Latin, where, according to English poet and monk John Lydgate, writing in 1430, it "playne expresse[d] a beast rude full of cursednesse." In English, behemoth was eventually applied more generally to anything large and powerful.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 July 24, 2018 is:languid \ LANG-gwid \ adjective1 : drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion : weak2 : sluggish in character or disposition : listless3 : lacking force or quickness of movement : slowExamplesThe trial proceeded at a languid pace as each attorney called up a whole roster of witnesses to testify."Of all the musicians whose work might cry out for a razzle-dazzle jukebox musical, Jimmy Buffett—he of the languid odes to umbrella drinks and beach vacations—would seem to be at the bottom of the list." — Christopher Kelly, The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), 23 Mar. 2018Did You Know?The letter L holds claim to a payload of words in English that connote a lack of energy or enthusiasm. Two of them—languid and languorous—derive from the same source, the Latin verb languēre ("to languish"). Languid describes the kind of sluggishness that one often experiences from fatigue or weakness ("the illness left her feeling languid"). Languorous applies more to someone who just doesn't feel the will to get up and do anything ("he felt languorous on a rainy Sunday afternoon"). There is also lackadaisical, which implies a halfhearted effort given from lack of care ("lackadaisical seniors just floating along until graduation"), as well as listless, which suggests a lack of spirit caused by physical weakness, dissatisfaction, or sadness ("she was listless for a few weeks following the breakup").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 July 23, 2018 is:pro rata \ proh-RAY-tuh \ adverb: proportionately according to an exactly calculable factor (such as a share or liability)Examples"The Senate also structured the budget bill so that any new money must be added pro rata, meaning proportionally to all areas where a deficit now exists." — Tim Morris, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 13 June 2018"Specifically, an S corporation is not a separate taxable entity for federal, and most state, income tax purposes. Instead, profits and losses of an S corporation are divided pro rata among the shareholders and 'passed through' to their personal returns." — Mike Cote, The Union Leader (Manchester, New Hampshire), 27 May 2018Did You Know?The Latin phrase prō ratā, meaning "in proportion," is a shortening of prō ratā parte/portiōne, meaning "according to the fixed proportion." English users borrowed the shorter phrase in the 16th century, dropping the diacritics along the way, and began applying the term in contexts formal enough that Latin doesn't seem too out of place: in finance and law. There pro rata refers to distributing or allocating a quantity proportionately—for example, dividing up an annual interest rate pro rata into monthly rates; distributing pro rata a profit amongst shareholders; paying part-time employees pro rata (according to full-time pay); or allocating liability for a defective product pro rata. In the early 19th century, pro rata demonstrated its usefulness as an adjective, as in "a pro rata share" or "pro rata distribution." The verb prorate (based on pro rata) followed soon thereafter. Incidentally, the familiar noun and verb rate (as in "tax rates" and "rating on a scale of 1 to 5") also trace back to Latin prō ratā parte, but they entered the language back in the 15th century by way of Anglo-French.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 22, 2018 is:festinate \FESS-tuh-nayt\ verb: hastenExamples:The patient's tendency to festinate meant that he was at risk of falling.  "He rocketed almost uncontrollably to the piano, but once there, played a Chopin nocturne with exquisite control and timing and grace—only to festinate once again as soon as the music ended."— Oliver Sacks, Musicophila, 2007Did you know?Festinate is one among many in the category of words whose early recorded use is in the works of William Shakespeare. He used it as an adjective (which is pronounced \FESS-tuh-nut\) in King Lear, for example: "Advise the Duke where you are going, to a most festinate preparation." Perhaps the Bard knew about festinatus, the Latin predecessor of festinate, or was familiar with the Latin proverb festina lente—"make haste slowly." Shakespeare also used the adverb festinately in Love's Labour's Lost: "Bring him festinately hither," Don Ariano de Armado orders. First evidence of the verb festinate, meaning "to hasten," occurs post-Shakespeare, however. 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 July 21, 2018 is:acolyte \AK-uh-lyte\ noun1 : one who assists a member of the clergy in a liturgical service by performing minor duties2 : one who attends or assists a leader : followerExamples:The lawyer arrived with one of her acolytes, an eager young attorney who'd recently been hired by the firm."His main rival, Henri Falcón, a former state governor who was once an acolyte of Mr. Chávez's but broke with him to join the opposition, received 1.8 million votes." — William Neuman and Nicholas Casey, The New York Times, 21 May 2018Did you know?Follow the etymological path of acolyte back far enough and you'll arrive at kéleuthos, a Greek noun that means "path" and that is itself the parent of akólouthos, an adjective that means "following." Akólouthos traveled from Greek, leaving offspring in Medieval Latin and Anglo-French; its English descendant, acolyte, emerged in the 14th century. Originally, acolyte was exclusively a term for a person who assisted a priest at Mass, but by the 19th century, the word had acquired additional meanings, among them "attendant body, satellite" (a meaning used in astronomy) and "attendant insect" (a zoological sense), as well as the general meaning "assistant" or "sidekick."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 July 20, 2018 is:paste \PAIST\ verb1 : to strike hard at2 : to beat or defeat soundlyExamples:"But, Moody came up next and pasted a liner into right for a single, which fueled a five-run inning for the Roughers." — Mike Tupa, The Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Examiner-Enterprise, 7 June 2018"A year ago, the Miners were pasted by Texas early in the season but had reason to leave feeling all right about itself.… This one is a bit tougher to rationalize…." — Bret Bloomquist, The El Paso Times, 3 Sept. 2017Did you know?We're not talking about adhesives here: the paste of interest here came to be as an alteration of the word baste, which means "to beat severely or soundly." (This baste is unrelated to the two distinct baste homographs that mean "to sew with long stitches" and "to moisten while cooking.") The exact origin of baste is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Old Norse word beysta, meaning "to bruise, thrash, or flog." Baste was first seen in the 16th century, but paste didn't turn up in print until the mid-19th century, and it only recently acquired its "defeat" sense. Baste is now less popular than paste, though its relative lambaste ("to beat" or "to censure") is prevalent.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 July 19, 2018 is:halcyon \HAL-see-un\ adjective1 : calm, peaceful2 : happy, golden3 : prosperous, affluentExamples:"Today, California is in the black and has even banked an emergency fund of eight billion dollars. Unemployment is less than five per cent. Still, there is nothing halcyon about Brown's vision of the future. At a press conference in January, he unveiled his valedictory budget proposal … and made clear that this was no cause for celebration." — Connie Bruck, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2018"There was a time when the gates opened at Molson Stadium and fans flocked in to watch the Alouettes play. And mostly, win. Until those halcyon days return, the organization realizes something must change." — Herb Zurkowsky, The Gazette (Montreal), 31 May 2018Did you know?According to Greek mythology, Alkyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught when she learned that her husband had been killed in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea and was changed into a kingfisher. As a result, ancient Greeks called such birds alkyōn or halkyōn. The legend also says that such birds built floating nests on the sea, where they so charmed the wind god that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds' eggs hatched. This legend prompted people to use halcyon both as a noun naming a genus of kingfisher and as an adjective meaning either "of or relating to the kingfisher or its nesting period" or "calm."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 July 18, 2018 is:salvo \SAL-voh\ noun1 a : a simultaneous discharge of two or more guns in military action or as a saluteb : the release all at one time of a rack of bombs or rockets (as from an airplane)c : a series of shots by an artillery battery with each gun firing one round in turn after a prescribed intervald : the bombs or projectiles released in a salvo2 a : a sudden burstb : a spirited attackExamples:The newspaper article was intended as a salvo against the mayor's policies."Soda industry fires salvo at Harvard researchers over sugary drink study warnings" — headline, The Boston Globe, 19 June 2018Did you know?Salvo derives via Italian and French from the Latin adjective salvus, meaning "healthy." Salve, another form of the word, means "hail!" in Latin and was used as a greeting by ancient Romans. (Incidentally, the English salve, referring to a medicinal substance, is no relation.) In English, salvo originally referred to a simultaneous discharge of two or more firearms performed as a salute—which is appropriate, since salute is another descendant of salvus. With time salvo came to refer to such a discharge performed as an act of war. Nowadays a salvo is most often an act of figurative war—such as a critical remark aimed at a debate opponent, or a business decision in a highly competitive industry.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 July 17, 2018 is:vouchsafe \vowch-SAYF\ verb1 a : to grant or furnish often in a gracious or condescending mannerb : to give by way of reply2 : to grant as a privilege or special favorExamples:"Juan Carlos, who announced on Monday that he is abdicating the throne, was long revered for his role in vouchsafing Spain's transition to democracy following the death, in 1975, of the country's geriatric Fascist leader, Generalissimo Francisco Franco." — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 2 June 2014"By the end of 'This Flat Earth,' Julie comes to seem like a latter-day variation on Emily, the heroine of Wilder's 'Our Town,' who is vouchsafed a glimpse of small human lives within a cosmic framework." — Ben Brantley, The New York Times, 9 Apr. 2018Did you know?Shakespeare fans are well acquainted with vouchsafe, which in its Middle English form vouchen sauf meant "to grant, consent, or deign." The word, which was borrowed with its present meaning from Anglo-French in the 14th century, pops up fairly frequently in the Bard's work—60 times, to be exact. "Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love," beseeches Proteus of Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. "Vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food," King Lear begs his daughter Regan. But you needn't turn to Shakespeare to find vouchsafe. As illustrated by our examples, today's writers also find it to be a perfectly useful 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 July 16, 2018 is:declivity \dih-KLIV-uh-tee\ noun1 : downward inclination2 : a descending slopeExamples:"Early afternoon finds me off-trail by mistake among fog banks, using both hands and feet to scramble sideways and skyward along a perilously steep, grassy declivity toward the pass of Les Mattes." — Jeffrey Tayler, The National Geographic Traveler, 1 June 2017"We make straight for the swimming pool, set in a warm declivity and surrounded by orange-trees." — Alex Preston, Harper's, October 2016Did you know?Three different English words descend from clivus, the Latin word for "slope" or "hill"—with the help of three Latin prefixes. Declivity combines clivus with the prefix de-, meaning "down" or "away." Acclivity uses ad- (which changes its second letter depending on the root word), meaning "to" or "toward." Hence, an acclivity is an upward slope. The third word has a figurative meaning in English: proclivity makes use of the prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and this word refers to a personal inclination, predisposition, or "leaning."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 July 15, 2018 is:mercurial \mer-KYUR-ee-ul\ adjective1 : of, relating to, or born under the planet Mercury2 : having the qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or thievishness attributed to the god Mercury or to the influence of the planet Mercury3 : characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood4 : of, relating to, containing, or caused by mercuryExamples:"Uncle Chris felt a touch of embarrassment. It occurred to him that he had been betrayed by his mercurial temperament into an attitude which, considering the circumstances, was perhaps a trifle too jubilant." — P. G. Wodehouse, Jill the Reckless, 1921"The result is a stylish, and at times mind-bending, re-imagining of the characters, with Batman trying to find a way back to his own time period while dealing with such foes as The Joker, Harley Quinn, Gorilla Grodd and Two-Face who run amok in increasingly outlandish ways, as well as the mercurial Catwoman." — Tim Clodfelter, The Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, 10 May 2018Did you know?The Roman god Mercury (Mercurius in Latin) was the messenger and herald of the gods and also the god of merchants and thieves (his counterpart in Greek mythology is Hermes). He was noted for his eloquence, swiftness, and cunning, and the Romans named what appeared to them to be the fastest-moving planet in his honor. The Latin adjective derived from his name, mercurialis, meaning "of or relating to Mercury," was borrowed into English in the 14th century as mercurial. Although the adjective initially meant "born under the planet Mercury," it came to mean "having qualities attributed to the god Mercury or the influence of the planet Mercury," and then "unpredictably changeable."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 July 14, 2018 is:obviate \AHB-vee-ayt\ verb: to anticipate and prevent (something, such as a situation) or make (an action) unnecessaryExamples:"Many tech experts wouldn't expect the online advertising and data powerhouse to be interested in blockchain—a technology that, in many ways, obviates the need for the cloud and enables users to wrest control of their data from big tech companies." — Ben Dickson, PC Magazine, 27 Apr. 2018"But for those of us who relish the familiarity of the status quo and perhaps cannot afford the $50,000 a year or more that assisted living would cost, our current homes may require some adjustments to postpone—and perhaps obviate—any need to move to safer if not more pleasurable dwellings." — Jane E. Brody, The New York Times, 21 May 2018Did you know?Obviate derives from the Late Latin obviare (meaning "to meet or withstand") and the Latin obviam (meaning "in the way") and is also an ancestor of our adjective obvious. Obviate has a number of synonyms in English, including prevent, preclude, and avert; all of these words can mean "to hinder or stop something." When you prevent or preclude something, you put up an insurmountable obstacle. In addition, preclude often implies that a degree of chance was involved in stopping an event. Obviate generally suggests the use of intelligence or forethought to ward off trouble. Avert always implies that a bad situation has been anticipated and prevented or deflected by the application of immediate and effective means.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 13, 2018 is:gumption \GUMP-shun\ noun1 chiefly dialectal : common sense, horse sense2 : enterprise, initiativeExamples:"When fatigue began to take over his body and his legs started to quake, LaDonna had the gumption to throw his best fastball of the day." — Gregg Sarra, Newsday (New York), 29 May 2018"Negotiating salary increases requires finesse, timing and being informed. It also requires a certain measure of gumption." — The Laramie (Wyoming) Boomerang, 10 June 2018Did you know?English speakers have had gumption (the word, that is) since the early 1700s. The term's exact origins aren't known, but its earliest known uses are found in British and especially Scottish dialects (which also include the forms rumblegumption and rumgumption. In its earliest uses, gumption referred to common sense. American English speakers adopted the word and took it in a new direction, using it refer to the kind of courage or get-up-and-go that makes undertaking difficult things possible. Artists may know the word with another application: it's also used to refer to the art of preparing painters' colors.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 July 12, 2018 is:cerebrate \SAIR-uh-brayt\ verb: to use the mind : thinkExamples:"You can't cerebrate over what you can't see, which therefore becomes an object of loathing and mistrust." — Howard Portnoy, Examiner.com, 25 June 2012"I can never decide if Derek is incredibly shallow or so deep that he's cerebrating on two levels at once and I'm privy only to the superficial one." — Susan B. Johnson, Spirit Willing, 2006Did you know?When you think of the human brain, you might think of the cerebrum, the large, fissured upper portion of the brain that is recognized as the neural control center for thought and sensory perception. In 1853, Dr. William Carpenter thought of the cerebrum when he coined "unconscious cerebration," a term describing the mental process by which people seem to do the right thing or come up with the right answer without conscious effort. People thought enough of Carpenter's coinage to use it as the basis of cerebrate, though the verb refers to active thinking rather than subconscious processing. Cerebrate, cerebrum, and the related adjective cerebral all derive from the Latin word for "brain," which is cerebrum.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 July 11, 2018 is:nimiety \nih-MYE-uh-tee\ noun: excess, redundancyExamples:As she organized the potluck lunch, Julie offered suggestions for dishes that were still needed so that we wouldn't end up with a dearth of salads or a nimiety of desserts."Like all good haunted houses, it hovers atop a hill surrounded by large gnarled oak trees. There are broken windows with little fragments in the jambs, like transparent teeth. There is an iron fence; a graveyard in the back; and a nimiety of ghosts." — Richard Bangs, The Huffington Post, 6 Dec. 2017Did you know?There's no scarcity of English words for too much of a good thing—words like overkill, plethora, superfluity, surfeit, surplus, and preponderance, to name a few. In fact, you might just feel that nimiety itself is a bit superfluous. And it's true—English speakers have never found much need for it, though it has been part of our language for over 450 years. For reasons long forgot, we borrowed it from Late Latin nimietas, a noun taken, in turn, from the Latin adjective nimius, meaning "excessive." If nimiety appeals to you but you'd like it in adjective form look no further than its only English relative: nimious, also from nimius, means "excessive, extravagant," and is even rarer than nimiety.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 July 10, 2018 is:benevolent \buh-NEV-uh-lunt\ adjective1 a : marked by or disposed to doing goodb : organized for the purpose of doing good2 : marked by or suggestive of goodwillExamples:"The sky above was blue, the whole scene lit by a bright benevolent sun on that crisp winter day." — Arnold Thomas Fanning, The Irish Times, 2 June 2018"At the center is a boy who is poor but honest, brave and hard-working—attributes that eventually attract the attention of an older, well-off and benevolent stranger who, accustomed to greedy jerks, is moved by the strength of his character and helps to lift him from indigence." — Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times, 3 June 2018Did you know?Someone who is benevolent genuinely wishes other people well, which is not surprising if you know the word's history. Benevolent can be traced back to Latin bene, meaning "good," and velle, meaning "to wish." Other descendants of velle in English include volition ("the act or power of making one's choices or decisions"), voluntary, and the rare word velleity (meaning either "the lowest degree of volition" or "a slight wish or tendency"). There is also one more familiar velle descendant: malevolent is the antonym of benevolent, and describes one who is disposed to doing ill instead of 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 July 9, 2018 is:transmogrify \transs-MAH-gruh-fye\ verb: to change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effectExamples:"It hadn't been cleaned in more than two years and the captured leaves had transmogrified into a wonderfully fecund compost." — Frank Mulligan, The Leader (Corning, New York), 8 Aug. 2014"He was present in 1917 when communists shot their way to power and Imperial Russia transmogrified into the Soviet Union." — Colin Nickerson, The Boston Globe, 30 Apr. 2017Did you know?We know that the prefix trans- means "across" or "beyond" and appears in many words that evoke change, such as transform and transpire, but we don't know the exact origins of transmogrify. The 17th-century dramatist, novelist, and poet Aphra Behn, who is regarded as England's first female professional writer, was an early adopter of the word. In her 1671 comic play The Amorous Prince, Behn wrote, "I wou'd Love would transmogriphy me to a maid now." A century later, Scottish poet Robert Burns plied the word again in verse, aptly capturing the grotesque and sometimes humorous effect of transmogrification: "See Social life and Glee sit down, All joyous and unthinking, Till, quite transmugrify'd, they're grown Debauchery and Drinking…."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 July 8, 2018 is:lucubration \loo-kyuh-BRAY-shun\ noun: laborious or intensive study; also : the product of such study — usually used in pluralExamples:The book is a collection of lucubrations on the effect advancements in computer science have on economic policy."Surely when we talk about our mental lives we're simply thinking of everything that makes human beings special, different—our thoughts, our language-based lucubration." — Tim Parks, The New York Review of Books, 21 Nov. 2016Did you know?Imagine someone studying through the night by the light of a dim candle or lamp. That image demonstrates perfectly the most literal sense of lucubration. Our English word derives from the Latin verb lucubrare, meaning "to work by lamplight." (That Latin root is related to lux, the Latin word for "light.") In its earliest known English uses, lucubration named both nocturnal study itself and a written product thereof. By the 1800s, however, the term had been broadened to refer to any intensive study (day or night), or a composition, especially a weighty one, generated as a result of such study. Nowadays, lucubration is most often used in its plural form and implies pompous or stuffy scholarly writing.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 July 7, 2018 is:eccentric \ik-SEN-trik\ adjective1 a : deviating from conventional or accepted usage or conduct especially in odd or whimsical waysb : deviating from an established or usual pattern or style2 a : deviating from a circular path; especially : ellipticalb : located elsewhere than at the geometric center; also : having the axis or support so locatedExamples:"Nothing is more eccentric in our egocentric world than generosity." — Filip Noterdaeme, quoted in The New York Times, 7 June 2018"Charlie has the eccentric habit of making a clucking sound that signifies everything and nothing. It's part of the film's unsettling sound design, which composer Colin Stetson ratchets up to full creep mode with a soundtrack that freezes the heart." — Peter Howell, The Toronto Star, 8 June 2018Did you know?Eccentric comes to us through Middle English from the Medieval Latin word eccentricus, but it is ultimately derived from a combination of the Greek words ex, meaning "out of," and kentron, meaning "center." The original meaning of eccentric in English was "not having the same center" (as in "eccentric spheres"). In this sense, it contrasts with concentric, meaning "having a common center" (as in "concentric circles," one within another). But since the 17th century, English speakers have also used eccentric to describe those who are figuratively off-center. It can also be used to describe something that doesn't follow a truly circular path, as in "an eccentric orbit."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 July 6, 2018 is:sophistry \SAH-fuh-stree\ noun1 : subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation2 : an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially : such an argument used to deceiveExamples:The newspaper editorial warned readers to beware politicians who use sophistry to convince voters to support policies not in their own best interests."Drama, the art in which perspectives are brought into collision, is a powerful antidote to the sophistry and sensationalism nullifying our capacity for intelligent debate." — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec. 2017Did you know?The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C.E. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus, sophist—which can be traced back, via the Greek sophistēs ("wise man" or "expert") and sophizesthai ("to become wise"), to sophos, meaning "clever" or wise"—earned a negative connotation as "a captious or fallacious reasoner."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 July 5, 2018 is:asseverate \uh-SEV-uh-rayt\ verb: to affirm or declare positively or earnestlyExamples:"One can asseverate that a thesaurus is a treasury of words," Felix said ruefully, "but I presume that my own utilization of such costs me some intelligibility.""A survey conducted by Pacific Community Resources (2003) asseverates drug use among teens is higher than ever today." — Sheila Cordry & Janell D. Wilson, Education, Fall 2004Did you know?In a 2001 essay in The New York Times, novelist Elmore Leonard warned writers against using any verb other than "said" to carry dialogue, describing how an encounter with asseverated once compelled him to stop reading in order to consult a dictionary. We don't think that interruption for dictionary consultation is a bad thing, but we do acknowledge that asseverate is little more than a fancy word meaning "to assert or declare." It was formed in Latin from the prefix ad- ("to, toward") and the verb severare, a relative of the adjective severus, meaning "serious or severe," and has been used in English since the 17th century. Nowadays, asseverate is found mostly in the works of authors long dead. It's also occasionally employed by those who like to show off their vocabularies.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 July 4, 2018 is:pyrotechnics \pye-ruh-TEK-niks\ noun1 singular or plural in construction : the art of making or the manufacture and use of fireworks2 a : a display of fireworksb : a spectacular display (as of extreme virtuosity)Examples:The town's much-anticipated Independence Day pyrotechnics will be launched from the usual place: a tower on a mountain ridge along its eastern border."His talent as a writer and caricaturist was evident from the start in his verbal pyrotechnics and perfect mimicry of speech patterns, his meticulous reporting, and his creative use of pop language and explosive punctuation." — Deirdre Carmody and William Grimes, The New York Times, 15 May 2018Did you know?The use of military fireworks in elaborate celebrations of war and peace is an ancient Chinese custom, but our term for the making and launching of fireworks is a product of the 17th and 18th centuries. Pyrotechnics and the earlier adjective pyrotechnic derive via French from the Greek nouns pyr ("fire") and techne ("art"). In pyr one can see such fiery relatives as pyromania, the term for an irresistible impulse to start fires, as well as pyrite, the mineral also known as fool's gold. (That word also has an obsolete meaning, in the form pyrites, referring to a stone used for striking fire.) Like fireworks, pyrotechnics also has an extended figurative usage, referring to any kind of dazzling display or performance.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 July 3, 2018 is:regardless \rih-GAHRD-lus\ adverb: despite everythingExamples:Heavy rain is expected this weekend, but the county fair will go on regardless."'Don't drown, turn around' is a clever phrase created to warn motorists about traversing flooded roadways. It should be heeded by all motorists, regardless of the height of your vehicle and whether it has all-wheel drive." — Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia), 4 June 2018Did you know?Regardless is rather simply derived from the noun regard (meaning "attention" or "concern") plus -less—nothing too shocking about that. But poor regardless became embroiled in a usage scandal through no fault of its own when people began using irregardless as its synonym (probably blending irrespective and regardless). Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century, and usage commentators have been decrying it since the 1920s, often declaring "there is no such word." Irregardless does exist, of course, but it tends to be used primarily in speech and it is still considered nonstandard. Regardless is preferred.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 July 2, 2018 is:canicular \kuh-NIK-yuh-ler\ adjective: of or relating to the period between early July and early September when hot weather occurs in the northern hemisphereExamples:On weekend days in the canicular season, the wait at the town's only ice cream shop was often 20 people deep."Maggie had from her window, seen her stepmother leave the house—at so unlikely an hour, three o'clock of a canicular August…. It was the hottest day of the season…." — Henry James, The Golden Bowl, 1904Did you know?The Latin word canicula, meaning "small dog," is the diminutive form of canis, source of the English word canine. Canicula was also the name for Sirius, the star that represents the hound of the hunter Orion in the constellation named for that Roman mythological figure. Because the first visible rising of Sirius occurs during the summer, the hot sultry days that occur from early July to early September came to be called dies caniculares, or as we know them in English, "the dog days."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 July 1, 2018 is:métier \MET-yay\ noun1 : vocation, trade2 : an area of activity in which one excels : forteExamples:"Instinctively, Winnie Mandela found her métier as a born politician, appearing in any troubled area to assure the populace that liberation was nigh." — The Daily Telegraph (London), 3 Apr. 2018"'We're going to react to them and improvise,' says Zeena Parkins, a classically trained pianist from Detroit who found her métier in Manhattan's Lower East Side experimental music scene in the 1980s, when she electrified her harp to be heard amid the din of guitars and drums and other instruments." — Jesse Hamlin, The San Francisco Chronicle, 26 Apr. 2018Did you know?The words métier, employment, occupation, and calling all perform similar functions in English, though each word gets the job done in its own way. These hardworking synonyms can all refer to a specific sustained activity, especially an activity engaged in to earn a living, but these words also have slightly different shades of meaning. Employment implies simply that one was hired and is being paid by an employer, whereas occupation usually suggests special training, and calling generally applies to an occupation viewed as a vocation or profession. Métier, a French borrowing acquired by English speakers in the 18th century, typically implies a calling for which one feels especially fitted.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 June 30, 2018 is:lambaste \lam-BAYST\ verb1 : to assault violently : beat, whip2 : to attack verbally : censureExamples:The coach loudly lambasted Danny in front of the whole team for showing up late yet again."The governor of Latvia's central bank, a pillar of Europe's financial system for years and a zealous champion of austerity, has long been lambasted by his critics as a heartless enforcer of economic dogma." — Andrew Higgins, The New York Times, 30 Apr. 2018Did you know?The origins of lambaste are somewhat uncertain, but the word was most likely formed by combining the verbs lam and baste, both of which mean "to beat severely." (The baste functioning here is unrelated to either the sewing or cooking one.) (Incidentally, lambaste can also be spelled lambast, despite the modern spelling of the verb baste.) Some other synonyms of lambaste include pummel, thrash, and pound. Pummel suggests beating with one's fists ("the boxer ruthlessly pummeled his opponent"). Pound also suggests heavy blows, though perhaps not quite so much as pummel, and may imply a continuous rain of blows ("she pounded on the door"). Thrash means to strike repeatedly and thoroughly as if with a whip and is often used figuratively to mean "to defeat decisively or severely" ("the team thrashed their opponent 44-0").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 June 29, 2018 is:tome \TOHM\ noun1 : a volume forming part of a larger work2 : book; especially : a large or scholarly bookExamples:It took me more than a month to finish reading that 800-page tome on the French Revolution."I also bring a book I've never read, some large tome that I'm wary of, but that I also think will captivate me once I'm on page one hundred, and I won't be able to put it down." — Alejandro Zambra, Not To Read (translated by Megan McDowell), 2018Did you know?Tome comes from Latin tomus, which comes from Greek tomos, meaning "section" or "roll of papyrus." Tomos is from the Greek verb temnein, which means "to cut." In ancient times, some of the longest scrolls of papyrus occasionally were divided into sections. When it was first used in English in the 16th century, tome was a book that was a part of a multi-volume work or a major part of a single-volume book. Now a tome is most often simply a large and often ponderous book.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2018 is:ostensible \ah-STEN-suh-bul\ adjective1 : intended for display : open to view2 : being such in appearance : plausible rather than demonstrably true or realExamples:The novel's ostensible hero is in the end a villain of epic proportions."It's never for the profits or the sheer satisfaction of sticking it to your enemies and putting yourself in the best possible light. No, there's always some ostensible higher cause." — Rich Lowry, The Boston Herald, 18 Apr. 2018Did you know?Like its synonyms apparent and seeming, ostensible implies a discrepancy between what appears to be and what actually is. Apparent suggests appearance to unaided senses that may not be borne out by more rigorous examination ("the apparent cause of the accident"). Seeming implies a character in the thing being observed that gives it the appearance of something else ("the seeming simplicity of the story"). Ostensible, which descends from the Latin word ostendere ("to show"), suggests a discrepancy between a declared or implied aim or reason and the true one.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 June 27, 2018 is:bedizen \bih-DYE-zun\ verb: to dress or adorn gaudilyExamples:The children entertained themselves for hours with the contents of the old trunk, donning fancy dresses and bedizening themselves with jewelry and scarves."Designed by architect Pierre Dené, the two-story 'rancho deluxe' bedizened itself with every California-style feature that defined its era. It had a Roman brick fireplace, terrazzo floors and big dramatic windows." — Lisa Gray, The Houston Chronicle, 20 Apr. 2008Did you know?Bedizen doesn't have the flashy history you might expect—its roots lie in the rather quiet art of spinning thread. In times past, the spinning process began with the placement of fibers (such as flax) on an implement called a distaff; the fibers were then drawn out from the distaff and twisted into thread. Bedizen descends from the older, now obsolete, verb disen, which means "to dress a distaff with flax" and which came to English by way of Middle Dutch. The spelling of disen eventually became dizen, and its meaning expanded to cover the "dressing up" of things other than distaffs. In the mid-17th century, English speakers began using bedizen with the same 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 June 26, 2018 is:kaput \kuh-PUT\ adjective1 : utterly finished, defeated, or destroyed2 : unable to function : useless3 : hopelessly outmodedExamples:"Sure, there are still top-billed behemoths capable of guaranteeing a strong opening, like Dwayne Johnson and Leonardo DiCaprio, but for the most part, the idea of a box office movie star is kaput." — Brandon Katz, The Observer, 19 May 2018"Whether a jagged maw of grinning shark teeth, or a perpetually surprised oval, the automobile grille serves a very important function: it allows air to flow in, cooling the radiator and generally keeping the engine from overheating and going kaput." — Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 1 Apr. 2018Did you know?Kaput originated with a card game called piquet that has been popular in France for centuries. French players originally used the term capot to describe both big winners and big losers in piquet. To win all twelve tricks in a hand was called "faire capot" ("to make capot"), but to lose them all was known as "etre capot" ("to be capot"). German speakers adopted capot, but respelled it kaputt, and used it only for losers. When English speakers borrowed the word from German, they started using kaput for things that were broken, useless, or destroyed.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 June 25, 2018 is:amortize \AM-er-tyze\ amortize1 : to pay off (an obligation, such as a mortgage) gradually usually by periodic payments of principal and interest or by payments to a sinking fund2 : to gradually reduce or write off the cost or value of (something, such as an asset)Examples:"A standard three-year, 15,000-mile Momentum lease will run about $410 per month with the down payment amortized." — J. P. Vettraino, AutoWeek, 8 Jan. 2018"A typical car factory costs between $500 million and $1 billion to build, and the tooling and machinery are amortized over many years, which is why they need to produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year to be profitable." — Alan Ohnsman and Joann Muller, Forbes, 12 Dec. 2017Did you know?When you amortize a loan, you "kill it off" gradually by paying it down in installments. This is reflected in the word's etymology. Amortize derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from Vulgar Latin admortire, meaning "to kill." The Latin noun mors ("death") is a root of admortire; it is related to our word murder, and it also gave us a word naming a kind of loan that is usually amortized: mortgage. Amortize carries a different meaning in the field of corporate finance, where it means to depreciate the cost or value of an asset (as, for example, to reduce interest revenue on that asset for tax purposes).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 June 24, 2018 is:effigy \EFF-uh-jee\ noun: an image or representation especially of a person; especially : a crude figure representing a hated personExamples:"At one meeting, he remembers, the leader of a competing company was hung in effigy as employees cheered." — Evan Bush, The Seattle Times, 25 Feb. 2018"On the gathering's penultimate day, the giant effigy—or Man, as it is known—is set ablaze during a raucous, joyful celebration." — John Rogers and Janie Har, The Chicago Sun-Times, 28 Apr. 2018Did you know?An earlier sense of effigy is "a likeness of a person shaped out of stone or other materials," so it's not surprising to learn that effigy derives, by way of Middle French, from the Latin effigies, which, in turn, comes from the verb effingere ("to form"), a combination of the prefix ­ex- and fingere, which means "to shape." Fingere is the common ancestor of a number of other English nouns that name things you can shape. A fiction is a story you shape with your imagination. Figments are shaped by the imagination, too; they're something you imagine or make up. A figure can be a numeral, a shape, or a picture that you shape as you draw or write.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 June 23, 2018 is:skirl \SKERL\ verb1 of a bagpipe : to emit the high shrill tone of the chanter; also : to give forth music2 : to play (music) on the bagpipeExamples:"Then the Dropkick Murphys victory song skirled over the PA and the player pile was on, followed by the Red Sox team rushing the left field fence and flipping over it, reminiscent of Torii Hunter's vain try for a David Ortiz homer during the 2013 playoffs." — Jack Shea, The Martha's Vineyard Times, 23 June 2014"On a crisp spring morning in West Roxbury, several honor guards stood at rigid attention outside Holy Name Church as scores of bagpipes skirled." — Eric Moscowitz, The Boston Globe, 4 Apr. 2014Did you know?Not every musical instrument is honored with its very own verb. But then, not every musical instrument emits a sound that quite matches that of a bagpipe. Depending on your ear, you might think bagpipes "give forth music," or you might be more apt to say they "shriek." If you are of the latter opinion, your thinking aligns with the earliest sense of skirl—"to shriek." That early sense was used of screeching maids, winds, and the like. Scottish poet Robert Sempill first used it for bagpipes in the mid-1600s. The meaning of skirl has shifted over time, however, and these days you can use the verb without causing offense to bagpipers and bagpipe enthusiasts.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 June 22, 2018 is:notorious \noh-TOR-ee-us\ adjective: generally known and talked of; especially : widely and unfavorably knownExamples:"Black-legged ticks, notorious for transmitting the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, are now present in almost half of U.S. counties, up nearly 45 percent since 1998." — Bradley Rife et al., O, The Oprah Magazine, April 2018"Galveston Island has it all. To some, Texas' bustling island will always be defined by its storied past, its nineteenth-century elegance, big-city ambitions, notorious seaport, and even more notorious storms." — Texas Monthly, May 2018Did you know?Notorious was adopted into English in the 16th century from Medieval Latin notorius, itself from Late Latin's noun notorium, meaning "information" or "indictment." Notorium, in turn, derives from the Latin verb noscere, meaning "to come to know." Although notorious can be a synonym of famous, meaning simply "widely known," it long ago developed the additional implication of someone or something unpleasant or undesirable. The Book of Common Prayer of 1549 includes one of the first known uses of the unfavorable meaning in print, referring to "notorious synners."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 June 21, 2018 is:voracity \vuh-RASS-uh-tee\ noun: the quality or state of being ravenous or insatiableExamples:Elena reads books with such voracity that she returns to the library two or three times a week."In the end, spiders' voracity actually works out to mankind's benefit. Since they primarily feast on bugs, their hunger means fewer pests in the garden, fewer mosquitoes in the yard, and fewer flies in the house." — Christopher Ingraham, The Boston Globe, 29 Mar. 2017Did you know?Voracity comes to us (via Middle French voracité) from the Latin word voracitas, which itself comes from vorax, meaning "voracious," plus -itas, the Latin equivalent of the English noun suffix -ity. Voracity is one of two English words that mean "the quality or state of being voracious." The other is voraciousness, which was once considered to be archaic but has made a comeback. Because voracity evolved from non-English forerunners, rather than being created in English from voracious (as was voraciousness), the word may strike some English speakers as an unusual formation. It's not surprising, therefore, that the more familiar-looking voraciousness has reappeared—most likely through a process of reinvention by people unfamiliar with voracity.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 June 20, 2018 is:balmy \BAH-mee\ adjective1 a : having the qualities of balm : soothingb : mild, temperate2 : crazy, foolishExamples:"Men often don't moisturize their skin during the hotter months, but should. It's a misconception that oily skin doesn't get dehydrated. Use a lightweight moisturizer that isn't heavy or sticky in balmy weather." — Joane Amay, Ebony, June 2018"He arose with the first peep of day, and sallied forth to enjoy the balmy breeze of morning...." — Thomas Love Peacock, Headlong Hall, 1816Did you know?It's no secret that balmy is derived from balm, an aromatic ointment or fragrance that heals or soothes. So when did it come to mean "foolish," you might wonder? Balmy goes back to the 15th century and was often used in contexts referring to weather, such as "a balmy breeze" or, as Mark Twain wrote in Tom Sawyer, "The balmy summer air, the restful quiet...." Around the middle of the 19th century, it developed a new sense suggesting a weak or unbalanced mind. It is uncertain if the soft quality or the soothing effect of balm influenced this use. But later in the century, balmy became altered to barmy in its "crazy" sense. This alteration may have come about from a mix-up with another barmy, meaning "full of froth or ferment." That barmy is from barm, a term for the yeast formed on fermenting malt liquors, which can indeed make one act balmy.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 June 19, 2018 is:quail \KWAIL\ verb1 : to give way : falter2 : to recoil in dread or terror : cowerExamples:"It wasn't so long ago that book publishers and bookstore owners were quailing about the coming of e-books, like movie theatre owners at the dawn of the television age." — Michael Hiltzik, The Gulf Times, 10 May 2017"I've a Pooh in me, blundering about, trying to think large thoughts, making pronouncements I hope won't be challenged. And I'm sometimes a Piglet, quailing in front of imaginary dangers, or figuratively jumping up and down to squeak, 'I'm here! What about me?'" — Jim Atwell, The Cooperstown (New York) Crier, 15 June 2017Did you know?Flinch, recoil, and wince are all synonyms of quail, but each word has a slightly different use. When you flinch, you fail to endure pain or to face something dangerous or frightening with resolution ("she faced her accusers without flinching"). Recoil implies a start or movement away from something through shock, fear, or disgust ("he recoiled at the suggestion of stealing"). Wince usually suggests a slight involuntary physical reaction to something ("she winced as the bright light suddenly hit her eyes"). Quail implies shrinking and cowering in fear ("he quailed before the apparition").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 June 18, 2018 is:jabberwocky \JAB-er-wah-kee\ noun: meaningless speech or writingExamples:Amanda learned to ignore her critics, dismissing their attacks as the jabberwocky of minds with nothing more important to think of about."When LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh stepped into the crowded room, fashionably late, jabberwocky ceased and the only sound you heard was the whir and click of cameras." — Greg Cote, The Miami Herald, 28 Sept. 2010Did you know?In a poem titled "Jabberwocky" in the book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), Lewis Carroll warned his readers about a frightful beast: Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!  Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun  The frumious Bandersnatch!This nonsensical poem caught the public's fancy, and by 1908 jabberwocky was being used as a generic term for meaningless speech or writing. The word bandersnatch has also seen some use as a general noun, with the meaning "a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual." It's a much rarer word than jabberwocky, though, and is entered only in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.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 June 17, 2018 is:meritorious \mair-uh-TOR-ee-us\ adjective: deserving of honor or esteemExamples:"Markle received citations for meritorious conduct in the battle at Fort Erie." — Mike McCormick, The Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune-Star, 15 Apr. 2018"The Seven Seals award, signed by ESGR National Chair, Craig McKinley, is presented for meritorious leadership and initiative in support of the men and women who serve America in the National Guard and Reserve." — The Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American, 13 May 2018Did you know?People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly earn our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious ultimately traces to the Latin verb merēre, which means "to earn." Nowadays, the rewards earned for meritorious acts are likely to be of an immaterial nature: gratitude, admiration, praise, etc. But that wasn't always so. The history of meritorious recalls a reward more concrete in nature: money. The Latin word meritorius, an ancestor of the English meritorious, literally means "bringing in money."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 June 16, 2018 is:tantalize \TAN-tuh-lyze\ verb: to tease or torment by or as if by presenting something desirable to the view but continually keeping it out of reachExamples:"The scientist tantalized them with a radical theory about the foundation of the universe, which proposes that time and space fluctuate in a bubbly, unstable state known as 'quantum foam.'" — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 25 Sept. 2017"Bearcubs incorporate electric harps and all manner of strange synthetic noise to tantalize your ear drums." — Kat Bein, Billboard.com, 15 June 2017Did you know?Pity poor King Tantalus of Lydia. The mythic monarch offended the ancient Greek gods. As punishment, according to Homer's Odyssey, he was plunged up to his chin in water in Hades, where he had to stand beneath overhanging boughs of a tree heavily laden with ripe, juicy fruit. But though he was always hungry and thirsty, Tantalus could neither drink the water nor eat the fruit. Anytime he moved to get them, they would retreat from his reach. Our word tantalize is taken from the name of the eternally tormented king.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.