Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 10, 2015 is: kangaroo court • \kang-uh-ROO-KORT\ • noun 1 : a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted 2 : a court marked by irresponsible, unauthorized, or irregular status or procedures 3 : judgment or punishment given outside of legal procedure Examples: The press decried the tribunal as nothing more than a kangaroo court, meting out savage and arbitrary justice. "A kangaroo court in Egypt recently sentenced three journalists from the Al Jazeera English network to three years in prison for committing journalism." — The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2015 Did you know? A kangaroo court has never been a court by or for kangaroos, but beyond that, little is known for sure about the term's origins. Various theories abound: it has been suggested that kangaroo courts got their name because they were initially marked by rapid and unpredictable movement from one place to another, or that they were in some way associated with "jumping" (i.e., illegally occupying) mining claims. These hypotheses are all unsubstantiated, however. What is known is that the first kangaroo courts originated in the United States at approximately the time of the 1849 California Gold Rush, and the word saw its earliest use in the southwestern U.S. It first turned up in print in 1853 in a book about Texas. 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 9, 2015 is: umami • \oo-MAH-mee\ • noun : a taste sensation that is meaty or savory and is produced by several amino acids and nucleotides (such as glutamate and aspartate) Examples: The cookbook has an entire chapter on umami, and lists a number of common ingredients—from tomato paste to Worcestershire sauce to anchovies—as easy ways to add it to dishes. "Adding even more umami to this dish is the nutritional yeast…. It adds a wonderful aged-cheese-like flavor.…" — Melissa d'Arabian, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 26 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda is credited with identifying as a distinct taste the savory flavor of the amino acid glutamic acid, which he first noticed in soup stocks made with seaweed. This fifth basic taste—alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter—was named umami, meaning "savoriness" in Japanese. Umami can be experienced in foods such as mushrooms, anchovies, and mature cheeses, as well as in foods enhanced with monosodium glutamate, or MSG, a sodium salt derived from glutamic acid. 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 8, 2015 is: gadfly • \GAD-flye\ • noun 1 : any of various flies that bite or annoy livestock 2 : a person who stimulates or annoys especially by persistent criticism Examples: Ms. Johnson has long been a gadfly at town meetings, and I've grown weary of her attempts to hector the town council into doing as she sees fit. "The council will hold a hearing Wednesday for members of the public to come to City Hall to vent on the budget, an event that often ends up with … various gadflies offering their plans for closing the city's deficit." — John Byrne, The Chicago Tribune, 11 Oct. 2015 Did you know? The history of gadfly starts with gad, which now means "chisel" but which formerly could designate a spike, a spear, or a rod for goading cattle. Late in the 16th century, gad was joined with fly to designate any of several insects that aggravate livestock. Before too long, we began applying gadfly to people who annoyed or provoked others. One of history's most famous gadflies is the philosopher Socrates, who was known for his constant questioning of his fellow Athenians' ethics, misconceptions, and assumptions. In his Apology, Plato describes Socrates' characterization of Athens as a great slumbering horse and of Socrates himself as the fly that bites and rouses it. Many translations use gadfly in this portion of the Apology, and Socrates is sometimes referred to as the "gadfly of Athens." 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 7, 2015 is: absolve • \ub-ZAHLV\ • verb 1 : to set free from an obligation or the consequences of guilt 2 : to remit (a sin) by absolution Examples: "A week of staying home from work, absolved of all household duties, waited on hand and foot by your significant other—it's not a dream. It's what happens when you have surgery on your foot and can't walk on it." — Liz Soares, CentralMaine.com, 4 Oct. 2015 "The amnesty program absolves delinquent taxpayers of interest and fines on back taxes owed to the state, as long as those taxes are paid in full." — Josh Arnett, The McPherson (Kansas) Sentinel, 6 Oct. 2015 Did you know? The act of absolving can be seen as releasing someone from blame or sin, or "loosening" the hold that responsibility has on a person, which provides a hint about the word's origins. Absolve was adopted into Middle English in the 15th century from the Latin verb absolvere, formed by combining the prefix ab- ("from, away, off") with solvere, meaning "to loosen." (Absolve also once had additional senses of "to finish or accomplish" and "to resolve or explain," but these are now obsolete.) Solvere is also the ancestor of the English words solve, dissolve, resolve, solvent, and solution. 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 6, 2015 is: Lucullan • \loo-KULL-un\ • adjective : lavish, luxurious Examples: "Two millennia ago, taverns were liberally represented in Pompeii. Today, there's just one place: Autogrill cafeteria near the Forum. Not exactly Lucullan feasting, but they do sell passable panini." — Michelle Locke, The Miami Herald, 25 Sept. 2015 "For most, gaining a few easily shed pounds is a small price to pay for a week or two of Lucullan bliss." — Kevin Doyle, The Condé Nast Traveler, November 1994 Did you know? Lucullan echoes the name of Roman general Lucius Licinius Lucullus. The general had a distinguished military career (including the defeat of Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, at Cabira in 72 B.C.E.), but he is best remembered for the splendor of his opulent retirement. Lucullus established a reputation for magnificent banquets, at which he wined and dined the leading poets, artists, and philosophers of his time. His feasts were sufficiently extravagant to establish a lasting place for his name (in adjective form) as a synonym of lavish in the English lexicon. 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 5, 2015 is: williwaw • \WILL-ih-waw\ • noun 1 a : a sudden violent gust of cold land air common along mountainous coasts of high latitudes b : a sudden violent wind 2 : a violent commotion Examples: The sailors had all heard stories of ships capsized by the williwaws that plagued the strait. "… he could see the downdraft kicking up sea spray and moving straight toward his airplane as he taxied on the water, a sign the williwaw was powerful." — Scott Christiansen, The Kodiak (Alaska) Daily Mirror, 14 Sept. 2007 Did you know? In 1900, Captain Joshua Slocum described williwaws as "compressed gales of wind … that Boreas handed down over the hills in chunks." To unsuspecting sailors or pilots, such winds might seem to come out of nowhere—just like word williwaw did some 170 years ago. All anyone knows about the origin of the word is that it was first used by writers in the mid-1800s to name fierce winds in the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America. The writers were British, and indications are that they may have learned the word from British sailors and seal hunters. Where these sailors and hunters got the word, we cannot say. 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 4, 2015 is: trepid • \TREP-id\ • adjective : timorous, fearful Examples: Were I not feeling so trepid, I might have enjoyed joining the other campers for a nighttime walk in the woods. "If you're a bit more on the trepid side about traveling to Mexico, start your weekend at the touristy Rosarito Beach Hotel…. This place caters to Americans and hearkens back to days when the town attracted famous celebrities." — Barbara Zaragoza, The San Diego Reader, 9 Apr. 2015 Did you know? The most frightening thing about trepid is how similar it is to tepid. Commit the distinction to memory—trepid has the r, like its synonyms timorous and fearful, and tepid means "lukewarm," literally and figuratively—and then do not be trepid in using either. You may also want to use some words related to trepid by way of its Latin ancestor trepidus, which means "alarmed" or "agitated": trepidate means "to tremble with fear" and trepidant means "timid" or "trembling." More common than any of these, though, is the antonym of trepid, intrepid. This word is 30 years younger than the 365-year-old trepid, and is the least likely to intimidate your listener. 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 3, 2015 is: confidant • \KAHN-fuh-dahnt\ • noun : one to whom secrets are entrusted; especially : an intimate friend Examples: "Who that has a confidant escapes believing too little in his penetration, and too much in his discretion?" — George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, 1876 "Did I mention the sextet of human-sized rats? These adorable rodents serve various functions as confidants, stagehands and onlookers, their scurrying cleverly synchronized with the music to which it provides nifty visual counterpoint." — John von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune, 6 Oct. 2015 Did you know? If you're confident of the trustworthiness of your confidants, you're inadvertently aware of the origins of the word confidant. It comes from the French noun confident, which goes back to the Italian adjective confidente, meaning "confident" or "trustworthy" and to the Latin verb confidere, meaning "to confide"—the root of which is fidere, meaning "to trust." Other descendants of confidere in English include confide, confidence,and confident, as well as confidential (which was formed from confidence). 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 2, 2015 is: ruddy • \RUDD-ee\ • adjective 1 : having a healthy reddish color 2 : red, reddish Examples: Sean's ruddy complexion was intensified after a brisk walk in the cold night air. "I like the crudo sampler, too, composed in part with citrusy salmon dusted with sea salt, and ruddy beef tartare." — Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post, 22 July 2015 Did you know? In Old English, there were two related words meaning "red": rēad and rudu. Rēad evolved into our present-day red. Rudu evolved into rud (a word now encountered only in dialect or archaic usage) and ruddy. Most often, ruddy is applied to the face when it has the red glow of good health or is red from a suffusion of blood from exercise or excitement. It is also used in the names of some birds, such as the American ruddy duck. In British English, ruddy is also used as a colorful euphemism for the sometimes vulgar intensive bloody, as English writer Sir Kingsley Amis illustrates in The Riverside Villas Murder: "Ruddy marvelous, the way these coppers' minds work.... I take a swing at Chris Inman in public means I probably done him in." 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 1, 2015 is: microburst • \MY-kroh-burst\ • noun : a violent short-lived localized downdraft that creates extreme wind shears at low altitudes and is usually associated with thunderstorms Examples: "A microburst struck Osage City early Friday, causing downed trees and power lines, closing the town's schools and making streets nearly impassable, said Police Chief Fred Nech." — Ann Marie Bush, The Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal, 18 Sept. 2015 "One farmer has captured an unusually good video of a severe microburst—a massive shaft of cold air that plunges to the Earth—in a thunderstorm in outback Queensland." — Jenni Ryall, Mashable (mashable.com), 27 Jan. 2015 Did you know? Credit for the invention of the word microburst is generally given to tornado expert Tetsuya Theodore Fujita. Fujita first described these extremely intense wind patterns in 1974. He noted that microbursts are usually short-lived, lasting only 5 to 15 minutes, but that they are extremely dangerous, especially for aircraft, because they cause sudden unexpected changes in wind direction or speed. Since the mid-1970s, many airports have installed Doppler radar systems to help detect potentially deadly microbursts. 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 October 31, 2015 is: ebullient • \ih-BULL-yunt\ • adjective 1 : boiling, agitated 2 : having or showing liveliness and enthusiasm : exuberant Examples: "Keegan, effortlessly ebullient even on his worst days, is probably the easiest person in the history of civilization to have a conversation with…." — Jay Martel, The New Yorker (online), 9 Sept. 2015 "You have to feel ebullient in what you're wearing.… Especially in the spring, you want to enjoy yourself." — Alexa Adams, quoted in Reuters UK, 16 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the adjective ebullient derives from the Latin verb ebullire, which means "to bubble out." (The stem bullire is an ancestor of our word boil and derives from bulla, the Latin word for "bubble.") In its earliest known uses in English in the late 1500s, ebullient was used in the sense of "boiling" or "bubbling" that might have described a pot simmering on the stove. Only later did the word's meaning broaden to encompass emotional agitation (particularly of the exuberant kind) in addition to the tempestuous roiling of a boiling liquid. 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 October 30, 2015 is: underwhelm • \un-der-WELM\ • verb : to fail to impress or stimulate Examples: The figure skater's lackluster performance underwhelmed the judges. "Taking place as they are during vacation season, these first debates are almost guaranteed to underwhelm." — Jack Shafer, Politico.com, 5 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Overwhelm and its rare synonym whelm have both been around since the 14th century, but underwhelm first appeared in print in 1948. Both overwhelm and whelm are derived from the Middle English whelmen, which is perhaps an alteration of whelven ("to turn over" or "to cover up"). And underwhelm is a playful overturning of overwhelm well suited for describing the unimpressive. More than one person claims the distinction of having invented underwhelm; several sources attribute it to the playwright George S. Kaufman, but sports columnist Red Smith is quoted as believing he coined the word himself, and still other sources cite other potential creators. Chances are that the word was in fact coined by more than one inventive writer. 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 October 29, 2015 is: pellucid • \puh-LOO-sid\ • adjective 1 : admitting maximum passage of light without diffusion or distortion 2 : reflecting light evenly from all surfaces 3 : easy to understand Examples: "This is a controversial question with no pellucid answer." — The Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, 4 Apr. 2013 "There is nothing so beautiful as the trees in the sun after a late-winter snowfall, or on one of those days when ice coats the branches and turns them shiny and pellucid." — Robert Mentzer, The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, 19 Apr. 2014 Did you know? Pellucid is formed from Latin per ("through") plus lucidus—a word meaning "lucid, clear" that ultimately derives from the verb lucēre, meaning "to shine." Lucēre has many shining relatives in English. Among them are translucent (essentially, "clear enough to allow light to pass through"), elucidate ("to make clear, explain"), lucent ("luminous" or "clear"), and of course lucid itself (which can mean "shining," "mentally sound," or "easily understood"). Another related word is Lucifer (a name for the devil that literally means "light-bearer"). Other relatives—such as lackluster ("lacking brightness"), illustrate (originally, "to make bright"), and lustrous ("shining" or "radiant")—trace from the related Latin verb lustrare ("to brighten"). Clearly, pellucid is just one of a family of brilliant terms. 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 October 28, 2015 is: delectation • \dee-lek-TAY-shun\ • noun : delight, enjoyment Examples: During the reception, a three-piece string band performed for the delectation of the guests. "The Kimbell Art Museum has the resources and reputation to bring masterpieces from major global museums to North Texas for our delectation." — Rick Brettell, The Dallas Morning News, 2 July 2015 Did you know? Pleasure, delight, and enjoyment are all synonyms and all signify the agreeable emotion accompanying the possession or expectation of what is good or greatly desired. Why, then, use delectation, that not-so-familiar synonym? Because, as with most synonym groups, each word has its own subtle distinctions. Pleasure stresses satisfaction or gratification of the senses. Delight adds the idea of liveliness or obviousness in that satisfaction, often less enduring than pleasure. Enjoyment suggests a wide range of deep pleasure, from merely transient though complete gratification to deep-seated happiness. Delectation (which is from the Latin word for "delight") suggests a reaction to pleasurable experience consciously sought or provided. More than all the others, it connotes mere amusement or diversion. 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 October 27, 2015 is: slapstick • \SLAP-stick\ • noun 1 : a device made of two flat pieces of wood fastened at one end so as to make a loud noise when used by an actor to strike a person 2 : comedy stressing farce and horseplay; also : activity resembling slapstick Examples: Wally doesn't care much for contemporary comedy, instead preferring the slapstick of the Three Stooges. "Lane, a 28-year-old actor, portrays Wisdom in a … play about the comedian's troubled early life and rise to fame as Britain's best-loved comic of the 1950s and 1960s—a master of slapstick and pathos once praised by Charlie Chaplin as his favourite clown." — Richard Blackmore, The Independent (London), 13 Sept. 2015 Did you know? The idea that knocking people about made for good comedy dates as far back as the Greco-Roman theater, where clowns rambunctiously "attacked" one another onstage. The object from which the word slapstick derives, however, was invented in Italy in the 16th century. Renaissance comedy typically featured stock characters placed in ridiculous situations, and one such ubiquitous character was Harlequin, whose brilliant costuming made him easily recognizable. Harlequin was given to wielding a paddle which was designed to make a terrible noise when he hit someone, usually to the delight of the audience. This paddle was eventually known in English as a slapstick, and it became a symbol of that type of highly physical comedy. The word slapstick then came to refer to the comedy 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 October 26, 2015 is: victual • \VIT-ul\ • noun 1 : food usable by people 2 : (plural) supplies of food Examples: The small grocery on the corner sells meat, bread, fruit, and other victuals at prices that rival those of the big supermarkets. "Always popular was the man who comes every year to sell gourmet dog food. His booth attracts hundreds who want their canines to have the very best and most attractive victuals, and this year was no exception." — Chris Barber, The Daily Local News (West Chester, Pennsylvania), 12 Sept. 2015 Did you know? If you're hungry for the story behind victual, get ready to dig into a rich and fulfilling history. The word derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from the Latin noun victus, meaning "nourishment" or "way of living." Victus derives from the verb vivere, which means "to live" and which is the source of a whole smorgasbord of other English words like vital, vivid, and survive. It's also the root of viand, another English word referring to food. There's also vittles, a word that sounds like it might be an alteration of the plural victuals but which actually entered English a century before victual. 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 October 25, 2015 is: impeccable • \im-PECK-uh-bul\ • adjective 1 : not capable of sinning or liable to sin 2 : free from fault or blame : flawless Examples: Although the restaurant was a bit expensive, we found its memorable cuisine, luxurious decor, and impeccable service to be well worth the price. "When it comes to keeping the home sealed and operational, it's best to hire skilled contractors with impeccable references who are licensed to do what is needed…." — Brett J. West, The Chicago Tribune, 16 Aug. 2015 Did you know? The word impeccable has been used in English since at least 1531. It derives from the Latin word impeccabilis, a combination of the Latin prefix in-, meaning "not," and the verb peccare, meaning "to sin." Peccare has other descendants in English. There is peccadillo, meaning "a slight offense," and peccant, meaning "guilty of a moral offense" or simply "faulty." There is also peccavi, which comes from Latin, where it literally means "I have sinned," and which is used in English as a noun meaning "an acknowledgment of 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 October 24, 2015 is: flimflam • \FLIM-flam\ • verb : to subject to a deception or fraud Examples: The people behind the e-mail scam tried to flimflam unsuspecting users into giving out their credit card information and Social Security numbers. "Dozens of Central New Yorkers were flimflammed into investing in a dying company because they were fed false information about its financial condition, a federal lawsuit says." — John O'Brien, The Post Standard (Syracuse, New York), 2 May 2015 Did you know? English is full of words concerned with trickery and deception, ranging from the colorful flimflam, bamboozle, and hornswoggle to the more mundane deceive, mislead, and delude. Flimflam first entered English as a noun meaning "deceptive nonsense" in the 16th century. A sense meaning "deception" or "fraud" soon developed. The verb use didn't show up until well into the next century. In addition to general deceiving or tricking, the verb flimflam is often used specifically to refer to swindling someone out of money. The ultimate origin of flimflam is uncertain, but the word is probably of Scandinavian origin and may be related to the Old Norse flim, meaning "mockery." 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 October 23, 2015 is: googol • \GOO-goll\ • noun : the figure 1 followed by 100 zeros equal to 10100 Examples: In January 1997, astronomers Fred Adams and Gregory Laughlin predicted that the universe would end in a number of years equal to approximately one googol. "Google spits out massive amounts of information. Even the name Google, a misspelling of 'googol'— the number one followed by 100 zeros—is innuendo, delivering a promise of massive amounts of results with each search." — Alexis Sobel Fitts, The Huffington Post, 25 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Around 1930, American mathematician Edward Kasner found himself working with numbers as large as 10 to the 100th power—that's a one followed by 100 zeroes. While it is possible to write that number using standard scientific notation, Dr. Kasner felt that it deserved a name of its own. According to his own account, Dr. Kasner asked his nine-year-old nephew, Milton Sirotta, to pick a name, promising the boy that he would use the word in the future. Milton made up the word googol, and so the enormous number was christened. Dr. Kasner kept his promise, and the word has spread and been widely adopted by mathematicians and the general public alike. 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 October 22, 2015 is: replete • \rih-PLEET\ • adjective 1 : fully or abundantly provided or filled 2 a : abundantly fed b : fat, stout 3 : complete Examples: The children were delighted to find that the costume trunk was replete with dresses, hats, capes, and all sorts of props to play make-believe. "While his sumptuous poetic language is replete with historical references and deeply philosophical turns, it is also studded with words and images from the inn and the countryside." — Michael Beckerman, The New York Times, 30 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Given that one of the roots of replete is the Latin verb plēre, meaning "to fill," it isn't surprising that the word has synonyms such as full and complete. Replete, full, and complete all indicate that something contains all that is wanted or needed or possible, but there are also subtle differences between the words. Full implies the presence or inclusion of everything that can be held, contained, or attained ("a full schedule"), while complete applies when all that is needed is present ("a complete picture of the situation"). Replete is the synonym of choice when fullness is accompanied by a sense of satiety. 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 October 21, 2015 is: nocebo • \noh-SEE-boh\ • noun : a harmless substance that when taken by a patient is associated with harmful effects due to negative expectations or the psychological condition of the patient Examples: "Medical researchers know about nocebos but are often at a loss how to deal with them. For example, it would be wrong not to tell people about possible side effects of a medicine, yet the more they are educated about side effects, the more side effects they will get." — Alan Christianson, The Huffington Post, 22 Apr. 2015 "For example: Nocebos can induce itch or pain in research subjects who believe that these will be the expected results. Interestingly, placebos and nocebos yield opposite effects upon levels of dopamine and opioid neurotransmitters in specific areas of the brain." — Dennis Rosen, The Pacific Standard, 9 Sept. 2014 Did you know? Nocent has been in the English language as a word for harmful since the 15th century. It comes from Latin nocēre, meaning "to harm." Latin nocebo is a close relative that means "I will be harmful" and that contrasts with placebo, meaning "I shall please." People in medicine began using placebo for inert preparations prescribed solely for a patient's mental relief, and not for relieving a disorder, in the late 18th century. As doctors began to observe the effects of placebos, some noticed that the harmless preparations actually sometimes caused detrimental effects on the patient's health. English speakers began using the word nocebo for substances causing such adverse reactions in patients in 1961. 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 October 20, 2015 is: capitulate • \kuh-PIH-chuh-layt\ • verb 1 : to surrender often after negotiation of terms 2 : to cease resisting : acquiesce Examples: The company capitulated to the labor union to avoid a strike. "All this cataclysmic destruction, aggression and resolute response—all this history—took place between Sept. 1, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland and that August day in 1945 when Emperor Hirohito of Japan capitulated." — The Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Capitulate and its synonyms yield, submit, and succumb all mean to give way to someone or something, with a few slight differences in emphasis. Yield may apply to any sort or degree of bowing to force, debate, or pleading ("yields too easily in any argument"). Submit suggests surrender, after resistance, to the will or control of another ("a sinner submitting to the will of God"). Succumb imputes weakness and helplessness to the person giving in, or an overwhelming power to the opposition ("succumbing to temptation"). Capitulate stresses the termination of all resistance and may imply either a coming to terms, as with an adversary, or hopelessness before an irresistible opposing force ("officials capitulated to the demands"). 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 October 19, 2015 is: oldster • \OHLD-ster\ • noun : an old or elderly person Examples: More and more oldsters are embracing the Internet and connecting and interacting using social media. "I once saw an actress in a period piece wake a snoozing oldster in the front row by tapping his bald head smartly with her fan." — Michael Feingold, Theater Mania, 4 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Youngster has been used since the 16th century as a word for a young person with a lot of spunk. It has also long been used by maritime people as a word for a midshipman who has served less than four years. This use is connected with the Dutch word younker, which, like youngster, refers to a young person as well as a young seaman. Oldster came about as a word used to differentiate the inexperienced midshipmen, or youngsters, from the experienced ones. To be exact, in maritime contexts, an oldster is a midshipman of four years' standing. Charles Dickens gets credit for the earliest known use of oldster in the general sense of "an old person." In his 1848 novel Dombey & Son he wrote, "Mr Dombey … said of Florence that her eyes would play the Devil with the youngsters before long—'and the oldsters too, Sir, if you come to that,' added the Major…." 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 October 18, 2015 is: blithesome • \BLYTHE-sum\ • adjective : gay, merry Examples: "… I had washed my being in the sunrise and felt as blithesome as the day." — Lucy Maud Montgomery, "A Correspondence and a Climax," 1905 "I remember a time when I could waltz directly through the double doors that lead to my children, but those blithesome days have passed." — Christine Cooper, The Morning News (Florence, South Carolina), 17 Dec. 2014 Did you know? Blithesome comes from blithe, a word that has been a part of English since before the 12th century. Blithe can mean "casual" and "heedless" as well as "joyful" and "lighthearted," but blithesome makes use of only the "joyful, lighthearted" sense. Blithesome didn't show up in print in English until the late 16th century, and is now relatively uncommon; you're most likely to come across it in literary contexts like the one in our first quote. In addition to L. M. Montgomery, such authors as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Herman Melville found it useful. 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 October 17, 2015 is: jurisprudence • \joor-us-PROO-dunss\ • noun 1 : the science or philosophy of law 2 a : a system or body of law b : the course of court decisions 3 : a department of law Examples: A basic premise of American jurisprudence is that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. "'The right to a lawyer is a pillar of American jurisprudence, but it's a right we've only had since 1963,' John Oliver explained on Sunday's Last Week Tonight." — Peter Weber, The Week (theweek.com), 14 Sept. 2015 Did you know? "For a farewell to our jurisprudent, I wish unto him the gladsome light of jurisprudence…." With this valedictory to English jurist Sir Thomas Littleton, another jurist, Sir Edward Coke, welcomed two new words into English. In 1628, his jurisprudence meant "knowledge of or skill in law," a now archaic sense that reflects the meaning of the word's root. Jurisprudence goes back to Latin prudentia juris (literally "skill in law"), from which was derived the Late Latin formation jurisprudentia, and subsequently our word. The noun jurisprudent means "one skilled in law"—in other words, a jurist. There's also jurisprude, a somewhat rare 20th-century back-formation created from jurisprudence with influence from prude. It means "one who makes ostentatious show of jurisprudential learning." 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 October 16, 2015 is: tremulous • \TREM-yuh-luss\ • adjective 1 : characterized by or affected with trembling or tremors 2 : affected with timidity : timorous 3 : such as is or might be caused by nervousness or shakiness 4 : exceedingly sensitive : easily shaken or disordered Examples: The piece begins with the tremulous tones of a violin coming from what sounds like a great distance. "After half a lifetime spent curating literary events, there is one audience question to which I remain violently allergic…. Up goes a diffident hand in the back row and a tremulous voice pipes up 'I just wonder if you could tell us where you get your ideas from?'" — Bert Wright, The Irish Times, 21 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Do you suspect that tremulous must be closely related to tremble? If so, there's no need to be tremulous in voicing your suspicion: both of those words derive from the Latin verb tremere, which means "to tremble." Some other English offspring of tremere are tremor, tremendous, temblor (another word for an earthquake), and tremolo (a term that describes a vibrating and quavering musical effect that was particularly popular for electric guitars and organs in the 1970s). 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 October 15, 2015 is: miasma • \mye-AZ-muh\ • noun 1 : a vaporous exhalation formerly believed to cause disease; also : a heavy vaporous emanation or atmosphere 2 : an influence or atmosphere that tends to deplete or corrupt; also : an atmosphere that obscures : fog Examples: "A local photographer graciously let me borrow a good lens-cleaning cloth, which I used repeatedly in the swirling miasma of mist and rain." — Clark Fair, The Alaska Dispatch News, 13 Sept. 2015 "Economists say Greece, which had only started to recover from a grinding five-year recession, risks a relapse because of the miasma of financial uncertainty." — Jack Ewing and Liz Alderman, The New York Times, 7 May 2015 Did you know? Miasma entered English from New Latin in the mid-1600s and comes ultimately from the Greek miainein, meaning "to pollute." In notes taken during a voyage to South America on the HMS Beagle in the 1830s, Charles Darwin described an illness that he believed was caused by "miasma" emanating from stagnant pools of water. For him, miasma meant an invisible emanation of "infecting substances floating in the air … considered to be noxious to health," as defined in Noah Webster's 1828 An American Dictionary of the English Language. Nowadays, we know germs are the source of infection, so we aren't likely to use the unscientific miasma this way. But while Darwin was out to sea, broader applications of miasma were just starting to spread. Now the term is used for something destructive or demoralizing that surrounds or permeates. 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 October 14, 2015 is: affluent • \AF-loo-unt\ • adjective 1 : flowing in abundance 2 : having a generously sufficient and typically increasing supply of material possessions Examples: The town relies on its affluent part-time residents—those who arrive when the local mountains glisten with snow. "Fewer than 400 of the nation's most affluent families have supplied almost half of the money raised so far by presidential candidates in both parties, according to a survey of federal campaign data by The Times." — The New York Times, 14 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Are your coffers overflowing? Is your cash flow more than adequate? Are your assets fluid? If so, you can consider yourself affluent. Today's word is all about flow—that is to say, it's based on the Latin word for "flow," which is fluere. (Some other fluere descendants are confluence, fluctuate, fluid, influence, mellifluous, and superfluous.) The older sense of affluent refers, both literally and figuratively, to an abundant flow, as in "an affluent fountain" or "affluent joy." The use of "affluent fortune" for an abundant flow of money is what likely led to the use of affluent as a synonym of wealthy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 13, 2015 is: proclivity • \proh-KLIV-uh-tee\ • noun : an inclination or predisposition toward something; especially : a strong inherent inclination toward something objectionable Examples: Martin's proclivity to lose his temper made him difficult to work with. "Neither graduated from high school nor had any engineering background. But [Wilbur and Orville Wright] had a crucial trait: a proclivity for tinkering." — Curt Schleier, The Investor's Business Daily, 4 Sept. 2015 Did you know? Have you always had this leaning toward wanting to know about words and their etymologies? Maybe you even have a propensity to use the featured word several times in the course of the day—due, of course, not to a proclivity for pretentiousness, but because you simply have a penchant for using a rich vocabulary. And perhaps you have a predilection for using lots of synonyms, such as proclivity (from clivus, the Latin word for "slope"), referring to a tendency usually toward something bad; propensity, suggesting an often uncontrollable inclination; penchant, meaning an irresistible attraction; and predilection, which describes a strong liking derived from one's temperament. 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 October 12, 2015 is: delve • \DELV\ • verb 1 : to dig or labor with or as if with a spade 2 a : to make a careful or detailed search for information b : to examine a subject in detail Examples: "Of course, help yourself to whatever you like," Rosalie murmured vaguely before delving back into her book. "Laura M R Harrison's video sequences will use darkness and water to delve into the idea of being psychologically lost and the ways in which we consider the unknown." — Becky Henrys, Cumbria Live (Cumbria, England), 21 Aug. 2015 Did you know? We must dig deep into the English language's past to find the origins of delve. The verb traces to the 9th-century Old English word delfan and is related to the Old High German word telban, meaning "to dig." For some 400 years, there was only delving—no digging—because dig didn't exist until the 13th century. Is the phrase "dig and delve" (as in the line "eleven, twelve, dig and delve," from the nursery rhyme that begins "one, two, buckle my shoe") redundant? Not necessarily. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in some local uses as recently as the late 19th century, dig was the term for working with a mattock (a tool similar to an adze or a pick), while delve was reserved for work done using a spade. 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 October 11, 2015 is: luminary • \LOO-muh-nair-ee\ • noun 1 : a person of prominence or brilliant achievement 2 : a body that gives light; especially : one of the celestial bodies Examples: The marble wall facing the entrance to the school's science building is engraved with the names of luminaries from the fields of chemistry, physics, and biology. "I chose the 350-seat grand dining room of the Ahwahnee Hotel, built in 1926 and now a national landmark. Many luminaries have stayed there including Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. presidents and their families." — Tom Marshall, The Naples (Florida) Daily News, 9 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Allow us to shed some light on luminary. It came to English by way of Anglo-French and Late Latin, and it traces back to the Latin word lumen, meaning "light." Other lumen descendants in English include illuminate ("to light up"), luminous ("emitting light") and phillumenist ("one who collects matchbooks or matchbox labels"). Luminary has been shining its light in English since the 15th 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 October 10, 2015 is: wooden • \WOOD-un\ • adjective 1 : made or consisting of wood 2 : lacking ease or flexibility : awkwardly stiff Examples: In the early days of basketball, baskets were often attached to balconies over which interfering spectators could lean—until wooden backboards made that interference impossible. "Nick … is a fascinatingly flawed and sometimes explosive good-guy personality with his own demons. It's this deep character development … that distinguishes this novel from those in which wooden characters are only there to move the plot along." — Nancy Ward, The Alaska Dispatch News, 23 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there was an English language, but the adjectival use of wood didn't come into being until the 14th century, and wooden didn't appear until the 16th. (The word wood has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Middle English, the adjective of choice was tree or treen, as in a "tree vessel" or "treen shoes." Treen in turn came from the Old English word trēowen, from the noun trēow ("tree") and the suffix -en, which was used to indicate that something was composed of a certain material. As far as we know, no one ever used treen figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but wooden was put to broader use soon after it was first recorded. 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 October 9, 2015 is: incidence • \IN-suh-dunss\ • noun 1 a : [angle of incidence](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/angle of incidence) b : the arrival of something (such as a projectile or a ray of light) at a surface 2 a : an act or the fact or manner of falling upon or affecting : occurrence b : rate of occurrence or influence Examples: The neighborhood boasts excellent schools and a low incidence of crime. "[Meditation] may also help people with insomnia and lower the incidence, duration, and severity of acute respiratory illnesses, such as influenza.…" — Alexia Severson, The Las Cruces (New Mexico) Sun-News, 4 Sept. 2015 Did you know? The words incident, incidence, and instance may seem similar (and, in fact, incident and incidence are closely related), but they are not used identically. In current use, incidence usually means "rate of occurrence" and is often qualified in some way ("a high incidence of diabetes"). Incident usually refers to a particular event, often something unusual or unpleasant ("many such incidents go unreported"). Instance suggests a particular occurrence that is offered as an example ("another instance of bureaucratic bumbling"); it can also be synonymous with case ("many instances in which the wrong form was submitted"). The plural incidences sometimes occurs in such contexts as "several recent incidences of crime," but this use is often criticized as incorrect. 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 October 8, 2015 is: manqué • \mahng-KAY (the "ng" is not pronounced, but the preceding vowel i\ • adjective : short of or frustrated in the fulfillment of one's aspirations or talents -- used postpositively Examples: Natalie is an actress manqué who moved to New York 10 years ago and is still looking for her first big break. "At the center of the author's examination is Alexander Popper, a fiction writer manqué … reluctant law-school graduate who winds up handling misdemeanor cases for the Cook County Public Defender." — The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, 27 Nov. 2011 Did you know? The etymology of manqué is likely to vex left-handers. English speakers picked up manqué directly from French more than two centuries ago, and it ultimately comes from Latin manco, meaning "having a crippled hand." But in between the Latin and French portions of this word's history came the Italian word manco, which means both "lacking" and "left-handed." Lefties may be further displeased to learn that manqué isn't the only English word with a history that links left-handedness with something undesirable. For example, the word awkward comes from awke, a Middle English word meaning both "turned the wrong way" and "left-handed." And the noun gawk ("a clumsy stupid person") probably comes from a gawk that means "left-handed" in English dialect. 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 October 7, 2015 is: reprise • \rih-PREEZ\ • noun 1 : a recurrence, renewal, or resumption of an action 2 a : a musical repetition b : a repeated performance : repetition Examples: "Jo Anne Worley … returns to Palm Springs this weekend for a reprise of her music and comedy act, 'For the Love of Broadway,' at the Purple Room Restaurant & Stage." — Bruce Fessier, The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California), 1 Sept. 2015 "'Sing This All Together,' the album opener, is a ramshackle but charming number…. But the reprise at the end of the first side turns the tune inside out, a six-minute-plus psychedelic jam session preceding Mick Jagger's solo croon of the original melody." — Alex McCown, The A.V. Club (avclub.com), 24 Aug. 2015 Did you know? When reprise was first adopted into English in the 15th century, it referred to a deduction or charge made yearly out of a manor or estate (and was usually used in the plural form reprises). It probably won't surprise you, then, to learn that reprise comes from an Anglo-French word meaning "seizure, repossession, or expense." Eventually, reprise came to refer to any action that was repeated or resumed. A later sense, borrowed from modern French, applies to specific types of repetition in musical compositions and was eventually generalized to describe any subsequent and identical performance. It's possible, for example, to have a reprise of a television program or a book. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 6, 2015 is: xeric • \ZEER-ik\ • adjective : characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture Examples: She is a botanist who primarily studies deserts and xeric shrublands. "As water restrictions were enacted through the metro area, the Kentucky bluegrass in other parts of the park dried up, while the three display beds filled with xeric varieties that don't take much water flourished." — Austin Briggs, The Denver Post, 6 Aug. 2015 Did you know? By the late 1800s, botanists were using the terms xerophyte and xerophytic for plants that were well adapted for survival in dry environments. But some felt the need of a more generic word that included both animals and plants. In 1926 that group proposed using xeric (derived from xēros, the Greek word for “dry”) as a more generalized term for either flora or fauna. They further suggested that “xerophytic … be entirely abandoned as useless and misleading.” Not everyone liked the idea. In fact, the Ecological Society of America stated that xeric was “not desirable,” preferring terms such as arid. Others declared that xeric should refer only to habitats, not to organisms. Scientists used it anyway, and by the 1940s xeric was well documented in scientific literature. 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 October 5, 2015 is: bailiwick • \BAY-lih-wik\ • noun 1 : the office or jurisdiction of a bailiff 2 : a special domain Examples: Since the organization of the annual Halloween party is Rhonda's bailiwick, you'll have to let her know if you plan to bring something to the festivities this year. "The conventional wisdom is that young people no longer care enough to stand up for what is important; that the days of activism and protest have faded into the past, the bailiwick of aging hippies and activists." — The Easton (Massachusetts) Journal, 22 May 2015 Did you know? The first half of the word bailiwick comes from the Middle English word for "bailiff," in this case a term referring to a sheriff or chief officer of a town in medieval England, not the officer who assists today in U.S. courtrooms. Bailiff derives via Anglo-French from the Latin bajulare, meaning "to carry a burden." The second half of bailiwick comes from wik, a Middle English word for "dwelling place" or "village," which ultimately derived from the Latin vicus, meaning "village." (This root also gave us -wich and -wick, suffixes used in place names like Norwich and Warwick.) Although bailiwick dates from the 15th century, the "special domain" sense did not begin to appear in English until the middle of the 19th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 4, 2015 is: extradite • \EK-struh-dyte\ • verb : to send (one who has been accused of a crime) to another state or country for trial Examples: An alleged criminal is typically only extradited under the provisions of a treaty or statute, but a fugitive is occasionally surrendered by one state or country to another as an act of good will. "A spokesperson [for the U.S. State Department] said that since Zimbabwe and the United States signed an extradition treaty in 2000, neither nation has extradited anyone to the other." — Jennifer Bjorhus and Paul Walsh, The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 3 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Some countries have a tradition of extradition—a fact which might concern criminals. Likely of significantly less concern to most criminals is the fact that extradition and tradition are related; both come from the Latin verb tradere, which means "to hand over." (Think of a tradition as something handed over from one generation to the next.) Some other words that have been handed down from tradere include betray, traitor, and treason. 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 October 3, 2015 is: haplology • \hap-LAH-luh-jee\ • noun : contraction of a word by omission of one or more similar sounds or syllables Examples: The speech therapist assured the child's parents that "the tendency towards haplology will likely correct itself with age." "Haplology is responsible for a variety of forms found in rapid speech in English: not just probly, but also libry (library), nesry (necessary), interpretive (interpretative), and others." — Gretchen McCulloch, Slate.com, 4 Apr. 2014 Did you know? Try to say "pierced-ear earrings" three times fast. That exercise will demonstrate why haplology happens: sometimes it's just easier to drop a syllable and leave yourself with something that's easier to say (such as "pierced earrings"). American philologist Maurice Bloomfield recognized the tendency to drop one of a pair of similar syllables a little over a hundred years ago. He has been credited with joining the combining form hapl- or haplo- (meaning "single") with -logy (meaning "oral or written expression") to create haplology as a name for the phenomenon. Haplology is quite common in English, and often the contracted forms it generates spread into the written language. In fact, haplology played a role in naming the nation that is the cradle of English: England was condensed via haplology from Engla land. 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 October 2, 2015 is: spontaneous • \spahn-TAY-nee-us\ • adjective 1 : done, said, or produced freely and naturally 2 : arising from a momentary impulse 3 : produced without being planted or without human labor : indigenous 4 : acting or taking place without apparent external cause or influence Examples: Since childhood, Marie has been prone to spontaneous displays of affection. "Surveys show that visitors and New Yorkers aren't looking for Disneyland when they go to Times Square, which they want to remain spontaneous and a little crazy." — Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Spontaneous derives, via the Late Latin spontaneus, from the Latin sponte, meaning "of one's free will, voluntarily," and first appeared in English in the mid-17th century. Thomas Hobbes was an early adopter: he wrote that "all voluntary actions … are called also spontaneous, and said to be done by man's own accord" in his famous 1656 The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance. Today the word is more often applied to things done or said in a natural and often sudden way, without a lot of thought or planning—or to people who do or say things in such a way. 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 October 1, 2015 is: consternation • \kahn-ster-NAY-shun\ • noun : amazement or dismay that hinders or throws into confusion Examples: To the consternation of her students, Mrs. Jennings gave a pop quiz on the first Friday of the school year. "A [Russian] law that obliged bloggers to register with the government caused consternation last year…." — Sam Schechner and Olga Razumovskaya, The Wall Street Journal, 31 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Wonder what the seemingly dissimilar words prostrate ("stretched out with face on the ground"), stratum ("layer"), and stratus ("a low cloud form extending over a large area") have in common with consternation? They are all thought to share the Latin ancestor sternere, meaning "to spread" or "to strike or throw down." Much to our consternation, we cannot make that sentence definitive: while prostrate, stratum, and stratus are clearly the offspring of sternere, etymologists will only go so far as to say that consternation comes from Latin consternare—and that they have a strong suspicion that consternare is another descendent of sternere. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 30, 2015 is: paroxysm • \PAIR-uk-sih-zum\ • noun 1 : a fit, attack, or sudden increase or recurrence of symptoms (as of a disease) : convulsion 2 : a sudden violent emotion or action : outburst Examples: Though he seldom loses his temper, his occasional and unpredictable paroxysms of anger are legendary among his colleagues. "Today, for National Hot Dog Month, I rank the 25 best hot dog places in the state…. Hot dog purists may go into pickle-fueled paroxysms of paranoia, aghast that several legends … are not on this list." — Peter Genovese, The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), 27 July 2015 Did you know? Paroxysm didn't just burst onto the scene recently; its roots go back to ancient Greek. The word ultimately derives from the Greek paroxynein, which means "to stimulate." Oxynein, a parent of paroxynein, means "to provoke" or "to sharpen" and comes from oxys, a Greek word for "sharp." (That root also underlies the word oxygen.) In its earliest known English uses in the 15th century, paroxysm denoted agitation or intensification of a disease or its symptoms. (A still-used example of that sense is "a paroxysm of coughing.") Additionally, paroxysm soon took on a broader sense referring to an outburst, especially a dramatic physical or emotional one. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 29, 2015 is: askew • \uh-SKYOO\ • adjective : out of line : awry Examples: He said he was fine but he looked as if he'd been in a fight: his hair and clothes were disheveled and his glasses were askew on the bridge of his nose. "Even so, the impact of the collision damaged the interior wall of the building and sent post office boxes askew." — Jon Johnson, The Eastern Arizona Courier (Safford, Arizona), 17 Aug. 2015 Did you know? It's believed that askew was formed simply by attaching the prefix a- (meaning, among other things, "in (such) a state or condition") to skew. The word skew, which derives via Middle English from Anglo-French eschiver, meaning "to escape or avoid," can be a verb, adjective, or noun. But at the time of the first appearance of askew in English, in the middle of the 16th century, skew had only been established as a verb meaning "to take an oblique course or direction." At least one etymologist has suggested that askew might have been influenced by an Old Norse phrase, and that the same phrase might have also given us askance. In the past, askew was used synonymously with askance, as in "She looked at me askew after my ill-timed joke." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 28, 2015 is: vilipend • \VIL-uh-pend\ • verb 1 : to hold or treat as of little worth or account : contemn 2 : to express a low opinion of : disparage Examples: As a women's movement pioneer, Susan B. Anthony fought against the dicta of those who would vilipend women by treating them as second-class citizens. "Most people who retire do so after having invested multiple years in employment…. Most are on fixed incomes with tight budgets, hoping for good health and years of stress-free happiness. To vilipend them about their choice of not working, even if they are healthy enough, is just not fair." — John F. Sauers, letter in The Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, 26 June 2005 Did you know? Vilipend first appeared in English in the 15th century and had its heyday during the 19th century—being found in the works of such well-known authors as Sir Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray, and George Meredith—but it fell into relative obscurity by the 20th century. The word comes to us through French from the Latin roots vilis, meaning "cheap" or "vile," and pendere, meaning "to weigh" or "to estimate." These roots work in tandem to form a meaning of "to deem to be of little worth." Each has contributed separately to some other common English words. Other vilis offspring include vile and vilify, while pendere has spawned such terms as append, expend, and dispense. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 27, 2015 is: catbird seat • \KAT-berd-SEET\ • noun : a position of great prominence or advantage Examples: Susan found herself sitting in the catbird seat with lucrative offers from three potential employers in front of her. "For the first time since the economic recovery began six years ago, white-collar professionals with specialized skills in fields like technology, finance, engineering and software find themselves in the catbird seat." — Nelson D. Schwartz, The New York Times, 25 July 2015 Did you know? "In the catbird seat" was among the numerous folksy expressions that legendary baseball broadcaster Red Barber used to delight listeners. Some say he invented the expression; others say that he dug it up from his Southern origins. But the truth may be far stranger than those rumors. In a 1942 short story titled "The Catbird Seat," James Thurber featured a character, Mrs. Barrows, who liked to use the phrase. Another character, Joey Hart, explained that Mrs. Barrows must have picked up the expression from Red Barber. To Red, according to Joey, "sitting in the catbird seat" meant "'sitting pretty,' like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him." But, according to Barber's daughter, it was only after Barber read Thurber's story that he started using "in the catbird seat" himself. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 26, 2015 is: limpid • \LIM-pid\ • adjective 1 a : marked by transparency : pellucid b : clear and simple in style 2 : absolutely serene and untroubled Examples: From where we stood we could see the glimmer of coins settled at the bottom of the limpid fountain. "He could converse—and converse easily, naturally, with idiom and parlance and a certain nonchalance—on all sorts of subjects: Tony Blair's earnest righteousness, Timberland boots, the limpid prose of Bruce Chatwin." — Wendell Steavenson, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Since the early 1600s, limpid has been used in English to describe things that have the soft clearness of pure water. The aquatic connection is not incidental; language scholars believe that limpid probably traces to lympha, a Latin word meaning "water." That same Latin root is also the source of the word lymph, the English name for the pale liquid that helps maintain the body's fluid balance and that removes bacteria from tissues. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 25, 2015 is: morpheme • \MOR-feem\ • noun : a distinctive collocation of phonemes (such as the free form pin or the bound form -s of pins) having no smaller meaningful parts Examples: The word "laughed" is made up of two morphemes: "laugh" and the past-tense morpheme "-ed." "English requires its speakers to grammatically mark events that are ongoing, by obligatorily applying the -ing morpheme: 'I am playing the piano and I cannot come to the phone' or 'I was playing the piano when the phone rang.' German doesn’t have this feature." — Panos Athanasopoulos, Business Insider, 4 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Morphemes are the indivisible basic units of language, much like the atoms which physicists once assumed were the indivisible units of matter. English speakers borrowed morpheme from French morphème, which was itself created from the Greek root morphē, meaning "form." The French borrowed -ème from their word phonème, which, like English phoneme, means "the smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word different from another word." The French suffix and its English equivalent -eme are used to create words that refer to distinctive units of language structure. Words formed from -eme include lexeme ("a meaningful linguistic unit that is an item in the vocabulary of a language"), grapheme ("a unit of a writing system"), and toneme ("a unit of intonation in a language in which variations in tone distinguish meaning"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 24, 2015 is: timeless • \TYME-luss\ • adjective 1 a : having no beginning or end : eternal b : not restricted to a particular time or date 2 : not affected by time : ageless Examples: Fashion experts say that a black dress worn with a strand of pearls is timeless. "That song's timeless mix of celebration and longing served as an ideal segue to the Kentucky-bred songwriter's set, which mixed pain with immediate pleasure and ultimate rewards in an intoxicating way." — Patrick Foster, The Washington Post, 22 Aug. 2015 Did you know? "Time is money." "Time is the great physician." "Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations." Everyone seems to know what time is, but what does it mean to be "timeless"—that is, "without time"? Until around the turn of the 20th century, timeless was sometimes used to mean "untimely" or "premature," as in "he met his timeless end." That usage, which dates back to the late 16th century, is now considered archaic, but an equally venerable sense, "eternal" or "having no beginning or end," has proven more enduring. The two remaining senses are somewhat newer. The "not restricted to a particular time or date" meaning dates to the mid-18th century, while the most modern meaning—"ageless"—didn't exist until just before the turn of the 20th century. (By the way, the quotations we started with came from Benjamin Franklin, British statesman Benjamin Disraeli, and American writer Faith Baldwin, respectively.) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 23, 2015 is: equinox • \EE-kwuh-nahks\ • noun 1 : either of the two points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic 2 : either of the two times each year (as about March 21 and September 23) when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are everywhere on earth of approximately equal length Examples: Though many in the U.S. and Canada consider summer to end on Labor Day, the autumnal equinox, which falls on September 22nd or 23rd (and the latter in 2015), marks the true beginning of autumn. "In between the solstices are the equinoxes, when the Sun reaches its midpoint in the sky and the day has an equal amount of daylight and darkness." — Kevin Schindler, The Arizona Daily Sun, 1 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Equinox descends from aequus, the Latin word for "equal," and nox, the Latin word for "night"—a fitting history for a word that describes days of the year when the daytime and nighttime are equal in length. In the northern hemisphere, the vernal equinox marks the first day of spring and occurs when the sun moves north across the equator. (Vernal comes from the Latin word ver, meaning "spring.") The autumnal equinox marks the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere and occurs when the sun crosses the equator going south. In contrast, a solstice is either of the two moments in the year when the sun's apparent path is farthest north or south from the equator. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 22, 2015 is: binary • \BYE-nuh-ree\ • adjective 1 : consisting of two things or parts 2 : relating to, being, or belonging to a number system having 2 as its base 3 : involving a choice between or condition of two alternatives only (such as on-off or yes-no) Examples: Brass is a binary alloy, having the two metallic elements copper and zinc. "NASA's New Horizons is described as a mission to Pluto, but one of the reasons the dwarf planet is so fascinating to scientists is that it's part of the only known binary planet system in our solar system." — Karen Kaplan, The Los Angeles Times, 15 July 2015 Did you know? As the old children's song goes, "The animals went in two by two, the elephant and the kangaroo…." It was a binary parade of sorts that went into Noah's ark "for to get out of the rain"—the critters were represented in pairs. If you recall those doubled up beasts, you'll remember the etymology of binary because it traces to the Latin bini, which translates as "two by two." Although binary can be used for anything with two parts, it is now used especially in relation to computers and information processing. Digital computers use the binary number system, which includes only the digits 0 and 1, to process even complex data. In binary form, for instance, the word HELLO looks like this: 01001000 01000101 01001100 01001100 01001111. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.