Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 5, 2015 is: ilk • \ILK\ • noun : sort, kind Examples: The hole beneath the stairs of the cabin's porch allows in squirrels, woodchucks, and other creatures of that ilk. "In many parts of the world, anyone who will ever buy a smartphone probably has done so, and now we're on to the steady business of buying a new one only when we break, lose, or need to replace our old phones. When analysts discuss growth predictions for cell phones and their ilk, they signal nothing but caution." - Lindsey Turrentine, CNET, February 6, 2015 Did you know? The Old English pronoun ilca is the predecessor of the modern noun ilk, but by way of a pronoun ilk that does not exist in most dialects of modern English. That ilk is synonymous with same, and persists in Scots where it's used in the phrase "of that ilk," meaning "of the same place, territorial designation, or name." It is used chiefly in reference to the names of land-owning families and their eponymous estates, as in "the Guthries of that ilk," which means "the Guthries of Guthrie." Centuries ago a misunderstanding arose concerning the Scots phrase: it was interpreted as meaning "of that kind or sort," a usage that found its way into modern English. Ilk has been established in English with its current meaning and part of speech since the late 18th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 4, 2015 is: sprightly • \SPRYTE-lee\ • adjective 1 : marked by a cheerful lightness and vivacity (as of movement or manner) : spirited 2 : having a distinctively piquant taste Examples: Uncle Jack, a sprightly man nearing 90, was an avid storyteller, and we all listened with rapt attention as he regaled us with his newest tale. "The somber, pensive orchestral prelude to Act III was magnificent…. And Mr. Levine actually seemed to gain energy during the long final scene in the meadow, with the sprightly country dances and celebratory marches." - Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, December 3, 2014 Did you know? Sprightly comes from spright, an archaic version of the word we now use for an elf or fairy: sprite. Ariel from Shakespeare's The Tempest and the leprechaun of Irish mythology are often referred to as sprites, and it's no coincidence that both are characterized by their light, flitting movements and mannerisms. Sprite derives via Middle English and Old French from the Latin spiritus, which of course gives us spirit as well. A similar-looking adjective that can describe someone who is nimble and energetic is spry, but that word is believed to be of Scandinavian origin. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 3, 2015 is: thanatology • \than-uh-TAH-luh-jee\ • noun : the description or study of the phenomena of death and of psychological mechanisms for coping with them Examples: One of the seminal texts on thanatology is Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying, which outlines the five stages of grief. "In her eight-week yoga for grief course, Stang … uses her background in thanatology-the scientific study of death, dying and bereavement-to educate participants about death and normalize their experiences." - Anna Medaris Miller, U.S. News & World Report, January 7, 2015 Did you know? In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death and the twin brother of Hypnos (Sleep). The ancient Greeks eventually came to use thanatos as a generic word for "death." Thanatology is a direct linguistic heir of the Greek term and was first documented in English in the mid-1800s. As a science, thanatology examines attitudes toward death, the meaning and behaviors of bereavement and grief, and other matters. In 1935, the word thanatos itself made its debut in English, ushered in with psychoanalytic theory to describe an unconscious tendency toward self-destruction. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 2, 2015 is: chatoyant • \shuh-TOY-unt\ • adjective : having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light Examples: "Suddenly he felt himself again in Carthage. There was a river there, too: not a little bolt of chatoyant silk like the Avon, which they would have called a 'crick' back there." - Rupert Hughes, "Momma" And Other Unimportant People, 1920 "They had interesting rocks, everything from Texas Hill Country caliche and an agate found in a gravel parking lot to a trilobite fossil and slice of chatoyant tiger's eye from Colorado." - Tommy Simmons, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), September 2, 2010 Did you know? The complex structure of a cat's eye not only enables it to see at night but also gives it the appearance of glowing in the dark. Not surprisingly, jewels that sport a healthy luster are often compared with the feline ocular organ, so much that the term cat's-eye is used to refer to those gems (such as chalcedony) that give off iridescence from within. If you've brushed up on your French lately, you might notice that the French word for cat (chat) provides the first four letters of chatoyant, a word used by jewelers to describe such lustrous gems (and by others who see the same luster elsewhere). Chatoyant derives from the present participle of chatoyer, a French verb that literally means "to shine like a cat's eyes." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 1, 2015 is: macaroni • \mak-uh-ROH-nee\ • noun 1 : pasta made from semolina and shaped in the form of slender tubes 2 : an affected young man : fop Examples: One of Tracy's favorite comfort foods is homemade macaroni and cheese. "He had been a macaroni of the eighteenth century, and the friend, in his youth, of Lord Ferrars." - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Did you know? As you may have suspected, the macaroni in the song "Yankee Doodle" is not the familiar food. The feather in Yankee Doodle's cap apparently makes him a macaroni in the now rare "fop" or "dandy" sense. The sense appears to have originated with a club established in London by a group of young, well-traveled Englishmen in the 1760s. The founders prided themselves on their appearance, sense of style, and manners, and they chose the name Macaroni Club to indicate their worldliness. Because macaroni was, at the time, a new and rather exotic food in England, the name was meant to demonstrate how stylish the club's members were. The members were themselves called macaronis, and eventually macaroni became synonymous with dandy and fop. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 28, 2015 is: pontificate • \pahn-TIF-uh-kayt\ • verb 1 a : to officiate as a pontiff b : to celebrate pontifical mass 2 : to speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way Examples: Stan loves to hear himself talk and will often pontificate on even the most trivial issues. "Though the game was another dud-a Patriots' blowout of the hapless Colts-sports columnists worldwide were given a unique chance to pontificate on, of all things, the air pressure of footballs." - Shelly Griffith, Daily Post-Athenian (Athens, Tennessee), January 30, 2015 Did you know? In ancient Rome, the pontifices were powerful priests who administered the part of civil law that regulated relationships with the deities recognized by the state. Their name, pontifex, derives from the Latin words pons, meaning "bridge," and facere, meaning "to make," and some think it may have developed because the group was associated with a sacred bridge over the river Tiber (although there is no proof of that). With the rise of Catholicism, the title pontifex was transferred to the Pope and to Catholic bishops. Pontificate derives from pontifex, and in its earliest English uses it referred to things associated with such prelates. By the late 1800s, pontificate was also being used derisively for individuals who spoke as if they had the authority of an ecclesiastic. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 27, 2015 is: rationale • \rash-uh-NAL\ • noun 1 : an explanation of controlling principles of opinion, belief, practice, or phenomena 2 : an underlying reason : basis Examples: The newspaper's editorial reflected the concerns of many who questioned the rationale behind the mayor's decision. "… the sacred trust that elected officials will share all options they've explored, identify the ones they haven't, and share the rationale behind their decisions." - Robert F. Walsh, Stratford (Connecticut) Star, January 29, 2015 Did you know? The word rationale appeared in the second half of the 17th century, just in time for the Age of Reason. It is based on the Latin ratio, which means "reason," and rationalis, which means "endowed with reason." At first, rationale meant "an explanation of controlling principles" ("a rationale of religious practices," for example), but soon it began to refer to the underlying reason for something (as in "the rationale for her behavior"). The latter meaning is now the most common use of the term. The English word ratio can also mean "underlying reason" (in fact, it had this meaning before rationale did), but in current use, that word more often refers to the relationship (in number, quantity, or degree) between things. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2015 is: captious • \KAP-shuss\ • adjective 1 : marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections 2 : calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument Examples: Befuddled by the captious question, the suspect broke down and confessed to the crime. "During the past 15 years Mr. Maxwell has established himself as one of the few sui generis voices in experimental theater, and like all truly original talents, he has been subject to varied and captious interpretations." - Ben Brantley, New York Times, October 24, 2012 Did you know? If you suspect that captious is a relative of capture and captivate, you're right. All of those words are related to the Latin verb capere, which means "to take." The direct ancestor of captious is captio, a Latin offspring of capere, which literally means "a taking" but which was also used to mean "a deception" or "a sophistic argument." Arguments labeled "captious" are likely to capture you in a figurative sense; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who you might also dub "hypercritical," the sort of carping, censorious critic only too ready to point out minor faults or raise objections on trivial grounds. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 25, 2015 is: gourmand • \GOOR-mahnd\ • noun 1 : one who is excessively fond of eating and drinking 2 : one who is heartily interested in good food and drink Examples: Uncle Gerald was a bit of a gourmand; he traveled far and wide to the finest restaurants and always remembered to bring his appetite. "The dish that caused the grizzled old gourmands at my table to put down their forks in wonder, however, was a helping of dark, softly gnarled sunchokes, which Kornack cooks to a kind of sweetbread tenderness, then plates over a freshly whipped chestnut purée with disks of shaved truffles and the faintest exotic hint of eucalyptus." - Adam Platt, New York Magazine, December 29, 2014 Did you know? "What God has plagu'd us with this gormaund guest?" As this exasperated question from Alexander Pope's 18th-century translation of Homer's Odyssey suggests, being a gourmand is not always a good thing. When gourmand began appearing in English texts in the 15th century, it was a decidedly bad thing, a synonym of glutton that was reserved for a greedy eater who consumed well past satiation. That negative connotation mostly remained until English speakers borrowed the similar-sounding (and much more positive) gourmet from French in the 19th century. Since then, the meaning of gourmand has softened so that although it still isn't wholly flattering, it now suggests someone who likes good food in large quantities rather than a slobbering glutton. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 24, 2015 is: thrasonical • \thray-SAH-nih-kul\ • adjective : of, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of Thraso : bragging, boastful Examples: "There was never any thing so sudden but the fight of two rams and Caesar's thrasonical brag of 'I came, saw, and overcame'…." - William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1623 "After pages of thrasonical twaddle sprinkled with fawning photos, charts and esoteric columns of numbers I learned only of the flawless perfection of the university...." - Peter B. Fletcher, Ann Arbor (Michigan) News, December 16, 2003 Did you know? Thraso was a blustering old soldier in the comedy Eunuchus, a play written by the great Roman dramatist Terence more than 2,000 years ago. Terence is generally remembered for his realistic characterizations, and in Thraso he created a swaggerer whose vainglorious boastfulness was not soon to be forgotten. Thraso's reputation as a braggart lives on in thrasonical, a word that boasts a 450-year history as an English adjective. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 23, 2015 is: acumen • \uh-KYOO-mun\ • noun : keenness and depth of perception, discernment, or discrimination especially in practical matters Examples: Detective Morton possesses a superior acumen that enables him to solve the most bizarre and puzzling of mysteries. "[Suzanne] Isken says the pieces on display fall in the category of fine art based on their technical acumen and their ability to push aesthetic boundaries and upend accepted themes of the traditional medium." - Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2015 Did you know? A keen mind and a sharp wit can pierce the soul as easily as a needle passes through cloth. Remember the analogy between a jabbing needle and piercing perception, and you will readily recall the history of acumen. Our English word retains the spelling and figurative meaning of its direct Latin ancestor, a term that literally meant "point." Latin acumen traces to the verb acuere, which means "to sharpen" and derives from acus, the Latin word for "needle." In its first known English uses in the 1500s, acumen referred specifically to a sharpness of wit. In modern English, it conveys the sense that someone is perceptive enough to grasp a situation quickly and clever enough to use it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 22, 2015 is: lampoon • \lam-POON\ • verb : to make the subject of a satire : ridicule Examples: Trevor writes for a humor Web site that lampoons celebrities from film, music, and television. "One has to be just a hair off center to fully appreciate Portlandia. The Peabody Award-winning sketch comedy series lampoons the hipster lifestyle and stars Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen." - Michael Storey, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 8, 2015 Did you know? Lampoon can be a noun or a verb. The noun lampoon (meaning "satire" or, specifically, "a harsh satire usually directed against an individual") was first used in English in 1645. The verb followed about a decade later. The words come from the French lampon, which probably originated from lampons, the first person plural imperative of lamper ("to guzzle"). Lampons! (meaning "Let us guzzle!") is a frequent refrain in 17th-century French satirical poems. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 21, 2015 is: jeunesse dorée • \zheuh-ness-dor-RAY\ • noun : young people of wealth and fashion Examples: It was clear that the magazine was targeting the jeunesse dorée based on its ads for expensive trendy clothes and profiles of the hottest nightspots. "On a walk in Montreal's Little Burgundy neighborhood, the streets were quiet but inside restaurants were buzzing and the city's jeunesse dorée were shoulder-to-stylish-shoulder at gallery openings." - Christopher Muther, Boston Globe, October 18, 2014 Did you know? French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre and his allies, the Jacobins, gained many enemies for their role in the Reign of Terror. One of their fiercest opponents was Louis Freron, a former Jacobin who played a key role in overthrowing their government. On July 27, 1794, counter-revolutionaries toppled the Jacobin regime and had Robespierre arrested and executed. In the midst of the chaos that followed, Louis Freron organized gangs of fashionably dressed young toughs to terrorize the remaining Jacobins. French speakers called those stylish young thugs the jeunesse dorée-literally, the "gilded youth." By the time the term jeunesse dorée was adopted into English in the 1830s, it had lost its association with violent street gangs and simply referred to any wealthy young socialites. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2015 is: histrionic • \his-tree-AH-nik\ • adjective 1 : deliberately affected : theatrical 2 : of or relating to actors, acting, or the theater Examples: The candidate declared that he would not stoop to address his opponent's histrionic and patently untrue accusations. "When we listen in on one-sided telephone conversations in the movies, often the behavior is not quite human. Rather, it becomes an actor's showcase for histrionic tears or smiling through tears-a good old-fashioned wallow in capital-O Overacting." - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, January 16, 2015 Did you know? The term histrionic developed from histrio, Latin for "actor." Something that is histrionic tends to remind one of the high drama of stage and screen and is often stagy and over-the-top. It especially calls to mind the theatrical form known as melodrama, where plot and physical action, not characterization, are emphasized. But something that is histrionic isn't always overdone; the word can also describe actors, acting, or the theater, and in that sense it becomes a synonym of thespian. The related plural noun histrionics is similarly bifurcated. It can refer to either theatrical performances or to a deliberate display of emotion for effect. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2015 is: whammy • \WAM-ee\ • noun 1 a : a supernatural power bringing bad luck b : a magic curse or spell : jinx, hex 2 : a potent force or attack; specifically : a paralyzing or lethal blow Examples: After making three errors in one inning, Mitch became convinced that someone had put the whammy on his glove. "Finally, Finland is dealing with the double whammy of a loss of trade with Russia-after the European Union imposed Ukraine-related sanctions-and the decline of its golden goose, Nokia." - Michael Booth, Washington Post, January 18, 2015 Did you know? The origin of whammy is not entirely certain, but it is assumed to have been created by combining wham ("a solid blow") with the whimsical -y ending. The first example of whammy in print occurred in 1940, but the word was popularized in the 1950s by the cartoonist Al Capp in the comic strip Li'l Abner. The character Evil-Eye Fleegle could paralyze someone with the sheer power of his gaze. The "single whammy" was a look with one eye, and the fearsome "double whammy" used both eyes. As you may know, "double whammy" has also found a place in English as a general term. It means "a combination of two adverse forces, circumstances, or effects"-in other words, a one-two punch. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2015 is: vox populi • \VOKS-POP-yoo-lye\ • noun : popular sentiment Examples: "Social media is supposed to be an arena that amplifies the vox populi, that makes it easier to know what we the people think. But sometimes it seems as though social media only makes it easier to see what we the people are thinking about." - Kate Allen, Toronto Star, November 1, 2014 "Wheeler is moving forward with support from President Obama and from four million commenters to the FCC-a vox populi partly stirred to action by Oliver's viral HBO piece last summer on 'network neutrality,' the underlying principle that bars network owners from favoring one company's bits over another's." - Jeff Gelles, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 18, 2015 Did you know? Vox populi is a Latin phrase that literally translates as "the voice of the people." It can be found in the longer maxim, Vox populi, vox Dei, which means "The voice of the people is the voice of God." Many people think that expression means that the people are always right, but it really implies that the will of the masses-right or wrong-is often irresistible. Since the mid-1960s, English speakers, especially British ones, have trimmed vox populi down to the abbreviated form vox pop, an expression used particularly for popular opinion as it is used and expressed by the media. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 17, 2015 is: superfluous • \soo-PER-floo-us\ • adjective 1 : exceeding what is sufficient or necessary : extra 2 : not needed : unnecessary Examples: The textbook includes so much superfluous information that students often overlook key points. "Music director Anu Tali's clear direction, free of superfluous gestures, embodied the elegance that shone through, particularly in the increasingly polished blend of string sound that the orchestra has been producing." - Gayle Williams, Sarasota (Florida) Herald Tribune, January 11, 2015 Did you know? If you think that superfluous must mean "extra 'fluous,'" along the pattern of such words as superabsorbent and superabundant, you're not far off. Superfluous comes from the Latin adjective superfluus, meaning literally "running over" or "overflowing." Superfluus, in turn, derives from the combination of the prefix super- (meaning "over" or "more") and fluere, "to flow." (Fluere also gave us fluid, fluent, and influence, among others.) Since its first appearance in English in the 15th century, superfluous has referred to an "overflowing" of some supply, as of time or words, which hearkens back to its Latin origins. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 16, 2015 is: deflagrate • \DEF-luh-grayt\ • verb 1 : to burn rapidly with intense heat and sparks being given off 2 : to cause to burn in such a manner Examples: The city has banned fireworks and similar devices that deflagrate when lit. "'It wasn't a pipe bomb, it was a destructive device,' [Gage County Chief Deputy] Klaus said. 'It was poorly constructed and it actually just deflagrated, it didn't explode. It just burned at a rapid rate.'" - Luke Nichols, Beatrice (Nebraska) Daily Sun, June 9, 2010 Did you know? Deflagrate combines the Latin verb flagrare, meaning "to burn," with the Latin prefix de-, meaning "down" or "away." Flagrare is also an ancestor of such words as conflagration and flagrant and is distantly related to fulgent and flame. In the field of explosives, deflagrate is used to describe the burning of fuel accelerated by the expansion of gasses under the pressure of containment, which causes the containing vessel to break apart. In comparison, the term detonate (from the Latin tonare, meaning "to thunder") refers to an instant, violent explosion that results when shock waves pass through molecules and displace them at supersonic speed. Deflagrate has been making sparks in English since about 1727, and detonate burst onto the scene a couple of years later. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 15, 2015 is: overweening • \oh-ver-WEE-ning\ • adjective 1 : arrogant, presumptuous 2 : immoderate, exaggerated Examples: With her overweening ego, the actress expected to be recognized and flattered by everyone she met. "The idea that an overweening federal government is a threat to both freedom and equality (not to mention prosperity) goes back to Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and some other fairly respectable personages." - Jonathan Rauch, The New York Times, January 4, 2015 Did you know? "The overweening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities is an ancient evil remarked by the philosophers and moralists of all ages." So wrote Adam Smith in his The Wealth of Nations. But while overweening conceit might be an age-old evil, the word overweening has only been part of English since the 14th century. It developed from the Middle English *overwening, the present participle of the verb overwenen, which meant "to be arrogant." That term derived in turn from wenen, which meant "to think" or "to imagine." Today, the adjective overweening is the most widely used of the wenen descendants, but historical texts also occasionally include overween, a term for thinking too highly of your own opinion.* See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 14, 2015 is: folderol • \FAHL-duh-rahl\ • noun 1 : a useless ornament or accessory : trifle 2 : nonsense Examples: Stacy wanted nothing to do with the fuss and folderol of Valentine's Day and felt lucky that she had found in Lucas a partner who felt the same way. "We are overwhelmed with data from every quarter, and our capacity to filter fact from fraud is limited.… Men and women of good intent who simply seek 'the truth' upon which to base their opinions find themselves awash in folderol." - Doug McIntyre, Daily Beast, December 3, 2014 Did you know? Hogwash, claptrap, hooey, drivel, malarkey: English is rife with words that mean "nonsense," and folderol is one of the many. Though not the most common of the words for "nonsense," it's been around since 1820 and is still heard today. Folderol comes from fol-de-rol (or fal-de-ral), which used to be a nonsense refrain in songs, much like tra-la-la. The oldest recorded instance of someone "singing folderol" occurs in Irish dramatist George Farquhar's 1701 play Sir Harry Wildair, in which a character sings, "Fal, al, deral!" See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 13, 2015 is: untenable • \un-TEN-uh-bul\ • adjective 1 : not able to be defended 2 : not able to be occupied Examples: Faced with a budget deficit, the company’s CEO made the untenable decision to lay off several hundred workers while still making sure he received a salary bonus. "Where the piece is at its prickly best is in tracing the narrator's twisted reasoning as he tries to square his desire to continue his comfortable existence with his analysis that it is morally untenable…." - Sarah Hemming, Financial Times, January 19, 2015 Did you know? Untenable and its opposite tenable come to us from Old French tenir and ultimately from Latin tenēre, both of which mean "to hold." We tend to use untenable in situations where an idea or position is so off base that holding onto it is unjustified or inexcusable. One way to hold onto the meaning of untenable is to associate it with other tenēre descendants whose meanings are associated with "holding" or "holding onto." Tenacious ("holding fast") is one example. Others are contain, detain, sustain, maintain, and retain. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2015 is: xeriscape • \ZEER-uh-skayp\ • noun : a landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (such as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and efficient irrigation) Examples: The severe drought led to local water restrictions, and many people looked into xeriscape for the first time. "With the expertise of the Arlington Garden Club and the Arlington Conservation Council … there are some good xeriscape ideas for sprucing up the grounds." - Shirley Jinkins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 15, 2014 Did you know? Xēros is the Greek word for "dry" that is the base for a handful of English words related to mainly dry printing (xerography) and dry, or xerophilous, habitats and their plants. In the early 1980s, the Greek adjective was used to name a type of landscaping practiced primarily in the arid western regions of the United States. (The Water Department of Denver, Colorado, is credited with the word's coinage.) Xeriscape, as it is called, uses plants that require little water and techniques that efficiently use water and reduce evaporation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 11, 2015 is: poignant • \POY-nyunt\ • adjective 1 a : painfully or deeply affecting the feelings b : designed to make an impression : cutting 2 : being to the point : apt Examples: The shuttered storefronts along the city's Main Street serve as poignant reminders of the economic recession. "Before there was reality TV and social networks and surveillance cams everywhere in the world, Jim Carrey starred in this film about a man whose entire life is broadcast 24/7-but in his case, he doesn't know it. It has a lot to say about privacy, making it all the more poignant today." - Eric Griffith, PCMag.com, December 26, 2014 Did you know? Poignant comes to us from French, and before that from Latin-specifically, the Latin verb pungere, meaning "to prick or sting." Several other common English words derive from pungere, including pungent, which can refer, among other things, to a "sharp" odor. The influence of pungere can also be seen in puncture, as well as punctual, which originally meant simply "of or relating to a point." Even compunction and expunge come from this pointedly relevant Latin 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 February 10, 2015 is: eradicate • \ih-RAD-uh-kayt\ • verb 1 : to pull up by the roots 2 : to do away with as completely as if by pulling up by the roots Examples: The new mayor promised that his term in office would be devoted to reducing crime and eradicating homelessness throughout the city. "Countdown to Zero will show visitors how eradication efforts have broken devastating disease cycles. The successful fight against smallpox, led by intensive vaccination efforts, was followed by the vaccination campaign to eradicate polio, underway since 1988." - NJToday.com, January 6, 2015 Did you know? Given that eradicate first meant "to pull up by the roots," it's not surprising that the root of eradicate is, in fact, "root." Eradicate, which first turned up in English in the 16th century, comes from eradicatus, the past participle of the Latin verb eradicare. Eradicare, in turn, can be traced back to the Latin word radix, meaning "root" or "radish." Although eradicate began life as a word for literal uprooting, by the mid-17th century it had developed a metaphorical application to removing things the way one might yank an undesirable weed up by the roots. Other descendants of radix in English include radical and radish. Even the word root itself is related; it comes from the same ancient word that gave Latin radix. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 9, 2015 is: tantara • \tan-TAIR-uh\ • noun : the blare of a trumpet or horn Examples: A tantara announced the arrival of the Queen, and everyone snapped to attention. "… after restoring the tomb to its former condition, we returned to the palace. But hardly had we sat down ere we heard the … tantara of trumpets and clash of cymbals, and the rattling of war men's lances…." - Sir Richard Burton, The Arabian Nights, 1884-1886 Did you know? Tantara is a shortening of the Latin taratantara, an onomatopoetic word that in ancient times evoked the terrible sound of the war-trumpet. When tantara entered English in the 16th century, the sound it evoked was a merry one. "Tantara, tantara, the trumpets sound, / Which makes our hearte with joy abound," wrote Humphrey Gifford in 1580. Today, tantara is sometimes used as a synonym of fanfare, a word for a short, lively sound of trumpets that may also be onomatopoetic in origin. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 8, 2015 is: smarmy • \SMAR-mee\ • adjective 1 : revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness 2 : of low sleazy taste or quality Examples: The candidate came across as a bit smarmy during the interview. "'No Control' has some punk-rock flair, more so in spirit than in sound. It's a little messy and smarmy and rages admirably here and there." - Joey Guerra, Houston Chronicle, November 17, 2014 Did you know? Something smarmy will often ooze with self-satisfaction and insincerity. Much like its synonyms unctuous and slick, smarmy has a history that starts with a meaning of literal slipperiness or oiliness. The verb smarm appeared in English in the mid-19th century. Etymologists don't know where it came from, but they do know that it meant "to smear," "to gush," or sometimes "to make smooth or oily." A few decades later, the use of smarm was extended to sometimes mean "to use flattery." The adjective smarmy appeared in the early 20th century. At first meaning "insincerely flattering" or "smug," it later took on an additional meaning: "sleazy." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 7, 2015 is: diapason • \dye-uh-PAY-zun\ • noun 1 a : the principal foundation stop in the organ extending through the complete range of the instrument b : the entire range of musical tones 2 a : tuning fork b : a standard of pitch Examples: We knew the audience enjoyed Heather's stand-up comedy from the diapasons of laughter that erupted throughout her routine. "The programme, genially introduced by Peter King, showed us what a very fine sound the Klais [organ] can produce, played by a master. From the tinkling bells to the mighty diapason, it filled the Abbey with a wealth of tuneful lush harmony." - Peter Lloyd Williams, Bath (UK) Chronicle, May 19, 2014 Did you know? Diapason covers a wide range of meanings in English, almost all pertaining to music or sound. The word derives from the Greek roots dia-, which means "through" and occurs in such words as diameter and diagonal, and pasōn, the genitive feminine plural of pas, meaning "all." Pas is related to the prefix pan-, which is used in such words as pantheism and pandemic. In Greek, the phrase hē dia pasōn chordōn symphōnia translates literally to "the concord through all the notes," with the word concord here referring to a combination of tones that are heard simultaneously and produce an agreeable impression on the 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 February 6, 2015 is: inimical • \in-NIM-ih-kul\ • adjective 1 : being adverse often by reason of hostility or malevolence 2 a : having the disposition of an enemy : hostile b : reflecting or indicating hostility : unfriendly Examples: The mayor's proposal received an inimical response from members of the town council. "Profiling and other means of applying stereotypes to certain types of persons on the basis of how they appear, as opposed to how they behave, is inimical to the very foundations of our democratic republic." - Mark T. Harris, Sacramento (California) Bee, January 3, 2015 Did you know? In inimical, one finds both a friend and an enemy. The word descends from Latin inimicus, which combines amicus, meaning "friend," with the negative prefix in-, meaning "not." In current English, inimical rarely describes a person, however. Instead, it is generally used to describe forces, concepts, or situations that are in some way harmful or hostile. For example, high inflation may be called inimical to economic growth. Inimicus is also an ancestor of enemy, whereas amicus gave us the much more congenial amicable (meaning "friendly" or "peaceful") and amiable (meaning "agreeable" or "friendly"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 5, 2015 is: moxie • \MAHK-see\ • noun 1 : energy, pep 2 : courage, determination 3 : know-how Examples: Accustomed to being a wallflower, Morris admired his friend for having the moxie to walk up to a girl he didn't know and ask her to dance. "No, Elvin didn't win last weekend's prestigious Beast of the East Tournament, but he did have a good run to the finals where he showed the moxie of a champion." - Jeremy Elliott, Patriot News (Harrisburg, PA), December 25, 2014 Did you know? "Hot roasted peanuts! Fresh popcorn! Ice-cold Moxie!" You might have heard such a snack vendor's cry at a baseball game-if you attended it in 1924. That was the heyday of the soft drink named Moxie, which some claim outsold Coca-Cola at the height of its popularity. The beverage was a favorite of American writer E. B. White, who wrote, "Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life. This was known in the second century before Christ and is a boon to me today." By 1930, moxie had become a slang term for nerve and verve, perhaps because some people thought the drink was a tonic that could cure virtually any ill and bring vim back to even the most lethargic individual. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 4, 2015 is: quotidian • \kwoh-TID-ee-un\ • adjective 1 : occurring every day 2 : belonging to each day : everyday 3 : commonplace, ordinary Examples: After weeks on the road, it felt good to be back to our quotidian routines. "Some of Bach's music is a prime example of how even works of genius can be destroyed in the wrong hands. The Cello Suites were deemed quotidian exercises until Pablo Casals revealed their beauty." - Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, January 2, 2015 Did you know? In Shakespeare's play As You Like It, the character Rosalind observes that Orlando, who has been running about in the woods carving her name on trees and hanging love poems on branches, "seems to have the quotidian of love upon him." Shakespeare's use doesn't make it clear that quotidian derives from a Latin word that means "every day." But as odd as it may seem, Shakespeare's use of quotidian is just a short semantic step away from the "daily" adjective sense. Some fevers occur intermittently-sometimes daily. The phrase quotidian fever and the noun quotidian have long been used for such recurring maladies. Poor Orlando is simply afflicted with such a "fever" of love. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 3, 2015 is: ex parte • \eks-PAR-tee\ • adverb or adjective 1 : on or from one side or party only - used of legal proceedings 2 : from a one-sided or partisan point of view Examples: "The record of the case was of vast length and full of technicalities, it was discussed ex parte by vehement propagandists on both sides…." - Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's, 1931 "In the U.S., lawyers are forbidden to meet with a judge 'ex parte,' or outside the presence of opposing counsel." - Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker, January 9, 2012 Did you know? "Latin has not been over-used in a procedural context ('ex parte' being a rare exception)," wrote a correspondent to The London Times in May 1999. Indeed, ex parte (which literally meant "on behalf [of]" in Medieval Latin) pops up quite often in legal settings. Even when ex parte steps outside of the courtroom-to be used of an ex parte meeting, interview, chat, conversation, investigation, discussion, or contact, for example-the "one-sided" sense often has some sort of legal or legislative slant referring to involvement of just one party or side in a case or dispute. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 2, 2015 is: compunction • \kum-PUNK-shun\ • noun 1 : anxiety arising from awareness of guilt 2 : distress of mind over an anticipated action or result 3 : a twinge of misgiving : scruple Examples: A diligent editor, Michelle feels no compunction about deleting words and phrases from even the most beautifully written paragraph for the sake of space or clarity. "The council of generals who took power from Mr. Mubarak had feared a public backlash too much to ever allow the former president's release, but Mr. Sisi's government felt no such compunction, Mr. Bahgat said." - David D. Kirkpatrick and Merna Thomas, The New York Times, November 30, 2014 Did you know? An old proverb says "a guilty conscience needs no accuser," and it's true that the sting of a guilty conscience-or a conscience that is provoked by the contemplation of doing something wrong-can prick very hard indeed. The sudden guilty "prickings" of compunction are reflected in the word's etymological history. Compunction comes (via the Anglo-French compunction and the Middle English compunccioun) from the Latin compungere, which means "to prick hard" or "to sting." Compungere, in turn, derives from pungere, meaning "to prick," which is the ancestor of some other prickly words in English, such as "puncture" and even "point." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 1, 2015 is: ambient • \AM-bee-unt\ • adjective : existing or present on all sides : encompassing 2 of electronic music : quiet and relaxing with melodies that repeat many times Examples: The chemicals must be kept at an ambient temperature of 70 degrees. "Liz Harris summons a wounded sound that suggests that ambient music, despite its intangibility, should be memorable." - The Washington Post, December 28, 2014 Did you know? Biologists explore the effects of ambient light on plants; acoustics experts try to control ambient sound; and meteorologists study ambient pressure, air, or temperature. All this can make ambient seem like a technical term, but when it first saw light of day, that all-encompassing adjective was as likely to be used in poetry as in science. John Milton used it in Paradise Lost, and Alexander Pope wrote of a mountain "whose tow'ring summit ambient clouds conceal'd." Both poets and scientists who use ambient owe a debt to the Latin verb ambire, meaning "to go around," the grandparent of our English 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 January 31, 2015 is: succumb • \suh-KUM\ • verb 1 : to yield to superior strength or force or overpowering appeal or desire 2 : to be brought to an end (such as death) by the effect of destructive or disruptive forces Examples: Rescuers feared that the missing mountain climbers would succumb to hypothermia. "When I look back on my life . . . I see moments where it might have been understandable had I turned to drugs or ice cream. But I never succumbed. My natural tendency … is to be happy." - Martin Short, I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend, 2014 Did you know? If the idea of someone succumbing brings to mind the image of a person lying down before more powerful forces, you have an excellent grasp of the Latin that gave us succumb. Succumb derives from the French word succomber, which is itself from the Latin word succumbere, meaning "to fall down" or "to yield." Succumbere was formed by combining sub-, meaning "under," with -cumbere, meaning "to lie down." The earliest application of succumb in the late 15th century was as a transitive verb meaning "to bring down" or "to overwhelm," but this sense is now obsolete. The current sense of "to yield" first appeared in print in the early 17th century; the more specific use-yielding to a disease or other destructive force-followed two centuries later. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 30, 2015 is: urticaria • \er-tuh-KAIR-ee-uh\ • noun : hives Examples: The first sign of the patient's allergic reaction to the medication was an outbreak of urticaria. "Chronic urticaria is common and can appear on any part of the body. Sunlight and heat can be triggers for some people, whereas cold is a trigger for others." - Keith Roach, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), October 14, 2014 Did you know? Hives can be caused by a number of things. It can be a reaction to a piece of food you ate, a new medication you took, or irritants in the air you're breathing-or to wandering into a patch of nettles. Urticaria, the medical term for hives, points the finger at nettles, at least etymologically: it comes from the Latin word urtica, meaning "nettle." Urtica itself is related to the Latin verb urere, meaning "to burn," a nod to the stinging hairs many species of nettle possess. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 29, 2015 is: disingenuous • \dis-in-JEN-yuh-wuss\ • adjective : lacking in candor; also : giving a false appearance of simple frankness : calculating Examples: Be aware that their expressions of concern may in truth be disingenuous and self-serving. "He said the group's claims were wildly disingenuous and its objections politically and financially motivated." - James L. Rosica, The Tampa Tribune, December 18, 2014 Did you know? Today's word has its roots in the slave-holding society of ancient Rome. Its ancestor ingenuus is a Latin adjective meaning "native" or "freeborn" (itself from gignere, meaning "to beget"). Ingenuus begot the English adjective ingenuous. That adjective originally meant "freeborn" (as in "ingenuous Roman subjects") or "noble and honorable," but it eventually came to mean "showing childlike innocence" or "lacking guile." In the mid-17th century, English speakers combined the negative prefix dis- with ingenuous to create disingenuous, meaning "guileful" or "deceitful." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 28, 2015 is: retronym • \REH-troh-nim\ • noun : a term (such as analog watch or snail mail) that is newly created and adopted to distinguish the original or older version, form, or example of something from other, more recent versions, forms, or examples Examples: "… first came paperback book, differentiated from a book with a cloth or leather binding, provoking the retronym hardcover book." - William Safire, The New York Times Magazine, November 18, 2007 ''Nowadays we need such distinctions as free-range chickens, birth mother, natural blonde, … and manual toothbrushes. The faster we advance, the more retronyms we enlist." - David Astle, Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, November 1, 2014 Did you know? Remember way back when cameras used film? Back then, such devices were simply called cameras; they weren't specifically called film cameras until they needed to be distinguished from the digital cameras that came later. Similarly, the term desktop computer wasn't often used until laptops became prevalent. A lot of our common retronyms have come about due to technological advances: acoustic guitar emerged to contrast with electric guitar, and brick-and-mortar store to distinguish traditional stores from online retailers. Retronym was coined by Frank Mankiewicz, an American journalist and former president of National Public Radio, and first seen in print in 1980. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 27, 2015 is: incontrovertible • \in-kahn-truh-VER-tuh-bul\ • adjective : not open to question : indisputable Examples: The manager presented the clerk's time card as incontrovertible evidence that the employee had been late for work all five days the previous week. "No matter where you are on the political spectrum, the midterm elections produced one incontrovertible fact-there are more women in Congress than ever before." - Editorial Board, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 16, 2014 Did you know? If something is indisputable, it's incontrovertible. But if it is open to question, is it controvertible? It sure is. The antonyms controvertible and incontrovertible are both derivatives of the verb controvert (meaning "to dispute or oppose by reasoning"), which is itself a spin-off of controversy. And what is the source of all of these controversial terms? The Latin adjective controversus, which literally means "turned against." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2015 is: legerdemain • \lej-er-duh-MAYN\ • noun 1 : sleight of hand 2 : a display of skill and adroitness Examples: The company's accountants used financial legerdemain to conceal its true revenues and avoided paying $2 million in taxes as a result. "U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is trying for a bit of late-session congressional magic to finally get some movement on proposals to increase federal timber harvests in western Oregon. The Oregon Democrat has pulled off some last-minute feats of legislative legerdemain in the past, so it's not at all out of the question that he can do it again…." - The Associated Press, November 17, 2014 Did you know? In Middle French, folks who were clever enough to fool others with fast-fingered illusions were described as leger de main, literally "light of hand." English speakers condensed that phrase into a noun when they borrowed it in the 15th century and began using it as an alternative to the older sleight of hand. (That term for dexterity or skill in using one's hands makes use of sleight, an old word from Middle English that derives from an Old Norse word meaning "sly.") In more modern times, a feat of legerdemain can even be accomplished without using your hands, as in, for example, "an impressive bit of financial legerdemain." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2015 is: constellate • \KAHN-stuh-layt\ • verb 1 : to unite in a cluster 2 : to set or adorn with or as if with constellations Examples: "The members of the family seemed destined to constellate around a table, held by the gravity of our affection for each other." - Elsa M. Bowman, Christian Science Monitor, July 11, 1996 "The band is currently a three-piece, led by guitar-wielding singer Brett Kerr, 24, of North Muskegon. The group originally constellated around his songwriting in 2009." - Lou Jeannot, Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle, July 1, 2010 Did you know? It's plain that constellate is related to constellation, and, indeed, things that "constellate" (or "are constellated") cluster together like stars in a constellation. Both words derive ultimately from the Latin word for "star," which is stella. Constellation (which came to us by way of Middle French from Late Latin constellation-, constellatio) entered the language first-it dates to at least the 14th century. Constellate didn't appear until a full 300 years later. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 24, 2015 is: evitable • \EV-uh-tuh-bul\ • adjective : capable of being avoided Examples: The investigator determined that the accident was certainly evitable and would not have happened if the driver hadn't been negligent. "Books, journals, conventions, and electronic networks have made provincial isolation easily evitable…." - James Sledd, English Journal, November 1994 Did you know? British author T. S. Eliot once gave a lecture at Trinity College (Cambridge, England) in which he spoke about "the disintegration of the intellect" in 19th century Europe, saying, "The 'disintegration' of which I speak may be evitable or inevitable, good or bad; to draw its optimistic or pessimistic conclusions is an occupation for prophets . . . of whom I am not one." Evitable, though not common, has been in English since the beginning of the 16th century; it's often found paired with its opposite, inevitable, as in Eliot's passage as well as in this self-reflection by Liverpool Echo writer Gary Bainbridge in March of 2014: "I have been thinking about my inevitable death, and decided I would like to make it a bit more evitable." Both words were borrowed from similar Latin adjectives, which in turn are based on the verb evitare, which means "to avoid." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 23, 2015 is: anabasis • \uh-NAB-uh-sis\ • noun 1 : a going or marching up : advance; especially : a military advance 2 : a difficult and dangerous military retreat Examples: Reluctantly, the general ordered a hasty anabasis in the face of overwhelming opposing forces. "This German and Austro-Hungarian withdrawal from the Balkan Peninsula in the autumn of 1918 would presage a similar German anabasis…." - R. C. Hall, Balkan Breakthrough, 2010 Did you know? The first sense of anabasis follows logically enough from its roots. In Greek, the word originally meant "inland march"; it is derived from anabainein, meaning "to go up or inland," which is formed by combining the prefix ana- ("up") and bainein ("to go"). The second and opposite sense, however, comes from an anabasis gone wrong. In 401 B.C., Greek mercenaries fighting for Cyrus the Younger marched into the Persian Empire only to find themselves cut off hundreds of miles from home. As a result, they were forced to undertake an arduous and embattled retreat across unknown territories. Xenophon, a Greek historian who accompanied the mercenaries on the march, wrote the epic narrative Anabasis about this experience, and consequently anabasis came to mean a dramatic retreat as well as an advance. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2015 is: morganatic • \mor-guh-NAT-ik\ • adjective : of, relating to, or being a marriage between a member of a royal or noble family and a person of inferior rank in which the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the parent of higher rank Examples: The king's son, the child of a morganatic marriage, will never rule. "His marriage, when it came, was anything but conventional: a long-lasting morganatic alliance to actress Louisa Fairbrother, which produced several children but was never recognized by the queen." - Martin Rubin, The Washington Times, January 9, 2014 Did you know? Although the deprivations imposed on the lower-ranking spouse by a morganatic marriage may seem like a royal pain in the neck, the word morganatic actually comes from a word for a marriage benefit. The New Latin term morganatica means "morning gift" and refers to a gift that a new husband traditionally gave to his bride on the morning after the marriage. So why was the New Latin phrase matrimonium ad morganaticam, which means literally "marriage with morning gift," the term for a morganatic marriage? Because it was just that-the wife got the morning gift, but that's all she was entitled to of her husband's possessions. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2015 is: pandiculation • \pan-dik-yuh-LAY-shun\ • noun : a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as when fatigued and drowsy or after waking from sleep) Examples: "He was coming on to yawn. His breath sucked in the draught from the window. His shoulders hunched, his legs stretched to their toes, he made claws of his fingers in his hands-a fierce pandiculation of his limbs." - Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, 2001 "Carefully orchestrated pandiculations follow a routine: Lips part, the tongue hunkers down, and muscles in the face, mouth and diaphragm engage as the head tilts back." - Laura Sanders, Science News, May 7, 2011 Did you know? Cat and dog owners who witness daily their pets' methodical body stretching upon awakening might wonder if there is a word to describe their routine-and there is: pandiculation. Pandiculation (which applies to humans too) is the medical term for the stretching and stiffening of the trunk and extremities, often accompanied by yawning, to arouse the body when fatigued or drowsy. The word comes from Latin pandiculatus, the past participle of pandiculari ("to stretch oneself"), and is ultimately derived from pandere, meaning "to spread." Pandere is also the source of expand. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 20, 2015 is: septentrional • \sep-TEN-tree-uh-nul\ • adjective : northern Examples: When he tired of the long, septentrional winters of New England, Grandfather retired to Florida. "Once the tourists have filtered back to their septentrional homes in Europe, the men of Spetsai resume their norm of shooting birds…." - C. L. Sulzberger, The New York Times, September 28, 1986 Did you know? Look to the northern night skies for the origin of septentrional. Latin Septentriones (or Septemtriones) refers to the seven stars in Ursa Major that make up the Big Dipper, or sometimes to the seven stars in Ursa Minor that comprise the Little Dipper. Because of the reliable northerly presence of these stars, Septentriones was extended to mean "northern quarter of the sky," or simply "the north"-hence, our borrowed adjective septentrional, meaning "northern." The noun septentrion also appears in works in Middle and Early Modern English to designate "northern regions" or "the north." In Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part III, for example, the Duke of York rebukes Queen Margaret, saying: "Thou art as opposite to every good … as the South to the Septentrion." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2015 is: tintinnabulation • \tin-tuh-nab-yuh-LAY-shun\ • noun 1 : the ringing or sounding of bells 2 : a jingling or tinkling sound as if of bells Examples: The tintinnabulation that could be heard throughout the village was from the church on the common announcing morning services. "The song opens with the far-away electric tintinnabulation of an ice cream truck." - Colette McIntyre, Styleite, September 4, 2014 Did you know? If the sound of tintinnabulation rings a bell, that may be because it traces to a Latin interpretation of the sound a ringing bell makes. Our English word derives from tintinnabulum, the Latin word for "bell." That Latin word, in turn, comes from the verb tintinnare, which means "to ring, clang, or jingle." Like the English terms "ting" and "tinkle," tintinnare originated with a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it-that is, it is onomatopoeic. Edgar Allan Poe celebrates the sonic overtones of tintinnabulation in his poem "The Bells," which includes lines about "the tintinnabulation that so musically wells / From the bells, bells, bells, bells, / Bells, bells, bells-/ From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2015 is: gratuitous • \gruh-TOO-uh-tuss\ • adjective 1 : done or provided without recompense : free 2 : not called for by the circumstances : unwarranted Examples: John seems incapable of talking about anything he owns without a gratuitous reference to the amount of money he spent on it. "Each gratuitous 'Mr.,' 'Mrs.,' 'Miss,' or 'Ms.' appeared not so much respectful as nostalgic, a yearning for a return to the days when all but the closest acquaintances addressed one another with titles and surnames." - Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, December 10, 2014 Did you know? Like gratitude, grace, and congratulate, gratuitous is a descendant of the Latin word gratus, which means "pleasing" or "grateful." When gratuitous was first used in the middle of the 17th century, it meant "free" or "given without return benefit or compensation." The extended meaning "done without good reason" or "unwarranted" came about just a few decades later, perhaps from the belief held by some people that one should not give something without getting something in return. Today, that extended meaning is the more common sense, often used in such phrases as "a gratuitous insult" or to describe elements of a story that are not relevant to the plot. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2015 is: distemper • \dis-TEM-per\ • verb : to throw out of order Examples: Martha worried that employee morale at the company would be distempered if the rumored merger were to happen. "The night was rightfully dedicated to much of the new album, 'Come On a Get It' opening the set while the Schoolhouse Rock-influenced 'Stand' and bolder still 'Rock Star City Life' distempered the more recognizable pellets in Kravitz's arsenal." - Selena Fragassi, PopMatters, February 15, 2013 Did you know? If you temper something, you soften or dilute it by mixing in something else. You might, for example, temper wine with water or temper judgment with mercy. But what if you add the wrong thing and just end up with a big mess? That's the general idea behind distemper, which came to English in the 14th century from Late Latin distemperare ("to mix badly"). Nowadays, we often use the participial form distempered to refer to a mood that is affected by negative feelings. There's also the noun distemper, which can mean "bad humor or temper" or "a serious virus disease of dogs." Another noun and verb pair of distemper entered English centuries after our featured word. The noun refers to a painting process in which pigments are mixed with glutinous substances, like egg yolks or whites. The related verb means "to paint in or with distemper." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2015 is: warp speed • \WORP-SPEED\ • noun : the highest possible speed Examples: When Mario saw Helen enter the elevator, he grabbed his laptop and vaulted down the stairs at warp speed to get to the meeting room ahead of her. "You may have noticed that time, which is fleeting in the best of circumstances, has a way of moving at warp speed when you reach a certain age." - Ed Gebhart, Delaware County Daily Times, December 28, 2014 Did you know? Warp speed is an example of a phrase that entered the public consciousness through science fiction and eventually gained enough popularity to end up in the dictionary. The expression was popularized on the science-fiction show Star Trek in the 1960s. On the show, warp speed referred to a specific concept, namely the idea of faster-than-light travel. Within a relatively short period of time, Star Trek gained a devoted and intense following. Fans were soon discussing the fictional concepts of the show, including warp speed, with great enthusiasm. Eventually, the term warp speed was adopted by the general population. In the process, however, it lost its specific fictional meaning and came to mean simply "the highest possible speed." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 15, 2015 is: Brobdingnagian • \brob-ding-NAG-ee-un\ • adjective : marked by tremendous size Examples: Our little dog was frightened by the Brobdingnagian proportions of the statues in the park. "In a clever new show at the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Amy Toscani has mined thrift-store trinkets for inspiration and body parts for Brobdingnagian sculptures, whose huge scale dwarfs viewers." - Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), April 26, 2014 Did you know? In Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, Brobdingnag is the name of a land that is populated by a race of human giants "as tall as an ordinary spire steeple." In Gulliver's first close-up encounter with the giants, he is attempting to get past a stile of which every step is six feet high when a group of field-workers approach with strides ten yards long and reaping hooks as large as six scythes. Their voices he at first mistakes for thunder. Swift's book fired the imagination of the public and within two years of the 1726 publication of the story, people had begun using Brobdingnagian to refer to anything of unusually large size. (Swift himself had used Brobdingnagian as a noun to refer to the inhabitants of Brobdingnag.) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.