Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2018 is:mollycoddle \MAH-lee-kah-dul\ verb: to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attentionExamples:The newborn cub at the wildlife park is enjoying being mollycoddled by its mother."You work longer hours than most of your friends, you never know where your next paycheck is coming from and there's no HR team to mollycoddle you when times get tough… it's safe to say that the life of a self-employed worker is one plagued by instabilities." — Olivia Petter, The Independent (London), 16 Mar. 2018Did you know?Coddling eggs is delicate business. You need to cook them slowly and gently, keeping the water just below boiling. Given how carefully you need to treat the eggs, it's not surprising that coddle, the name for the cooking process, developed the figurative sense "to pamper." Mollycoddle was formed by combining coddle with molly, a nickname for Mary. In its earliest known uses in the 1840s, mollycoddle was a noun, a synonym of our modern wimp, but in short time, it was being used as the verb you're likely to encounter now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2018 is:slew \SLOO\ noun: a large numberExamples:Daniel regularly receives a slew of clothing catalogs as part of his junk mail."We had two weeks off and wanted to take a fun mother-daughter trip to Europe but didn't want to grapple with the slew of flights we'd have to take to visit multiple cities or the constant unpacking and packing involved on such a trip." — Shivani Vora, The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2018Did you know?Slew appeared as an American colloquialism in the early 19th century. Its origins are unclear, but it is perhaps taken from the Irish slua, a descendant of Old Irish slúag, meaning "army," "host," or "throng." Slew has several homographs (words that are spelled alike but different in meaning, derivation, or pronunciation) in English. These include: slew as the past tense of the verb slay; slew as a spelling variant of slough, a word which is also commonly pronounced \SLOO\ and which means "swamp," "an inlet on a river," or "a creek in a marsh or tide flat"; and the verb slew, meaning "to turn, veer, or skid."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2018 is:loath \LOHTH\ adjective: unwilling to do something contrary to one's ways of thinking : reluctantExamples:My grandfather was naturally very proud of the company he had built, so he was loath to admit that it was time to think about selling it and retiring."It seems like a lot of film directors are loath to embrace VR for the same reason that Roger Ebert famously dismissed video games as a form of art: They think it's a gimmick that punishes artistry in the name of the medium's requirements." — Alex McLevy, The A.V. Club, 15 Mar. 2018Did you know?Many usage commentators point out that the spelling of loath, the adjective, is distinct from loathe, the verb that means "to dislike greatly." Merriam-Webster dictionaries do record loathe (along with loth) as a variant spelling for the adjective, but at the same time indicate that the loath spelling is the most common one. The adjective and the verb both hark back to Old English, and the "e" ending in each has come and gone over the centuries—but if you want to avoid the ire of those who like to keep the language tidy, stick with loath for the adjective and loathe for the verb.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2018 is:cathexis \kuh-THEK-sis\ noun: investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or ideaExamples:"In 2004, Bowie had a heart attack, and he was recently rumored to be in poor health. Leading up to the release of 'The Next Day,' a jittery cathexis formed. Do we judge Bowie as we always have, by his own standards? Would a new album be received reverentially, like those of the post-motorcycle-crash Bob Dylan?" — Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2013"… young lovers who marry during the giddy rush of cathexis, when the hormonal highs of romantic love prompt them to be in love with being in love, often find there's no cement to tightly bind their relationship." — Mike Masterson, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 25 Dec. 2016Did you know?You might suspect that cathexis derives from a word for "emotion," but in actuality the key concept is "holding." Cathexis comes to us by way of New Latin (Latin as used after the medieval period in scientific description or classification) from the Greek word kathexis, meaning "holding." It can ultimately be traced back (through katechein, meaning "to hold fast, occupy") to the Greek verb echein, meaning "to have" or "to hold." Cathexis first appeared in print in 1922 in a book about Freud's psychological theories (which also established the plural as cathexes, as is consistent with Latin), and it is still often used in scientific and specifically psychological contexts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2018 is:traduce \truh-DOOSS\ verb1 : to expose to shame or blame by means of falsehood and misrepresentation2 : violate, betrayExamples:"Here, at last, was someone prepared publicly to speak up for the BBC when so many others were seeking to traduce and destroy it." — Jason Cowley, New Statesman, 19 Nov. 2012"Some players' records reflect abilities enhanced by acts of bad character—surreptitious resorts to disreputable chemistry that traduces sportsmanship. But as younger writers who did not cover baseball during the PED era become Hall of Fame voters, the electorate is becoming less interested in disqualifying PED users." — George Will, The Washington Post, 22 Jan. 2017Did you know?Traduce is one of a number of English synonyms that you can choose when you need a word that means "to injure by speaking ill of." Choose traduce when you want to stress the deep personal humiliation, disgrace, and distress felt by the victim. If someone doesn't actually lie, but makes statements that injure by specific and often subtle misrepresentations, malign may be the more precise choice. To make it clear that the speaker is malicious and the statements made are false, calumniate is a good option. But if you need to say that certain statements represent an attempt to destroy a reputation by open and direct abuse, vilify is the word you want.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 21, 2018 is:grudging \GRUH-jing\ adjective1 : unwilling, reluctant2 : done, given, or allowed unwillingly, reluctantly, or sparinglyExamples:"The class differences between teacher and students are so pronounced that they threaten to plunge the film into a schoolhouse drama—that well-worn genre in which a charismatic authority figure, inevitably likable yet inevitably tough, gains her students' grudging respect and eventual trust." — Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2018"There is no grudging marriage of art and politics in her work; as John Berger, one of her longtime interlocutors and a formative influence, wrote, 'Far from my dragging politics into art, art has dragged me into politics.' [Arundhati] Roy's work conveys a similar spirit." — Parul Sehgal, The Atlantic, 17 June 2017Did you know?In the 15th century, English jurist Sir John Fortescue observed, "Somme . . . obtayne gretter rewardis than thei have disserved, and yit grugge, seying they have [too] litill." Fortescue's grugge (an early spelling of the verb grudge) meant "to grumble and complain," just like its Middle English forerunner, grucchen, and the Anglo-French word grucer, which gave rise to the English forms. English speakers had adopted the "complain" sense of grudge by the late 13th century, and a century later they had added the extended sense "to give reluctantly." That second sense may have developed because people associated grudge with the related word begrudge (meaning "to give reluctantly," as in "I begrudged him a second chance.") Grudging, which developed from grudge, made its English debut in the 1530s.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2018 is:bloviate \BLOH-vee-ayt\ verb: to speak or write verbosely and windilyExamples:"It's a slow night. Just a couple of other regulars and our usual bartender, a bright, young fellow who seems to enjoy his customers' company, despite our tendency to bloviate." — Bruce VanWyngarden, The Memphis Flyer, 15 Feb. 2018"Wall Street analysts and the media covering them have often bloviated about the lamentable end of retail, the death of department stores, the changing fickle habits of Millennials, the power of online retail, and the tragedy of an America left behind." — Monica Showalter, The American Thinker, 6 July 2017Did you know?Warren G. Harding is often linked to bloviate, but to him the word wasn't insulting; it simply meant "to spend time idly." Harding used the word often in that "hanging around" sense, but during his tenure as the 29th U.S. President (1921-23), he became associated with the "verbose" sense of bloviate, perhaps because his speeches tended to the long-winded side. Although he is sometimes credited with having coined the word, it's more likely that Harding picked it up from local slang while hanging around with his boyhood buddies in Ohio in the late 1800s. The term probably derives from a combination of the word blow plus the suffix -ate.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2018 is:headlong \HED-LAWNG\ adverb1 : with the head foremost2 : without deliberation : recklessly3 : without pause or delayExamples:He's impulsive when it comes to romance and often rushes headlong into relationships, with little thought given to their long-term viability."What was once optimistically pitched as a complete 800-mile program that could be built for about $35 billion and conceivably up and running by as early as 2020 has run headlong into an unrelenting wall of obstacles, including engineering, litigation and politics." — Tim Sheehan, The Fresno (California) Bee, 15 Mar. 2018Did you know?Headlong appeared in Middle English as hedlong, an alteration of the older hedling. Hedling is a combination of the Middle English hed ("head") and -ling, an adverb suffix which means "in such a direction or manner." Thus, hedling originally meant "with the head foremost" or, if you will, "in the direction of the head." By the late 1400s, influenced by its use in the compound word endlong, the adjective long began to be regarded as a suffix and a variant of -ling. It was this substitution of -ling with -long that led to the replacement of words like sideling and headling with the now more familiar sidelong and headlong.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2018 is:embarrass \im-BAIR-us\ verb1 a : to cause to experience a state of self-conscious distressb : to place in doubt, perplexity, or difficultiesc : to involve in financial difficulties2 a : to hamper the movement ofb : hinder, impede3 : to make intricate : complicate4 : to impair the activity of (a bodily function) or the function of (a bodily part)Examples:He was embarrassed to discover that he had been talking to prospective clients all day with a piece of spinach lodged in his teeth."To start with, the existence of the blog post itself is a striking demonstration of privilege. Most people think twice before publicly embarrassing their former employers, for fear that it will ruin their careers or they will face other types of retaliation." — Sarah Kessler, Quartz, 27 Jan. 2018Did you know?If you've ever been so embarrassed that you felt like you were caught up in a noose of shame, then you may have some insight into the origins of the word embarrass. The word can be traced back through French and Spanish to the Portuguese word embaraçar, which was itself probably formed as a combination of the prefix em- (from Latin in-) and baraça, the Portuguese word for "noose." Though embarrass has had various meanings related to acts that hinder or impede throughout its history in English, these days it most often implies making someone feel or look foolish.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2018 is:onomatopoeia \ah-nuh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh\ noun1 : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz, hiss) 2 : the use of words whose sound suggests the senseExamples:"The 'whiz'—or is it the 'whoosh,' or maybe 'sh-sh-sh-sh-sh'?—of an ace being served is described … by rival tennis players in the opening moments of Anna Ziegler's 'The Last Match.' The speakers concede, though, that an onomatopoeia doesn't do the job of explaining what it's like to have a meteoric ball hurtling past your ears, shattering your hopes if not the sound barrier." — Ben Brantley, The New York Times, 26 Oct. 2017"[James] Chapman pointed out that what looks like variation in onomatopoeia is sometimes simply a rearranging of discrete sounds: clap clap in English becomes plec plec in Portuguese." — Uri Friedman, The Atlantic, 27 Nov. 2015Did you know?Onomatopoeia came into English via Late Latin and ultimately traces back to Greek onoma, meaning "name," and poiein, meaning "to make." (Onoma can be found in such terms as onomastics, which refers to the study of proper names and their origins, while poiein gave us such words as poem and poet.) English speakers have only used the word onomatopoeia since the mid-1500s, but people have been creating words from the sounds heard around them for much longer. In fact, the presence of so many imitative words in language spawned the linguistic bowwow theory, which postulates that language originated in imitation of natural sounds.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 16, 2018 is:vulnerable \VUL-nuh-ruh-bul\ adjective1 : capable of being physically or emotionally wounded2 : open to attack or damage : assailableExamples:The article reminds readers to install the latest antivirus software on their computers so that they will not be vulnerable to malware and viruses."Updated flood maps would give property owners an accurate picture of how vulnerable their property is to flooding and would help them take the appropriate measures to prepare for future storms." — Steve Ellis, Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, 15 Mar. 2018Did you know?Vulnerable is ultimately derived from the Latin noun vulnus ("wound"). Vulnus led to the Latin verb vulnerare, meaning "to wound," and then to the Late Latin adjective vulnerabilis, which became vulnerable in English in the early 1600s. Vulnerable originally meant "capable of being physically wounded" or "having the power to wound" (the latter is now obsolete), but since the late 1600s, it has also been used figuratively to suggest a defenselessness against non-physical attacks. In other words, someone (or something) can be vulnerable to criticism or failure as well as to literal wounding. When it is used figuratively, vulnerable is often followed by the preposition to.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2018 is:founder \FOUN-der\ verb1 : to make or become disabled or lame2 : to give way : collapse3 : to become submerged : sink4 : to come to grief : failExamples:As the vessel began to founder, the captain ordered everyone on board to prepare to abandon ship."If you adore New York City, you can't stand Los Angeles—and vice-versa, or so the myth goes. But the Jennifer Aniston-Justin Theroux marriage, according to People, may have foundered on just that urban divide." — Michael H. Hodges, The Detroit News, 17 Feb. 2018Did you know?Founder comes from Middle English foundren, meaning "to send to the bottom" or "collapse." That word came from the Middle French verb fondrer, and ultimately from the Latin noun fundus, meaning "bottom." When something founders, it usually hits the bottom in one sense or another. A foundering horse—that is, a disabled one—is likely to collapse to the ground. When a ship founders, it sinks to the bottom of the sea. Founder has a broader, figurative sense, too—if someone's marriage or career is foundering, it isn't doing well and is therefore headed downward.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2018 is:succinct \suk-SINKT\ adjective: marked by compact precise expression without wasted wordsExamples:"[Ninni] Holmqvist's writing is spare in style, elegantly succinct, but the layers of the world she's created are manifold." — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 25 July 2017"[Steve] Bartels' keynote, at a succinct 30 minutes, managed to cover broad ground, including the surge of interest in hip-hop thanks to streaming, which has brought new interest in the genre's catalog." — Leila Cobo, Billboard.com, 7 June 2017Did you know?The history of succinct might not be short, but it's a cinch to remember. Succinct traces to Latin succinctus ("tightly wrapped, concise"), which comes from the verb cingere ("to gird"), the word that gave us cincture and cinch. In its earliest uses succinct meant "confined" or "girded up," and, as such, it was often used in reference to garments encircled by a band. Eventually, succinct was extended to the realm of insects, where it meant "supported by a band of silk around the middle" (as in "the succinct pupa of a butterfly"). Later, the word was applied to writings. A "succinct" piece of writing is "compressed" or "compact" and uses as few words as possible.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2018 is:aegis \EE-jus\ noun1 : a shield or breastplate emblematic of majesty that was associated with Zeus and Athena2 a : protectionb : controlling or conditioning influence3 a : auspices, sponsorshipb : control or guidance especially by an individual, group, or systemExamples:The matter will be dealt with under the aegis of the ethics committee."The security office is not part of the main White House staff operation. Located outside the West Wing, it has an independent director who is not a political appointee. Its work, however, falls under the broader aegis of the White House chief of staff's office." — Anne Gearan, The Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2018Did you know?We borrowed aegis from Latin, but the word ultimately derives from the Greek noun aigis, which means "goatskin." In ancient Greek mythology, an aegis was something that offered physical protection, and it has been depicted in various ways, including as a magical protective cloak made from the skin of the goat that suckled Zeus as an infant and as a shield fashioned by Hephaestus that bore the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. The word first entered English in the 15th century as a noun referring to the shield or protective garment associated with Zeus or Athena. It later took on a more general sense of "protection" and, by the late-19th century, it had acquired the extended senses of "auspices" and "sponsorship."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 12, 2018 is:newfangled \NOO-FANG-guld\ adjective1 : attracted to novelty2 : of the newest style or kindExamples:"If you're more like me and less like the authors of Fortune's outstanding blockchain and cryptocurrency site The Ledger, this newfangled stuff is more often than not clear as mud. I don't intend to completely elucidate it for you in one day." — Adam Lashinsky, Fortune.com, 7 Mar. 2018"When they arrive in Memphis, they head to church, where Elvis' uncle, the church's reverend, is preaching about how this newfangled thing called rock is the devil's music." — Chancellor Agard, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Mar. 2018Did you know?Newfangled is actually a pretty old word. It dates all the way back to the 15th century, and likely developed from the even older adjective newfangle, which probably derives from a combination of the Middle English newe, meaning new, and the Old English fangol, from a verb meaning "to take." In its earliest documented uses, newfangled described a person who was fond of new things, fashions, or ideas. Current usage indicates that newfangled is used—sometimes deprecatingly—to describe anything that is new, hip, hot, or happening, while other times it is used with irony for something—such as rock music—that might have been new at one time but is hardly new anymore.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11, 2018 is:defer \dih-FER\ verb1 : put off, delay2 : to postpone induction of (a person) into military serviceExamples:"She made suggestions including deferring the decision again, as well as opening the opportunity for more applicants to be considered…." — Kelly Fisher, The Tennessean, 17 Jan. 2018"He said funds are needed now, in large part, because deferring the maintenance will increase repair costs in the future." — Anthony Warren, The Northside Sun (Jackson, Mississippi), 23 Mar. 2017Did you know?There are two words spelled defer in English. The other defer, which means "to delegate to another for determination or decision" or "to submit to another's wishes or opinion" (as in "I defer to your superior expertise"), is derived from the Latin verb deferre, meaning "to bring down." The defer we're featuring today is derived from Latin differre, which itself has several meanings including "to postpone" and "to differ." Not surprisingly, differre is also the source of our word differ, meaning "to be different."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 10, 2018 is:kitsch \KITCH\ noun1 : something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality2 : a tacky or lowbrow quality or conditionExamples:Geraldine was amused by the kitsch sold in the roadside souvenir shop, but she wasn't tempted to buy anything."During my wait, I took in my surroundings, which reflect a thematic blend of 1950s-style diner and rural-American kitsch. The TV behind the barstool counter cranked out a steady diet of 'The Andy Griffith Show' reruns via Netflix." — The Grub Scout, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 16 Feb. 2018Did you know?"The fashionable clothing label … kicked off the revival last June …, putting its models in Miranda-inspired swimsuits and marching them through a gantlet of 50 tons of bananas," writes Mac Margolis in Newsweek International (January 2006) of a fabulously kitschy gala commemoration for the late Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. Since we borrowed kitsch from German in the 1920s, it has been our word for things in the realm of popular culture that dangle, like car mirror dice, precariously close to tackiness. But although things that can be described with kitsch and the related adjective kitschy are clearly not fine art, they may appeal to certain tastes—some folks delight in velvet paintings, plastic flamingos, dashboard hula dancers, and Carmen Miranda revivals!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 9, 2018 is:maladroit \mal-uh-DROYT\ adjective: lacking skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations : ineptExamples:Any project, however carefully planned, is doomed to fail under maladroit management."[Lucy Atkins'] tale of a high-flying television historian entangled with a socially maladroit and manipulative 60-something housekeeper is smart and horrifying in equal measure." — Geordie Williamson, The Australian, 16 Dec. 2017Did you know?To understand the origin of maladroit, you need to put together some Middle French and Old French building blocks. The first is the word mal, meaning "bad," and the second is the phrase a droit, meaning "properly." You can parse the phrase even further into the components a, meaning "to" or "at," and droit, meaning "right, direct, or straight." Middle French speakers put those pieces together as maladroit to describe the clumsy among them, and English speakers borrowed the word intact back in the 17th century. Its opposite, of course, is adroit, which we adopted from the French in the same 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 April 8, 2018 is:bastion \BAS-chun\ noun1 : a projecting part of a fortification2 : a fortified area or position3 a : a place of security or survival b : a place dominated by a particular group or marked by a particular characteristicExamples:"For a century, the automobile has been a _bastion_ of liberty, freeing up almost everybody from the tyranny of other people's schedules." — Charles C. W. Cooke, The National Review, 18 Dec. 2017"… pets have become a tolerated extension of their owners, accompanying them everywhere they go. It was only a matter of time before spas and resorts followed suit. These latest animal-friendly bastions go out of their way to offer cosseted companions an experience as luxurious as the ones enjoyed by their human escorts." — Chloe Malle, Vogue, January 2018Did you know?Bastion is constructed of etymological building blocks that are very similar to those of bastille (a word now used as a general term for a prison, but probably best known as the name of the Parisian fortress-turned-prison stormed by an angry mob at the start of the French Revolution). The history of bastion can be traced through Middle French to the Old Italian verb bastire, which means "to build." Bastille descends from the Old Occitan verb bastir, which also means "to build." Bastir and bastire are themselves of Germanic origin and akin to the Old High German word besten, meaning "to patch."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 7, 2018 is:reify \RAY-uh-fye\ verb: to consider or represent (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing : to give definite content and form to (a concept or idea)Examples:"Increased awareness of automated surveillance, in other words, is most effective at demystifying the systems doing the watching, not reifying their wisdom and authority." — John Herrman, The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2018"The home is a haven to be sure. There neatness scrubs away history like grease while retaining the polished signs of the past and reifying the timeless." — William H. Gass, The New York Times Book Review, 3 Aug. 1986Did you know?Reify is a word that attempts to provide a bridge between what is abstract and what is real. Fittingly, it derives from a word that is an ancestor to real—the Latin noun res, meaning "thing." Both reify and the related noun reification first appeared in English in the mid-19th century. Each word combines the Latin res with an English suffix (-fy and -fication, respectively) that is derived from the Latin -ficare, meaning "to make." In general use, the words refer to the act of considering or presenting an abstract idea in real or material terms, or of judging something by a concrete example.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 6, 2018 is:ineluctable \in-ih-LUK-tuh-bul\ adjective: not to be avoided, changed, or resisted : inevitableExamples:"Mr. Unkrich faced a dilemma. On the one hand, he believed that artists should not be restricted to 'only telling stories about what they know and their own culture.' But he also needed to safeguard against his ineluctable biases and blind spots, and ensure that his film didn't 'lapse into cliché or stereotype.'" — Reggie Ugwu, The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2017"… Mann's photographs were beautiful, although never cloying, and impossible to reduce to clean readings. But one of the deeper things they captured was the ineluctable pain—even in idyllic circumstances—of growing up." — Sebastian Smee, The Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2018Did you know?Like drama, wrestling was popular in ancient Greece and Rome. "Wrestler," in Latin, is luctator, and "to wrestle" is uctari. Luctari also has extended senses—"to struggle," "to strive," or "to contend." Eluctari joins e- ("ex-") with luctari, forming a verb meaning "to struggle clear of." Ineluctabilis brought in the negative prefix in- to form an adjective describing something that cannot be escaped or avoided; English speakers borrowed ineluctabilis as ineluctable. Another word that has its roots in luctari is reluctant. Reluctari means "to struggle against"—and someone who is reluctant resists or holds back.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 5, 2018 is:veld \VELT\ noun: a grassland especially of southern Africa usually with scattered shrubs or treesExamples:"In the South African cakes you'll find marula—a fruit that grows in the veld, typically used to make a popular liqueur—and naartjie, a type of sweet mandarin orange." — Kristen Hartke, The Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2017"I duck as swarming bees zoom overhead, trailing their queen. They are gone again in a second, coiling off in a shadowy murmuration across the veldt." — Aidan Hartley, The Spectator, 13 Jan. 2018Did you know?Veld (also spelled veldt) comes from Afrikaans, the language of the Afrikaners, the descendants of the Dutch and Huguenot people who settled in southern Africa in the 17th century. Literally, veld means "field," and is akin to feld, the Old English predecessor of field. English speakers adopted the Africa-specific sense of veld in the 18th century. Veld refers to open country in southern Africa. Different regions of the veld are distinguished by their elevations. There is the Highveld, the Lowveld, and the Middle Veld, each with different geographical characteristics. Another term associated with veld is kopje (or koppie). This word came to English from Afrikaans (and ultimately from a Dutch word meaning "small head" or "cup") and refers to a small hill, particularly one on the African veld.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 4, 2018 is:career \kuh-REER\ verb: to go at top speed especially in a headlong mannerExamples:The nervous passengers gripped their seats and exchanged anxious looks as the bus careered down the icy road."The year continued apace, as Hollywood careered haphazardly between wildly unexpected successes and 'sure things' that bombed just as dramatically." — Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2017Did you know?Chances are you're familiar with the verb careen as used in the sense of "to go forward in a headlong or uncontrolled manner." Similarly, you likely know the noun career meaning "a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling." What you may not know is that the noun career (from Middle French carriere) originally referred to a course or passage (as in "the sun's career across the sky") and to the speed used to traverse such a course. In the context of medieval tournaments, career referred to the charge of mounted knights as well as to the courses they rode. Verb use eventually developed with a general "to go fast" meaning, and later the more specific sense of moving in a reckless or headlong manner. (If you're wondering, career is not etymologically related to careen; careen has nautical origins, tracing to the Latin word for "hull.")See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3, 2018 is:sensibility \sen-suh-BIL-uh-tee\ noun1 : ability to receive sensations : sensitiveness2 : peculiar susceptibility to a pleasurable or painful impression (as from praise or a slight) — often used in plural3 : awareness of and responsiveness toward something (such as emotion in another)4 : refined or excessive sensitiveness in emotion and tasteExamples:"In 1973, while heading the New York Philharmonic, he replaced the orchestra members' chairs with rugs and cushions, the better to appeal to the sensibilities of a young, post-hippie audience that regarded classical music as stuffy and pedantic." — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Jan. 2016"His guest appearances mark something more than the usual exchange of core audiences between individual artists, though they are definitely that; they're a chance to enlarge the sensibility of rap itself, to remind himself that, however hard and successfully he strains to be the biggest rapper, rap as a whole is always bigger than he is." — Frank Guan, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2018Did you know?From Latin sentire ("to feel"), the meanings of sensibility run the gamut from mere sensation of the sense organs to excessive sentimentality. In between is a capacity for delicate appreciation, a sense often pluralized. In Jane Austen's books, sensibility, a word much appreciated by the novelist, is mostly an admirable quality she attributed to or found lacking in her characters: "He had … a sensibility to what was amiable and lovely" (of Mr. Elliot in Persuasion). In Sense and Sensibility, however, Austen starts out by ascribing to Marianne sensibleness, on the one hand, but an "excess of sensibility" on the other: "Her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation … she was everything but prudent."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 2, 2018 is:abide \uh-BYDE\ verb1 a : to bear patiently : tolerateb : to endure without yielding : withstand2 : to wait for : await3 : to accept without objection4 : to remain stable or fixed in a state5 : to continue in a place : sojournExamples:Susan has been a vegetarian for years and can no longer abide even the smell of cooked meat."They plainly abided a situation that was intolerable, and they shouldn't have done it." — Robert F. Bauer, The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018Did you know?Abide may sound rather old-fashioned these days. The word has been around since before the 12th century, but it is a bit rare now, except in certain specialized uses. Even more archaic to our modern ear is abidden, the original past participle of abide. Today, both the past tense and the past participle of abide are served by either abode or abided, with abided being the more frequent choice. Abide turns up often in the phrase "can't (or couldn't) abide." The expression abide by, which means "to conform to" or "to acquiesce in," is also common. Related terms include the participial adjective abiding (which means "enduring" or "continuing," as in "an abiding interest in nature"), the noun abidance ("continuance" or "compliance"), and the noun abode ("residence").See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 1, 2018 is:cuckoo \KOO-koo\ adjective1 : of, relating to, or resembling the cuckoo2 : deficient in sense or intelligence : sillyExamples:One of the kids had some cuckoo theory about the house being demolished because of evidence of a UFO landing visible in the tiles of its roof."[He] says the condiment is for sale and called 'Kathy's Ketchup.' Really, it's Judy's.… It's named for Judy Ebbinghaus, a former co-owner who recently parted ways with the operation. While the visitors might not notice this slip-up, it's the kind of thing that makes a journalist go a little cuckoo." — Julie Ann Grimm, ­The Santa Fe Reporter, 8 Nov. 2017Did you know?The cuckoo bird is so named for its one-note song, which in Middle English was represented as cuccu in imitation. Figurative use of cuckoo, which exists as an adjective meaning "crazy" or "weak in intellect or common sense," and as a noun for a person who can be described as such, may be an allusion to the bird's eponymous (and monotonous) call. But it may also be inspired by a peculiar habit exhibited by some species, in which a female will lay her eggs in the nest of another bird, to be hatched by that bird. In Old French, the name of the bird, cucu, also refers to a husband whose wife is unfaithful. That sense is believed to come from the female cuckoo bird's habit in some species of changing mates, or to the same egg-laying habit that influenced English figurative use. Cucu is also the source of English cuckold.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 March 31, 2018 is:rectitude \REK-tuh-tood\ noun1 : the quality or state of being straight2 : moral integrity : righteousness3 : the quality or state of being correct in judgment or procedureExamples:As treasurer of the organization, she advocated a kind of fiscal rectitude that is widely credited with saving the organization from financial ruin."Integrity doesn't demand flawlessness, but it does require the kind of moral rectitude that enables one to quickly assume responsibility for one's errors, to say 'I was wrong and I am sorry.'" — Jill Filipovic, Mother Jones, 8 Feb. 2018Did you know?Rectitude has a righteous derivation. It comes straight from the Latin adjective rectus, which means both "right" and "straight." Rectitude itself can mean either "straightness" (an early use referred to literal straightness of lines, although this sense is now rare) or "rightness" of character. Rectus has a number of other descendants in English, including rectangle (a figure with four right angles), rectify ("to make right"), rectilinear ("moving in or forming a straight line"), and even rectus itself (a medical term for any one of several straight muscles in the body).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 March 30, 2018 is:parlous \PAHR-lus\ adjective: full of danger or risk Examples:"Back in Venice, he was restoring an apartment of his own …, a stately edifice constructed … in the mid-1600s that had fallen into a parlous condition." — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, March 2018"In 2007, el-Sayed established a small online newsletter to investigate corruption. When the conflict broke out, he took to writing about the parlous state of public utilities and the profiteering on both sides that followed." — James Harkin, Newsweek, 28 Aug. 2015Did you know?Parlous is both a synonym and a derivative of perilous; it came to be as an alteration of perilous in Middle English. (Perilous is derived from the Anglo-French perilleus, which ultimately comes from the Latin word for "danger," perīculum.) Both words are documented in use from at least the 14th century. Seven centuries later, both remain in steady use, often modifying state or times; however, perilous is, by far, the preferred synonym. More than likely, this is from having the familiar peril as a base.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 March 29, 2018 is:manticore \MAN-tih-kor\ noun: a legendary animal with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpionExamples:The recently unearthed stela depicts a manticore and several other frightening and fantastic creatures."Here be dragons. Also a cacophony of bird calls, a stunning painting of a stinky plant, and everything you always wanted to know about the manticore (part man, part lion, all the rage in 1658) but were too historically uninformed to ask." — Karla Peterson, The San Diego Union Tribune, 27 Aug. 2016Did you know?A mythical creature of ancient fables, the manticore keeps company with the better-known unicorn, dragon, and griffin. Descriptions of the manticore's features sometimes differ (some accounts mention porcupine quills or poisonous spikes, for example; others depict the tail as having a serpent's head), but the animal is by all accounts a dreadful beast. The word manticore came to English through the Greek mantichōras and Latin mantichora, and is probably ultimately of Iranian origin. Etymologists think it is related to an Old Persian word for "man-eater."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 March 28, 2018 is:delegate \DEL-uh-gayt\ verb1 : to entrust to another2 : to appoint as one's representative3 : to assign responsibility or authorityExamples:"He said the current board seems to delegate rather than take input and make decisions based on what the community wants…." — Derek Lacey, BlueRidgeNow.com (Henderson, North Carolina), 14 Feb. 2018"What's appropriate for your boss to delegate to you, and what's not? Especially when your boss asks you to do simple tasks—as in: very basic duties that are part of their job—they're walking a thin line between what's fair for you to do and what's not." — The Cut, 9 Feb. 2018Did you know?To delegate is, literally or figuratively, to send another in one's place, an idea that is reflected in the word's origin; it is a descendant of Latin legare, meaning "to send as an [emissary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emissary)." Other English words that can be traced back to legare include legate ("an emissary usually having official status"), legacy, colleague, and relegate. (The related Latin noun legatus refers to an ambassador, deputy, or provincial governor.) The noun delegate, meaning "a person acting for another," was in use in English by the 15th century, with the verb first appearing in the 16th century.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2018 is:grandiose \gran-dee-OHSS\ adjective1 : characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration2 : impressive because of uncommon largeness, scope, effect, or grandeurExamples:The committee eventually scaled back the most outlandish parts of its plans for the festival, including a grandiose scheme to bring in live peacocks for the event."I wonder if Louise ever imagined the magnitude of influence her work was to have on the planet. Probably not; for greatness such as hers is more likely to be born of purpose than of grandiose design." — Suzy Singh, Business World, 2 Sept. 2017Did you know?Grandiose, magnificent, imposing, stately, majestic, and grand all can mean very large and impressive. Grand adds to greatness of size the implications of handsomeness and dignity, as in "a grand staircase." Magnificent implies an extreme and impressive largeness without sacrifice of dignity or good taste ("magnificent paintings"). Imposing implies great size and dignity but especially stresses impressiveness ("an imposing edifice"). Stately may suggest poised dignity, erectness of bearing, handsomeness of proportions, and ceremonious deliberation of movement ("the stately procession"). Majestic combines the implications of imposing and stately and usually adds a suggestion of solemn grandeur ("a majestic waterfall"). Grandiose implies a size or scope exceeding ordinary experience ("grandiose hydroelectric projects").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 March 26, 2018 is:bravado \bruh-VAH-doh\ noun1 a : blustering swaggering conductb : a pretense of bravery2 : the quality or state of being foolhardyExamples:The quiet, reserved actor is primarily known for playing characters who radiate bravado and swagger."Some compete for money, with first-prize purses of up to $500 on a recent race day. But most are amateurs, who put thrills and bravado above the ever-present risk of spinning out and slipping sideways across the ice." — Michael Hill, The Chicago Tribune, 28 Jan. 2018Did you know?Bravado ultimately traces to the Old Italian adjective bravo, meaning "courageous" or "wild." Nowadays, the wildness once associated with bravado has been tamed to an overbearing boldness that comes from arrogance or a position of power. Celebrities, political or corporate giants, and the schoolyard bully may all show bravado (though they often turn out to be not so tough after all). Bravado is also used for show-offish, daring acts that seem reckless and inconsistent with good sense, but might nonetheless be applauded with shouts of "Bravo!" when successful (the spectacular feats of stuntmen, for example).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2018 is:thimblerig \THIM-bul-rig\ verb1 : to cheat by trickery2 : to swindle by a trick in which a small ball or pea is quickly shifted from under one to another of three small cups to fool the spectator guessing its locationExamples:"Thimblerigging the market was such an accepted practice some traders were even taunted for not stealing enough." — Leah McGrath Goodman, The Asylum, 2011"As the Ames brothers, Oakes (1804-73) and Oliver (1807-77), shovel-makers from Massachusetts, joined Sidney Dillon and Dr. Durant in thimblerigging the Credit Mobilier, none of the participants wished to be satisfied with a modest profit." — John F. Stover, American Railroads (2nd Edition), 1997Did you know?The game of thimblerig seems innocent enough. The thimblerigger places a little ball, pea, or other small object under one of three thimbles or cups. He or she deftly scoots the cups around on a table, then asks the player to bet on which one hides the object. But thimbleriggers are masters of sleight of hand and can move and manipulate the object unfairly—so the guileless player doesn't stand a chance of winning. (The poor bettor is probably unaware that rig has meant "to manipulate or control usually by deceptive or dishonest means" since the 1800s.) When the same sham is played with nutshells, it's called a shell game, and there's a related game played with cards known as three-card monte.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 March 24, 2018 is:vanward \VAN-werd\ adjective: located in the vanguard : advancedExamples:"[Joint venturing] opportunities now exist for vanward companies in a variety of industries, especially other financial services businesses and retailing." — Vikas Kapoor, American Banker, 6 Feb. 1998"The enemy vexes not your vanward posts; / You are mistaken. — Now, however, go; / Cross Leipzig, and remain as the reserve." — Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts, 1908Did you know?The troops at the head of an army are called the vanguard, and that word can also mean "the forefront of an action or movement." It was vanguard, rather than vanward, that led the way on the route into English. Vanguard was first documented in English in the 15th century. By the early 17th century, it was sometimes shortened to van—a reference might be made to an army's "van and rear." Some 200 years later vanward brought up the rear, making its English debut when writers appended -ward, an adjective suffix meaning "is situated in the direction of," to the shortened van, thereby creating a word meaning "in the forefront."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 March 23, 2018 is:never-never land \nev-er-NEV-er-LAND\ noun: an ideal or imaginary placeExamples:Lester seems to think he lives in some kind of never-never land where people don't have to accept responsibility for their actions."However, notwithstanding the tsunami of interest, cryptocurrencies as money still operate in kind of a never-never land." — Eric Grover, American Banker, 16 Aug. 2017Did you know?The phrase never-never land is linked to Peter Pan, although it did not originate with that creation of the Scottish playwright Sir James Matthew Barrie. In Barrie's original 1904 play, Peter befriends the real-world children of the Darling family and spirits them off for a visit to Never Land, where children can fly and never have to become adults. Then, in his 1908 sequel When Wendy Grew Up, Barrie changed the name to Never Never Land, and subsequent versions of the earlier play incorporated that change. People had been using never-never land for a place that was overly idealistic or romantic since at least 1900, but the influence of Peter Pan on the word's popularity and staying-power cannot be discounted.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 March 22, 2018 is:lugubrious \loo-GOO-bree-us\ adjective1 : mournful; especially : exaggeratedly or affectedly mournful2 : dismalExamples:"Most of the interviewees talk in the lugubrious tones of the defeated. We all know the story ends badly." — Bing West, The New York Post, 19 Sept. 2017"In the new movie, Liam Neeson plays Felt with a kind of lugubrious sincerity. He's an unhappy man, beset by professional and personal woes, and he makes his secret alliance with Woodward for reasons that are both admirable and vengeful." — Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, 26 Sept. 2017Did you know?"It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery," wrote Publilius Syrus in the first century B.C.E. Perhaps this explains why lugubrious is so woeful—it's all alone. Sure, we can dress up lugubrious with suffixes to form lugubriously or lugubriousness, but the word remains essentially an only child—the sole surviving English offspring of its Latin ancestors. This wasn't always the case, though. Lugubrious once had a linguistic living relative in luctual, an adjective meaning sad or sorrowful. Like lugubrious, luctual traced ultimately to the Latin verb lugēre, meaning "to mourn." Luctual, however, faded into obsolescence long ago, leaving lugubrious to carry on the family's mournful mission all alone.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 March 21, 2018 is:cadre \KAD-ray\ noun1 : a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and to train others; broadly : a group of people having some unifying relationship2 : a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party3 : a member of a cadre4 : frame, frameworkExamples:"As an articulate woman proposing solutions to the ills of society, Lucy was no lone figure on the city's political landscape. Still, within a public arena of competing ideas and legislative initiatives, she occupied a prominent niche—a revolutionary cadre of one—and fought to stay in the headlines and on the front page." — Jacqueline Jones, Goddess of Anarchy, 2017"As Jon Gruden continues to build his coaching staff, his latest hire fits right in with the cadre of football minds with whom Gruden has had extensive experience. He has hired long time draft prep training specialist, Tom Shaw as the team's strength coach." — Pro Football Weekly, 15 Feb. 2018Did you know?To understand cadre, we must first square our understanding of the word's Latin roots. Cadre traces to the Latin quadrum, meaning "square." Squares can make good frameworks—a fact that makes it easier to understand why first French speakers and later English speakers used cadre as a word meaning "framework." If you think of a core group of officers in a regiment as the framework that holds things together for the unit, you'll understand how the "personnel" sense of cadre developed. Military leaders and their troops are well-trained and work together as a unified team, which may explain why cadre is now sometimes used more generally to refer to any group of people who have some kind of unifying characteristic, even if they aren't leaders.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 March 20, 2018 is:yegg \YEG\ noun: one that breaks open safes to steal : safecracker; also : robberExamples:"Last Friday night while Sonoma peacefully slept a gang of yeggs, evidently professionals for they wore gloves to conceal all fingerprints, hammered away at the big safe of the Napa Milling Company, broke it open and escaped with $153 in cash, an account book and checks totaling $215." — The Sonoma (California) Index-Tribune, 6 Sept. 1935"The cops grabbed him and another yegg for a Philadelphia store burglary." — James Lardner and Thomas Reppetto, NYPD: A City and Its Police, 2000Did you know?Safecracker first appeared in print in English around 1873, but English speakers evidently felt that they needed a more colorful word for this rather colorful profession. No one is quite sure where yegg came from. Its earliest known use in print is from a 1901 New York Times article. This same article also includes the first known print use of the variant yeggmen. Yegg has always been less common than safecracker, but it still turns up once in a while.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 March 19, 2018 is:hachure \ha-SHUR\ verb: to denote surfaces in relief (as on a map) by shading with short lines drawn in the direction of slopeExamples:"Topographic surveys were done for the first time with compasses…. And mapmakers developed new methods for depicting terrain. One method, called hachuring, used lines to indicate the direction and steepness of a slope." — Greg Miller, National Geographic, 16 Sept. 2016"Lava flows that filled in much of the Yellowstone caldera are shown in this geologic map of the Yellowstone-Teton region. Rock units are colored by age and composition. Boundaries of the Yellowstone and Island Park calderas are hachured." — Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel, Windows into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, 2000Did you know?Hachuring is an old map-drawing technique that was largely replaced in later years by the use of contour lines, or lines that connect points of similar elevation. The word hachure, which can also be a noun referring to one of the short lines used in hachuring, comes from the French hacher, meaning "to chop up" or "hash." This French word is also the source of the verbs hash, which can mean "to chop (food, such as meat and potatoes) into small pieces," among other meanings, and hatch, meaning "to inlay with narrow bands of distinguishable material" and "to mark (something, such as a drawing or engraving) with fine closely spaced lines."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 March 18, 2018 is:farce \FAHRSS\ noun1 : a savory stuffing : forcemeat2 : a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot3 : the broad humor characteristic of farce4 : an empty or patently ridiculous act, proceeding, or situationExamples:"The company's guarantee is a farce," Jay complained. "The replacement they sent broke even more quickly than the original.""Congress approved the funding with few reservations, and years passed before lawmakers seemed to comprehend their role in the farce." — Mark Mazzetti, The Atlantic, 27 Jan. 2018Did you know?When farce first appeared in English, it had to do with cookery, not comedy. In the 14th century, English adopted farce from Middle French with its original meaning of "forcemeat" or "stuffing." The comedic sense of farce in English dates from the 16th century, when English imported the word again, this time to refer to a kind of knockabout comedy already popular in France. This dramatic genre had its origins in the 13th-century practice of augmenting, or "stuffing," Latin church texts with explanatory phrases. By the 15th century, a similar practice had arisen of inserting unscripted buffoonery into religious plays. Such farces—which included clowning, acrobatics, reversal of social roles, and indecency—soon developed into a distinct dramatic genre and spread rapidly in various forms throughout Europe.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 March 17, 2018 is:uncanny \un-KAN-ee\ adjective1 : seeming to have a supernatural character or origin : eerie, mysterious2 : being beyond what is normal or expected : suggesting superhuman or supernatural powersExamples:Our waiter had an uncanny resemblance to the creepy villain in the film we had just seen."One of the premier shape-shifters of his generation of actors, able to convincingly play an uncanny variety of characters, Paul Dano would seem to have slipped easily into yet another role: that of accomplished director." — Kenneth Turan, The Portland Press Herald, 28 Jan. 2018Did you know?Weird and eerie are synonyms of uncanny, but there are subtle differences in the meanings of the three words. Weird may be used to describe something that is generally strange or out of the ordinary. Eerie suggests an uneasy or fearful consciousness that some kind of mysterious and malign powers are at work, while uncanny, which debuted in the 18th century, implies disquieting strangeness or mysteriousness. English also has a word canny, but canny and uncanny should not be interpreted as opposites. Canny, which first appeared in English in the 16th century, means "clever," "shrewd," or "prudent," as in "a canny lawyer" or "a canny investment."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 March 16, 2018 is:anent \uh-NENT\ preposition: about, concerningExamples:"Whatever the case, the undertaking was soon abandoned in disappointment and apparently with strong feelings anent the region itself." — Wesley Frank Craven, The Southern Colonies in the 17th Century, 1970"The Act had been a sensible idea. Its absence would be noted. Not least among minority communities who welcomed the protection available from Section Six of the Act anent Online communications." — Brian Taylor, BBC.com, 25 Jan. 2018Did you know?Anent looks like a rather old-fashioned word, and it is, in fact, very old: an earlier sense of the word can be found in Beowulf, from approximately 800 C.E. Anent was at one point almost obsolete—it had nearly died out by the 17th century—but it was revived in the 19th century. Various usage commentators have decried anent as "affected" and "archaic." The former complaint seems like a harsh judgment, and the latter is untrue: although anent is rarely heard in speech, examples of current use can easily be found in written sources, especially in Scottish English. Once a favored preposition in Scots law, it turns up today in the occasional letter to the editor ("Anent your article on…"). Dead words do occasionally rise from the grave, and anent is one of them.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 March 15, 2018 is:telegenic \tel-uh-JEN-ik\ adjective: well-suited to the medium of television; especially : having an appearance and manner that are markedly attractive to television viewersExamples:The future looks promising for this charismatic and telegenic young politician."[Shaun] White is a telegenic guy; he's been a corporate-sponsored snowboarder since the tender age of 7, and won gold medals in both 2006 and 2010." — Sonia Saraiya, Variety, 18 Feb. 2018Did you know?Telegenic debuted in the 1930s, an offspring of television and photogenic, meaning "suitable for being photographed especially because of visual appeal." The word photogenic had other, more technical meanings before it developed that one in the early decades of the 20th century, but the modern meaning led to the sense of -genic that interests us here: "suitable for production or reproduction by a given medium." That sense is found in today's word, telegenic, as well as its synonym, videogenic. Telegenic may seem like a word that would primarily be used of people, but there is evidence for telegenic describing events (such as popular sports), objects, and responses. Occasionally, one even sees reference to a telegenic attitude or other intangible.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 14, 2018 is:invigilate \in-VIJ-uh-layt\ verb1 : to keep watch; especially : to supervise students at an examination2 : supervise, monitorExamples:Professors will take turns invigilating exams during the finals period."Since I have so often been asked about the mechanics of the job [of restaurant reviewer], it seems worth mentioning a few here…. In places designed for group eating, I often made up a group, though I tended to invigilate what was ordered: duplicate orders were banned and no one got to say, 'I think I'll have a steak.'" — Peter Calder, The New Zealand Herald, 24 Dec. 2017Did you know?Keep your eyes open and you're sure to spot a few relatives of today's word. Invigilate is a descendant of the Latin verb vigilare, meaning "to stay awake." As you may have guessed, vigilare is the ancestor of our adjective vigilant ("alertly watchful"), and it also gives us reveille ("a signal to wake up in the morning," via French réveillez) and surveillance ("close watch, supervision," via French surveiller). Invigilate has been a member of the English language since the mid-16th century.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 13, 2018 is:laudable \LAW-duh-bul\ adjective: worthy of praise : commendableExamples:Thanks to the laudable efforts of dozens of volunteers, the town's Winter Carnival was an enjoyable event for everyone."Exposing your children to art and culture during Miami Art Week is a laudable idea. Letting a pack of 6-year-olds run around through the crowded aisles of Art Miami is something entirely different." — Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald, 11 Dec. 2017Did you know?Both laudable and laudatory derive ultimately from Latin laud- or laus, meaning "praise." Laudable and laudatory differ in meaning, however, and usage commentators warn against using them interchangeably. Laudable means "deserving praise" or "praiseworthy," as in "laudable efforts to help the disadvantaged." Laudatory means "giving praise" or "expressing praise," as in "a laudatory book review." People occasionally use laudatory in place of laudable, but this use is not considered standard.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 March 12, 2018 is:Croesus \KREE-sus\ noun: a very rich manExamples:"Our young, handsome hero is an international man of mystery, fresh off the boat from London with no introduction but a note for a thousand pounds sterling, a fortune worthy of Croesus and enough to break a trading house." — Karen Heller, The Washington Post, 1 Aug. 2017"I'd marry Lord Merton…. He's the silverest of silver foxes. He's richer than Croesus. He's charming." — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 25 Jan. 2015Did you know?The original Croesus was a 6th-century B.C. king of Lydia, an ancient kingdom in what is now Turkey. Croesus conquered many surrounding regions, grew very wealthy, and became the subject of legends. In one legend, he was visited by Solon, the wise Athenian lawgiver. (Historians say this isn't chronologically possible, but it makes a good story.) Solon supposedly told Croesus, who thought he had everything: "Account no man happy before his death." These words made Croesus angry, and he threw the lawmaker out of his court. Croesus would rethink Solon's pronouncement later when his empire was overthrown by the Persians. Croesus' name shows up in the phrase "rich as Croesus," meaning "filthy rich," and it has also entered English as a generic term for someone extremely wealthy.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 March 11, 2018 is:scilicet \SKEE-lih-ket\ adverb: that is to say : to wit, namelyExamples:The organization's charter clearly states that "any changes to the structure of the organization's meetings must be unanimously approved by the executive board, scilicet, the chair and the board's six other members.""Their objection—they claimed—was to the parcelling out of the top state jobs among the political (scilicet: the other political) parties." — The Economist, 13 Jan. 1979Did you know?Scilicet is a rare word that most often occurs in legal proceedings and instruments. It is from Latin scire ("to know") and licet ("it is permitted"), which is also a root of videlicet—a synonym of scilicet. Licet, in turn, descends from the Latin verb licēre, which means "to be permitted" and is the ultimate source of the English words leisure, by way of the Anglo-French leisir ("to be permitted"), and license, which comes to us through Anglo-French from the Latin licens, the present participle of licēre. Scire has also made other contributions to English, giving us such words as conscience, conscious, and science.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 March 10, 2018 is:lexicographer \lek-suh-KAH-gruh-fer\ noun: an author or editor of a dictionaryExamples:Noah Webster believed that a lexicographer's work was to document a language as it is used, without any judgment or subjective influence."Google celebrated the life of Samuel Johnson on Monday with an animated Doodle defining the word 'lexicographer.' Monday would have marked Johnson's 308th birthday. He was well known as a lexicographer himself, as well as a poet, essayist, critic and biographer." — Katie Collins, CNET.com, 18 Sept. 2017Did you know?Today, we're looking at a word that is dear to our hearts: lexicographer. The ancient Greeks were some of the earliest makers of dictionaries; they used them mainly to catalog obsolete terms from their rich literary past. To create a word for writers of dictionaries, the Greeks sensibly attached the suffix -graphos, meaning "writer," to lexikon, meaning "dictionary," to form lexikographos, the direct ancestor of the English word lexicographer. Lexikon, which itself descends from Greek lexis (meaning "word" or "speech"), also gave us lexicon, which can mean either "dictionary" or "the vocabulary of a language, speaker, or subject."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 March 9, 2018 is:meander \mee-AN-der\ verb1 : to follow a winding or intricate course2 : to wander aimlessly or casually without urgent destination : rambleExamples:"The trail meanders through towering evergreens, over a creek and beside a waterfall." — Jim Ryan, The Oregonian, 7 Feb. 2018"Instead of hooks or choruses, there were intensities, pulses, sung words that meandered and then dissolved into crystalline sound. They were barely songs. But they were enough. The listener got the impression that language was insufficient to express her highs and lows." — Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2017Did you know?Roam, ramble, and meander all mean to move about from place to place without a plan or definite purpose, but each suggests wandering in a unique way. Roam refers to carefree wandering over a wide area often for pleasure (as in "I roamed over the hills for hours"). Ramble stresses carelessness and indifference to one's course or objective (for instance, "the speaker rambled on without ever coming to the point"). Meander, which comes from Greek Maiandros—an old name for a river in Asia Minor that is now known as the Menderes—implies a winding course and lazy movement, and it is still sometimes associated with rivers (as in, "the river meandered through the town"). Meander can also be used as a noun meaning "a winding path."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 March 8, 2018 is:bird-dog \BERD-dawg\ verb1 : to watch closely2 : to seek out : follow, detectExamples:With millions of city dollars invested, citizens are bird-dogging the riverfront development project to its completion."Also in line for a guaranteed budget is the new deputy inspector general for public safety charged with auditing police practices, identifying troubling trends, recommending changes to the police contract and bird-dogging the new multi-tiered accountability system." — Fran Spielman, The Chicago Sun-Times, 4 Oct. 2016Did you know?People began using bird-dog as a verb meaning "to closely watch someone or something" or "to doggedly seek out someone or something" in the early 20th century. Both meanings reflect skills likely to be possessed by a well-trained bird dog—that is, a hunting dog trained to hunt or retrieve birds. By the 1930s, bird-dogging was being used specifically as a term for stealing someone else's date. And, not long after that, it began to be used for the scouting out of customers or prospective talent. The noun bird dog refers to the canines one would expect, and is also used as a name for the date stealers and scouts who do the bird-dogging.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.