Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2015 is: wormhole • \WERM-hohl\ • noun 1 : a hole or passage burrowed by a worm 2 : a hypothetical structure of space-time envisioned as a long thin tunnel connecting points that are separated in space and time Examples: Some science fiction writers speculate that wormholes will become the intergalactic highways of the future. "Sci-fi fans who hope humanity can one day zoom to distant corners of the universe via wormholes, as astronauts do in the recent film 'Interstellar,' shouldn't hold their breath." — Mike Wall, Space.com, 24 Nov. 2014 Did you know? If you associate wormhole with quantum physics and sci-fi, you'll probably be surprised to learn that the word has been around since Shakespeare's day—although, admittedly, he used it more literally than most modern writers. To Shakespeare, a wormhole was simply a hole made by a worm, a more down-to-earth sense which is still used today. But even the Bard subtly linked wormholes to the passage of time; for example, in The Rape of Lucrece, he notes time's destructive power "to fill with worm-holes stately monuments." To modern astrophysicists, a wormhole isn't a tunnel wrought by a slimy invertebrate but a theoretical tunnel between two black holes or other points in space-time, providing a shortcut between its end points. 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 29, 2015 is: petulant • \PET-chuh-lunt\ • adjective 1 : insolent or rude in speech or behavior 2 : characterized by temporary or capricious ill humor : peevish Examples: Uncle Harold is a petulant and fussy man who is always blaming everyone else for his problems. "… this bunch doesn't care about being reasonable or meeting opposing views halfway. Like petulant toddlers, they want it all right now or they'll throw a tantrum." — Kevin Foley, The Marietta (Georgia) Daily Journal, 16 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Petulant is one of many English words that are related to the Latin verb petere, which means "to go to," "to attack," "to seek," or "to request." Petere is a relative of the Latin adjective petulans ("impudent"), from which petulant was derived. Some other words with connections to petere are compete and appetite. Competere, the Late Latin precursor to compete, is a combination of the prefix com- and the verb petere. The joining of ad- and petere led to appetere ("to strive after"), and eventually to Latin appetitus, the source of our appetite. Additional descendants of petere are petition, perpetual, and impetus. 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 28, 2015 is: kinesics • \kuh-NEE-siks\ • noun : a systematic study of the relationship between nonlinguistic body motions (such as blushes, shrugs, or eye movement) and communication Examples: "[St. Vincent] wasn't shy about striking the classic guitar idol kinesics … —chin up and out, eyelids in some fickle, fluttering state between open and shut, her guitar neck curiously lighter than air." — Ryan Snyder, Yes! Weekly, 12 Mar. 2014 "Kinesics experts read body language. They determine a baseline, then use slight, sometimes nearly invisible, variations in posture and delivery, looking for clusters of signals that could suggest if someone is lying." — Drew Loftis, The New York Post, 24 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Anthropologists began to take serious interest in nonverbal communication through gestures, postures, and facial expressions in the 1940s. It is believed, however, that the publication of Ray Birdwhistell’s 1952 book Introduction to Kinesics marked the beginning of formal research into what we know familiarly as "body language." Over 60 years later, the results of kinesics are deeply entrenched in our culture, giving us a whole new language with which to interpret everyday encounters and interactions. 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 27, 2015 is: favonian • \fuh-VOH-nee-un\ • adjective : of or relating to the west wind : mild Examples: Our guests relaxed on the patio, watching the sunset and enjoying favonian breezes. "The singular microclimate of Neuras makes [wine production] possible, as the favonian wind blowing in from the Atlantic chills the area down, while a geological fault spills out five natural springs into the alkaline soil." — Richard Bangs, The Huffington Post,7 Oct. 2014 Did you know? In "Ode to the West Wind," poet Percy Bysshe Shelley called the "wild West Wind" the "breath of Autumn's being." But according to Greco-Roman tradition, the west wind was warm and usually gentle. Its Latin name, Favonius, is the basis for the English adjective favonian and derives from roots that are akin to the Latin fovēre, meaning "to warm." Zephyros, a Greek name for the west wind, is the ultimate source of zephyr, meaning "a gentle breeze." In Greco-Roman tradition, it was the north wind, Boreas (aka Aquilo), who was the rude and blustery type. 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 26, 2015 is: belie • \bih-LYE\ • verb 1 a : to give a false impression of b : to present an appearance not in agreement with 2 : to show (something) to be false or wrong 3 : to run counter to : contradict 4 : disguise Examples: Abigail, a seventy-eight-year-old grandmother, moves with an agility that belies her age. "Often described as 'a little jewel,' the 1911 chapel has a simple exterior that belies its interior." — Deb Holland, The Meade County (South Dakota) Times-Tribune, 7 Oct. 2015 Did you know? "What is a lie?" asked Lord Byron in Don Juan. He then answered himself: "'Tis but the truth in masquerade...." The history of belie illustrates a certain connection between lying and disguising. In its earliest known use, around 590 C.E., belie meant "to deceive by lying." By the 1200s, it was being used to mean "to tell lies about," using a sense similar to that of the modern word slander. Over time its meaning softened, shifting from an act of outright lying to one of mere misrepresentation, and by the early 1600s, the word was being used in the sense "to disguise or conceal." Nowadays, belie suggests giving an impression at variance with the facts rather than telling an intentional untruth. 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 25, 2015 is: crèche • \KRESH\ • noun 1 : a representation of the Nativity scene 2 : a nursery or day care center 3 : a group of young animals (such as penguins or bats) gathered in one place for care and protection usually by one or more adults Examples: A crèche was erected on the lawn in front of the church. "Goldman has a creche in the basement of the building and Tefridj-Gaillard has used it in the past when other childcare fell through." — Rosamund Urwin, The Evening Standard, 17 Nov. 2015 Did you know? "She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a cratch." That may not sound like a familiar translation of Luke 2:7, but back in the 1300s, the substitution of cratch for manger probably wouldn't have raised any eyebrows. Back then spelling was imprecise, and several different words and spellings, including cratch, cracche, crache, and crecche, were used to describe a trough for holding feed for livestock or to identify the manger where Jesus was laid. By the late 18th century, crèche (which we borrowed from French and now sometimes spell without the accent mark) had displaced those older forms, and the word had lost its former "manger" meaning, coming to refer instead to a representation of the Nativity scene itself. 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 24, 2015 is: aftermath • \AF-ter-math\ • noun 1 : a second-growth crop 2 : consequence, result 3 : the period immediately following a usually ruinous event Examples: It was almost noon before I felt ready to face the aftermath of the previous night's festivities, and to begin cleaning up. "In the aftermath of World War II, Tupperware parties became a popular compromise between the jobs many [American women] had grown accustomed to while American men were fighting overseas and their re-entrenched domestic obligations as wives and mothers." — Schuyler Velasco, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Aftermath dates to the late 1400s and was originally an agricultural term. Its two parts are transparent—but only if you're familiar with an ancient word math that is now used only in British dialectal English and that means "a mowing of a grass or hay crop" and also refers to the crop that is gathered. The original aftermath came, of course, after the math: it was historically the crop of (usually) grass cut, grazed, or plowed under after the first crop of the season from the same soil. It wasn't until the mid-late 1600s that aftermath developed its other meanings, both of which are now far more common than the first. 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 23, 2015 is: exorbitant • \ig-ZOR-buh-tunt\ • adjective 1 : not coming within the scope of the law 2 : exceeding the customary or appropriate limits in intensity, quality, amount, or size Examples: I asked what the rent was for the apartment, and my jaw dropped when they quoted me an exorbitant sum. "Much of the discussion centered around a lack of financial literacy, which can leave some vulnerable to taking on debt that they can't repay, with exorbitant interest rates or balloon payments." — Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun, 1 Dec. 2015 Did you know? The first use of exorbitant in English was "wandering or deviating from the normal or ordinary course." That sense is now archaic, but it provides a hint as to the origins of exorbitant: the word derives from Late Latin exorbitans, the present participle of the verb exorbitare, meaning "to deviate." Exorbitare in turn was formed by combining the prefix ex-, meaning "out of," with the noun orbita, meaning "track of a wheel" or "rut." (Orbita itself traces back to orbis, the Latin word for "disk" or "hoop.") In the 15th century exorbitant came to refer to something which fell outside of the normal or intended scope of the law. Eventually, it developed an extended sense as a synonym of excessive. 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 22, 2015 is: cavil • \KAV-il\ • verb : to raise trivial and frivolous objection Examples: Amber caviled about going to the flea market when I first brought up the idea, but she seemed to enjoy herself thoroughly once we were there. "The system prompted some critics to cavil that the Volt was not an electric car, and was simply a plug-in hybrid…." — Frank A. Aukofer, The Providence Journal, 11 Oct. 2015 Did you know? "You must be joking!" That's just one of the things you might be tempted to exclaim if you found yourself quarreling with a caviler—and you'd be right, etymologically speaking at least. Cavil derives from the Latin verb cavillari, meaning "to jest" or "to raise silly objections," which in turn derives from the Latin noun cavilla, meaning "raillery." In case you're wondering, cavil is not related to the adjective cavalier ("marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of important matters"). Cavalier, which is also a noun for a gentleman trained in arms and horsemanship, traces back via Middle French to the Late Latin caballarius, meaning "horseman." 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 21, 2015 is: invidious • \in-VID-ee-us\ • adjective 1 : tending to cause discontent, animosity, or envy 2 a : unpleasant, objectionable, or obnoxious b : of a kind to cause harm or resentment Examples: "Consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes with various kinds of weeds … disturbing their delicate organizations so ruthlessly, and making such invidious distinctions with his hoe, levelling whole ranks of one species, and sedulously cultivating another." — Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 "Organizations that practice invidious discrimination detract from social justice. Whatever benefits they may have (of tradition, solidarity, community and self-expression) are undercut by the unpleasantness of treating people differently on the basis of arbitrary characteristics." — Noah Feldman, The Contra Costa (California) Times, 28 Jan. 2015 Did you know? Fittingly, invidious is a relative of envy. Both are descendants of invidia, the Latin word for "envy," which in turn comes from invidēre, meaning "to look askance at" or "to envy." (Invidious descends from invidia by way of the Latin adjective invidiosus, meaning "envious," whereas envy comes to English via the Anglo-French noun envie.) These days, however, invidious is rarely used as a synonym for envious. The preferred uses are primarily pejorative, describing things that are unpleasant (such as "invidious choices" and "invidious tasks") or worthy of scorn ("invidious remarks" or "invidious comparisons"). 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 20, 2015 is: Gordian knot • \GOR-dee-un-NAHT\ • noun 1 : an intricate problem; especially : a problem insoluble in its own terms 2 : a knot tied by Gordius, king of Phrygia, held to be capable of being untied only by the future ruler of Asia, and cut by Alexander the Great with his sword Examples: "This renovation project has become a Gordian knot," said Marvin, "and I think the only way to cut the knot is to knock down the structure and start over." "Unable to cut this Gordian knot for district schools, policymakers have allowed educators to start fresh in the charter sector." — Michael J. Petrilli, The New York Daily News, 30 Oct. 2015 Did you know? According to Roman mythology, when the peasant Gordius became king of Gordium in Phrygia, he dedicated his wagon to Jupiter and fastened its yoke to a beam with a very complex knot. Centuries later, when Alexander the Great arrived on the scene, he was told that he couldn't conquer and rule Asia unless he proved himself worthy by untying the knot. Alexander quickly solved his problem—and gained a new kingdom—by slicing the knot in half with his sword. Since then, Gordian knot has become a term for a difficult problem, and the phrase "cut the Gordian knot" has become a popular way to describe a neat solution for an apparently insurmountable difficulty. 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 19, 2015 is: hidebound • \HYDE-bound\ • adjective 1 : (of a domestic animal) having a dry skin lacking in pliancy and adhering closely to the underlying flesh 2 : having an inflexible or ultraconservative character Examples: The store failed when its hidebound owners refused to alter their business model to adjust for the changing economy. "Both sides acknowledge a cultural divide between hidebound Beacon Hill, dominated by lawyers, lobbyists, and professional politicians, and a tech sector increasingly driven by apolitical twentysomethings." — Michael Levenson, The Boston Globe, 30 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Hidebound has its origins in agriculture. The word, which appeared in English as hyde bounde in the 16th century, originally described cattle that, due to illness or poor feeding, had skin that clung to the skeleton and could not be pinched, loosened, or worked with the fingers. Hidebound has also been applied to humans—both literally, to describe people with tight skin, and figuratively. In its earliest figurative usage, hidebound meant "stingy" or "miserly." That sense has since fallen out of use, but a second figurative usage, describing people who are rigid or unyielding in their actions or beliefs, lives on in our language 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 December 18, 2015 is: perpetuity • \per-puh-TOO-uh-tee\ • noun 1 : eternity 2 : the quality or state of continuing forever Examples: The terms of the benefactor's will calls for the formation of a trust intended to fund the library for perpetuity. "Afterwards these animals were reintroduced to the project area, and migratory corridors were created between solar fields to allow antelope and elk to pass unimpeded. As an added measure … 12,000 acres of nearby land were set aside for conservation in perpetuity." — Philip Warburg, The New York Times, 3 Nov. 2015 Did you know? Continual existence—that elusive concept has made perpetuity a favorite term of philosophers and poets for centuries. The word derives ultimately from the Latin adjective perpetuus ("continual" or "uninterrupted"), which is also the source of our perpetual and perpetuate. It frequently occurs in the phrase "in perpetuity," which essentially means "forever" or "for an indefinitely long period of time." Perpetuity also has some specific uses in law. It can refer to an arrangement in a will rendering land forever inalienable (or at least, for a period longer than is set by rules against such arrangements) or to an annuity that is payable forever. 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 17, 2015 is: unclubbable • \un-KLUB-uh-bul\ • adjective : having or showing a disinclination for social activity : unsociable Examples: However fascinating her research is, the professor is decidedly unclubbable and not likely to make a good dinner party guest. "Journalists are always fun on screen. This is because journalists are such fun in real life. Gossipy and unclubbable, they make the best company." — Rachel Cooke, The New Statesman, 25 July 2011 Did you know? The word unclubbable dates to the late 1770s, a time when lexicographer Samuel Johnson was still riding a wave of fame in the wake of the publication of his 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson himself likely coined unclubbable. Earliest evidence of the word in use is from a 1778 entry in author Fanny Burney's diary, in which she quotes Johnson as using the word to describe a friend. Burney herself may have coined the unflattering descriptor's antonym: in a 1781 diary entry, she describes Johnson himself as clubbable—an adjective that has stuck to him ever since. For Johnson, a person's clubbability was likely determined by how well the person might do in a very particular club: "The Club"—later known as "The Literary Club"—established by Johnson and the artist Joshua Reynolds in 1764. 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 16, 2015 is: deference • \DEF-uh-runss\ • noun : respect and esteem due a superior or an elder; also : affected or ingratiating regard for another's wishes Examples: Showing deference to his visiting uncle, Charles insisted on giving up his usual seat at the head of the dinner table so that the older gentleman could take his place. "At 84, he's … the business's greatest living screenwriter and … a man whom stars treat with a deference he doesn't always reciprocate." — Boris Kachka, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2015 Did you know? The words deference and defer both derive from the Latin deferre, which means "to bring down" or "to carry away." At the same time you might also hear that defer traces to the Latin differre, which means "to postpone" or "to differ." Which root is right? Both. That's because English has two verbs, or homographs, spelled defer. One means "to submit or delegate to another" (as in "I defer to your greater expertise"). That's the one that is closely related to deference and that comes from deferre. The other means "to put off or delay" (as in "we decided to defer the decision until next month"); that second defer derives from differre. 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 15, 2015 is: natatorial • \nay-tuh-TOR-ee-ul\ • adjective 1 : of or relating to swimming 2 : adapted to or characterized by swimming Examples: This year's swim team has considerably more natatorial talent than have previous years' teams. "Natatorial legs are modified for swimming, producing a feathered oar-like form, used by beetles and bugs that spend their lives in water." — Whitney Cranshaw and Richard Redak, Bugs Rule!, 2013 Did you know? The Latin verb natare, meaning "to swim," gave English the word natatorial and its variant natatory. It also gave us natant ("swimming or floating in water"); supernatant ("floating on the surface"); natation ("the action or art of swimming"); and last but not least, natatorium ("an indoor swimming pool"). A few common English words are related to this rather obscure bunch, among them nurture, nutrient, and nutrition, but these descend not from natare, but from nutrire, a Latin word (meaning "to nourish") that shares an ancestor with natare. 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 14, 2015 is: fulminate • \FULL-muh-nayt\ • verb : to complain loudly or angrily : to send forth censures or invectives Examples: An avid cyclist, Justine would often fulminate against automobile drivers who ignored bike lanes and otherwise created hazards for those riding on two wheels. "We say we value memoirs and other nonfiction works precisely because they tell us what really happened. Then, when the amazing true story turns out to be a bit less than absolutely true, some of us fulminate about it for a while, even as countless more continue to pony up for the tale." — Laura Miller, Salon, 9 June 2015 Did you know? Lightning strikes more than once in the history of fulminate. That word comes from the Latin fulminare, meaning "to strike," a verb usually used to refer to lightning strikes—not surprising since it sprang from fulmen, Latin for "lightning." When fulminate was adopted into English in the 15th century, it lost much of its ancestral thunder and was used largely as a technical term for the issuing of formal denunciations by ecclesiastical authorities. But its original lightning spark remains in its suggestion of tirades so vigorous that, as one 18th-century bishop put it, they seem to be delivered "with the air of one who [has] divine Vengeance at his disposal." 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 13, 2015 is: syzygy • \SIZ-uh-jee\ • noun : the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system Examples: The full moon and new moon phenomena occur when the earth, sun, and moon are in syzygy. "Whether you have a three dimensional orrery or a flat blackboard, eclipses are easy to illustrate and understand and occur at the moment of syzygy when the sun, earth and moon are aligned." — Clellie Lynch, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 30 Sept. 2015 Did you know? At first glance, syzygy appears to be a somewhat singular member of the English language. Despite its appearance, however, it does have etymological ties to a few words in Modern English. Syzygy can be traced to the Greek syzygos ("yoked together"), a combination of syn- ("with, together with") and zygon ("yoke"). Zygon is also the source of zygote ("a cell formed by the union of two gametes") and zygoma, which refers to several bones and processes of the skull, including the zygomatic bone (a.k.a., the cheekbone). Zygon is also related to the Old English geoc—the source of the Modern English yoke—and the Latin jungere, from which the English words join and junction are derived. 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 12, 2015 is: tawdry • \TAW-dree\ • adjective : cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality; also : ignoble Examples: Tom and Pam found themselves in an unfamiliar section of the city, walking by tawdry storefronts and shady bars. "I'd be lying if I said I never shared some of the tawdry tales I learned about players along the way…." — Roxanne Jones, CNN.com, 8 Oct. 2015 Did you know? In the 7th century, Etheldreda, the queen of Northumbria, renounced her husband and her royal position for the veil of a nun. She was renowned for her saintliness and is traditionally said to have died of a swelling in her throat, which she took as a judgment upon her fondness for wearing necklaces in her youth. Her shrine became a principal site of pilgrimage in England. An annual fair was held in her honor on October 17th, and her name became simplified to St. Audrey. At these fairs various kinds of cheap knickknacks were sold, along with a type of necklace called St. Audrey's lace, which by the 16th century had become altered to tawdry lace. Eventually, tawdry came to be used to describe anything cheap and gaudy that might be found at these fairs or anywhere else. 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 11, 2015 is: velleity • \vuh-LEE-uh-tee\ • noun 1 : the lowest degree of volition 2 : a slight wish or tendency : inclination Examples: Samuel sometimes mentions that he would like to go back to school, but his interest strikes me as more of a velleity than a firm statement of purpose. "It should be enough of an advantage for online retailers … that you can order items from them the instant your internet-browsing fingers conceive a velleity to own something; exploiting and maintaining anachronistic tax loopholes is uncalled for." — The Economist (online), 9 Sept. 2011 Did you know? Allow us, if you will, to volunteer our knowledge about velleity. It is a derivative of the New Latin noun velleitas,from the Latin verb velle, meaning "to wish or will." You might also wish to know that velle is the word that gave us voluntary (by way of Anglo-French voluntarie and Latin voluntarius) and volunteer (by way of French voluntaire). While both of those words might imply a wish to do something (specifically, to offer one's help) and the will to act upon it, the less common velleity typically refers to a wish or inclination that is so insignificant that a person feels little or no compulsion to act. 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 10, 2015 is: livid • \LIV-id\ • adjective 1 : discolored by bruising : black-and-blue 2 : ashen, pallid 3 : reddish 4 : very angry : enraged Examples: When Chase's mother caught him sneaking in after midnight, she was livid. "As part of St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's 2016 budget proposal, downtown meters that expire at 5 p.m. would continue to charge for parking until 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday…. Some downtown residents and business owners are livid." — Frederick Melo, St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press, 15 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Livid has a colorful history. The Latin adjective lividus means "dull grayish or leaden blue." From this came the French livide and eventually the English livid, which was used to describe flesh discolored by a bruise when it was first recorded in the early 17th century. A slight extension of meaning gave it the sense "ashen or pallid," as used in describing a corpse. Livid eventually came to be used in this sense to characterize the complexion of a person pale with anger ("livid with rage"). From this meaning came two new senses in the 20th century. One was "reddish," as one is as likely to become red with anger as pale; the other was simply "angry" or "furious," the most common sense of the word 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 December 9, 2015 is: objet trouvé • \AWB-zhay-troo-VAY\ • noun : a natural or discarded object found by chance and held to have aesthetic value Examples: "Architects, too, have discovered found objects—usually substantial buildings like barns, firehouses, power stations, train depots—but the objet trouvé that Robert A. M. Stern recently transformed into a writers' penthouse and all-purpose retreat from his office below was a humble, metal-clad storage shed…." — Joseph Giovannini, Architectural Digest, July 2007 "The American sculptor Judith Scott literally concealed things: each of her cocoonlike constructions began with an objet trouvé—an umbrella, a skateboard, a tree branch, her own jewelry—around which she wound layers and layers and layers of yarn, twine, and strips of textiles until the item's identity was obscured." — Andrea K. Scott, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2014 Did you know? Objet trouvé comes from French, where it literally means "found object." The term entered English during the early 20th century, a time when many artists challenged traditional ideas about the nature of true art. Surrealists and other artists, for instance, held that any object could be a work of art if a person recognized its aesthetic merit. Objet trouvé can refer to naturally formed objects whose beauty is the result of natural forces as well as to man-made artifacts (such as bathtubs, wrecked cars, or scrap metal) that were not originally created as art but are displayed as such. 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 8, 2015 is: adamantine • \ad-uh-MAN-teen\ • adjective 1 : made of or having the quality of adamant 2 : rigidly firm : unyielding 3 : resembling the diamond in hardness or luster Examples: The ushers were adamantine in their refusal to let latecomers into the theater. "Lampard and Pirlo have been adamantine, but even Lampard fell prey to injury this past season." — Rafael Noboa y Rivera, Hudson River Blue, 17 June 2015 Did you know? The Greek and Latin word for the hardest imaginable substance, whether applied to a legendary stone or an actual substance, such as diamond, was adamas. Latin poets used the term figuratively for things lasting, firm, or unbending, and the adjective adamantinus was used in similar contexts. The English noun adamant (meaning "an unbreakable or extremely hard substance"), as well as the adjective adamant (meaning "inflexible" or "unyielding"), came from adamas. Adamantine, which also has such figurative uses as "rigid," "firm," and "unyielding," came from adamantinus. Adamas is actually the source of diamond as well. Diamas, the Latin term for diamond, was an alteration of adamas. 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 7, 2015 is: jackleg • \JACK-leg\ • adjective 1 a : characterized by unscrupulousness, dishonesty, or lack of professional standards b : lacking skill or training : amateur 2 : designed as a temporary expedient : makeshift Examples: Bill's only a jackleg carpenter, but he is sufficiently competent to handle less complex jobs. "Local engineers knew even during construction that the canal upgrade was a bit of a jackleg job." — Christopher Cooper and Robert Block, Disaster, 2006 Did you know? Don't call someone jackleg unless you're prepared for that person to get angry with you. Throughout its 165-year-old history in English, jackleg has most often been used as a term of contempt and deprecation, particularly in reference to lawyers and preachers. Its form echoes that of the similar blackleg, an older term for a cheating gambler or a worker opposed to union policies. Etymologists know that blackleg appeared over fifty years before jackleg, but they don't have any verifiable theories about the origin of either term. 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 6, 2015 is: menorah • \muh-NOR-uh\ • noun : a candelabra with seven or nine lights that is used in Jewish worship Examples: At sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, Joshua's father helped him light the first candle on the menorah. "Tens of thousands of people come out for the celebration, which includes the lighting of the state's largest menorah (an eighteen-foot steel stunner) and a performance by famed Jewish musician Avraham Fried." — Brooke Porter Katz, Atlanta Magazine, 1 Nov. 2015 Did you know? English speakers originally used the Hebrew borrowing menorah for the seven-branched candelabra used in Jewish worship since ancient times. The nine-branched Hanukkah candelabra is called hanukkiah in Hebrew, but English speakers have come to use menorah for this candelabra too. The Hanukkah menorah recalls the expulsion by Judas Maccabaeus of invading forces from the Temple of Jerusalem. Maccabaeus and his followers sought oil for the temple's menorah so that the sanctuary could be rededicated, but they found only enough oil for a single day. Miraculously, that tiny amount of oil burned for eight days, until a new supply could be obtained. The Hanukkah menorah includes a candle for each day the oil burned, plus the shammes, a "servant candle" that is used to light the others. 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 5, 2015 is: repair • \rih-PAIR\ • verb 1 : to betake oneself : go 2 : to come together : rally Examples: "… so we repaired to a publick-house, took a friendly glass, and thus parted." — Peter Drake, Amiable Renegade: The Memoirs of Captain Peter Drake, 1671–1753, 1960 "… Warren repaired to the dining alcove off the kitchen … and ate dinner with Nina and the children, discussing their schoolwork and events of the day." — Kevin Starr, Embattled Dreams, 2002 Did you know? We are all familiar with the verb repair used as a synonym of fix. But today's word, while it is a homograph and a homophone of the more familiar repair, is a slightly older and unrelated verb. Repair, the synonym of fix, comes via Anglo-French from the Latin reparare, a combination of the re- prefix and parare ("prepare"). Repair, the synonym of go (which in English also once meant "to return"), has Anglo-French and Latin roots too, but makes its way back to the Late Latin repatriare (which means "to go home again" and is a source of the English repatriate). Repatriare combines the re- prefix with patria, the Latin word for "native country." 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 4, 2015 is: imprimatur • \im-pruh-MAH-toor\ • noun 1 a : a license to print or publish especially by Roman Catholic episcopal authority b : approval of a publication under circumstances of official censorship 2 a : sanction, approval b : imprint c : a mark of approval or distinction Examples: "But that's the new Coachella. Being the country's most compelling music festival wasn't enough. It needed a celebrity imprimatur. And with Madonna's much publicized booking last year, the guest list bulged." — Charles Aaron, Spin, August 2007 "Overseeing the design of the restaurant space is Paul Basile of Basile Studio…. His imprimatur will also be on a major remodel of Craft & Commerce, which is in the midst of a $1.8 million redo…." — Lori Weisberg, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Imprimatur means "let it be printed" in New Latin. It comes from Latin imprimere, meaning to "imprint" or "impress." In the 1600s, the word appeared in the front matter of books, accompanied by the name of an official authorizing the book's printing. It was also in the 1600s that English speakers began using imprimatur in the general sense of "official approval." The Roman Catholic Church still issues imprimaturs for books concerned with religious matters (to indicate that a work contains nothing offensive to Catholic morals or faith), and there have been other authorities for imprimaturs as well. For example, when Samuel Pepys was president of the Royal Society, he placed his imprimatur on the title page of England's great scientific work, Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, in 1687. 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 3, 2015 is: durable • \DUR-uh-bul\ • adjective : able to exist for a long time without significant deterioration; also : designed to be durable Examples: The couch is covered in a pretty yet durable fabric, and it should last for years. "Fall is all about layers. Fleece, flannel and down feel cozy, while durable, antimicrobial merino wool is beloved for keeping you warm or cool as needed (and smelling fresh even after you exercise)." — Self, November 2015 Did you know? Something durable lasts a long time, so it's no surprise that the word comes to us, via Anglo-French, from the Latin verb durare, meaning "to last." Other descendants of durare in English include during, endure,and durance (which now mostly turns up in the phrase in durance vile, a fancy way of saying "in prison"). Durable even has a near synonym in the much rarer perdurable, which combines durare with the prefix per- (meaning "throughout") to create a word that can mean "lasting a very long time or indefinitely" or "eternal." 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 2, 2015 is: etymology • \eh-tuh-MAH-luh-jee\ • noun 1 : the history of a word or phrase shown by tracing its development and relationships 2 : a branch of linguistics dealing with etymologies Examples: As the etymology of "December" reports, the month gets its name from the Latin "decem" meaning "ten"—a nod to its former status as the tenth month in the early Roman calendar. "'Sicario' opens with an etymology of the title. The word, which means hit man, derives from 'Sicarii'; the Sicarii were a band of zealots who attacked Romans in Jerusalem with the intention of expelling them from the Holy Land." — Sonny Bunch, The Washington Post (online), 24 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Readers of the Word of the Day are already familiar with etymologies—that is, word histories. The etymology of etymology itself is relatively straightforward. Etymon means "origin of a word" in Latin, and comes from the Greek word etymon, meaning "literal meaning of a word according to its origin." Greek etymon in turn comes from etymos, which means "true." Be careful not to confuse etymology with the similar sounding entomology. Entomon means "insect" in Greek, and entomology is the study of bugs. 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 1, 2015 is: consequential • \kahn-suh-KWEN-shul\ • adjective 1 : of the nature of a secondary result : indirect 2 : consequent 3 : having significant consequences : important 4 : self-important Examples: Voters handed the mayor a decisive victory in the election, demonstrating that they still trust her to handle the most consequential issues facing the community. "But while much of the world was looking away, Shinzo Abe, the country's prime minister since 2012, has become one of the most consequential Japanese politicians of the postwar era." — Bill Powell, Newsweek, 29 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Consequential dates from the 17th century and can be traced back to the Latin verb consequi, meaning "to follow along." Consequi, in turn, combines the prefix con-, meaning "through" or "with," and sequi, meaning "to follow." The English words sequel, second, and suitor are among the offspring of sequi. Henry Fielding's 1728 comedy Love in Several Masques introduced the meaning of "important" to consequential, which had until that point been used primarily in the context of results. Evidence for this usage declined temporarily in the 19th century, causing its acceptability to be questioned by such commentators as H. W. Fowler; it resurfaced in the 20th century, however, and is now considered standard. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2015 is: paragon • \PAIR-uh-gahn\ • noun : a model of excellence or perfection Examples: "What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!" — William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1600-1601 "Looking at a broad array of American economic indicators, it's hard to see what investors are afraid of. The United States is a paragon of growth … especially the job market." — Conrad de Aenlle, The New York Times,9 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Paragon derives from the Old Italian word paragone, which literally means "touchstone." A touchstone is a black stone that was formerly used to judge the purity of gold or silver. The metal was rubbed on the stone and the color of the streak it left indicated its quality. In modern English, both touchstone and paragon have come to signify a standard against which something should be judged. Ultimately, paragon comes from the Greek parakonan, meaning "to sharpen," from the prefix para- ("alongside of") and akonē, meaning "whetstone." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 29, 2015 is: emeritus • \ih-MEH-ruh-tus\ • adjective 1 : holding after retirement an honorary title corresponding to that held last during active service 2 : retired from an office or position — converted to emeriti after a plural Examples: A letter decrying cuts in staffing at the university was signed by 42 professors emeriti. "Additional members were named at the annual meeting to the 2015-16 board of directors, which now includes 22 members and four directors emeriti." — Jenn Smith, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 28 Sept. 2015 Did you know? The adjective emeritus is unusual in two ways: it's frequently used postpositively (that is, after the noun it modifies), and it has a plural form—emeriti—when it modifies a plural noun in its second sense. If you've surmised from these qualities that the word is Latin in origin, you are correct. Emeritus, which is the Latin past participle of the verb emereri, meaning "to serve out one's term," was originally used to describe soldiers who had completed their duty. (Emereri is from the prefix e-, meaning "out," and merēre, meaning "to earn, deserve, or serve"—also the source of our English word merit.) By the early 18th century, English speakers were using emeritus as an adjective to refer to professors who had retired from office. The word eventually came to be applied to other professions where a retired member may continue to hold a title in an honorary capacity. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2015 is: colligate • \KAH-luh-gayt\ • verb 1 : to bind, unite, or group together 2 : to subsume (isolated facts) under a general concept 3 : to be or become a member of a group or unit Examples: "For instance, many words colligate with the word 'the,' which is a grammatical marker of definiteness rather than a word that carries significant semantic content." — Tony McEnery and Andrew Hardie, Corpus Linguistics: Method, Theory and Practice, 2012 "Research that examines the combined effect of lifestyle factors on mortality is plentiful, and data have been colligated in a recent meta-analysis." — Valentina A. Andreeva et al., The American Journal of Public Health, November 2014 Did you know? Colligate (not to be confused with collocate or collegiate) is a technical term that descends from Latin colligare, itself from com- ("with") plus ligare ("to tie"). Which of the following words is NOT tied to ligare? ligature, ligament, lien, rely, ally, collogue, oblige, furl, league Ligature, ligament, lien, rely, ally, oblige, furl, and league (in the sense of "an association of persons, groups, or teams") can all be traced back along varying paths to ligare. That leaves only collogue (meaning "to confer")—whose origin is unknown. (Collocate and collegiate are also unrelated via ligare.) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 27, 2015 is: minatory • \MIN-uh-tor-ee\ • adjective : having a menacing quality Examples: In the moonlight, the twisted winter trees took on a particularly baleful and minatory appearance. "No one likes to hear or heed prophets of doom, but history is replete with them.… The minatory mutterings of the Delphic Oracle were often unheeded by the Greeks." — Brian Roche, Redlands (California) Daily Facts, 28 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Knowing that minatory means "threatening," can you take a guess at a related word? If you're familiar with mythology, perhaps you guessed Minotaur, the name of the bull-headed, people-eating monster of Crete. Minotaur is a good guess, but as terrifying as the monster sounds, its name isn't related to today's word. The relative we're searching for is actually menace. Minatory and menace both come from derivatives of the Latin verb minari, which means "to threaten." Minatory was borrowed directly from Late Latin minatorius. Menace came to English via Anglo-French manace, menace, which came from Latin minac-, minax, meaning "threatening." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 26, 2015 is: Xanadu • \ZAN-uh-doo\ • noun : an idyllic, exotic, or luxurious place Examples: To Arthur, the beach house was a Xanadu, the perfect spot for the romantic tropical vacation he had dreamed of for years. "Others traveled to Tolchester Beach, the Xanadu of the Chesapeake, aboard Wilson Line steamers…." — Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun, 31 July 2015 Did you know? "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree." Those lines are from the poem "Kubla Khan" (published in 1816) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's fantastic description of an exotic utopia fired public imagination and ultimately contributed to the transition of Xanadu from a name to a generalized term for an idyllic place. The Xanadu in the poem was inspired by Shang-tu, the summer residence of Mongolian general and statesman Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan). You might also recognize Xanadu as the name of the fantastic estate in Orson Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane and as the name of a 1980 musical film starring Olivia Newton-John. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2015 is: dyed-in-the-wool • \dyde-in-thuh-WOOL\ • adjective : thoroughgoing, uncompromising Examples: "In public, Hunter [S. Thompson] was never his true self; he was playing Brando-gone-mad, a true, dyed-in-the-wool, 100 percent all-American showman." — Douglas Brinkley, Rolling Stone, 24 Mar. 2005 "But let's be realistic. Dyed-in-the-wool [White] Sox fans can't possibly be thrilled beyond measure for the good fortune of their rivals [the Cubs]. It goes against the competition tradition." — Martha F. Grieashamer, letter in The Chicago Tribune, 15 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Early yarn makers would dye wool before spinning it into yarn to make the fibers retain their color longer. In 16th-century England, that make-it-last coloring practice provoked writers to draw a comparison between the dyeing of wool and the way children could, if taught early, be influenced in ways that would adhere throughout their lives. In the 19th-century U.S., the wool-dyeing practice put eloquent Federalist orator Daniel Webster in mind of a certain type of Democrat whose attitudes were as unyielding as the dye in unspun wool. Of course, Democrats were soon using the term against their opponents, too, but over time the partisanship of the expression faded and it is now a general term for anyone or anything that seems unlikely or unwilling to change. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 24, 2015 is: henotheism • \HEN-uh-thee-iz-um\ • noun : the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods Examples: "For Assyrian kings, the god Ashur … was proclaimed to be the true king, and the human king was the god's regent. In other words, in the ancient world, henotheism was a convenient method for imposing a king's rule over subject peoples: one all-powerful god means one all-powerful king as well." — A. C. Black, Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction, 2001 "Wishing to find the roots of Jewish monotheism in the cult of Aten, Freud worked freely with ancient Egyptian henotheism: that is, the concept of the sun as one supreme divinity among many." — David Meghnagi, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2014 Did you know? Henotheism comes to us from the German word Henotheismus, which in turn is derived from Greek hen- ("one") and theos ("god"). Someone who engages in henotheism worships one god but does not deny that there are others. Max Müller, a respected 19th-century scholar, is credited with promoting the word henotheism as a counterpart to polytheism ("belief in or worship of more than one god") and monotheism ("the doctrine or belief that there is but one God"). Müller also used the related word kathenotheism, from Greek kath' hena ("one at a time"), for the worship of several gods successively. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 23, 2015 is: foreshorten • \for-SHORT-un\ • verb 1 : to shorten by proportionately contracting in the direction of depth so that an illusion of projection or extension in space is obtained 2 : to make more compact : abridge, shorten Examples: "The past is a giant foreshortened with his feet towards us; and sometimes the feet are of clay." — G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England, 1917 "A low vantage point provides the opportunity to dramatically foreshorten the dimensions of the building, drawing the eye upward to the dome." — Mary McNaughton, The Little Book of Drawing, 2007 Did you know? Foreshorten first appeared in a 1606 treatise on art by the British writer and artist Henry Peacham: "If I should paint ... an horse with his brest and head looking full in my face, I must of necessity foreshorten him behinde." Peacham's foreshorten comes from fore- (meaning "earlier" or "beforehand") plus shorten. The addition of fore- to verbs was a routine practice in Peacham's day, creating such words as fore-conclude, fore-consider, fore-instruct, and fore-repent. Foreshorten, along with words like foresee and foretell, is one of the few fore- combinations to still survive. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2015 is: nebula • \NEB-yuh-luh\ • noun 1 : any of numerous clouds of gas or dust in interstellar space 2 : any of the very large groups of stars and associated matter that are found throughout the universe; especially : a galaxy other than the Milky Way — not used technically Examples: The explosion of a supernova leaves behind a nebula from which, upon cooling, new stars and planets may develop. "A dazzling image of Messier 17, a reddish nebula 5,500 light-years from Earth, provides a detailed view of its newborn stars, gas clouds and dust." — Sindya N. Bhanoo, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2015 Did you know? The history of the word nebula is not lost in the mists of time, although its history does get misty at points. The word traces back to the Latin word (spelled the same way as our modern term) for "mist" or "cloud." In its earliest English uses in the 1600s, nebula referred to a cloudy speck or film on the eye that caused vision problems. It was first applied to great interstellar clouds of gas and dust in the early 1700s. The adjective nebulous comes from the same Latin root as nebula, but the first uses of nebulous in the astronomical sense don't appear in English until the late 1700s, well after the discovery of interstellar nebulae. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 21, 2015 is: fulsome • \FULL-sum\ • adjective 1 a : characterized by abundance : copious b : generous in amount, extent, or spirit 2 : aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive 3 : exceeding the bounds of good taste : overdone 4 : excessively complimentary or flattering : effusive Examples: "The magnolia was in fulsome bloom, great waxy cups in dark green saucers pressing against the windows." — Caroline Graham, The Killings at Badger's Drift, 1987 "Consider, in particular, the case of Britain. In 2010, when the new government of Prime Minister David Cameron turned to austerity policies, it received fulsome praise from many people on this side of the Atlantic." — Paul Krugman, The New York Times, 24 Jan. 2013 Did you know? One has only to survey the meanings of fulsome—listed above in the order in which they developed—to understand why there is a lot of confusion about exactly what fulsome means. Some critics disapprove of using it in its original "copious" sense because they feel that sense is not negative enough; they say that fulsome should always be at least mildly deprecatory. It's true that today fulsome is often used pejoratively to describe overly effusive language, but modern English writers still sometimes use it simply to mean "abundant," or occasionally even in contexts where it is complimentary. Some writers go to the more negative extreme, using it for things that are offensive to normal tastes or sensibilities. To avoid misinterpretation, either be sure that the context in which you use the word makes the intended meaning clear or choose a different word. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 20, 2015 is: vicinity • \vuh-SIN-uh-tee\ • noun 1 : the quality or state of being near : proximity 2 : a surrounding area or district : neighborhood 3 : an approximate amount, extent, or degree Examples: There are several wonderful little stores in the vicinity of our new house. "He showed me how to draw the bowstring and where to keep my sights. Within a few tries, I was shooting in the vicinity of the target." — Lisa Lutz, Self, June 2015 Did you know? Vicinity has its origins in the idea of neighborliness—it was borrowed into English in the 16th century from Middle French vicinité, which in turn derives from the Latin adjective vicinus, meaning "neighboring." Vicinus itself can be traced back to the noun vicus, meaning "row of houses" or "village," and ultimately all the way back to the same ancient word that gave Gothic, Old Church Slavic, and Greek words for "house." Other descendants of vicinus in English include vicinal ("local" or "of, relating to, or substituted in adjacent sites in a molecule") and vicinage, a synonym of vicinity in the sense of "a neighboring or surrounding district." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 19, 2015 is: ruly • \ROO-lee\ • adjective : obedient, orderly Examples: As far as groups of young children go, this one was unusually ruly: the youngsters were all fully engaged in building with a large set of colored blocks. "My hair is ruly, in fact, and I get it cut at least once a month." — Mike Pound, The Joplin (Missouri) Globe, 22 June 2013 Did you know? You're probably familiar with unruly, meaning "not readily controlled or disciplined." It's a useful word, along with such synonyms as defiant and willful. It has plenty of antonyms too, among them the wholly logical ruly. Haven't heard of ruly till now? We're not surprised. Ruly and unruly are of the same 15th-century vintage, but the former never caught on the way unruly did. The more common unruly is also the older of the pair: ruly was formed by a process called "back-formation" from unruly. Ultimately, both words come from reuly, a Middle English word meaning "disciplined." Reuly in turn comes from Middle English reule, a predecessor of rule. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 18, 2015 is: onomastics • \ah-nuh-MAS-tiks\ • noun 1 a : the science or study of the origins and forms of words especially as used in a specialized field b : the science or study of the origin and forms of proper names of persons or places 2 : the system underlying the formation and use of words especially for proper names or of words used in a specialized field Examples: As a student of onomastics, Gloria liked to keep track of the most popular baby names across generations. "Leaving that aside, the name Fatima is also used by Catholics, who take it from the town where the Virgin Mary was reported to have appeared in 1917 (itself, in one of those byways of onomastics, named after a princess who bore the name of Mohammed's daughter)." — Dot Wordsworth, The Spectator (London), 9 May 2015 Did you know? The original word for the science of naming was onomatology, which was adopted from French in the mid-19th century. About a century later, however, people began referring to the science as onomastics, a term based on the Greek verb onomazein ("to name"). Like many sciences, onomastics is itself composed of special divisions. An onomastician might, for example, study personal names or place names, names of a specific region or historical period, or even the character names of a particular author, like Charles Dickens. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2015 is: inviolable • \in-VYE-uh-luh-bul\ • adjective 1 : secure from violation or profanation 2 : secure from assault or trespass : unassailable Examples: The senator agreed to an interview on the basis of a set of clear and inviolable rules about what she would and would not answer. "Perhaps M Train represents the attempt by someone whose career is as public as can be imagined to stake out a zone of inviolable privacy, albeit through the public act of writing a book meant for publication." — Geoffrey O’Brien, The New York Review of Books, 22 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Inviolable is a venerable word that has been with us since the 15th century. Its opposite, violable ("capable of being or likely to be violated") appeared a century later. The English playwright Shackerley Marmion made good use of violable in A Fine Companion in 1633, writing, "Alas, my heart is Tender and violable with the least weapon Sorrow can dart at me." But English speakers have never warmed up to that word the way we have to inviolable, and it continues to be used much less frequently. Both terms descend from Latin violare, which both shares the meaning and is an ancestor of the English word violate. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 16, 2015 is: talisman • \TAL-iss-mun\ • noun 1 : an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune 2 : something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects Examples: Ever since he was in grade school, Sarah's grandfather has carried a rabbit's foot in his pocket as a talisman. "Relics are physical possessions that were once touched by saints, or even their clothing or body parts, which for many serve as a talisman of good fortune." — Larry Getlen, The New York Post, 6 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Do you believe in lucky charms? Language reflects the fact that many people do. We might have borrowed talisman from French, Spanish, or Italian; all three include similar-looking words for a lucky charm. Those three terms derive from a single Arabic word for a charm, tilsam. Tilsam in turn can be traced to the ancient Greek verb telein, which means "to initiate into the mysteries." While the word talisman, in its strictest use, refers to an object, even a human being can be considered a talisman—such as a player on a team whose mere presence somehow causes magical things to happen. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 15, 2015 is: purloin • \per-LOYN\ • verb : to appropriate wrongfully and often by a breach of trust Examples: The columnist resigned from the paper after it was revealed that he had purloined material from other journalists. "The C.I.A. hacks into computers that Senate intelligence committee staffers are using in the basement of a C.I.A. facility because the spy agency thinks its Congressional overseers have hacked into the C.I.A. network to purloin hidden documents on torture." — Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2014 Did you know? Purloin, pilfer, and filch may just seem like fancy words for "steal," but each has a slightly different connotation. Pilfer implies stealing repeatedly in small amounts, as in this sentence: "It was months before her boss realized she was pilfering office supplies." Filch adds a suggestion of snatching quickly and surreptitiously, e.g., "He filched an apple from the tray." Purloin stresses removing or carrying off something for one's own use or purposes, as in "She purloined the manuscript and tried to pass it off as her own 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 November 14, 2015 is: equanimity • \ee-kwuh-NIM-uh-tee\ • noun 1 : evenness of mind especially under stress 2 : right disposition : balance Examples: The most successful athletes find a way to maintain equanimity in the face of disappointment and failure. "The theme of crime and punishment, with an emphasis on compassion, threads through this road movie, culminating in a conversation with a human-rights attorney whose equanimity in the face of daunting challenges mirrors Panahi's." — Sheri Linden, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2015 Did you know? If you think equanimity looks like it has something to do with equal, you've guessed correctly. Both equanimity and equal are derived from aequus, a Latin adjective meaning "level" or "equal." Equanimity comes from the combination of aequus and animus ("soul" or "mind") in the Latin phrase aequo animo, which means "with even mind." English speakers began using equanimity early in the 17th century with the now obsolete sense "fairness or justness of judgment," which was in keeping with the meaning of the Latin phrase. Equanimity quickly came to suggest keeping a cool head under any sort of pressure, not merely when presented with a problem, and eventually it developed an extended sense for general balance and harmony. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 13, 2015 is: bipartisan • \bye-PAR-ti-zun\ • adjective : of, relating to, or involving members of two parties; specifically : marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise between two major political parties Examples: The bill has bipartisan support in the Senate, since it stands to benefit both Democrats and Republicans equally. "The stated aim of No Labels, the group giving the dinner ahead of its Problem Solver Convention on Monday, was to encourage bipartisan leadership." — Ruth La Ferla, The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2015 Did you know? Bipartisan is a two-part word. The first element is the prefix bi-, which means "two"; the second is partisan, a word that traces through Middle French and north Italian dialect to the Latin part- or pars, meaning "part." Partisan itself has a long history as a word in English. It has been used as a noun in reference to a firm adherent to a party, faction, or cause (especially one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance), since the 16th century. The related adjective (meaning "of, relating to, or characteristic of a partisan") appeared in the 19th century, as did, after a space of some 50 years, the adjective bipartisan. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 12, 2015 is: sinecure • \SYE-nih-kyoor\ • noun : an office or position that requires little or no work and that usually provides an income Examples: The king was in the habit of rewarding his loyal supporters with sinecures. "The status of former presidential nominee turned influential insider is more than just a nice sinecure for a politician in the twilight of his career. It's the foundation for another presidential run." — Jamelle Bouie, The Chicago Tribune, 14 Jan. 2015 Did you know? Sinecure comes from the Medieval Latin phrase sine cura, which literally means "without cure." No, the first sinecures were not cushy jobs for those suffering with incurable maladies. The word sinecure first referred to "an ecclesiastical benefice without cure of souls"—that is, a church position in which the job-holder did not have to tend to the spiritual care and instruction of church members. Such sinecures were virtually done away with by the end of the 19th century, but by then the word had acquired a broader sense referring to any paid position with few or no responsibilities. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 11, 2015 is: dewy • \DOO-ee\ • adjective 1 : moist with, affected by, or suggestive of dew 2 : innocent, unsophisticated Examples: The lawn was dewy and cool on our feet as we set off for a short barefoot walk just after sunrise. "Listening to their greatest hits with the 5th Dimension and as a duo—the dewy confessions of everlasting love, the sunny songs of soft psychedelia—recalls a time in pop when innocence was still relatively easy to manufacture." — Rashod Ollison, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia), 2 Oct. 2015 Did you know? "And her faire deawy eies with kisses deare Shee ofte did bathe" (Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene). "I would these dewy teares were from the ground" (William Shakespeare, Richard III). "Till dewie sleep Oppress'd them" (John Milton, Paradise Lost). "Strengthen me, enlighten me … Thou dewy dawn of memory" (Alfred Tennyson, "Ode to Memory"). Such lines exemplify how the greats have poetically extended the characteristics of dewy grass to misty or crying eyes, as well as to things, like sleep, that affect people gently like forming dew, or to things, like memory, that gradually vanish like a morning's dew. In recent times, the adjective has often been used to describe the luminous complexions of models and starlets—an extension of the "suggestive of dew" meaning. It was not until the 20th century that people began to connect newly formed, undisturbed dew with freshness or purity and, in turn, with innocence and unsophistication, as in our second example sentence. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.