Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 5, 2016 is: sagacious • \suh-GAY-shus\ • adjective 1 : of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment : discerning 2 : caused by or indicating acute discernment Examples: "Star's limitless patience and unconditional support …, coupled with the sagacious advice and guidance he gave me through the many years, elevates him to a very special position on my list." — Vincent Bugliosi, Four Days in November, 2007 "… I would like to be young again—for the obvious dermatological advantages, and because I would like to recapture who I was before the clutter of experience made me a bit more sagacious and exhausted." — Andrew Solomon, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2015 Did you know? You might expect the root of sagacious to be sage, which means "wise" or "wise man," but that wouldn't be a wise assumption. Despite their similarities, the two words are not all that closely related. Sagacious traces back to sagire, a Latin verb meaning "to perceive keenly." It's also related to the Latin adjective sagus ("prophetic"), which is the ancestor of our verb seek. Etymologists believe that sage comes from a different Latin verb, sapere, which means "to taste," "to have good taste," or "to be wise." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 4, 2016 is: asperse • \uh-SPURSS\ • verb 1 : sprinkle; especially : to sprinkle with holy water 2 : to attack with evil reports or false or injurious charges Examples: "Though my opponent's supporters have aspersed my character, I think my record speaks for itself," said the candidate. "[Andrew] Jackson, a short-tempered warrior who had killed a man in a duel for aspersing his wife, had to endure scurrilous attacks on his wife as a bigamist." — Sid Moody, The Associated Press, 21 June 1992 Did you know? You may be more familiar with the idea of "casting aspersions" than with aspersing, although they mean essentially the same thing; the word aspersion can mean "a sprinkling with water" or, more commonly, "a false or misleading charge meant to harm someone's reputation." Both asperse and aspersion are descendants of the Latin verb aspergere, meaning "to sprinkle." Asperse is the older word, dating to at least 1490; aspersion is known to have first appeared in print in English in the latter half of the 1500s. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 3, 2016 is: quodlibet • \KWAHD-luh-bet\ • noun 1 : a philosophical or theological point proposed for disputation; also : a disputation on such a point 2 : a whimsical combination of familiar melodies or texts Examples: "In Part II the orchestral interlude is Happy Voices, which Del Tredici took in punning fashion and created a raucous fugue followed by a 'quodlibet' of all the tunes from the piece." — Vance R. Koven, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, 27 Mar. 2016 "Of the many musicals I've attended in recent years, among the most enjoyable and perhaps the funniest was Monty Python's Spamalot. The music cues come fast and furious, and in all varieties, from classical quodlibets to Spike Jones-like punctuations—a true challenge for the music director to keep up and maintain the comic timing." — Joseph Church, OUPBlog, 15 Feb. 2015 Did you know? "Whatever." Try to get philosophical nowadays and that may be the response you hear. We don't know if someone quibbling over a minor philosophical or theological point 600 years ago might have gotten a similar reaction, but we do know that Latin quodlibet, meaning "any whatever," was the name given to such academic debates. Quodlibet is a form of quilibet, from qui, meaning "what," and libet, meaning "it pleases." We can't say with certainty how quodlibet went from disputations to musical conglomerations, but English speakers have been using quodlibet for light musical mélanges since the early 19th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 2, 2016 is: adjuvant • \AJ-uh-vunt\ • adjective 1 : serving to aid or contribute : auxiliary 2 : assisting in the prevention, amelioration, or cure of disease Examples: The study showed caffeine to have an adjuvant effect when combined with certain pain relievers, increasing the potency of the latter. "Kidney cancer has long been resistant to chemotherapy, but researchers are finding more success with targeted drug treatments (called adjuvant therapy) delivered after surgery, which attack the genetic mutations underlying a tumor's growth." — Ryan Bradley, The New York Times, 15 May 2016 Did you know? Things that are adjuvant rarely get top billing—they're the supporting players, not the stars. But that doesn't mean they're not important. An adjuvant medicine, for example, can have a powerful healing effect when teamed up with another medicine or curative treatment. Adjuvant descends from the Latin verb adjuvare ("to aid"), which also gave English the nouns coadjutor ("assistant") and aid. These days, adjuvant tends to turn up most often in medical contexts, but it can also be used in the general sense of "serving to aid." Likewise, the noun adjuvant can mean "a drug or method that enhances the effectiveness of medical treatment" or simply "one that helps or facilitates." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 1, 2016 is: oenophile • \EE-nuh-fyle\ • noun : a lover or connoisseur of wine Examples: Serious oenophiles will not be impressed with this particular wine, but it should be up to the standards of less-discriminating consumers. "Founded in 1992, New Orleans Wine and Food Experience has definitely earned its place as an event that oenophiles, gourmets and any combination thereof mark on their to-do list each year." — Sue Strachan, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 28 May 2016 Did you know? "It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth," wrote the 1st-century A.D. Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder. The truth about the word wine is that it goes back to Latin vinum, but it is also a distant relative of the Greek word for wine, which is oinos. Indeed, Latin borrowed from the Greek to create a combining form that means "wine," oeno-. Modern French speakers combined oeno- with -phile (Greek for "lover of") to create oenophile before we adopted it from them in the mid-1800s. Oenophiles are sure to know oenology (now more often spelled enology) as the science of wine making and oenologist (now more often enologist) for one versed in oenology. 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 31, 2016 is: trepidation • \trep-uh-DAY-shun\ • noun : timorous uncertain agitation : apprehension Examples: Fran's trepidation going into the interview dissipated quickly, and her confidence and poise led her to getting offered the job a week later. "The couple's trepidation isn't about how the state would handle the rare orchids.… They simply are worried that the state would not pay them what their land is worth, if … officials … decide to try and purchase a portion of their land to widen Route 22." — Ronnie Wachter, The Chicago Tribune, 1 Aug. 2016 Did you know? If you've ever trembled with fright, you know something of both the sensation and etymology of trepidation. The word comes from the Latin verb trepidare, which means "to tremble." When it first appeared in English in the early 1600s, it meant "tremulous motion" or "tremor." Around the same time, English speakers also started using the "nervous agitation" sense of trepidation that we use today. 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 30, 2016 is: collude • \kuh-LOOD\ • verb : conspire, plot Examples: "Two forestry companies colluded for more than a decade to control the prices of toilet paper and other products following a meeting at a golf course to end a price war, according to Chile's competitive practices regulator." — The Observer-Dispatch (Utica, New York), 30 Oct. 2015 "If you collude in business or if you collude in the stock market, they put you in jail." — Donald Trump, speaking on MSNBC, 25 Apr. 2016 Did you know? Our English "lude" words (allude, collude, delude, elude, and prelude) are based on the Latin verb ludere, meaning "to play." Collude dates back to 1525 and combines ludere and the prefix col-, meaning "with" or "together." The verb is younger than the related noun collusion, which appeared sometime in the 14th century with the specific meaning "secret agreement or cooperation." Despite their playful history, collude and collusion have always suggested deceit or trickery rather than good-natured fun. 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 29, 2016 is: rarefied • \RAIR-uh-fyde\ • adjective 1 : being less dense 2 : of, relating to, or interesting to a select group : esoteric 3 : very high Examples: Cartography is one of those rarefied fields at which only a select few can actually earn a living. "He was known for photographing the most rarefied parties and galas but never partaking of even an hors d'oeuvre or sip of champagne." — Robin Givhan, The Washington Post, 27 June 2016 Did you know? Rarefied was formed from the verb rarefy, which derives from a combination of the Latin rarus ("thin" or "rare") with facere ("to make") and has meant "to make thin" since the 14th century. In its original uses back in the 1500s, the adjective rarefied was on the lean side too; it meant "made less dense" (as in "the fog lifted and we could breathe more easily in the rarefied air"). By the 17th century, rarefy had gained the sense "to refine or purify," and over time rarefied followed suit. 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 28, 2016 is: embellish • \im-BELL-ish\ • verb 1 : to make beautiful with ornamentation : decorate 2 : to heighten the attractiveness of by adding decorative or fanciful details : enhance Examples: Kevin later admitted that he may have embellished the truth about the size of the dog that chased him out of the yard. "On Snapchat, where users embellish their selfies with emoji, crayon scribbles, and elaborate 'lenses' that cover their faces with virtual masks, marketers like McDonalds are seizing the opportunity to write their messages across people’s faces." — Amanda Hess, The New York Times, 20 June 2016 Did you know? Like its synonyms adorn, ornament, and garnish, embellish means to make something beautiful by the addition of a decorative or fanciful feature. Traditionally, the word is used specifically to stress the addition of superfluous or adventitious ornament, as in "The printer embellished the page with a floral border." Embellish differs from its synonyms, however, in that it is sometimes used in a euphemistic way to refer to the inclusion of details that are not necessarily true to make a story sound more appealing. The word derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb embelir, from en- and bel ("beautiful"). 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 27, 2016 is: plinth • \PLINTH\ • noun 1 : the lowest part of the base of an architectural column 2 : a usually square block serving as a base; broadly : any of various bases or lower parts 3 : a course of stones forming a continuous foundation or base course Examples: An empty plinth remains where the statue of the toppled dictator once commanded. "Fabio Mauri (1926-2009) grew up in Mussolini-era Italy and his art consistently examines the ways in which the traumas of war and fascism are assimilated by history. For the most part it's the simpler works that resonate—such as a lone artillery shell on a plinth." — Time Out, 26 Jan. 2016 Did you know? "These ivy-clad arcades — / These mouldering plinths ... are they all — / All of the famed, and the colossal left…?" In these lines from "The Coliseum," Edgar Allan Poe alludes to a practical feature of classical architecture. The plinth serves the important purpose of raising the base of the column it supports above the ground, thus protecting it from dampness and mold. The humble plinth is usually a mere thick block. It's humbly named, too, for the Greek word plinthos means simply "tile" or "brick." English writers have used plinth, a shortened version of the Latin form plinthus, since the mid-16th century. The word's meaning was later extended to bases for statues, vases, or busts. 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 26, 2016 is: guttural • \GUTT-uh-rul\ • adjective 1 : articulated in the throat 2 : velar 3 : being or marked by utterance that is strange, unpleasant, or disagreeable Examples: The only response we could get from him was an inarticulate guttural grunt. "The guttural yells echoing off New Jersey's Lake Mercer conveyed the gravity of college rowing's biggest day Sunday: the Intercollegiate Rowing Championship." — Brian Towey, The Seattle Times, 6 June 2016 Did you know? Though it is now used to describe many sounds or utterances which strike the listener as harsh or disagreeable, the adjective guttural was originally applied only to sounds and utterances produced in the throat. This is reflected in the word's Latin root—guttur, meaning "throat." Despite the similarity in sound, guttural is not related to the English word gutter, which comes (by way of Anglo-French) from Latin gutta, meaning "drop." 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 25, 2016 is: notch • \NAHTCH\ • noun 1 a : a V-shaped indentation b : a slit made to serve as a record c : a rounded indentation cut into the pages of a book on the edge opposite the spine 2 : a deep close pass : gap 3 : degree, step Examples: The angle of the futon can be adjusted by inserting the pin into one of three notches. "You're about to start a race or step onstage, and you want to knock it out of the park. … Revving up … is pretty easy: Do a few jumping jacks, or whatever gets your blood pumping. Need to take things down a notch (or 20)? Inhale deeply. Research shows that it can significantly calm you down." — Jeanine Detz, Self, July/August 2016 Did you know? Occasionally, you might hear a child ask for a "napple," as in "I would like a napple," mistaking the phrase "an apple" for "a napple." A similar error is believed to be behind notch, which may have resulted from a misdivision of "an otch." (Otch is a noun that is assumed to have existed in earlier English as a borrowing of Middle French oche, meaning "an incision made to keep a record.") Notch would not be alone in developing from such a mistake. The words newt and nickname were formed, respectively, from misdivisions of "an ewte" and "an ekename." Going in the other direction, umpire first appears in Middle English as oumpere, a mistaken rendering of "a noumpere." 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 24, 2016 is: insinuate • \in-SIN-yuh-wayt\ • verb 1 a : to introduce (as an idea) gradually or in a subtle, indirect, or covert way b : to impart or suggest in an artful or indirect way : imply 2 : to introduce (as oneself) by stealthy, smooth, or artful means Examples: "They are confident buildings, but not boastful ones. They have a way of insinuating themselves into the landscape, behaving as if they’ve always been there." — Karrie Jacobs, Architect, 18 June 2013 "Pokemon Go players couldn't catch much on Saturday. That's because the game kept crashing. … [A] group called PoodleCorp claimed responsibility for the server crash in a series of tweets. The group also insinuated that another attack on the game was imminent." — Ahiza Garcia, CNN Wire, 16 July 2016 Did you know? The meaning of insinuate is similar to that of another verb, suggest. Whether you suggest or insinuate something, you are conveying an idea indirectly. But although these two words share the same basic meaning, each gets the idea across in a different way. When you suggest something, you put it into the mind by associating it with other ideas, desires, or thoughts. You might say, for example, that a book's title suggests what the story is about. The word insinuate, on the other hand, usually includes a sense that the idea being conveyed is unpleasant, or that it is being passed along in a sly or underhanded way ("She insinuated that I cheated"). 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 23, 2016 is: journeyman • \JER-nee-mun\ • noun 1 : a worker who has learned a trade and works for another person usually by the day 2 : an experienced reliable worker, athlete, or performer especially as distinguished from one who is brilliant or colorful Examples: "I started working exclusively as an actor when I was 25 years old…. I was a journeyman actor, working here and there. And I loved it." — Bryan Cranston, quoted in The Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2016 "Rich Hill is 36 and likely to be the most sought-after pitcher on the trade market, but he claims he doesn't see it that way. The transformation from journeyman to a pitcher with electric stuff has been stunning at his age." — Nick Cafardo, The Boston Globe, 10 July 2016 Did you know? The journey in journeyman refers to a sense of the familiar word not often used anymore: "a day's labor." This sense of journey was first used in the 14th century. When journeyman appeared the following century, it originally referred to a person who, having learned a handicraft or trade through an apprenticeship, worked for daily wages. In the 16th century, journeyman picked up a figurative (and mainly deprecatory) sense; namely, "one who drudges for another." These days, however, journeyman has little to do with drudgery, and lots to do with knowing a trade inside out. 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 22, 2016 is: lenient • \LEEN-yunt\ • adjective 1 : exerting a soothing or easing influence : relieving pain or stress 2 : of mild and tolerant disposition; especially : indulgent Examples: Because Kevin didn't have any past violations on his driving record, the officer decided to be lenient and let him off with a written warning. "In February, he pleaded guilty to a bribery count and a tax count. His attorney … has said federal prosecutors have recommended a lenient sentence in exchange for his cooperation." — Jimmie E. Gates, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), 18 July 2016 Did you know? Lenient is a word with a soothing history. It derives from the Latin verb lenire, meaning "to soothe" or "to soften" (itself from lenis, meaning "soft or mild"). The first, now archaic, sense of lenient referred to something soothing that relieved pain and stress. That meaning was shared by lenitive, an earlier derivative of lenire that was commonly used with electuary (a "lenitive electuary" being a medicated paste prepared with honey or another sweet and used by veterinarians to alleviate pain in the mouth). Linguists also borrowed lenis to describe speech sounds that are softened—for instance, the "t" sound in gutter is lenis. By way of comparison, the "t" sound in toe is fortis. 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 21, 2016 is: hypocorism • \hye-PAH-kuh-riz-um\ • noun 1 : a pet name 2 : the use of pet names Examples: People began to refer to the elusive and mysterious Loch Ness monster by the hypocorism "Nessie" in the 1940s. "… the use of hypocorisms … is on the decline (only my Aunt Dorothy is still called Toots), and terms of endearment have come under suspicion ('Call me Dollboat or Sweetie-Pie one more time, Mr. Snodgrass, and you've got a harassment suit on your hands')." — William Safire, The New York Times, 27 Sept. 1992 Did you know? In Late Latin and Greek, the words hypocorisma and hypokorisma had the same meaning as hypocorism does in English today. They in turn evolved from the Greek verb hypokorizesthai ("to call by pet names"), which itself comes from korizesthai ("to caress"). Hypocorism joined the English language in the mid-19th century and was once briefly a buzzword among linguists, who used it rather broadly to mean "adult baby talk"—that is, the altered speech adults use when supposedly imitating babies. Once the baby talk issue faded, hypocorism settled back into being just a fancy word for a pet name. Pet names can be diminutives like "Johnny" for "John," endearing terms such as "honey-bunch," or, yes, names from baby talk, like "Nana" for "Grandma." 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 20, 2016 is: namby-pamby • \nam-bee-PAM-bee\ • adjective 1 : lacking in character or substance : insipid 2 : weak, indecisive Examples: John complained that the movie was a namby-pamby romance with too much dialogue and not enough action. "I go to a barber for a haircut and clip my own nails, and would rather smell broccoli cooking for a week than go to some namby-pamby spa place to get … my body kneaded like a loaf of over-fermented Wonder Bread." — Michael Penkava, The Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Illinois), 27 Feb. 2016 Did you know? Eighteenth-century poets Alexander Pope and Henry Carey didn't think much of their contemporary Ambrose Philips. His sentimental, singsong verses were too childish and simple for their palates. In 1726, Carey came up with the rhyming nickname Namby-Pamby (playing on Ambrose) to parody Philips: "Namby-Pamby's doubly mild / Once a man and twice a child ... / Now he pumps his little wits / All by little tiny bits." In 1729, Pope borrowed the nickname to take his own satirical jab at Philips in the poem "The Dunciad." Before long, namby-pamby was being applied to any piece of writing that was insipidly precious, simple, or sentimental, and later to anyone considered pathetically weak or indecisive. 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 19, 2016 is: fret • \FRET\ • verb 1 a : to eat or gnaw into : wear, corrode; also : fray b : rub, chafe c : to make by wearing away 2 : to become vexed or worried 3 : agitate, ripple Examples: "You shouldn't fret so much over your wardrobe," Liza said. "You look great no matter what you wear." "Not so long ago independent booksellers fretted about the Nooks and the Kindles and the iPad—digital reading devices. And if that didn't scare them, the trend of reading everything on a phone was worrisome." — Darrell Ehrlick, The Billings (Montana) Gazette, 22 July 2016 Did you know? Since its first use centuries ago, fret has referred to an act of eating, especially when done by animals—in particular, small ones. You might speak, for example, of moths fretting your clothing. Like eat, fret also developed figurative senses to describe actions that corrode or wear away. A river could be said to "fret away" at its banks or something might be said to be "fretted out" with time or age. Fret can also be applied to emotional experiences so that something that "eats away at us" might be said to "fret the heart or mind." This use developed into the specific meaning of "vex" or "worry" with which we often use fret today. 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 18, 2016 is: panoptic • \pan-OP-tik\ • adjective : being or presenting a comprehensive or panoramic view Examples: The new security cameras installed in the jewelry store capture panoptic views of the entrance and display cases. "Interweaving the narratives of an aristocratic uptown family, an underground punk band, a Long Island adolescent, a black gay aspiring writer, and a journalist determined to uncover the obscure connections between them all, the more-than-900-page novel … casts a panoptic lens on 1970s New York City…." — Lauren Christensen, Vanity Fair, October 2015 Did you know? The establishment of panoptic in the English language can be attributed to two inventions known as panopticons. The more well-known panopticon was conceived by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1787. Bentham’s panopticon was a circular prison with cells arranged around a central tower from which guards could see the inmates at all times. The other panopticon, also created in the 18th century, was a device containing pictures of attractions, such as European capitals, that people viewed through an opening. Considering the views that both inventions gave, it is not hard to see why panoptic (a word derived from Greek panoptēs, meaning "all-seeing") was being used by the early 19th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 17, 2016 is: dunnage • \DUN-ij\ • noun 1 : loose materials used to support and protect cargo in a ship's hold; also : padding in a shipping container 2 : baggage Examples: The listed weight on the shipping order did not account for the container and dunnage. "There are … efforts to reduce impact on the environment, with employees reusing as much of the packing material as possible. Boxes can be reused or turned into dunnage to use in packing." — The Crossville (Tennessee) Chronicle, 26 Nov. 2012 Did you know? Etymologists don't know the exact origin of dunnage. Some have pointed out the similarity of the word to dünne twige, a Low German term meaning "brushwood," but no one has ever proven the two are related. Others have speculated that it derives from Dunlop, the name of a famous cheese-making town in Scotland; however, neither the town nor the cheese has any connection to dunnage. Truth be told, though dunnage has been with us since the 15th century, its etymological history remains a mystery. 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 16, 2016 is: dedication • \ded-ih-KAY-shun\ • noun 1 : a devoting or setting aside for a particular purpose or use 2 : a name and often a message prefixed to a literary, musical, or artistic production in tribute to a person or cause 3 : self-sacrificing devotion 4 : a ceremony to mark the official completion or opening of something (as a building) Examples: "Each of my days with my children embodies my dedication when I am open to them. Sitting around our kitchen table over dinner … we are giving thanks, talking to each other, laughing…." — Kathryn Black, in The Imperfect Mom, 2006 "My wife would say my best habit is ... my work ethic. She's impressed by my dedication." — Jimmie Johnson, quoted in Good Housekeeping, April 2012 Did you know? The word dedication first appears in the 14th century as a name for the solemn act of dedicating something, such as a calendar day or a church, to a divine being or to a sacred use. The word—formed from the Latin past participle of dedicare, meaning "to dedicate"—did not take hold in secular contexts until a few centuries later when English speakers began using it to refer to the act of devoting time and energy to a particular purpose. One of the earliest writers to do so is William Shakespeare. "His life I gave him, and did thereto ad / My love without retention or restraint, / All his in dedication….," proclaims his character Antonio in Twelfth Night. Dedication has also come to describe the quality of being loyal or devoted to a cause, ideal, or purpose. Nowadays, people are commonly spoken of as having a dedication to his or her family or work. 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 15, 2016 is: soul mate • \SOHL-MAYT\ • noun 1 : a person who is perfectly suited to another in temperament 2 : a person who strongly resembles another in attitudes or beliefs Examples: They have been best friends and soul mates for nearly two decades. "Decades of incredible songs performed by a multitalented ensemble sweep the audience through the musical journey of [Johnny Cash's] life, including gospel, folk, country and rock, along with incredible duets with his soul mate, June Carter." — The Chicago Daily Herald, 13 June 2016 Did you know? The earliest known use of soul mate is found in an 1822 letter from English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge to "a Young Lady" in which he writes, "To be happy in Marriage Life, nay … in order not to be miserable, you must have a Soul-mate as well as a House or a Yoke-mate…." The word yokemate is used to refer to someone who is figuratively yoked to another, such as a close associate or companion, or, as Coleridge uses the word, a spouse. Coleridge's advice to the recipient of his letter, then, is that she should not simply settle for a husband, but rather for a person whose character and sensibilities are of a nature suitable to her own. Soul mate is now often used by English speakers to describe those with whom our bonds of affection are marked by a strong sense of like-mindedness and intertwined affinities. 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 14, 2016 is: tog • \TAHG\ • verb : to dress especially in fine clothing — usually used with up or out Examples: Christine smiled as she took pictures of her teenage son, who was togged out in a tuxedo and standing next to his prom date. "Togged out in his driving gear and trademark tinted goggles, and sporting a jaunty mustache, Walter C. Baker cut a dashing, even raffish figure." — Michael W. Dominowski, The Staten Island (New York) Advance, 26 May 2013 Did you know? The history of tog is a true rags-to-riches tale that begins with the slang of vagabonds and thieves—specifically, with the noun togeman, an old (and now obsolete) slang word meaning "cloak." By the early 18th century, the noun tog, a shortened form of togeman, was being used as a slang word for "coat," and before the century's end the plural form togs was being used to mean "clothing." The verb tog debuted shortly after togs and was immediately in style as a word for dressing up. You may be wondering if there's a connection between tog and toga, and if so, you are right on track. Togeman is believed to be derived in part from toga, which means "cloak" or "mantle" in Latin. 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 13, 2016 is: zest • \ZEST\ • noun 1 : a piece of the peel of a citrus fruit (such as an orange or lemon) used as flavoring 2 : an enjoyably exciting quality : piquancy 3 : keen enjoyment : relish, gusto Examples: Healthy and active as a senior citizen, Richard had a zest for life, a desire to travel and see the world, and a perpetual interest in trying new things. "Basically, chocolate powder gets sprinkled on top of your cappuccino. It may not seem like much, but the sugary bitterness from the chocolate adds zest to the beverage." — Jean Trinh, The Los Angeles Magazine, 24 June 2016 Did you know? Zest can spice up your life—fitting for a word that we learned from the world of cooking. We borrowed the term from a source that has given English speakers many culinary delights: French cuisine. The French used the form zest (nowadays they spell it zeste) to refer to orange or lemon peel used to flavor food or drinks. English speakers developed a taste for the fruit flavoring and adopted the term zest in the late 1600s. By the early 1700s, they had started using the word to refer to any quality that adds enjoyment to something in the same way that the zest of an orange or lemon adds flavor to food. 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 12, 2016 is: vestige • \VESS-tij\ • noun 1 a : a trace, mark, or visible sign left by something (such as an ancient city or a condition or practice) vanished or lost b : the smallest quantity or trace 2 : a bodily part or organ that is small and degenerate or imperfectly developed in comparison to one more fully developed in an earlier stage of the individual, in a past generation, or in closely related forms Examples: There was not a vestige of doubt in the jurors' minds that the defendant was guilty. "The United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some 50 years.… [T]his change will ensure that Vietnam has access to the equipment it needs to defend itself and removes a lingering vestige of the Cold War." — Barack Obama, quoted on CNN International, 23 May 2016 Did you know? Vestige is derived via Middle French from the Latin noun vestigium, meaning "footstep, footprint, or track." Like trace and track, vestige can refer to a perceptible sign made by something that has now passed. Of the three words, vestige is the most likely to apply to a tangible reminder, such as a fragment or remnant of what is past and gone. Trace, on the other hand, may suggest any line, mark, or discernible effect ("the snowfield is pockmarked with the traces of caribou"). Track implies a continuous line that can be followed ("the fossilized tracks of dinosaurs"). 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 11, 2016 is: filial • \FIL-ee-ul\ • adjective 1 : of, relating to, or befitting a son or daughter 2 : having or assuming the relation of a child or offspring Examples: Margaret's sense of filial responsibility is only part of her motivation for carrying on her parents' business; she also loves the work. "Though initially reluctant, the old champ agrees to coach the young boxer, and they form a filial bond that grows in tandem with the stakes they face." — Sandy Cohen, The Post & Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), 24 Nov. 2015 Did you know? Filial is descended from Latin filius, meaning "son," and filia, meaning "daughter," and in English (where it has been used since at least the 14th century) it has always applied to both sexes. The word has long carried the dutiful sense "owed to a parent by a child," as found in such phrases as "filial respect" and "filial piety." These days it can also be used more generally for any emotion or behavior of a child to a parent. You might suspect that filia is also the source of the word filly, meaning "a young female horse" or "a young girl," but it isn't. Rather, filly is from Old Norse fylja. 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 10, 2016 is: resilience • \rih-ZIL-yunss\ • noun 1 : the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress 2 : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change Examples: Terry and Rayanne were proud of their daughter's resilience during her search for a summer job—after being passed over for one positon, she immediately applied to five more. "Meet three ordinary women who reached the end of their rope. But instead of giving up—after a tough adoption, drug addiction and a financial nightmare—they came back. Not just fighting, but thriving. Their inspiring stories will make you cheer for their resilience and want to learn from their life lessons." — Amanda Robb, Good Housekeeping, April 2014 Did you know? In physics, resilience is the ability of an elastic material (such as rubber or animal tissue) to absorb energy (such as from a blow) and release that energy as it springs back to its original shape. The recovery that occurs in this phenomenon can be viewed as analogous to a person's ability to bounce back after a jarring setback. Author P. G. Wodehouse took note of this when he wrote: "There is in certain men … a quality of resilience, a sturdy refusal to acknowledge defeat, which aids them as effectively in affairs of the heart as in encounters of a sterner and more practical kind." The word resilience derives from the present participle of the Latin verb resilire, meaning "to jump back" or "to recoil." The base of resilire is salire, a verb meaning "to leap" that also pops up in the etymologies of such sprightly words as sally and somersault. 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 9, 2016 is: rectify • \REK-tuh-fye\ • verb 1 : to set right : remedy 2 : to purify (as alcohol) especially by repeated or fractional distillation 3 : to correct by removing errors Examples: After Jennifer pointed out to the store manager that she was not charged the sale price for her purchase, he promised to rectify the situation and refund her the difference. "'At the time I couldn't say that there was a place in all of Asia that made real, slow-cooked barbecue,' he said. So Walker rectified that; he opened Bubba’s in 2006, a Texas-style barbecue joint." — Joshua Hunt, The Texas Monthly, 4 July 2016 Did you know? Which of the following words does not share its ancestry with rectify—direct, regimen, obstruct, correct, or resurrection? Like rectify, four of these words ultimately come from Latin regere, which can mean "to lead straight," "to direct," or "to rule." Correct and direct come from regere via Latin corrigere and dirigere, respectively. Resurrection comes from Latin resurgere, whose stem surgere, meaning "to rise," is a combination of sub- and regere. Regimen is from Latin regimen ("position of authority," "direction," "set of rules"), itself from regere. And rectify is from regere by way of Latin rectus ("right"). Obstruct is the only one of the set that has no relation to rectify. It traces back to Latin struere, meaning "to build" or "to heap up." 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 8, 2016 is: bogus • \BOH-gus\ • adjective : not genuine : counterfeit, sham Examples: "Any time you are provided with anything that is supposedly 'free' or 'complimentary,' including a security monitoring service for a year, when you do not actually know if your personal data has been compromised, it's likely a bogus scheme to steal your identity." — Martha R. Tromberg, The (Jackson) Florida Times-Union, 5 July 2016 "Stars on the downward trajectory of their careers often try to sign with teams that have a chance to win, especially if those stars haven't won a ring. People know it's bogus but smile and share in the warmth of unfinished business getting finished." — Rick Morrissey, The Chicago Sun-Times, 6 July 2016 Did you know? You may know bogus as a slang word meaning "uncool" or simply "no good," but did you know that bogus has actually been a part of English since the early 1800s? Not only was the word coined then, it was actually doing some coining of its own, so to speak. Back then, a bogus was a machine used to make counterfeit coins. No one knows for sure how this coin-copying contraption got its name, but before long bogus had also become a popular noun for funny money itself or for a fraudulent imitation of any kind. The more general "phony" adjective began being used about the same time. 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 7, 2016 is: devotion • \dih-VOH-shun\ • noun 1 a : religious fervor : piety b : a religious exercise or practice for private use 2 : the act of devoting b : the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal Examples: "Intensely competitive and a gifted athlete, [Mariano] Rivera will delight baseball fans. But the memories recounted here … ultimately reveal something deeper: Rivera's almost incredible humility, unshakeable faith, and devotion to his family (he married his childhood sweetheart, Clara)." — Publisher's Weekly Review, 12 Mar. 2014 "Precious made headlines last December for her act of devotion. The protective dog with big brown eyes guarded her owner after a fire broke out at their … home." — Erica Jones, NBCWashington.com, 23 July 2016 Did you know? When we take a vow, we pledge our devotion—whether to remain true to a partner, to uphold the law, or to honor the word of God. It should be no surprise then that devotion and its related verb devote come from the act of taking a vow. Both words originate from Latin devotus, which is the past participle of devovēre, a union of the prefix de- ("from") and the verb vovēre ("to vow"). Devote was once used as an adjective that could mean either "devout" or "devoted." While devout often connotes faithfulness of a religious nature, the adjective devoted conveys the sense of one's commitment to another through love and loyalty ("a devoted husband and father"; "the singer's devoted fans"). 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 6, 2016 is: misanthrope • \MISS-un-throhp\ • noun : a person who hates or distrusts humankind Examples: "The conventional image of Groucho [Marx] was that he was on the side of the little guy, and he spoke defiantly and insolently to powerful people and wealthy people. But my feeling is that Groucho was out to deflate everybody—that he was a thoroughgoing misanthrope." — Lee Siegel, speaking on NPR, 23 Jan. 2016 "Many feared that we would become asocial creatures, misanthropes who would rather hide behind the safety of a screen than face the intimacy of a spoken conversation." — Jenna Wortham, The New York Times, 22 May 2016 Did you know? The word misanthrope is human to the core—literally. One of its parents is the Greek noun anthrōpos, meaning "human being." Its other parent is the Greek verb misein, meaning "to hate." Misein also gave English misogamy ("a hatred of marriage"), misogyny ("hatred of women"), misology ("a hatred of argument, reasoning, or enlightenment"), and misoneism ("a hatred, fear, or intolerance of innovation or change"). Anthrōpos also joined forces with phil- (a combining form meaning "loving") to form the Greek ancestor of philanthropy ("active effort to help other people"). We also find anthrōpos when we delve into the foundations of the word anthropology. 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 5, 2016 is: kith • \KITH\ • noun : familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives Examples: "The joy of returning to kith and kin was greater than all her former joys. … Never before … had Shelby seen such an outpouring of affection." — Dorothy West, The Wedding, 1995 "Cooking and sharing food are inseparable. Our labor in the kitchen culminates not in profit but in praise … and it makes sweating in the kitchen worth it—the more so when kith and kin … gather around a holiday table." — Ken Albala, The San Francisco Chronicle, 23 Nov. 2014 Did you know? Kith has had many meanings over the years. In its earliest uses it referred to knowledge of something, but that meaning died out in the 1400s. Another sense, "one's native land," had come and gone by the early 1500s. The sense "friends, fellow countrymen, or neighbors" developed before the 12th century and was sometimes used as a synonym of kinsfolk. That last sense got kith into hot water after people began using the word in the alliterative phrase "kith and kin." Over the years, usage commentators have complained that kith means the same thing as kin, so "kith and kin" is redundant. Clearly, they have overlooked some other historical definitions, but if you want to avoid redundancy charges, be sure to include friends as well as relatives among your "kith and kin." 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 4, 2016 is: edify • \ED-uh-fye\ • verb : to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge : uplift; also : enlighten, inform Examples: "Reading Lawrence, I am amazed and edified by the raw emotional intensity of his characters. I’m looking for ways to internalize this rich, untamed emotion and try to impart something of it to the characters who come to life in my keyboard." — A. B. Yehoshua, quoted in The New York Times Book Review, 16 June 2016 "He said he hopes the group takes away the community they began to build, so they can unify and edify each other to do the work of recovery." — Taylor Stuck, The Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, West Virginia), 15 May 2016 Did you know? The Latin noun aedes, meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of aedificare, a verb meaning "to erect a house." Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as edify during the 14th century. Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic; the only current sense of edify is essentially the same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and improve in moral and religious knowledge." 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, 2016 is: amity • \AM-uh-tee\ • noun : friendship; especially : friendly relations between nations Examples: "Cousin friendships really are special. They provide an unmatched level of amity and support, without the rivalries that often exist between siblings." — Helaine Becker, Today's Parent, June 2006 "The amity between the two leaders was palpable from the start as Mr. Modi broke with protocol to greet Mr. Obama at the airport with a warm handshake and hug." — Peter Baker and Ellen Barry, The New York Times, 26 Jan. 2015 Did you know? Amity has been used in English to describe friendship or friendliness for well over 500 years. It is derived from the Latin word for "friend," amicus, and has come to be used especially for relationships between political leaders and nations in which goodwill is shown despite differences that might exist between the two parties. Amicus is also the root of the adjectives amiable and amicable. Amiable implies having qualities that make one liked and easy to deal with—for example, "The owners of the bed-and-breakfast were very amiable." Amicable is closer in meaning to amity: it implies friendliness and politeness with the desire to avoid disagreement and argument. A relationship between coworkers might be described as amicable. Other family members of amicus are the Spanish borrowing amigo ("friend") and the antonymous enemy, which developed from the Latin combination of the prefix in- ("not") with amicus. 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, 2016 is: glower • \GLOUR\ • verb : to look or stare with sullen annoyance or anger Examples: Kelly glowered at me after I sided with Brenda in their dispute about the chores. "Outside the subway stop, he glowered for each photo, then bade each of his fans farewell with a stately handshake. He never spoke a word." — Steven Borowiec, The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel, 1 May 2016 Did you know? Do words of uncertain origin make you scowl? If so, glower may put a frown on your face because only part of its history can be validated. The well-established part of its story leads us to Scotland, where glower (or glowren, to use the older Scottish form of the word) has been used since the late Middle Ages. Originally, the word meant simply "to look intently" or "to stare in amazement," but by the late 1700s, glowering stares were being associated with anger instead of astonishment. Beyond that, however, the history of the word is murky. The most we can say is that glower is a distant relative of Middle Low German glūren, which means "to be overcast," and of Middle Dutch gloeren, meaning "to leer." 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, 2016 is: kerfuffle • \ker-FUFF-ul\ • noun : (chiefly British) disturbance, fuss Examples: I didn't mean to start such a kerfuffle when I suggested that we hold the company picnic at a different location this year. "… there was quite a kerfuffle (in visual-arts circles, anyway) this fall when the Jeff Wall show that was supposed to open the museum was suddenly cancelled by the artist. The works had become unavailable." — Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario), 4 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Fuffle was first used in Scottish English, as early as the 16th century, as a verb meaning "to dishevel." The addition of the prefix car- (possibly derived from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "wrong" or "awkward") didn't change the meaning of the word considerably. In the 19th century carfuffle, with its variant curfuffle, became a noun, and in the 20th century it was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to kerfuffle. There is some dispute among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by imitative words like kerplunk, where the syllable ker- is simply added for emphasis. 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, 2016 is: homily • \HAH-muh-lee\ • noun 1 : a usually short sermon 2 : a lecture or discourse on a moral theme 3 : an inspirational catchphrase; also : platitude Examples: The calendar features serene photographs captioned by inspirational proverbs and homilies. "Deacons are ordained ministers in the Catholic Church but do not have the rank of priest. They can give homilies and preside at weddings, funerals and baptisms, but they cannot celebrate Mass." — Tom Kington, The Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2016 Did you know? Gather around for the history of homily. The story starts with ancient Greek homilos, meaning "crowd" or "assembly." Greeks used homilos to create the verb homilein ("to consort with" or "to address"), as well as the noun homilia ("conversation"). Latin speakers borrowed homilia, then passed it on to Anglo-French. By the time it crossed into Middle English, the spelling had shifted to omelie, but by the mid-16th century the term had regained its "h" and the "y" of the modern spelling was added. 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, 2016 is: littoral • \LIT-uh-rul\ • adjective : of, relating to, or situated or growing on or near a shore especially of the sea Examples: The report shows dramatic improvement in the condition of the state's littoral waters since the cleanup effort began. "But this project will permanently add new sand to the beach and dune system of Dauphin Island's East End, and the new sand will stay in the littoral system for centuries." — Scott Douglass, The Mobile (Alabama) Register, 6 Mar. 2016 Did you know? You're most likely to encounter littoral in contexts relating to the military and marine sciences. A littoral combat ship is a fast and easily maneuverable combat ship built for use in coastal waters. And in marine ecology, the littoral zone is a coastal zone characterized by abundant dissolved oxygen, sunlight, nutrients, and generally high wave energies and water motion. Littoral can also be found as a noun referring to a coastal region or, more technically, to the shore zone between the high tide and low tide points. The adjective is the older of the two, dating from the mid-17th century; the noun dates from the early 19th century. The word comes to English from Latin litoralis, itself from litor- or litus, meaning "seashore." 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, 2016 is: flounder • \FLOUN-der\ • verb 1 : to struggle to move or obtain footing : thrash about wildly 2 : to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually Examples: "The four Royal Air Force pilots ditched their broken bomber and dropped into the North Sea, near Britain. It was February 23, 1942…. Floundering in the frigid water, the pilots released their last hope: a tiny, bedraggled carrier pigeon named Winkie." — Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post, 9 June 2016 "But She-Ra's sales floundered from the start. Roger Sweet, a Mattel toy creator and the author of Mastering the Universe, estimated her total sales at $60 million, an anemic number compared with He-Man ($2 billion) or Barbie ($350 million)." — Maria Teresa Hart, The Atlantic, 16 June 2016 Did you know? Despite the fact that flounder is a relatively common English verb, its origins in the language remain obscure. It is thought that it may be an alteration of an older verb, founder. To founder is to become disabled, to give way or collapse, or to come to grief or to fail. In the case of a waterborne vessel, to founder is to sink. The oldest of these senses of founder, "to become disabled," was also used, particularly in reference to a horse and its rider, for the act of stumbling violently or collapsing. It may have been this sense of founder that later appeared in altered form as flounder in the sense of "to stumble." 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, 2016 is: numinous • \NOO-muh-nus\ • adjective 1 : supernatural, mysterious 2 : filled with a sense of the presence of divinity : holy 3 : appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense : spiritual Examples: Pilgrims to the shrine spoke to the congregation about their numinous experiences. "… the stories, different as they were from one another, shared a sense of horror as something numinous and elusive, too tricky to be approached head-on." — Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times, 5 June 2016 Did you know? Numinous is from the Latin word numen, meaning "divine will" or "nod" (it suggests a figurative nodding, of assent or of command, of the divine head). English speakers have been using numen for centuries with the meaning "a spiritual force or influence." We began using numinous in the mid-1600s, subsequently endowing it with several senses: "supernatural" or "mysterious" (as in "possessed of a numinous energy force"), "holy" (as in "the numinous atmosphere of the catacombs"), and "appealing to the aesthetic sense" (as in "the numinous nuances of her art"). We also created the nouns numinousness and numinosity, although these are rare. 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, 2016 is: doff • \DAHF\ • verb 1 a : to remove (an article of wear) from the body b : to take off (the hat) in greeting or as a sign of respect 2 : to rid oneself of : put aside Examples: We'd only planned to stop briefly at the pond, but the children couldn't resist doffing their shoes and were quickly waist-deep in the cool water. "He received a standing ovation when he batted in the second inning. He stepped out of the batter's box and doffed his helmet to the 36,491 fans." — Michael Kelly, The Boston Herald, 28 June 2016 Did you know? Time was, people talked about doffing and donning articles of wear with about the same frequency. But in the mid-19th century the verb don became significantly more popular and left doff to flounder a bit in linguistic semi-obscurity. Doff and don have been a pair from the start: both date to the 14th century, with doff coming from a phrase meaning "to do off" and don from one meaning "to do on." Shakespeare was first, as far as we know, to use the word as it's defined at sense 2. He put it in Juliet's mouth: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet. / … Romeo, doff thy name; / And for that name, which is no part of thee, / Take all myself." 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, 2016 is: pidgin • \PIJ-in\ • noun : a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages Examples: "In his 1992 book, A History of American English, the late linguist J.L. Dillard … demonstrates that the most originally American form of English was a pidgin, originating with sailor's language. Early explorers of North America, he argues, would have used nautical pidgins and passed those on to native people." — Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura, 17 July 2015 "Hawaiian Pidgin English developed during the 1800s and early 1900s, when immigrant laborers from China, Portugal, and the Philippines arrived to work in the plantations; American missionaries also came around that time. The immigrants used pidgins—first one that was based in Hawaiian and then one based in English—to communicate." — Alia Wong, The Atlantic, 20 Nov. 2015 Did you know? The history of pidgin begins in the early 19th century in the South China city of Guangzhou. Chinese merchants interacting with English speakers on the docks in this port adopted and modified the word business in a way that, by century's end, had become pidgin. The word itself then became the descriptor of the unique communication used by people who speak different languages. Pidgins generally consist of small vocabularies (Chinese Pidgin English has only 700 words), but some have grown to become a group's native language. Examples include Sea Island Creole (spoken in South Carolina's Sea Islands), Haitian Creole, and Louisiana Creole. The word pidgin also gave us one particular meaning of pigeon—the one defined as "an object of special concern" or "accepted business or interest," as in "Tennis is not my pigeon." 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, 2016 is: berate • \bih-RAYT\ • verb : to scold or condemn vehemently and at length Examples: When her son arrived home way past curfew without so much as a phone call or text, Nancy berated him for his lack of consideration. "We'd announced the tour and Mick looked at it and went, 'I can't do this,' which was not great news at all. I wanted to slightly berate him, 'What the heck?!,' but he sounded so sad. He really wasn't up to it." — Paul Rodgers, Billboard.com, 13 April 2016 Did you know? Berate and rate can both mean "to scold angrily or violently." This sense of rate was first recorded in the 14th century, roughly two centuries before the now more familiar (and etymologically unrelated) rate meaning "to estimate the value of." We know that berate was probably formed by combining be and the older rate, but the origins of this particular rate itself are somewhat more obscure. We can trace the word back to the Middle English form raten, but beyond that things get a little murky. It's possible that rate, and by extension berate, derives from the same ancient word that led to the Swedish rata (meaning "to find blame, despise") and earlier the Old Norse hrata ("to fall, stagger"), but this is uncertain. 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, 2016 is: simulacrum • \sim-yuh-LAK-rum\ • noun 1 : image, representation 2 : an insubstantial form or semblance of something : trace Examples: "Most theater shows aim to conjure a simulacrum of reality onstage." — Rohan Preston, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 21 Apr. 2015 "There, hanging above you, is a simulacrum of a tardigrade, otherwise known as a water bear or moss piglet, at about 5,000 times larger than life-size." — James Gorman, The New York Times, 3 Apr. 2015 Did you know? It's not a figment of your imagination; there is a similarity between simulacrum and simulate. Both of those English words derive from simulare, a Latin verb meaning "to copy, represent, or feign." In its earliest English uses, simulacrum named something that provided an image or representation (as, for instance, a portrait, marble statue, or wax figure representing a person). Perhaps because a simulacrum, no matter how skillfully done, is not the real thing, the word gained an extended sense emphasizing the superficiality or insubstantiality of a thing. 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, 2016 is: vatic • \VAT-ik\ • adjective : prophetic, oracular Examples: "Compared with [Stan] Lee's wisecracking dialogue and narrative prose, [Jack] Kirby's writing was stilted and often awkward, though at times it rose to a level of vatic poetic eloquence." — Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 7 Aug. 2015 "[Walt Whitman] dreamed of a new democratic civilization, which he pictured ultimately as a worldwide revolutionary democracy of labor—the vision that you can see in his vatic and ecstatic processional poem 'Song of the Broad-Axe.'" — Paul Berman, Tablet (tabletmag.com), 3 May 2016 Did you know? Some people say only thin lines separate poetry, prophecy, and madness. We don't know if that's generally true, but it is in the case of vatic. The adjective derives directly from the Latin word vates, meaning "seer" or "prophet." But that Latin root is, in turn, distantly related to the Old English wōth, meaning "poetry," the Old High German wuot, meaning "madness," and the Old Irish fáith, meaning both "seer" and "poet." 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, 2016 is: usufruct • \YOO-zuh-frukt\ • noun 1 : the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another 2 : the right to use or enjoy something Examples: He has willed all of his property to the conservation society, though his children will retain the house as a 50-year usufruct. "When there's no will, the state of Louisiana gives the surviving spouse a usufruct on the property." — Mary Anna Evans, Plunder, 2012 Did you know? Thomas Jefferson said, "The earth belongs in usufruct to the living." He apparently understood that when you hold something in usufruct, you gain something of significant value, but only temporarily. The gains granted by usufruct can be clearly seen in the Latin phrase from which the word developed, usus et fructus, which means "use and enjoyment." Latin speakers condensed that phrase to ususfructus, the term English speakers used as the model for our modern word. Usufruct has been used as a noun for the legal right to use something since the mid-1600s. Any right granted by usufruct ends at a specific point, usually the death of the individual who holds it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 21, 2016 is: tactile • \TAK-tul\ • adjective 1 : perceptible by touch : tangible 2 : of, relating to, or being the sense of touch Examples: "The keyboard has good tactile feedback, and the touch pad is responsive without being too twitchy." — Bruce Brown, PC Magazine, 20 Feb. 2001 "Sensitive 'robot skin' was developed by researchers at Georgia Tech in 2014. The skin makes use of flexible touch sensors that communicate with a memory device that can store tactile interactions, mimicking human sensory memory." — Karen Turner, The San Diego Union Tribune, 29 May 2016 Did you know? Tangible is related to tactile, and so are intact, tact, contingent, tangent, and even entire. There's also the uncommon noun taction, meaning "the act of touching." Like tactile, all of these words can be traced back to the Latin verb tangere, meaning "to touch." Tactile was adopted by English speakers in the early 17th century (possibly by way of the French tactile) from the Latin adjective tactilis ("tangible"). Tactilis comes from tactus, a past participle of tangere. 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, 2016 is: winkle • \WINK-ul\ • verb 1 : (chiefly British) to displace, remove, or evict from a position 2 : (chiefly British) to obtain or draw out by effort Examples: "In 1483 a new English king, Richard III, tried again to winkle Henry out of Brittany, but he found that the young man was now a significant pawn on the European chessboard." — Nigel Calder, The English Channel, 1986 "The reclusive actress, 48, had been winkled out of her New Mexico ranch and flown halfway around the world only to stand there and be ignored as Amal battled with her chiffon frills and the cameras rattled like gunfire." — Jan Moir, The Daily Mail (UK), 20 May 2016 Did you know? If you have ever extracted a winkle from its shell, then you understand how the verb winkle came to be. The word winkle is short for periwinkle, the name of a marine or freshwater snail. Periwinkle is ultimately derived from Latin pina, the name of a mussel, and Old English wincle, a snail shell. Evidently the personnel of World War I's Allied Powers found their duty of finding and removing the enemy from the trenches analogous to extracting a well-entrenched snail and began using winkle to describe their efforts. The action of "winkling the enemy out" was later extended to other situations, such as "winkling information out of someone." 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, 2016 is: raconteur • \ra-kahn-TER\ • noun : a person who excels in telling anecdotes Examples: A bona fide raconteur, Taylor can turn even mundane experiences into hilariously entertaining stories. "Her fans, any of whom would welcome the chance to share … a bowl of pimento cheese with her, know [Julia] Reed as a tremendous wit, a sharp observer of the complexities of Southern culture, a great storyteller and fabulous raconteur." — Greg Morago, The Houston Chronicle, 1 June 2016 Did you know? The story of raconteur is a tale of telling and counting. English speakers borrowed the word from French, where it traces back to the Old French verb raconter, meaning "to tell." Raconter in turn was formed from another Old French verb, aconter or acompter, meaning "to tell" or "to count," which is ultimately from Latin computare, meaning "to count." Computare is also the source of our words count and account. Raconteur has been part of the English vocabulary since at least 1828. 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, 2016 is: astute • \uh-STOOT\ • adjective 1 : having or showing shrewdness and perspicacity 2 : crafty, wily Examples: The candidate made a number of astute observations about both foreign and domestic policy during the debate. "Sure, he was funny, but George Carlin was also an astute observer of the way humans think and behave." — Keith Magill, The Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star, 12 June 2016 Did you know? Astute is similar in meaning to shrewd and sagacious, but there are subtle differences in connotation among them. All three suggest sharp thinking and sound judgment, but shrewd stresses practical, hardheaded cleverness and judgment ("a shrewd judge of character"), whereas sagacious implies wisdom and foresight combined with good judgment ("sagacious investors"). Astute, which derives from the Latin noun astus, meaning "craft," suggests cleverness, mental sharpness, and diplomatic skill ("an astute player of party politics"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.