Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2016 is: deasil • \DEE-zil\ • adv : clockwise Examples: The worshippers dance around the fire deasil, or sunwise. "Three times we walked deasil around our central candle. By the third cycle I felt power flowing from Sky's fingers to mine, from my fingers to Alyce's." — Cate Tiernan, Spellbound, 2001 Did you know? According to an old custom, you can bring someone good fortune by walking around the person clockwise three times while carrying a torch or candle. In Scottish Gaelic, the word deiseil is used for the direction one walks in such a luck-bringing ritual. English speakers modified the spelling to deasil, and have used the word to describe clockwise motion in a variety of rituals. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 17, 2016 is: nimrod • \NIM-rahd\ • noun 1 : hunter 2 : idiot, jerk Examples: "The hunting season is now in full blast. Several nimrods, both veteran and amateur, are shouldering the gun and marching to the woods and marshes." — Gary Pullano, The Holland (Michigan) Sentinel, 13 Dec. 2015 "The stereotypical cast for the film-within-the-film cleverly overacts and paints their obnoxious characters as helpless nimrods." — Alex Pelham, The Daily Texan (University of Texas), 14 Mar. 2015 Did you know? The word nimrod gets its start in the Bible: Nimrod was king of a country known as Shinar, and he's described in Genesis as "the first on earth to be a mighty man" and "a mighty hunter before the Lord." English speakers of the 16th century didn't think Nimrod was particularly benevolent; they used his name as a synonym of "tyrant"—a meaning that is now obsolete. In the 17th century, English speakers began using nimrod as a generic term for any hunter. That meaning is not especially common today but it's still encountered occasionally, especially in hunting and fishing journalism. The legendary Nimrod is also sometimes associated with the attempt to build the Tower of Babel. Because the tower resulted in the wrath of the Lord and proved a disastrous idea, nimrod is currently used with yet another meaning: "a stupid person." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 16, 2016 is: sub rosa • \sub-ROH-zuh\ • adverb : in confidence : secretly Examples: "For 30 years he kept notes, almost sub rosa, finally publishing his work with his own funds just before his death." — Jeannette Ferrary, The New York Times Book Review, 31 May 1987 "Now, when you say you think they will test it, do you think they will test it openly, essentially, or that they will try to do something sub rosa and wait to be caught?" — Margaret Warner, on PBS.org, 9 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Sub rosa literally means "under the rose" in New Latin. Since ancient times, the rose has often been associated with secrecy. In ancient mythology, Cupid gave a rose to Harpocrates, the god of silence, to keep him from telling about the indiscretions of Venus. Ceilings of dining rooms have been decorated with carvings of roses, reportedly to remind guests that what was said at the table should be kept confidential. Roses have also been placed over confessionals as a symbol of the confidentiality of confession. Sub rosa entered the English language in the 17th century, and even before then, people were using the English version, "under the rose." Earlier still, unter der Rose was apparently used in Germany, where the phrase is thought to have originated. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 15, 2016 is: pulchritude • \PUHL-kruh-tood\ • noun : physical comeliness Examples: The snowboarder's talent won her many medals, and her pulchritude gained her much attention from sponsors looking for a spokeswoman. "Though the actress playing the queen has the requisite pulchritude, she lacks the gravitas to convince us that she's a 41-year-old, with a lifetime's experience and heartache." — Lee Randall, The Edinburgh Evening News, 11 Aug. 2015 Did you know? If English poet John Keats was right when he wrote that "a thing of beauty is a joy forever," then pulchritude should bring bliss for many years to come. That word has already served English handsomely for centuries; it has been used since the 1400s. It's a descendant of the Latin adjective pulcher, which means "beautiful." Pulcher hasn't exactly been a wellspring of English terms, but it did give us both pulchritude and pulchritudinous, an adjective meaning "attractive" or "beautiful." The verb pulchrify (a synonym of beautify), the noun pulchritudeness (same meaning as pulchritude), and the adjective pulchrous (meaning "fair or beautiful") are other pulcher offspring, but those terms have proved that, in at least some linguistic cases, beauty is fleeting. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 14, 2016 is: canoodle • \kuh-NOO-dul\ • verb : to engage in amorous embracing, caressing, and kissing Examples: Chaperones watched for couples attempting to sneak under the gymnasium's bleachers to canoodle. "The sexiest new lounge in Des Moines features a must-drink cocktail list that blends in well with the atmosphere of dim lights and cute little seating areas where couples can canoodle." — Susan Stapleton, The Des Moines Register, 16 Dec. 2015 Did you know? The origins of canoodle are obscure. Our best guess is that it may come from an English dialect noun of the same spelling meaning "donkey," "fool," or "foolish lover," which itself may be an alteration of the word noodle, meaning "a foolish person." That noodle, in turn, may come from noddle, a word for the head. The guess seems reasonable given that, since its appearance in the language around the mid-19th century, canoodle has been most often used jocularly for playful public displays of affection by couples who are head over heels in love. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 13, 2016 is: tribulation • \trib-yuh-LAY-shun\ • noun : distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; also : a trying experience Examples: "Now Lemsford's great care, anxiety, and endless source of tribulation was the preservation of his manuscripts." — Herman Melville, White Jacket; or, the World in a Man-of-War, 1850 "In sharing the many tribulations of real-life patients and physicians, Nussbaum unveils a thoughtful, well-rounded, yet thorny vision of the current state of medicine." — Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2016 Did you know? The writer and Christian scholar Thomas More, in his 1534 work A dialoge of comforte against tribulation, defined the title word as "euery such thing as troubleth and greueth [grieveth] a man either in bodye or mynde." These days, however, the word tribulation is typically used as a plural noun, paired with its alliterative partner trial, and relates less to oppression and more to any kind of uphill struggle. Tribulation derives via Middle English and Old French from the Latin verb tribulare ("to oppress or afflict"), which is related to tribulum, a noun meaning "threshing board." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2016 is: marmoreal • \mahr-MOR-ee-ul\ • adjective : of, relating to, or suggestive of marble or a marble statue especially in coldness or aloofness Examples: "'Thank you for your submission,' the note begins with marmoreal courtesy. It ends with a wish for success in placing your manuscript with another house." — William Germano, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 Feb. 2011 "Marble … has always been synonymous with artistry and luxury. Had it not been glowing marble would Michelangelo's David and the Pieta have looked the same? Not to speak of our Taj Mahal, whose marmoreal splendour has moved many poets to wax eloquent about its beauty." — Soumitra Das, The Telegraph (India), 1 June 2014 Did you know? Most marble-related words in English were chiseled from the Latin noun marmor, meaning "marble." Marmor gave our language the word marble itself in the 12th century. It is also the parent of marmoreal, which has been used in English since the mid-1600s. Marbleize, another marmor descendant, came later, making its print debut around 1854. The obscure adjective marmorate, meaning "veined like marble," dates to the 16th century and hasn't seen much use since. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 11, 2016 is: incumbent • \in-KUM-bunt\ • noun 1 : the holder of an office or ecclesiastical benefice 2 : one that occupies a particular position or place Examples: The two-term incumbent has already raised almost a million dollars for the upcoming congressional race. "In recent weeks, the candidates hoping to succeed Obama have backed into an honest debate about what American power can and can't do. On Tuesday, the incumbent himself joined in, explicitly defending his own restrained approach." — Dante Ramos, The Boston Globe, 14 Jan. 2016 Did you know? When incumbent was first used in English in the 15th century, it referred to someone who occupied a benefice—a paid position in a church. This was often a lifetime appointment; the person could only be forced to leave the office in the case of certain specific legal conflicts. In the mid-17th century, incumbent came to refer to anyone holding any office, including elected positions. These days, in the American political system, incumbent generally refers to someone who is the current holder of a position during an election to fill that position. Incumbent came to English through Anglo-French and derives from the Latin incumbere, meaning "to lie down on." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 10, 2016 is: gruntle • \GRUN-tul\ • verb : to put in a good humor Examples: The hour-long wait at the restaurant irked us, but once we were seated, we were soon gruntled by an amiable waiter. "I returned to my interrupted slumber in a mood far from gruntled. It was an injury to my amour propre to realize that in the Whitcomb affair I had been a small cog on a large wheel." — Lawrence Sanders, McNally's Trial, 1995 Did you know? The verb disgruntle, which has been around since 1682, means "to make ill-humored or discontented." The prefix dis- often means "to do the opposite of," so people might naturally assume that if there is a disgruntle, there must have first been a gruntle with exactly the opposite meaning. But dis- doesn't always work that way; in some rare cases it functions instead as an intensifier. Disgruntle developed from this intensifying sense of dis- plus gruntle, an old word (now used only in British dialect) meaning "to grumble." In the 1920s, a writer humorously used gruntle to mean "to make happy"—in other words, as an antonym of disgruntle. The use caught on. At first gruntle was used only in humorous ways, but people eventually began to use it seriously as well. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 9, 2016 is: jocund • \JAH-kund\ • adjective : marked by or suggestive of high spirits and lively mirthfulness Examples: Clayton gave a jocund shout when he entered the room and saw the many friends who had come for his surprise 50th birthday celebration. "The jocund nature of Beethoven's Second Symphony is in utter contradiction with Beethoven's pathetic letter expressing the despair of inevitable deafness, both written at approximately the same time." — D. S. Crafts, The Albuquerque (New Mexico) Journal, 13 Jan. 2012 Did you know? Don't let the etymology of jocund play tricks on you. The word comes from jucundus, a Latin word meaning "agreeable" or "delightful," and ultimately from the Latin verb juvare, meaning "to help." But jucundus looks and sounds a bit like jocus, the Latin word for "joke." These two roots took a lively romp through many centuries together and along the way the lighthearted jocus influenced the spelling and meaning of jucundus, an interaction that eventually produced our Modern English word jocund in the 14th 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 February 8, 2016 is: exonerate • \ig-ZAH-nuh-rayt\ • verb 1 : to relieve of a responsibility, obligation, or hardship 2 : to clear from accusation or blame Examples: Dana was exonerated for the crime of taking the money after it was found that her fingerprints did not match those on the cashbox. "… a 2015 measure approved by the Legislature will provide more opportunities for convicted people to request DNA testing of evidence that might exonerate them." — The Daily Herald (Everett, Washington), 23 Dec. 2015 Did you know? We won't blame you if you don't know the origins of today's word. Exonerate derives via Middle English from the past participle of the Latin verb exonerare, meaning "to unburden," formed by combining the prefix ex- with onus, meaning "load" or "burden" (onus itself lives on with that meaning in English). In its earliest uses, dating from the 16th century, exonerate was used in the context of physical burdens—a ship, for example, could be exonerated of its cargo when it was unloaded. Later it was used in reference to any kind of burden, until a more specific sense developed, meaning "to relieve (someone) of blame." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 7, 2016 is: peccadillo • \pek-uh-DIL-oh\ • noun : a slight offense Examples: Mark's thank-you note to his hostess was sincere and touching; his only peccadillo was addressing her by her first name instead of "Mrs. Henderson." "[Tanyanne] Ball seemed to have mastered the form of affable confrontation: as soon as she saw someone perpetrating a civic peccadillo, she would stride up and calmly, grinningly ask, 'Are you aware that you have just committed a violation?'" — Tobi Haslett, NewYorker.com, 10 Nov. 2015 Did you know? "The world loves a spice of wickedness." That observation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow may explain why people are so willing to forgive peccadilloes as youthful foolishness or lapses of judgment. The willingness to overlook petty faults and minor offenses existed long before English speakers borrowed a modified version of the Spanish pecadillo at the end of the 16th century. Spanish speakers distinguished the pecadillo, or "little sin," from the more serious pecado, their term for a sin of magnitude. And these Spanish terms can be traced back still further, to the Latin verb peccare, meaning "to sin." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 6, 2016 is: rescript • \REE-skript\ • noun 1 : a written answer of a Roman emperor or of a pope to a legal inquiry or petition 2 : an official or authoritative order, decree, edict, or announcement 3 : an act or instance of rewriting Examples: The rescript declared that the lands surrounding the new palace would henceforth belong to the royal family. "It was noon on August 25 when Japan's Emperor finally broke the silence. His recorded voice was broadcast to the nation, reading the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War." — Jamie Seidel, The Daily Telegraph (Australia), 15 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Rescript was first used in the 15th century for the written reply of a sovereign or pope to a question about some matter of law or state, and then for any type of authoritative declaration. Since the 19th century, however, it has also seen use as a synonym of rewrite. Charlotte Brontë, for one, used the word this way in her novel Villette. "I wrote [the letter] three times ... subduing the phrases at every rescript," her narrator confesses. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 5, 2016 is: challah • \KHAH-luh\ • noun : egg-rich yeast-leavened bread that is usually braided or twisted before baking and is traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays Examples: My father made a blessing over the challah before it was broken and passed around the Shabbat table. "The table was graced with the latkes and doughnuts that mark the Jewish holiday, but also featured brisket, challah and tzimmes…." — Deanna Fox, The Times-Union (Albany, New York), 31 Dec. 2015 Did you know? When English speakers first borrowed challah from Yiddish, they couldn't quite settle on a single spelling, so the word showed up in several forms; challah, challa, hallah, and the plural forms challoth, challot, halloth, and hallot were all common enough to merit inclusion in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged when it was released in 1961. Today, challah and the anglicized plural challahs are the variants that are usually encountered by English speakers. The initial ch of challah is frequently pronounced as a velar fricative, like the ch in the German Buch or the Scottish English loch. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 4, 2016 is: whilom • \WYE-lum\ • adjective : former Examples: I was pleased to find an interview with the whilom president of my alma mater in the local paper. "On the eastern side settlement and agriculture have all but obliterated the whilom tallgrass prairie, so that it is hardly visible to anyone who would not seek it out on hands and knees...." — William Least Heat-Moon, The Atlantic, September 1991 Did you know? Whilom shares an ancestor with the word while. Both trace back to the Old English word hwil, meaning "time" or "while." In Old English hwilum was an adverb meaning "at times." This use passed into Middle English (with a variety of spellings, one of which was whilom), and in the 12th century the word acquired the meaning "formerly." The adverb's usage dwindled toward the end of the 19th century, and it has since been labeled archaic. The adjective first appeared on the scene in the 15th century, with the now-obsolete meaning "deceased," and by the 19th century it was being used with the meaning "former." It's a relatively uncommon word, but it does see occasional use. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 3, 2016 is: reminisce • \rem-uh-NISS\ • verb : to indulge in the process or practice of thinking or telling about past experiences Examples: Justin met up with some of his college buddies to reminisce about old times. "Most of us have a comfort food we eat when we are reminiscing, sad or depressed." — Marion Goldberg, The Poughkeepsie (New York) Journal, 16 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Reminisce and its relative reminiscence come from the mind—that is to say, they come from the Latin word for "mind," which is mens. A root related to mens teamed up with the prefix re- to create the Latin verb reminisci ("to remember"), an ancestor of both words. Reminisce is one of several English verbs starting with re- that mean "to bring an image or idea from the past into the mind." Others in this group include remember, recall, remind, and recollect. Reminisce distinguishes itself from the others by implying a casual recalling of experiences long past, often with a sense of nostalgia. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 2, 2016 is: foliage • \FOH-lee-ij\ • noun 1 : a representation of leaves, flowers, and branches for architectural ornamentation 2 : the aggregate of leaves of one or more plants 3 : a cluster of leaves, flowers, and branches Examples: A trip to the local conservatory was just the thing to beat my winter blues—the bright flowers against the backdrop of verdant foliage was rejuvenating. "The builders are charging up to $100 million for apartments that offer helicopter views of lush foliage, jagged skylines, soothing rivers and angelic clouds." — Max Frankel, The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2015 Did you know? The English language has its share of common but disputed usages. One such example is the pronunciation of foliage as FOH-lij or, even more irksome to some, FOY-lij. The first of these two pronunciations, though frequently disparaged, is consistent with the pronunciation of the -iage ending in marriage and carriage, as well the less common but widely accepted pronunciation of verbiage as VER-bij. The second of these is often more fiercely denounced, in part because of its association with the nonstandard spelling foilage. Oddly enough, foliage traces back to Middle French foille ("leaf"), which is also the source of the English word foil (as in "aluminum foil"). When adopted by Middle English speakers, foil originally meant "leaf." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 1, 2016 is: abject • \AB-jekt\ • adjective 1 : sunk to or existing in a low state or condition 2 a : cast down in spirit : servile, spiritless b : showing hopelessness or resignation 3 : expressing or offered in a humble and often ingratiating spirit Examples: The organization is dedicated to alleviating the suffering of those living in abject poverty. "Harvey, the comedian and TV-radio host, offered abject apologies after first saying Miss Colombia had won, then later Miss Philippines—to the world’s shock and amazement." — Ken Stone, MyNewsLA.com, 21 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Abject comes from abjectus, the past participle of the Latin verb abicere, meaning "to cast off." Its original meaning in English was "cast off" or "rejected," but it is now used to refer more broadly to things in a low state or condition. Abject shares with mean, ignoble, and sordid the sense of being below the normal standards of human decency and dignity. Abject may imply degradation, debasement, or servility ("abject poverty"). Mean suggests having such repellent characteristics as small-mindedness or ill temper ("mean and petty satire"). Ignoble suggests a loss or lack of some essential high quality of mind or spirit ("an ignoble scramble after material possessions"). Sordid is stronger than all of these in stressing physical or spiritual degradation and lowness ("a sordid story of murder and revenge"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 31, 2016 is: sumptuous • \SUMP-shuh-wus\ • adjective : extremely costly, rich, luxurious, or magnificent Examples: The hotel's most sumptuous suite overlooks the lush gardens and includes a palatial marble bathroom with a spa and a commodious, intricately tiled walk-in shower. "On Thanksgiving, guests dine at a sumptuous table of traditional foods, sweet potatoes, green salads, squash, corn, beans, wine and pumpkin pie. But here, the turkey sits at the head of the table, enjoying their own plate of food." — Paula Poundstone, speaking on NPR, 10 Oct. 2015 Did you know? The word sumptuous can be used to describe both lush surroundings and rich desserts, and it has an equally rich history. The word, which appeared in English in the 15th century, derives via Middle English from the Latin noun sumptus, meaning "expense." Sumptus is related to the Latin verb sumere, which means "to take" or "to spend" and from which we get a treasure trove of useful verbs: consume ("to use up or spend"), subsume ("to include or place in something larger"), resume ("to take up again"), presume ("to take to be true without proof"), and assume ("to take upon oneself"). Another sumere descendant is our adjective sumptuary, which commonly precedes law to describe legislation designed to regulate extravagant expenditures or habits. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 30, 2016 is: herald • \HAIR-uld\ • verb 1 : to give notice of : announce 2 a : to greet especially with enthusiasm : hail b : publicize 3 : to signal the approach of : foreshadow Examples: The first real snowfall heralded the arrival of skiing season. "… the transportation agency's initiative has been heralded as a new way to approach transportation planning because it will take factors such as neighborhood vitality and pedestrian connectivity into account." — Brandon Formby, The Dallas Morning News, 30 Dec. 2015 Did you know? The exact origin of herald is uncertain, but it is thought to derive from Germanic roots. Specifically, etymologists believe that herald developed from an assumed Frankish compound whose first component is akin to the Old High German heri-, meaning "army," and whose second component is akin to the Old High German word waltan, meaning "to rule." When herald first appeared on the scene in the 14th century, it referred to an official at a tournament of arms whose duties included the making of announcements. The verb forms, extending the "announcement" idea, soon followed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 29, 2016 is: obstreperous • \ub-STREP-uh-rus\ • adjective 1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : clamorous 2 : stubbornly resistant to control : unruly Examples: After two months at sea with dwindling food supplies and declining confidence in the captain, the ship's crew became obstreperous and began to plot a mutiny. "It is Rob she calls for when crankily refusing to go to bed, and when Alan attempts to calm her she grows only more obstreperous." — Charles Isherwood, The New York Times, 9 Nov. 2015 Did you know? The handy Latin prefix ob-, meaning "in the way," "against," or "toward," occurs in many Latin and English words, often in alternate forms. Obstreperous comes from ob- plus strepere, a verb meaning "to make a noise," so someone who is obstreperous is literally making noise to rebel against something, much like a protesting crowd or an unruly child. The word has been used in English since around the beginning of the 17th century. Strepere has not played a role in the formation of any other notable English words, but ob- words abound; these include obese, obnoxious, occasion, offend, omit, oppress, and oust. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 28, 2016 is: jeremiad • \jair-uh-MYE-ud\ • noun : a prolonged lamentation or complaint; also : a cautionary or angry harangue Examples: Mrs. Whinge waggled a finger at us and launched into a doleful jeremiad about how we would come to no good end. "[Pope Francis's] now-famous jeremiads as pope against today's culture of excessive consumption and environmental degradation are rooted in a thrift ethic that he acquired early in life and never abandoned." — David Blankenhorn, The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City), 11 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Jeremiah was a Jewish prophet who lived from about 650 to 570 BC. He spent his days lambasting the Hebrews for their false worship and social injustice and denouncing the king for his selfishness, materialism, and inequities. When not calling on his people to quit their wicked ways, he was lamenting his own lot; a portion of the Bible's Book of Jeremiah is devoted to his "confessions," a series of lamentations on the hardships endured by a prophet with an unpopular message. Nowadays, English speakers use Jeremiah for a pessimistic person and jeremiad for the way these Jeremiahs carry on. The word jeremiad was actually borrowed from the French, who coined it as jérémiade. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 27, 2016 is: proscribe • \proh-SCRYBE\ • verb 1 : to publish the name of as condemned to death with the property of the condemned forfeited to the state 2 : to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful : prohibit Examples: The town passed an ordinance that proscribed the ownership of snakes and other exotic pets. "Military law may proscribe conduct which is otherwise protected in the civilian world due to the different character of the military community and of the military mission." — Capt. Anne C. Hsieh, quoted in The Herald Democrat (Sherman, Texas), 18 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Proscribe and prescribe both have Latin-derived prefixes meaning "before" attached to the verb scribe (from scribere, meaning "to write"). Yet the two words have very distinct, often nearly opposite meanings. Why? In a way, you could say it's the law. In the 15th and 16th centuries both words had legal implications. To proscribe was to publish the name of a person who had been condemned, outlawed, or banished. To prescribe meant "to lay down a rule," including legal rules or orders. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2016 is: zeugma • \ZOOG-muh\ • noun : the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one (as in "opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy") Examples: A clever use of zeugma was demonstrated by Groucho Marx's character Rufus T. Firefly in Duck Soup (1933):"You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff." "The hallmarks of [David Foster Wallace's] later fiction … are there from the first page…. So, too, are the performative contractions ('w/r/t' as 'with respect to'), lists and self-conscious rhetorical tropes that pepper non-fiction. I don't think anyone has ever wielded zeugma with such knowing playfulness." — Jon Day, The Financial Times, 26 Dec. 2014 Did you know? "Zeugma, like the pun, is economical: it contracts two sentences into one . . .; it links unrelated terms—mental with moral, abstract with physical, high with low—and thus generates surprise," wrote Walter Redfern in Puns (1984). Zeugma, which has been a part of the English language since the 15th century, comes from Greek, where it literally means "joining." The Greek word has another connection to English as well. In the early 1970s, a chemistry professor named Paul Lauterbur developed a technique for producing images of internal organs. He called it zeugmatography because it involved the joining of magnetic fields. Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize, but the name he chose didn’t stick. The technique is known today as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2016 is: harry • \HAIR-ee\ • verb 1 : to make a pillaging or destructive raid on : assault 2 : to force to move along by harassing 3 : to torment by or as if by constant attack Examples: The young boy harried the kitten until it swiped him with its claws. "Coming off a Thursday schedule packed with practice, a Pearl Harbor visit and a luau, the Aggies shot 54 percent on Friday and harried the Rainbow Wahine basketball team into turnovers that fueled an 82-41 rout at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie." — Jason Kaneshiro, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 6 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Was there once a warlike man named Harry who is the source for today's word? One particularly belligerent Harry does come to mind: Shakespeare once described how "famine, sword, and fire" accompanied "the warlike Harry," England's King Henry the Fifth. But neither this king nor any of his namesakes are the source for the verb harry. Rather, harry (or a word resembling it) has been a part of English for as long as there has been anything that could be called English. It took the form hergian in Old English and harien in Middle English, passing through numerous variations before finally settling into its modern spelling. The word's Old English ancestors are related to the Old High German words heriōn ("to lay waste") and heri ("army"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 24, 2016 is: pundit • \PUN-dit\ • noun 1 : a learned person : teacher 2 : a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media : critic Examples: Grandpa likes watching liberal and conservative pundits spar about the issues of the day on the Sunday morning talk shows. "But in general, pundits and analysts tend to overestimate the potential for early-state victories to catapult candidates to the nomination." — Nate Cohn, The New York Times, 22 Dec. 2015 Did you know? The original pundits were highly respected teachers and leaders in India. Their title was taken from the Hindi word paṇḍit, a term of respect for a wise person that itself derives from the Sanskrit paṇḍita, meaning "learned." English speakers began using the form pundit specifically to refer to those Hindu sages as long ago as the 1600s. By the 1800s, they had also extended the term to refer to other sagacious individuals, and now pundit is often used with a hint of sarcasm to refer to informed opinion makers (such as political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists) who boldly share their views (sometimes at great length) on just about any subject that lies within their areas of expertise. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 23, 2016 is: gravitate • \GRAV-uh-tayt\ • verb 1 : to move under the influence of gravitation 2 a : to move toward something b : to be drawn or attracted especially by natural inclination Examples: After we were finished with our second helpings of chili and cornbread, we naturally gravitated toward the dessert table to check out the sweeter offerings. "Consumers gravitating toward large cars are frequently lured in by the perception of security rooted in the physical size." — Benson Kong, MotorTrend.com, 16 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Gravity, gravitation, and gravitate descend from the Latin gravitas, meaning "weight." The first to arrive on the scene was gravity, which appeared in the early 16th century. (Originally meaning "dignity or sobriety of bearing," it quickly came to mean "weight" as well.) Next came gravitation (used to describe the force of gravity) and gravitate—both mid-17th century arrivals. Gravitate once meant "to apply weight or pressure," but that use is now obsolete. In the late 17th century, it was recorded in the sense "to move under the effect of gravitation." It then acquired a more general sense of "to move toward something" (such as toward a specific location), and finally a metaphorical sense of "to be attracted" (as toward a person or a vocation). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2016 is: rapscallion • \rap-SKAL-yun\ • noun : rascal, ne’er-do-well Examples: With his shaggy, perpetually unkempt hair and his charmingly crooked smile, the actor seems to have been born to play scamps and rapscallions. "Growing up, my best friends were my siblings. While we fought like only brother and sisters could fight, I was quick to defend their honor, or protect them from the rapscallions of our childhood world." — Stephanie Hill, The Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, West Virginia), 24 Sept. 2015 Did you know? The word rascal has been part of English since the 15th century, but on its own it apparently didn't quite capture the disagreeable nature of the wily knaves of yore. By the 17th century, English speakers had modified rascal to create rascallion. But it seems that even that term didn't sound quite mischievous enough. By the century's end, rascallion had been further altered to create rapscallion. Today, rapscallion is still commonly used as a synonym for blackguard, scoundrel, and miscreant. Rascallion is still around as well, but it's very 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 January 21, 2016 is: effete • \ih-FEET\ • adjective 1 : no longer fertile 2 a : having lost character, vitality, or strength b : marked by weakness or decadence c : soft or delicate from or as if from a pampered existence 3 : having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner Examples: "Virginia Woolf is often depicted as a dreamy, effete snob, agonizing all day over a single adjective while sipping tea…." — Julia Keller, The Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2008 "Working-class voters in particular have felt marginalized by a Republican Party that has pushed effete candidates and a Democratic Party that has moved to the left and abandoned their concerns." — The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 13 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Effete derives from Latin effetus, meaning "no longer fruitful," and for a brief time in English it was used to describe an animal no longer capable of producing offspring. For most of its existence in English, however, the use of effete has been entirely figurative. The usual figurative sense of the word was for many years "exhausted" or "worn out." But since at least the beginning of the 20th century, effete has also been used to suggest overrefinement, weakness of character, snobbery, and effeminacy. It's these meanings you're most likely to encounter 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 January 20, 2016 is: thew • \THOO\ • noun 1 a : muscular power or development b : strength, vitality 2 : muscle, sinew — usually used in plural Examples: "In Rocco's melodramatically murky illustrations, men and women alike display rippling thews and plenty of skin as they battle ravening monsters." — Kirkus Reviews, 22 July 2015 "As soon as his right arm received thew and sinew he learned to draw the long bow and speed a true arrow." — J. Walker McSpadden, Robin Hood and His Merry Outlaws, 1923 Did you know? Thew has had a long, difficult past during which it discovered its strengths and weaknesses. In Middle English it carried a number of meanings, referring to a custom, habit, personal quality, or virtue. The word began to tire in the 16th century but was soon revitalized with a new meaning: it began to be used specifically for the quality of physical strength and later for the muscles demonstrating that quality. In time, the word buddied up with sinew in both literal and figurative turns of phrase, as in "the thews and sinews of my body ached" and "their love affair was the thew and sinew of the story." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2016 is: expatiate • \ek-SPAY-shee-ayt\ • verb 1 : to move about freely or at will : wander 2 : to speak or write at length or in detail Examples: "By the time the Song Festival rep finished remarks, the orchestra staff promoted the raffle, and the conductor expatiated, it was 25 minutes into the afternoon before the oboe sounded the tuning A." — Donald J. Behnke, The Green Valley (Arizona) News and Sun, 25 Jan. 2015 "Humboldt … decided to deliver a series of lectures on the theme of, well, everything. He expatiated on meteorology, geology, plant geography, and ocean currents, as well as on fossils, magnetism, astronomy, human migration, and poetry." — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2015 Did you know? The Latin antecedent of expatiate is exspatiari, which combines the prefix ex- ("out of") with spatiari ("to take a walk"), itself from spatium ("space" or "course"). Exspatiari means "to wander from a course" and, in a figurative sense, "to digress." But when English speakers began using expatiate in the mid-16th century, we took "wander" to mean simply "to move about freely." In a similar digression from the original Latin, we began using expatiate in a figurative sense of "to speak at length." That's the sense of the word most often used these days, usually in combination with on or upon. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2016 is: eloquent • \EL-uh-kwunt\ • adjective 1 : marked by forceful and fluent expression 2 : vividly or movingly expressive or revealing Examples: Because Max is such an eloquent speaker, he was asked to give the toast at his grandfather's 75th birthday party. "The governor waxed eloquent about growing up just a short distance away in Queens and what this part of the world meant to him." — Fred LeBrun, The Times-Union (Albany, New York), 15 Nov. 2015 Did you know? Since eloquent can have something to do with speaking, it makes sense that it comes from the Latin verb loqui, which means "to speak." Loqui is the parent of many "talkative" offspring in English. Loquacious, which means "given to fluent or excessive talk," also arose from loqui. Another loqui relative is circumlocution, a word that means someone is talking around a subject to avoid making a direct statement (circum- means "around"). And a ventriloquist is someone who makes his or her voice sound like it's coming from another source. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2016 is: nettle • \NET-ul\ • verb 1 : to strike or sting with or as if with nettles 2 : to arouse to sharp but transitory annoyance or anger Examples: "Steve Jobs may not have led Apple to global dominance if he'd had the company's new watch nettling him with notifications." — Alexander C. Kaufman, The Huffington Post, 14 Mar. 2015 "He seemed to have lost interest in their conversation, and strolled away again, apparently forgetting her. His indifference nettled her, and she picked up her work, resolved not to offer him the least assistance." — Edith Wharton, Summer, 1917 Did you know? If you've ever brushed against nettles, you know those weeds have stinging hairs that can leave you smarting and itching. The painful and irritating rash that nettles cause can last for days, but at least it is a rash with a linguistic silver lining. The discomfort caused by nettles can serve to remind one that the verb nettle is a synonym of irritate. Nettle originated as a plant name that we can trace to the Old English word netel. Eventually, people likened the nagging itch caused by the plant to the nagging aggravation of being annoyed, and nettle became a synonym of vex, peeve, and of course irritate. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2016 is: qualm • \KWAHM\ • noun 1 : a sudden attack of illness, faintness, or nausea 2 : a sudden feeling of doubt, fear, or uneasiness especially in not following one's conscience or better judgment Examples: Some people have no qualms about correcting other people's grammar. "I also still do something that more than one passenger has found amazing…. It's this: If I think I'm somewhat near my destination, I have no qualms about pulling into a gas station or up to a store and asking for directions." — Ed Goldman, The Sacramento (California) Business Journal, 24 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Etymologists aren't sure where qualm originated, but they do know it entered English around 1530. Originally, it referred to a sudden sick feeling. Robert Louis Stevenson made use of this older sense in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: "A qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering." Soon after qualm entered the language, it came to designate not only sudden attacks of illness, but also sudden attacks of emotion or principle. In The Sketch Book, for example, Washington Irving wrote, "Immediately after one of these fits of extravagance, he will be taken with violent qualms of economy…." Eventually, qualm took on the specific (and now most common) meaning of doubt or uneasiness, particularly in not following one's conscience or better judgment. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 15, 2016 is: limn • \LIM\ • verb 1 : to draw or paint on a surface 2 : to outline in clear sharp detail : delineate 3 : describe Examples: In his Leatherstocking tales, James Fenimore Cooper limns the frontier adventures of wilderness scout Natty Bumppo. "More than 120 objects [in the museum exhibit] limn the achievements of the Andean empire in the 15th and 16th centuries." — Mark Feeney, The Boston Globe, 16 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Allow us to shed some light on the history of limn, a word with lustrous origins. Limn traces to the Anglo-French verb enluminer and ultimately to the Latin illuminare, which means "to illuminate." Its use as an English verb dates from the days of Middle English; at first, limn referred to the action of illuminating (that is, decorating) medieval manuscripts with gold, silver, or brilliant colors. William Shakespeare extended the term to painting in his poem Venus and Adonis: "Look when a painter would surpass the life / In limning out a well-proportioned steed…." Soon after, limn began to be used as a word for illustrating or giving detail without a paintbrush. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2016 is: brogue • \BROHG\ • noun 1 : a heavy shoe often with a hobnailed sole 2 : a stout oxford shoe with perforations and usually a wing tip Examples: "Canvas isn't the chosen medium of many shoemakers, so it was a bit exciting and a bit confusing when Toms Shoes, purveyors of the ever-casual espadrilles, announced its intention to make brogues." — Andrew Burmon, Men's Journal, 19 Aug. 2013 "The X-Men star, who played Jean Grey in the superhero movies, wore patent brogues, where the chunky style helped emphasise her slender legs which were encased in thick opaque tights." — Ciara Farmer, DailyMail.co.uk, 26 Nov. 2015 Did you know? Did you expect brogue to be defined as "an Irish accent"? You're probably not alone. Our definition is different because brogue has two homographs (words that are spelled—and in this case pronounced—the same but have different origins or parts of speech). Brogue the shoe comes from the Irish word bróg, which probably derives from an Old Norse term meaning "leg covering." Brogue the accent comes from a different Irish word, barróg, which means "accent" or "speech impediment." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 13, 2016 is: chirography • \kye-RAH-gruh-fee\ • noun 1 : handwriting, penmanship 2 : calligraphy Examples: "This envelope had the air of an official record of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present." — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850 "The stone bore confusing etchings: Arabic numerals coupled with Roman; the letter 'H' in ancient Spanish chirography; a puzzling mass of ovoid figures, circles and rectangles; and the weblike drawing that gave it its name." — Evan Moore, The Houston Chronicle, 6 May 2001 Did you know? Though some might argue that handwriting is a dying art in the age of electronic communication, this fancy word for it persists. The root graph means "writing" and appears in many common English words such as autograph and graphite. The lesser-known root chir, or chiro-, comes from a Greek word meaning "hand" and occurs in words such as chiromancy ("the art of palm reading") and enchiridion ("a handbook or manual"), as well as chiropractic. Chirography first appeared in English in the 17th century and probably derived from chirograph, a now rare word referring to any of various legal documents. Chirography should not be confused with choreography, which refers to the composition and arrangement of dances. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 12, 2016 is: procrastinate • \pruh-KRASS-tuh-nayt\ • verb 1 : to put off intentionally and habitually 2 : to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done Examples: Somehow, despite procrastinating, Melody managed to hand her assignment in on time. "You won't achieve [financial fitness] overnight or by happenstance, but by making responsible decisions on a daily basis, working hard and adhering to a well-crafted plan. You also won't achieve it if you let time constraints get in the way, or you procrastinate." — Odysseas Papadimitriou, U.S. News & World Report, 3 Dec. 2015 Did you know? We won't put off telling you about the origins of procrastinate. English speakers borrowed the word in the 16th century from Latin procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and crastinus, meaning "of tomorrow." Like its synonyms delay, lag, loiter, dawdle, and dally, procrastinate means to move or act slowly so as to fall behind. It typically implies blameworthy delay especially through laziness or apathy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 11, 2016 is: mugwump • \MUG-wump\ • noun 1 : a bolter from the Republican party in 1884 2 : a person who is independent (as in politics) or who remains undecided or neutral Examples: "[Woodrow] Wilson was representative of a moderate progressivism that existed in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of this one. He was a mugwump reacting negatively to the new, industrialist class, but maintaining a strong belief in the triumph of American ideals and progress." — Hans Vought, The Journal of American Ethnic History, Spring 1994 "Most journalists are mugwumps, though you might not know it from the way we are often described as ideological warriors salivating over opportunities to pursue foes." — Julia Baird, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 Apr. 2014 Did you know? Mugwump is an anglicized version of a word used by Massachusett Indians to mean "war leader." The word was sometimes jestingly applied in early America to someone who was the "head guy." The first political mugwumps were Republicans in the presidential race of 1884 who chose to support Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland rather than their own party's nominee. Their independence prompted one 1930s humorist to define a mugwump as "a bird who sits with its mug on one side of the fence and its wump on the other." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 10, 2016 is: ignominious • \ig-nuh-MIN-ee-us\ • adjective 1 : marked with or characterized by disgrace or shame : dishonorable 2 : deserving of shame or infamy : despicable 3 : humiliating, degrading Examples: "[People's] first issue appeared in March of 1974—two years after the ignominious shuttering of the weekly Life—and it was an immediate sensation, drawing more than 900,000 readers from the outset." — Jim Windolf, Vanity Fair, 16 Oct. 2013 "It made no difference that the doctor had said the cornea would heal. I didn't believe him. How ignominious to be blinded by a squash racquet." — Rosemary Mahoney, For the Benefit of Those Who See, 2014 Did you know? The -nom- of ignominious comes from nomen, the Latin word for "name" or "repute." (Nomen is also the root of misnomer, nomenclature, and nominal, among others.) The ig- part of the word is akin to the negative prefix in-; when joined to the root -nom-, it indicates the namelessness that goes with shame or dishonor. To suffer an ignominious fate is to lose the opportunity to make a name for oneself or to lose one's good name. When ignominious was first borrowed from a French form of the word in the 15th century, it meant "disgraced" or "dishonorable." The word continues to have such meanings, but it also has the somewhat milder meanings of "embarrassing" and "humiliating." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 9, 2016 is: fealty • \FEE-ul-tee\ • noun 1 a : the fidelity of a vassal or feudal tenant to his lord b : the obligation of such fidelity 2 : intense fidelity Examples: "The fealty of country music fans to their favorite stars is as strong as old-time religion." — Nicholas Dawidoff, The New Republic, 18 July 1994 "Mr. Keith was more of a rabble-rouser, from the contentiousness of his politics to the muscularity of his sound, but his fealty to tradition was never in doubt." — Jon Caramanica, The New York Times, 8 Oct. 2015 Did you know? In The Use of Law, published posthumously in 1629, Francis Bacon wrote, "Fealty is to take an oath upon a book, that he will be a faithful Tenant to the King." That's a pretty accurate summary of the early meaning of fealty. Early forms of the term were used in Middle English around 1300, when they specifically designated the loyalty of a vassal to a lord. Eventually, the meaning of the word broadened. Fealty can be paid to a country, a principle, or a leader of any kind—though the synonyms fidelity and loyalty are more commonly used. Fealty comes from the Anglo-French word feelté, or fealté, which comes from the Latin fidelitas, meaning "fidelity." These words are ultimately derived from fides, the Latin word for "faith." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2016 is: rugose • \ROO-gohss\ • adjective 1 : full of wrinkles 2 : having the veinlets sunken and the spaces between elevated Examples: The leaves of the plant are dark green and rugose. "I lost no time in asking directions of a stooped crone shuffling along the sleepy sidewalk, who turned her rugose visage towards me and shouted in a coarse and idiomatic form of French…." — John A. Minahan, The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, 23 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Rugose was borrowed into English in the 15th century from the Latin adjective rugosus ("wrinkled"), which itself derives from ruga ("wrinkle"). One descendant of ruga that you'll probably recognize is corrugate, which initially meant "to form or shape into wrinkles or folds" (as in "corrugated cardboard"). Another, which might be more familiar to scientists, is rugulose, meaning "finely wrinkled." In addition, there is the noun rugosity, which can refer to either the quality or state of being full of wrinkles or to an individual wrinkled place. Rugose is most commonly encountered in technical contexts, but it's also found occasionally in literary contexts, as in our quote above, from the second-place winner in an H. P. Lovecraft short story contest in The Providence Journal. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 7, 2016 is: dross • \DRAHSS\ • noun 1 : the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal 2 : waste or foreign matter : impurity 3 : something that is base, trivial, or inferior Examples: "'Jerry on Jerry' may not be for the casual Grateful Dead fan. It takes some patience to wade through the dross of verbiage for the nuggets of wit and wisdom, but they're there." — Paul Liberatore, The Marin (California) Independent Journal, 26 Nov. 2015 "Good actors making poor choices—especially when the actor is Nicolas Cage—is nothing new, but I worry that the dross in his career ledger is rapidly outpacing the gold." — Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Dross has been a part of the English language since Anglo-Saxon times; one 19th-century book on Old English vocabulary dates it back to 1050 A.D. Its Old English ancestors are related to Germanic and Scandinavian words for "dregs" (as in "the dregs of the coffee"), and, like dregs, dross is a word for the less-than-desirable parts of something. Over the years, the relative worthlessness of dross has often been set in contrast to the value of gold, as for example in British poet Christina Rossetti's "The Lowest Room": "Besides, those days were golden days, / Whilst these are days of dross" (1875). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2016 is: bogart • \BOH-gahrt\ • verb 1 : bully, intimidate 2 : to use or consume without sharing Examples: Three of the older girls bogarted the ice cream, ignoring the other girls' pleas for them to share. "Cornwell disputes the group's claim for April 19 and says it and other groups are bogarting the park by reserving Saturdays in the spring to prevent other festivals in Candler Park other than their own." — Carla Caldwell, The Atlanta Business Chronicle, 15 Nov. 2015 Did you know? The legendary film actor Humphrey Bogart was known for playing a range of tough characters in a series of films throughout the 1940s and 1950s, including The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The African Queen, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The men he portrayed often possessed a cool, hardened exterior that occasionally let forth a suggestion of romantic or idealistic sentimentality. Bogart also had a unique method of smoking cigarettes in these pictures—letting the butt dangle from his mouth without removing it until it was almost entirely consumed. Some believe that this habit inspired the current meaning of bogart, which was once limited to the phrase "Don't bogart that joint [marijuana cigarette]," as popularized by a song on the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider, among other things. Today bogart can be applied to hogging almost anything. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 5, 2016 is: shibboleth • \SHIB-uh-luth\ • noun 1 : catchword, slogan 2 : a widely held belief or truism 3 : a custom or usage regarded as distinctive of a particular group Examples: The town's name is a shibboleth: locals know its pronunciation does not reflect its French spelling but others use the Gallic pronunciation of the more famous European city. "For Gorbachev, schooled in the rusty shibboleths of party ideology, the West was intent on destroying the Soviet Union." — Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 12 Nov. 2015 Did you know? The Bible's Book of Judges (12:4-6) tells the story of the Ephraimites, who, after they were routed by the Gileadite army, tried to retreat by sneaking across a ford of the Jordan River that was held by their enemy. The Gileadites, wary of the ploy, asked every soldier who tried to cross if he was an Ephraimite. When the soldier said no, he was asked to say shibbōleth (which means "stream" in Hebrew). Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth," but Ephramites said "sibboleth." Anyone who left out the initial "sh" was killed on the spot. When English speakers first borrowed shibboleth, they used it to mean "test phrase," but it has acquired additional meanings since that 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 January 4, 2016 is: uxorial • \uk-SOR-ee-ul\ • adjective : of, relating to, or characteristic of a wife Examples: "He watered the plants, cleared aspen leaves and debris from the rock garden, and cut the lawn … without any uxorial prompting." — Rois M. Beal, The Washington Post, 19 July 2007 "… the opera was 'Bluebeard's Castle,' a work based on the French fairy tale of a duke who murders his wives and hides their bodies in his foreboding fortress. It's an uxorial horror story of the highest caliber…." — Kim Carpenter, The Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald, 20 Apr. 2013 Did you know? With help from -ial, -ious, and -icide, the Latin word uxor, meaning "wife," has given us the English words uxorial, uxorious (meaning "excessively fond of or submissive to a wife"), and uxoricide ("murder of a wife by her husband" or "a wife murderer"). Do we have equivalent "husband" words? Well, sort of. Maritus means "husband" in Latin, so marital can mean "of or relating to a husband and his role in marriage" (although maritus also means "married," and the "of or relating to marriage or the married state" sense of marital is far more common). And while mariticide is "spouse killing," it can also be specifically "husband-killing." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 3, 2016 is: alacrity • \uh-LAK-ruh-tee\ • noun : promptness in response : cheerful readiness Examples: Jane is passionate about her job and performs her duties with enthusiasm and alacrity. "The second grader was there to get an anti-cavity sealant put on her six year molars, and she was comporting herself with an alacrity many adults don't share in a dental chair." — William Porter, The Denver Post, 8 Nov. 2015 Did you know? "I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have," says Shakespeare's King Richard III in the play that bears his name. When Shakespeare penned those words, over 400 years ago, alacrity was at least 137 years old. Our English word derives from the Latin word alacer, which means "lively." It denotes physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Are there any other words in English from Latin alacer? Yes—allegro, which is used as a direction in music with the meaning "at a brisk lively tempo." It came to us via Italian (where it can mean "merry") and is ultimately from alacer. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2016 is: quash • \KWAHSH\ • verb : to nullify especially by judicial action Examples: "A federal judge Friday quashed the subpoena for a reporter who wrote about the early termination of clinical trial for an Amgen drug because the company had not exhausted other possible ways to get the information." — Bartholomew Sullivan, The Ventura County (California) Star, 21 Aug. 2015 "The commission's rules require five affirmative votes to trigger a judicial review, or four opposing votes to quash the petition." — Tony Briscoe, The Chicago Tribune, 19 Nov. 2015 Did you know? There are two quash verbs in English, and although their meanings are vaguely similar, they have entirely different origins. Both essentially mean to get rid of something—you can quash a rumor, for example, or you can quash a judicial order. The legal term quash (defined above) comes from an Anglo-French word, casser, meaning "to annul," and ultimately from Latin cassus, meaning "void." The other quash means "to suppress or extinguish summarily and completely." It derives from the Middle English word quashen, meaning "to smash," and ultimately from a form of the Latin verb quatere, meaning "to shake." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 1, 2016 is: annus mirabilis • \ann-us-muh-RAH-buh-lus\ • noun : a remarkable or notable year Examples: "It has been an annus mirabilis for the college: the new dormitories were completed and we have increased enrollment to fill those buildings," announced the president. "If he wins the tournament today, for the fourth year in a row, he will have claimed 11 titles in the season, which would beat his haul from his annus mirabilis of 2011." — Paul Newman, The Independent (London), 22 Nov. 2015 Did you know? To British poet John Dryden, the "year of wonders" was 1666. That was the year of a great British naval victory over the Dutch, as well as the date of the great London fire. When he titled his 1667 poetic review of 1666 and its events Annus Mirabilis, Dryden became one of the first writers to use that Latinate phrase in an otherwise English context. Annus mirabilis is a direct translation from New Latin, the form of Latin that has been used since the end of the medieval period (especially for scientific descriptions and classification). The phrase is not extremely common, but it is used by writers and historians to denote any particularly remarkable year. 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 December 31, 2015 is: reticulate • \rih-TIK-yuh-lut\ • adjective 1 : resembling a net or network 2 : being or involving evolutionary change dependent on genetic recombination involving diverse interbreeding populations Examples: The lizard had a reticulate pattern of markings on its back. "In the first decade of this century, though, I sensed a change in the structure of the art world, from a hierarchical pattern to a reticulate one, from a tree to a web." — William Warmus, The Utne Reader, Fall 2015 Did you know? Though reticulate is used in many contexts, it finds particular use in the field of biology. Reticulate comes from the Latin word reticulum, meaning "small net." It first appeared in English in the mid-1600s and was used in connection with the study of plants even back then. Scientists use reticulate to describe a net-like formation of veins, fibers, or lines that crosses something. For example, a leaf with a pattern of veins that resembles a net would be called a "reticulate leaf." In the early 20th century, scientists also began using the word to describe evolutionary lineages that become interwoven through hybridization. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.