Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2015 is: zillionaire • \zil-yuh-NAIR\ • noun : an immeasurably wealthy person Examples: "Unless you're a zillionaire, it's practically impossible to find an affordable and spacious place to live in the city," said Beth. "I tell the interns who come to work at OppenheimerFunds each summer, 'If you come to Wall St. to become a zillionaire, you probably won't.' If that's someone's only motivation, it won't work." - Arthur Steinmetz, LinkedIn Pulse, November 20, 2014 Did you know? The word millionaire has been used in English to designate a person who is worth a million pounds or dollars, depending on the side of the ocean, since 1786. We borrowed the word straight from the French, whose millions, of course, were in francs. Millionaire eventually no longer sufficed, and English speakers coined billionaire in 1844. Soon afterwards came multimillionaire, followed by multibillionaire in the early 1900s. Once zillion was made up as a humorous word for an indeterminately large number (patterned on million and billion), it was only a matter of time before zillionaire came along as a humorous word for a person of seemingly immeasurable wealth. Zillion and zillionaire aren't used in the most formal of writing, but they have found their way into plenty of serious publications. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 13, 2015 is: ex cathedra • \eks-kuh-THEE-druh\ • adverb or adjective : by virtue of or in the exercise of one's office or position Examples: When chronic tardiness became a problem among the staff, the manager decided ex cathedra to dock the pay of any employee who arrived late to work. "Today, though, the MFA mafia holds inordinate sway over what gets published and reviewed, which means that the realist tradition dominates American fiction.… Thankfully, the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is far too famous and accomplished to worry about the ex cathedra pronouncements emanating from Iowa City." - Alexandar Nazaryan, Newsweek, August 3, 2014 Did you know? Ex cathedra is a Latin phrase, meaning not "from the cathedral" but "from the chair." The phrase does have religious origins though: it was originally applied to decisions made by Popes from their thrones. According to Roman Catholic doctrine, a Pope speaking ex cathedra on issues of faith or morals is infallible. In general use, the phrase has come to be used with regard to statements made by people in positions of authority, and it is often used ironically to describe someone speaking with overbearing or unwarranted self-certainty. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 12, 2015 is: longueur • \lawn-GUR\ • noun : a dull and tedious passage or section (as of a book, play, or musical composition) - usually used in plural Examples: "This production has its occasional longueurs, but glorious singing and energetic choreography quickly rope us back in." - Rick Rogers, The Oklahoman, June 28, 2007 "The Berg Collection version of 'Camera' … provides an unmediated look at the Master at work, removing dead and dull passages, fixing inept or lame plot developments, eradicating longueurs, and seeking out opportunities to sharpen imagery…." - John Colapinto, The New Yorker, December 4, 2014 Did you know? You've probably come across long, tedious sections of books, plays, or musical works before, but perhaps you didn't know there was a word for them. English speakers began using the French borrowing longueur in the late 18th century. In French, longueurs are tedious passages, and longueur literally means "length." The first recorded use of longueur in English comes from the writer Horace Walpole, who wrote in a letter, "Boswell's book is gossiping; . . . but there are woful longueurs, both about his hero and 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 January 11, 2015 is: hieroglyphic • \hye-uh-ruh-GLIH-fik\ • adjective 1 : written in, constituting, or belonging to a system of writing mainly in pictorial characters 2 : inscribed with hieroglyphic 3 : resembling hieroglyphic in difficulty of decipherment Examples: "Once believed to serve a distinctly religious purpose, Mayan hieroglyphic writing is now thought to record the Mayan historical past." - Burton Kirkwood, The History of Mexico, 2009 "The coffee buzz that kept you awake through your 8 a.m. class has since worn off, and as you sink deeper into your seat, notes and lecture become hieroglyphic gibberish." - Danielle Carson, Daily 49er, October 19, 2014 Did you know? If hieroglyphic writing is "all Greek to you," you know more about the etymology of hieroglyphic than you might think. That word comes from the Greek hieroglyphikos, which means "sacred carving" (from hieros, meaning "sacred," and glyphein, meaning "to carve"). The ancient Greeks who named hieroglyphic writing reserved that term for the picture writing they found carved in temple walls or on public monuments in Egypt; it was distinguished from writings done in ink on papyrus or other smooth surfaces. But since making their first appearances in English in the 1580s, both the noun hieroglyphics and the adjective hieroglyphic have been extended to apply to the picture writing of various cultures, whether or not those writings were carved or sacred. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 10, 2015 is: ne plus ultra • \nay-plus-UL-truh\ • noun 1 : the highest point capable of being attained : acme 2 : the most profound degree of a quality or state Examples: "Along with the relatively highbrow Stepbrothers, [Dumb and Dumber]'s the ne plus ultra of moron slapstick, the film against which all cretinous child-men assaults on taste must be measured." - David Edelstein, Vulture, November 14, 2014 "Made in tumult and released to a triumph unprecedented in Hollywood's history, 'Gone With the Wind' remains to many people the ne plus ultra of American popular moviemaking." - Chicago Tribune, December 12, 2014 Did you know? It's the height, the zenith, the ultimate, the crown, the pinnacle. It's the peak, the summit, the crest, the high-water mark. All these expressions, of course, mean "the highest point attainable." But ne plus ultra may top them all when it comes to expressing in a sophisticated way that something is the pink of perfection. It is said that the term's predecessor, non plus ultra, was inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, which marked the western end of the classical world. The phrase served as a warning: "(Let there) not (be) more (sailing) beyond." The New Latin version ne plus ultra, meaning "(go) no more beyond," found its way into English in the 1630s. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 9, 2015 is: advocate • \AD-vuh-kayt\ • verb : to plead in favor of Examples: Many parents throughout the district have long advocated full-day kindergarten. "The task force advocates revising the state's social studies standards to promote news literacy and the importance of voting." - Laurie Levy, ChicagoNow.com, December 4, 2014 Did you know? Benjamin Franklin may have been a great innovator in science and politics, but on the subject of advocate, he was against change. In 1789, he wrote a letter to his compatriot Noah Webster complaining about a "new word": the verb advocate. Like others of his day, Franklin knew advocate primarily as a noun meaning "one who pleads the cause of another," and he urged Webster to condemn the verb's use. In truth, the verb wasn't as new as Franklin assumed (etymologists have traced it back to 1599), though it was apparently surging in popularity in his day. Webster evidently did not heed Franklin's plea. His famous 1828 dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, entered both the noun and the verb senses of advocate. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2015 is: claque • \KLAK\ • noun 1 : a group hired to applaud at a performance 2 : a group of sycophants Examples: The senator seems to have a claque of influential supporters in the media who are willing to endorse his every move. "But the program has gone by the boards now, the victim of an activist federal judge and a claque of feckless politicians." - Bob McManus, The New York Post, July 1, 2014 Did you know? The word claque might call to mind the sound of a clap, and that's no accident. Claque is a French borrowing that descends from the verb claquer, meaning "to clap," and the noun claque, meaning "a clap." Those French words in turn originated in imitation of the sound associated with them. English speakers borrowed claque in the 19th century. At that time, the practice of infiltrating audiences with hired members was very common to French theater culture. Claque members received money and free tickets to laugh, cry, shout-and of course clap-in just the right spots, hopefully influencing the rest of the audience to do the same. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 7, 2015 is: virtuoso • \ver-choo-OH-soh\ • noun 1 : an experimenter or investigator especially in the arts and sciences 2 : one skilled in or having a taste for the fine arts 3 : one who excels in the technique of an art; especially : a highly skilled musical performer Examples: "A virtuoso with words, [Thomas Jefferson] invariably produced easily read and readily comprehensible drafts that usually included some memorable phrases." - John Ferling, Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, 2004 "But the heart of the program was Beethoven, the Quartet in E Minor, Opus 59, No. 2, 'Razoumovsky.' This is where the modern string quartet begins, quartets that became the property of virtuosos instead of amateurs, quartets that wanted to be symphonies." - Ken Keaton, Palm Beach Daily News, December 12, 2014 Did you know? English speakers borrowed the Italian noun virtuoso in the 1600s. It comes in turn from the Italian adjective virtuoso, which means both "virtuous" and "skilled." In English, virtuoso can be pluralized as either virtuosos or virtuosi, and it is often used attributively ("a virtuoso performer"). The first virtuosos were individuals of substantial knowledge and learning ("great wits," to quote one 17th-century clergyman). The word was then transferred to those skilled in the fine arts, and by the 18th century it had acquired its specific sense applied to musicians. In the 20th century, English speakers broadened virtuoso again to apply to a person skilled in any pursuit. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2015 is: ombudsman • \AHM-boodz-mun\ • noun 1 : a government official who investigates complaints made by individuals against public officials 2 : one that investigates, reports on, and helps settle complaints Examples: The newspaper's ombudsman responded to the many angry letters the article had generated. "My 18-month hitch as ESPN ombudsman ends later this year, so this column begins my goodbye tour." - Robert Lipsyte, ESPN.com, November 4, 2014 Did you know? Ombudsman was borrowed from Swedish, where it means "representative," and ultimately derives from the Old Norse words umboth ("commission") and mathr ("man"). In the early 1800s, Sweden became the first country to appoint an independent official known as an ombudsman to investigate complaints against government officials and agencies. Since then, other countries (such as Finland, Denmark, and New Zealand), as well as some U.S. states, have appointed similar officials. The word ombudsman was first used in English in the late 1950s; by the 1960s, it was also being used to refer to a person who reviews complaints against an organization (such as a school or hospital) or to someone who enforces standards of journalistic ethics at a newspaper. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 5, 2015 is: fallible • \FAL-uh-bul\ • adjective 1 : liable to be erroneous 2 : capable of making a mistake Examples: Though parts of it are well-written, the essay is marred by too many fallible generalizations. "… [Atul] Gawande has combined his years of experience as a surgeon with his gift for fluid, seemingly effortless storytelling to remind readers that despite stunning technical advances, doctors are human-and as fallible as any of us." - Jennifer Day, Chicago Tribune, October 10, 2014 Did you know? Errare humanum est. That Latin expression translates into English as "To err is human." Of course, cynics might say that it is also human to deceive. The word fallible simultaneously recognizes both of these human character flaws. In modern usage, it refers to one's ability to err, but it descends from the Latin verb fallere, which means "to deceive." Fallible has been used to describe the potential for error since at least the 15th century. Other descendants of the deceptive fallere in English, all of which actually predate fallible, include fallacy (the earliest, now obsolete, meaning was "guile, trickery"), fault, false, and even fail and failure. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 4, 2015 is: bromide • \BROH-myde\ • noun 1 : a compound of bromine and another element or chemical group 2 a : a commonplace or tiresome person b : a commonplace or hackneyed statement or idea Examples: Years of coal mining and natural gas extraction have elevated the concentration of bromides in the river. "When things go badly wrong-Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea, Peyton Manning's dismal Super Bowl performance-some ding-dong will trot out the bromide, 'Oh, well: The best-laid plans of mice and men…'" - Joe Queenan, The Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2014 Did you know? After bromine was discovered in 1827, chemists could not resist experimenting with the new element. It didn't take long before they found uses for its compounds, in particular potassium bromide. Potassium bromide was used as a sedative to treat everything from epilepsy to sleeplessness, and by the 20th century, bromide was being used figuratively to apply to anything or anyone that might put one to sleep because of commonness or just plain dullness. Today, bromides are no longer an ingredient in sedative preparations, but we can still feel the effects of figurative bromides as we encounter them in our daily routines. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 3, 2015 is: peremptory • \puh-REMP-tuh-ree\ • adjective 1 : barring a right of action, debate, or delay 2 : expressive of urgency or command 3 : marked by arrogant self-assurance : haughty Examples: The manager's peremptory rejection of any suggestions for improving office efficiency did little to inspire our confidence in his ability to help turn the company around. "Depending on the situation, Elliott can heap upon her teammates words of encouragement or, when it's needed, she can also be peremptory." - Chris Hummer, Midland (Texas) Reporter-Telegram, November 10, 2014 Did you know? Peremptory is ultimately from Latin perimere, which means "to take entirely" or "destroy" and comes from per- ("thoroughly") and emere ("to take"). Peremptory implies the removal of one's option to disagree or contest something. It sometimes suggests an abrupt dictatorial manner combined with an unwillingness to tolerate disobedience or dissent (as in "he was given a peremptory dismissal"). A related term is the adjective preemptive, which comes from Latin praeemere-from prae- ("before") plus emere. Preemptive means "marked by the seizing of the initiative" (as in "a preemptive attack"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2015 is: solecism • \SAH-luh-sih-zum\ • noun 1 : an ungrammatical combination of words in a sentence; also : a minor blunder in speech 2 : something deviating from the proper, normal, or accepted order 3 : a breach of etiquette or decorum Examples: As a copyeditor, Jane has the eyes of a hawk; rarely, if ever, does she let a writer's solecism slip past her. "What [Leonard Lyons] presented in his columns was the essence of the person being reported on, and so even when one comes upon the occasional solecism or inaccuracy, it matters less because the portraits as a whole ring true." - Martin Rubin, The Washington Times, September 5, 2011 Did you know? The city of Soloi had a reputation for bad grammar. Located in Cilicia, an ancient coastal nation in Asia Minor, it was populated by Athenian colonists called soloikos (literally "inhabitant of Soloi"). According to historians, the colonists of Soloi allowed their native Athenian Greek to be corrupted and they fell to using words incorrectly. As a result, soloikos gained a new meaning: "speaking incorrectly." The Greeks used that sense as the basis of soloikismos, meaning "an ungrammatical combination of words." That root in turn gave rise to the Latin soloecismus, the direct ancestor of the English word solecism. Nowadays, solecism can refer to social blunders as well as sloppy syntax. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 1, 2015 is: emigrate • \EM-uh-grayt\ • verb : to leave one's place of residence or country to live elsewhere Examples: "… graduates and skilled technical workers are also emigrating, usually with a plan to save up for a few years and then return." - The Economist, November 5, 2013 "I needed work and I had a friend whose dad and grandfather were in the shoe-repair business. The grandfather, a shoe builder, had emigrated from Hungary and had a shop at Lloyd Center in Portland, and I went to work for them." - Ron Wells, quoted in The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), December 1, 2014 Did you know? Migrate, emigrate, and immigrate are all about being on the move. All those terms come from the Latin word migrare, which means "to move from one place to another." Emigrate and immigrate sound alike, and it is true that both involve leaving one location and entering another. The subtle difference between them lies in point of view: emigrate stresses leaving the original place, while immigrate focuses on entering the new one. You won't have trouble keeping them straight if you remember that the prefix e- means "away," as in eject, and the prefix im- or in- means "into," as in inject. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2014 is: vertiginous • \ver-TIJ-uh-nus\ • adjective 1 a : characterized by or suffering from vertigo or dizziness b : inclined to frequent and often pointless change : inconstant 2 : causing or tending to cause dizziness 3 : marked by turning Examples: As a window washer for some of the city's tallest skyscrapers, Victor had to quickly master working at vertiginous heights. "The cheapest seat in the house-a perch in the vertiginous reaches of the upper balcony-would set me back $59." - Deanna Isaacs, Chicago Reader, December 3, 2014 Did you know? Physicians began calling a patient's disordered state in which surroundings seem to whirl dizzily vertigo in the 15th century. Vertiginous, from the Latin vertiginosus, is the adjective form of vertigo, which in Latin means "a turning or whirling action." Both words descend from the Latin verb vertere, meaning "to turn." (Vertiginous and vertigo are just two of an almost dizzying array of vertere offspring, from adverse to vortex.) The "dizzying" sense of vertiginous is often used figuratively, as in this December 9th book recommendation by Thomas Mallon in The New York Times: "Marked by a piercing wit and vertiginous vocabulary, the book is a feat of emotional dexterity, shrewdly dispassionate and carefully felt." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2014 is: advertent • \ad-VER-tunt\ • adjective : giving attention : heedful Examples: Marcia listened to everything I said with an advertent expression on her face, and then proceeded to tell me, point by point, why she disagreed with me. The governor is still threatening to veto the bill, even though he is advertent to the strong public support for it. Did you know? You may be thinking that advertent should mean "intentional." After all, inadvertent means "unintentional." Take away the negative prefix in- and you're left with that word's opposite, right? If this is your line of thought, you're not entirely off base; the two words (which both entered English in the 17th century and derive from Latin advertere, meaning "to turn the mind or attention") are in fact closely linked. But inadvertent has another, older meaning: "inattentive" or "not focusing the mind on a matter." The established meaning of advertent falls opposite that older sense of inadvertent. Does this mean that advertent never means "intentional"? Not exactly. We have seen some evidence of this use, but it's not yet well enough established to be entered in our dictionaries. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2014 is: marshal • \MAR-shul\ • noun 1 : a person who arranges and directs the ceremonial aspects of a gathering 2 : an officer of the highest rank in some military forces 3 : a federal official having duties similar to a sheriff's 4 : the administrative head of a police or fire department Examples: A judge ordered marshals to seize the cargo. "Thank you to the parade marshal for keeping all of us in our place for the parade and ensuring that the ceremony proceeded on time." - Pat Strack, Borehamwood Times (UK), November 20, 2014 Did you know? Although most French words are derived from Latin, a few result from the 3rd-century Germanic occupation of France, and the early French mareschal is one such word. Mareschal is related to Old High German marahscalc, formed by combining marah ("horse") and scalc ("servant"). Our marshal, which comes from mareschal, originally meant "a person in charge of the upkeep of horses" when it was borrowed into Middle English, but by the 13th century it described a high royal official as well. Eventually it came to have other meanings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 28, 2014 is: circumscribe • \SER-kum-skrybe\ • verb 1 a : to constrict the range or activity of b : to define or mark off carefully 2 a : to draw a line around b : to surround by or as if by a boundary Examples: Detective Harris's efforts to find evidence linking Muddleston to the murder were circumscribed by laws prohibiting illegal searches and seizures. "While the Christmas spirit should not be circumscribed by a ledger sheet, we should be buoyed by news that Americans' incomes rose, even very modestly, and that gasoline prices continue to fall dramatically." - Asbury Park Press (New Jersey), December 1, 2014 Did you know? Circumscribe has a lot of relatives in English. Its Latin predecessor circumscribere (which roughly translates as "to draw a circle around") derives from circum-, meaning "circle," and scribere, meaning "to write or draw." Among the many descendants of circum- are circuit, circumcise, circumference, circumnavigate, circumspect, circumstance, and circumvent. Scribere gave us such words as scribe and scribble, as well as ascribe, describe, and transcribe, among others. Circumscribe was first recorded in the 14th century; it was originally spelled circumscrive, but the "circumscribe" spelling had also appeared by the end of the 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 December 27, 2014 is: opprobrium • \uh-PROH-bree-um\ • noun 1 : something that brings disgrace 2 a : public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious b : contempt, reproach Examples: The athlete's admission of using steroids earned her much opprobrium from fans. "People flocked here to break free from the shackles of conformity and societal opprobrium, experimenting in every field of human endeavor with little fear of official disdain." - Gilbert Ross, New York Observer, October 21, 2014 Did you know? Opprobrium was borrowed into English from Latin in the 17th century. It came from the Latin verb opprobrare, which means "to reproach." That verb in turn came from the noun probrum, meaning "disgraceful act" or "reproach." These gave us opprobrium as well as its adjective form opprobrious, which means "scurrilous" or "infamous." One might commit an "opprobrious crime" or be berated with "opprobrious language." Probrum gave English another word too, but you might have a little trouble guessing it. It's exprobrate, an archaic synonym of censure and upbraid. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2014 is: desultory • \DEH-sul-tor-ee\ • adjective 1 : marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose 2 : not connected with the main subject 3 : disappointing in progress, performance, or quality Examples: The gentlemen continued the evening in desultory conversation, punctuated by yawns, until both decided it was time for bed. "Washington State thus finishes a desultory three-win season …, while the Huskies are moving in the proper direction under first-year coach Chris Petersen." - Larry Stone, Seattle Times, November 29, 2014 Did you know? The Latin adjective desultorius, the parent of desultory, was used by the ancients to refer to a circus performer (called a desultor) whose trick was to leap from horse to horse without stopping. It makes sense, therefore, that someone or something desultory "jumps" from one thing to another. (Desultor and desultorius, by the way, are derived from the Latin verb salire, which means "to leap.") A desultory conversation leaps from one topic to another and doesn't have a distinct point or direction. A desultory student skips from one subject to another without applying serious effort to any one. A desultory comment is a digressive one that jumps away from the topic at hand. And a desultory performance is one resulting from an implied lack of steady, focused effort. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2014 is: luminaria • \loo-muh-NAIR-ee-uh\ • noun : a traditional Mexican Christmas lantern originally consisting of a candle set in sand inside a paper bag Examples: Luminarias lined the streets throughout the neighborhood for the annual Christmas Stroll. "The luminaria … will light up the night around Olean on Dec. 21, the longest night of the year, in honor of the homeless." - Kate Day Sager, Olean (New York) Times Herald, November 17, 2014 Did you know? Luminaria is a fairly recent addition to English; the earliest known use in our language dates from 1949, about the time that the old Mexican Christmas custom was gaining popularity among Anglo-Americans. In some parts of the U.S., particularly New Mexico, these festive lanterns are also called farolitos, which means "little lanterns" in Spanish. We borrowed luminaria from Spanish, but the word has been around with exactly the same spelling since the days of Late Latin. The term ultimately traces to the classical Latin luminare, meaning "window," and to lumen, meaning "light." It is related to other light-bearing words such as luminary, illuminate, and phillumenist (a fancy name for someone who collects matchbooks). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 24, 2014 is: extraneous • \ek-STRAY-nee-us\ • adjective 1 : existing on or coming from the outside 2 a : not forming an essential or vital part b : having no relevance 3 : being a number obtained in solving an equation that is not a solution of the equation Examples: The woman who reported the robbery kept bringing up extraneous facts, such as what she'd had for lunch. "Considering that the penguins were nearly cut out of the original movie as extraneous extras, we should also celebrate their survival instincts." - Bruce Kirkland, London Free Press, November 25, 2014 Did you know? We'll try not to weigh you down with a lot of extraneous information about the word extraneous, but we will tell you that it has been a part of the English language since at least 1638. It derives from the Latin word extraneus, which literally means "external." Extraneus is also the root of the words strange and estrange ("to alienate the affections or confidence of"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 23, 2014 is: zaibatsu • \zye-BAHT-soo\ • noun : a powerful financial and industrial conglomerate of Japan Examples: As owners of a zaibatsu with interests in the insurance and banking industries, the family's decisions had an undeniable impact on the Japanese economy. "Cartels have also been fostered by the nation-state: Japan's zaibatsu conglomerates fueled its empire, and the United States was a hotbed of collusion well into the early 1900s." - Paul Voosen, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2013 Did you know? Zaibatsu is a compound formed by the Japanese words zai, meaning "money" or "wealth," and batsu, meaning "clique" or "clan." The word refers to one of several large capitalist enterprises that developed in Japan after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and that expanded rapidly during World War I. Each zaibatsu was typically organized around a single family and controlled interests in multiple areas, such as mining, foreign trade, textiles, insurance, and especially banks. While zaibatsus were dissolved during the Allied occupation of Japan following World War II (around the time the word entered English), many of the individual companies that comprised them continued to be managed as they had been, and the term has survived. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 22, 2014 is: fissile • \FISS-ul\ • adjective 1 : capable of being split or divided in the direction of the grain or along natural planes of cleavage 2 : capable of undergoing fission Examples: Uranium-235, which is frequently used in making bombs and missiles, is one of the most abundant fissile materials. "These hurdles notwithstanding, during the peak of the program the United States secured an estimated 400 metric tons of fissile material, enough to make several thousand nuclear weapons." - Jack Caravelli, Business Insider, November 17, 2014 Did you know? When scientists first used fissile back in the 1600s, the notion of splitting the nucleus of an atom would have seemed far-fetched indeed. In those days, people thought that atoms were the smallest particles of matter that existed and therefore could not be split. Fissile (which can be traced back to Latin findere, meaning "to split") was used in reference to things like rocks. When we hear about "fissile materials" today, the reference is usually to nuclear fission: the splitting of an atomic nucleus that releases a huge amount of energy. But there is still a place in our language for the original sense of fissile (and for the noun fissility, meaning "the quality of being fissile"). A geologist, for example, might refer to slate as being fissile. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 21, 2014 is: palinode • \PAL-uh-nohd\ • noun 1 : an ode or song recanting or retracting something in an earlier poem 2 : a formal retraction Examples: Oscar Wilde wrote this famous palinode in an introduction to an essay: "Not that I agree with everything that I have said in this essay. There is much with which I entirely disagree." "My Life Among the Deathworks is a monumental palinode, designed to unwrite the book that made [Philip] Rieff's name." - Adam Kirsch, New York Sun, March 7, 2007 Did you know? Does singing someone's praises in a palinode pay off? It did in the case of Stesichorus, a Greek poet of the 6th century B.C. According to Plato, old Stesichorus was struck blind after writing a poem insulting Helen of Troy, but his sight was restored after he wrote an apologetic palinode. That poet was only too glad to apply the Greek word palinoidia (a compound of palin, meaning "back" or "again," and aeidein, meaning "to sing"). So were 16th-century English poets, who borrowed and modified the Greek term to refer to odes of their own. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 20, 2014 is: nurture • \NER-cher\ • verb 1 : to supply with nourishment 2 : to educate 3 : to further the development of : foster Examples: The mayor pushed for tax credits for small businesses as a way to nurture economic growth. "In the late 1970s, a program was launched at the National Marine Fisheries laboratory in Galveston to nurture hatchlings that would instinctively return to beaches on Padre Island." - Harvey Rice, Houston Chronicle, November 18, 2014 Did you know? It's no coincidence that nurture is a synonym of nourish-both are derived from the Latin verb nutrire, meaning "to suckle" or "to nourish." The noun nurture first appeared in English in the 14th century, but the verb didn't arrive until the 15th century. Originally, the verb nurture meant "to feed or nourish." The sense meaning "to promote the development of" didn't come into being until the end of the 18th century. Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, is credited with first giving life to that sense in her Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792): "Public spirit must be nurtured by private virtue." Other nutrire descendants in English include nutrient, nutritious, nutriment, nutrition, and, of course, nourishment. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 19, 2014 is: syncretic • \sin-KRET-ik\ • adjective : characterized or brought about by a combination of different forms of belief or practice Examples: Dr. Portman practices a syncretic form of medicine, borrowing from both Eastern and Western medical traditions. "Her CV cites disparate accomplishments as a scientist, writer, and artist-and teacher…. Moreover, her career arc represents a syncretic impulse that characterizes her general outlook on life." - Glen Martin, Forbes, November 4, 2014 Did you know? Syncretic has its roots in an ancient alliance. It's a descendant of the Greek word synkrētismos, meaning "federation of Cretan cities"-syn- means "together, with," and Krēt- means "Cretan." The adjective first appeared in English in the mid-19th century, and the related noun syncretism debuted over 200 years earlier. Syncretic retains the idea of coalition and appears in such contexts as "syncretic religions," "syncretic societies," and even "syncretic music," all describing things influenced by two or more styles or traditions. The word also has a specific application in linguistics, where it refers to a fusion of inflectional forms. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2014 is: oxymoron • \ahk-sih-MOR-ahn\ • noun : a combination of contradictory or incongruous words; broadly : something (such as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements Examples: "That's an oxymoron!" said Joanne, when she heard the DJ describe the song as an "instant classic." "A 'healthy snack' sounds like an oxymoron. The two words seem to be on opposite ends. But that does not have to be the case." - Karen Miller, The Boston Banner, October 23, 2014 Did you know? The Greeks exhaustively classified the elements of rhetoric, or effective speech and writing, and gave the name oxymōron, literally "pointed foolishness," to the deliberate juxtaposing of seemingly contradictory words. The roots of oxymoron, oxys meaning "sharp" or "keen" and mōros meaning "foolish," are nearly antonyms themselves, making oxymoron nicely self-descriptive. Oxymoron originally applied to a meaningful paradox condensed into a couple of words, as in "precious bane," "lonely crowd," or "sweet sorrow." Today, however, oxymoron can also refer to unintentional contradictions, like "a plastic glass." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2014 is: ergonomic • \er-guh-NAH-mik\ • adjective 1 : of or relating to the science of designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely 2 : designed or arranged for safe, comfortable, and efficient use Examples: Clara hoped that the ergonomic arrangement of her new workstation would help reduce the daily aches in her elbow and wrist. "Fender has been credited with design and manufacturing innovations that revolutionized the world of electric guitars and basses. The Stratocaster body introduced a curvy ergonomic design for ease of playing…." - Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times, November 12, 2014 Did you know? In 1969, a British publication assured the public that although the word ergonomics looked forbidding, "all it means is the science of making things fit people, instead of asking people to fit things." Ergonomic design as a field of study originated in the 19th century when a Polish author, Wojciech Jastrzebowski, wrote an article about the relation between human activity and the methods used to accomplish that activity. In the article, written in his native Polish, Jastrzebowski coined the word ergonomji, an efficient combination of the Greek ergo-, meaning "work," and nomos, meaning "law." British scientist K. F. H. Murrell is credited with creating the English word ergonomics in 1949, applying the -nomics ending to ergo- in imitation of economics. Earliest evidence of the adjective ergonomic dates to 1954. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2014 is: réchauffé • \ray-shoh-FAY\ • noun 1 : something presented in a new form without change of substance : rehash 2 : a warmed-over dish of food Examples: The day after the holiday, it was traditional to serve réchauffés and snacks rather than cook a full meal. "[It] is a réchauffé, … lifted and stitched from 'The Gastronomical Me' and other books." - Victoria Glendinning, New York Times Book Review, June 9, 1991 Did you know? We borrowed réchauffé in the early 19th century from the French; it is the past participle of their verb réchauffer, which means "to reheat." Nineteenth-century French speakers were using it figuratively to designate something that was already old hat-you might say, "warmed over." English speakers adopted that same meaning, which is still our most common. But within decades someone had apparently decided that leftovers would seem more appealing with a French name. The notion caught on. A recipe for "Réchauffé of Beef a la Jardiniere," for example, instructs the cook to reheat "yesterday's piece of meat" in a little water with some tomatoes added, and serve it on a platter with peas and carrots and potatoes. Réchauffé shares its root with another English word, chafing dish, the name of a receptacle for keeping food warm at the table. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2014 is: incommensurable • \in-kuh-MEN-suh-ruh-bul\ • adjective : not commensurable; broadly : lacking a basis of comparison in respect to a quality normally subject to comparison Examples: The two theories are incommensurable, making any attempt at comparison across disciplines ridiculous. "Camus' own predicament as an Algerian of European descent sympathetic to both sides of the Algerian War led him to recognize a collision of incommensurable truths and embrace classical moderation." - Steven G. Kellman, The Texas Observer, December 2013 Did you know? Commensurable means "having a common measure" or "corresponding in size, extent, amount, or degree." Its antonym incommensurable generally refers to things that are unlike and incompatible, sharing no common ground (as in the "incommensurable theories" of the first example sentence), or to things that are very disproportionate, often to the point of defying comparison ("incommensurable crimes"). Both words entered English in the 1500s and were originally used (as they still can be) for numbers that have or don't have a common divisor. They came to English by way of Middle French and Late Latin, ultimately deriving from the Latin noun mensura, meaning "measure." Mensura is also an ancestor of commensurate (meaning "coextensive" or "proportionate") and incommensurate ("disproportionate" or "insufficient"), which overlap in meaning with commensurable and incommensurable but are not exact synonyms. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2014 is: nabob • \NAY-bahb\ • noun : a person of great wealth or importance Examples: Those of us in coach had to wait while the nabobs in first class got seated ahead of us. "Roughly 70 citizens had addresses on the hill. Many of those listed on the hill worked in the useful trades. The development of the hill as an exclusive neighborhood, as the city's nabobs had hoped, did not begin until the early 1880s." - Lawrence Kreisman, Seattle Times, November 7, 2014 Did you know? In India's Mogul Empire, founded in the 16th century, provincial governors carried the Urdu title of nawab. In 1612, Captain Robert Coverte published a report of his "discovery" of "the Great Mogoll, a prince not till now knowne to our English nation." The Captain informed the English-speaking world that "An earle is called a Nawbob," thereby introducing the English version of the word. Nabob, as it thereafter came to be spelled, gained its extended sense of "a prominent person" in the late 18th century, when it was applied sarcastically to British officials of the East India Company returning home after amassing great wealth in Asia. The word was perhaps most famously used by Vice President Spiro Agnew, in a 1970 speech written by William Safire, when he referred to critical members of the news media as "nattering nabobs of negativism." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2014 is: tractable • \TRAK-tuh-bul\ • adjective 1 : capable of being easily led, taught, or controlled 2 : easily handled, managed, or wrought Examples: The couple had hoped to find a tractable and obedient dog that wouldn't cause too much trouble, but instead they got Rufus and their life has never been the same. "But values have been steadily rising simply because it's such a good driver's car. It's incredibly tractable and usable-more so than any other car I can think of from that period, in fact." - Dylan Miles, quoted in Classic Driver, November 14, 2014 Did you know? Obedient, docile, and amenable are synonyms of tractable, but those four words have slightly different shades of meaning. Tractable describes an individual whose character permits easy handling, while docile implies a predisposition to submit readily to authority. Obedient is often used to describe compliance with authority, although that compliance is not necessarily offered eagerly. Amenable, on the other hand, is usually used when one cooperates out of a desire to be agreeable. Tractable dates from the early 16th century and derives from the Latin verb tractare ("to handle" or "to treat"). Despite the resemblance, this root did not give us the noun tractor or verbs such as contract or attract-those all derive from a loosely related Latin verb trahere ("to draw or drag"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2014 is: flapdoodle • \FLAP-doo-dul\ • noun : nonsense Examples: "Not a trace of academic fustian! Not a line of flapdoodle! Not a hint of college professor! Here was sharp and shrewd judgment." - H. L. Mencken, The Smart Set, June 1917 "Chalk that up to the triumph-rare enough these days-of facts over flapdoodle." - Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2013 Did you know? Combining the letters f, d, and l is a great formula for creating funny words-witness folderol, fiddlesticks, fandangle, flamdoodle, flummadiddle, and fiddledeedee. To ascribe pedigreed origins to any of those silly syllables would be fiddle-faddle. Flapdoodle certainly can't claim high-flown ancestors. Like many of its nonsensical fellows listed above, it most likely originated as an alteration of some other absurd word (fadoodle is a candidate), but its exact origins are unknown. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2014 is: allege • \uh-LEJ\ • verb 1 : to assert without proof or before proving 2 : to bring forward as a reason or excuse Examples: She alleges that her roommate stole hundreds of dollars from her. "The Chicago lawsuit … alleges a two-decade-long campaign by the industry to persuade doctors to make the use of painkillers routine for chronic pain by obscuring the drugs' risks and misrepresenting their efficacy." - David Armstrong, Businessweek, November 14, 2014 Did you know? These days, someone "alleges" something before presenting the evidence to prove it (or perhaps without evidence at all), but the word actually derives from the Middle English verb alleggen, meaning "to submit (something) in evidence or as justification." Alleggen, in turn, traces back to Anglo-French and probably ultimately to Latin allegare, meaning "to send as a representative" or "to offer as proof in support of a plea." Indeed, allege once referred to the actions of someone who came forward to testify in court; this sense isn't used anymore, but it led to the development of the current "assert without proof" sense. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2014 is: calumny • \KAL-um-nee\ • noun 1 : a misrepresentation intended to harm another's reputation 2 : the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously calculated to harm another's reputation Examples: The notion that the mayor knew about the problem before the newspaper broke the story is nothing but calumny. "Some say that showing respect for your opponent after heaping disrespect upon him … and having disrespect heaped upon you civilizes our politics. In truth, however, it degrades our politics. It says that anything goes-calumny and character assassination are all just part of the rough and tumble of campaigning.…" - Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, November 7, 2014 Did you know? Calumny made an appearance in these famous words from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go." The word had been in the English language for a while, though, before Hamlet uttered it. It first entered English in the 15th century and comes from the Middle French word calomnie of the same meaning. Calomnie, in turn, derives from the Latin word calumnia, (meaning "false accusation," "false claim," or "trickery"), which itself traces to the Latin verb calvi, meaning "to deceive." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 9, 2014 is: mellifluous • \muh-LIFF-luh-wus\ • adjective 1 : having a smooth rich flow 2 : filled with something (such as honey) that sweetens Examples: The young diva has a powerful, mellifluous voice that makes her album a sweet aural confection. "Corr recorded the album in Los Angeles with producer Mitchell Froom, and the style looks back to the mellifluous pop of the Carpenters, Dusty Springfield, and Burt Bacharach, music her parents played when she was a kid in the '70s." - Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer, March 14, 2014 Did you know? In Latin, mel means "honey" and fluere means "to flow." Those two linguistic components flow smoothly together in mellifluus (from Late Latin) and mellyfluous (from Middle English), the ancestors of mellifluous. The adjective these days typically applies to sound, as it has for centuries. In 1671, for example, Milton wrote in Paradise Regained of the "Wisest of men; from whose mouth issu'd forth Mellifluous streams." But mellifluous can also be used of flavor, as when wine critic Eric Asimov used it to describe pinot grigio in the book Wine With Food: "Most pinot grigios give many people exactly what they want: a mellifluous, easy-to-pronounce wine that can be ordered without fear of embarrassment and that is at the least cold, refreshing, and for the most part cheap." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 8, 2014 is: greenmail • \GREEN-mail\ • noun : the practice of buying enough of a company's stock to threaten a hostile takeover and reselling it to the company at a price above market value; also : the money paid for such stock Examples: In an astonishing act of greenmail, the investor bought up all available shares of the company and leveraged his sale back to the company at triple the purchase price. "We arrived in the middle of great turmoil, with the era of greenmail and leveraged buyouts, when both managers and corporate raiders were abusing shareholders horribly." - Nell Minow, interview in USA TODAY, October 20, 2014 Did you know? Greenmail is a recent English coinage, but its history spans a millennium. In the Anglo-Saxon historical records for 1086, we find an early use of a word that still survives in Scottish English as mail, meaning "payment" or "rent." The 16th century saw the appearance of the compound blackmail, which was originally a tribute that freebooting chiefs at the Scottish border exacted in exchange for immunity from pillage. In 1862, the U.S. government began printing paper money using green ink, and soon the word green came to suggest money. Finally, in the 1980s, greenmail was coined by combining green and blackmail to describe a particular type of financial piracy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 7, 2014 is: impervious • \im-PER-vee-us\ • adjective 1 a : not allowing entrance or passage : impenetrable b : not capable of being damaged or harmed 2 : not capable of being affected or disturbed Examples: Jane remains impervious to any attempt to reason with her; she’s made up her mind and nothing we can say will lead her to change it. "Boot trends come and go every fall-over-the-knee, ankle, combat, wedges-but one boot remains, impervious to passing fads: the cowboy boot." - Bethany Ao, The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), November 5, 2014 Did you know? The English language is far from impervious, and, of course, a great many Latinate terms have entered it throughout its history. Impervious is one of the many that broke through in the 17th century. It comes from the Latin impervius, which adds the prefix im- to pervius, meaning "passable" or "penetrable." Pervius-which is also the source of the relatively uncommon English word pervious, meaning "accessible" or "permeable"-comes from per-, meaning "through," and via, meaning "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 December 6, 2014 is: bouleversement • \bool-vair-suh-MAHNG\ • noun 1 : reversal 2 : a violent disturbance : disorder Examples: The darkening sky prompted a bouleversement of the captain's order to prepare to set sail. "In fact, [Susan Sontag] had written two novels at the beginning of her career, in the sixties. She didn't like them much, so she became a critic, indeed, the most famous and influential young critic of the sixties and seventies, a central figure in the aesthetic bouleversement of that period.…" - Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, January 10, 2005 Did you know? English picked up bouleversement from French in the latter part of the 18th century (it ultimately traces to Middle French boule, meaning "ball," and verser, meaning "to overturn"), and while not very common, it has steadily remained in use since that time. F. Scott Fitzgerald, for one, used it in his 1920 novel This Side of Paradise: "For the second time in his life Amory had had a complete bouleversement and was hurrying into line with his generation." Both Fitzgerald's use and our first example sentence suggest the idea of turning something around, but as shown in our second example, some usage of bouleversement dispenses with this notion and instead implies a general kind of upheaval or dramatic change, as in a revolution. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 5, 2014 is: deride • \dih-RYDE\ • verb 1 : to laugh at contemptuously 2 : to subject to usually bitter or contemptuous ridicule Examples: Although derided by classmates for his cocksure insistence that he would be a millionaire by the age of 25, he achieved his goal when his Internet startup went public. "The aggressive, scowling superstar who'd deride you for your lack of taste and even tell you you're holding your phone wrong suddenly wants to invite you to dinner." - Chris Matyszczyk, CNET, November 2, 2014 Did you know? When deride was borrowed into English in the 16th century, it came to us by combining the prefix de- with ridēre, a Latin verb meaning "to laugh." Ridēre is also the ancestor of the English words risible ("laughable") and ridiculous. Of course, English has a number of words meaning "to laugh at unkindly"; in addition to deride, we have ridicule, mock, and taunt. Deride suggests laughter loaded with contemptuousness or bitterness, whereas ridicule implies a deliberate often malicious belittling ("consistently ridiculed everything she said"). Mock implies scorn often ironically expressed by mimicry or sham deference ("mocking the speaker's impassioned tones"). Taunt suggests jeeringly provoking insult or challenge ("hometown fans taunted the visiting team"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2014 is: caitiff • \KAY-tif\ • adjective : cowardly, despicable Examples: "Oh, horrible wretch! a murderer! unmanly murderer!-a defenceless woman smothered by caitiff hands!" - Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It?, 1858 "… the Vichy cabinet accepted the German offer of air support from Sicily and Sardinia. This caitiff decision enabled the Germans to take the quick, decisive action of occupying airfields in Tunisia, with all its costly consequences upon our campaign." - Winston Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 1950 Did you know? Caitiff is pretty rare in contemporary use, but it has functioned since the 14th century as an adjective and also as a noun meaning "a base, cowardly, or despicable person" (as in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure: "O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal!"). Both the adjective and the noun evolved from the Anglo-French adjective caitif, meaning "wretched, despicable." The French word in turn derived from the Latin captivus, meaning "captive"-the shift from "captive" to "wretched" being perhaps prompted by the perception of captives as wretched and worthy of scorn. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 3, 2014 is: haggard • \HAG-urd\ • adjective a : wild in appearance b : having a worn or emaciated appearance : gaunt Examples: The mountain climbers were hungry and haggard but were otherwise in good shape after having been stranded on the mountain for more than a week. "[Dorothea] Lange's 1936 photographs of California migrant worker Florence Owens Thompson and her children capture the haggard desperation of Thompson and her brood during the Great Depression…." - Chuck Sudo, Chicagoist, November 7, 2014 Did you know? Haggard comes from falconry, the sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey. The birds used in falconry were not bred in captivity until very recently. Traditionally, falconers trained wild birds that were either taken from the nest when quite young or trapped as adults. A bird trapped as an adult is termed a haggard, from the Middle French hagard. Such a bird is notoriously wild and difficult to train, and it wasn't long before the falconry sense of haggard was being applied in an extended way to a "wild" and intractable person. Next, the word came to express the way the human face looks when a person is exhausted, anxious, or terrified. Today, the most common meaning of haggard is "gaunt" or "worn." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 2, 2014 is: shopaholic • \shah-puh-HAH-lik\ • noun : one who is extremely or excessively fond of shopping Examples: Susie is such a shopaholic that her friends refuse to set foot in a mall with her when there are big sales. "Uncle Sam is a shopaholic, the world's most prolific buyer of goods and services. Every year, the federal government spends between $350 billion and $500 billion on procurement." - editorial, The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), September 20, 2014 Did you know? The word alcoholic refers to someone who has a serious disorder. Addictive shopping can be serious, too, but the word shopaholic is most often used playfully to suggest mere excess rather than true addiction. Shopaholic first appeared in print in 1983. It was formed on the model of alcoholic, which was itself created many years earlier by combining alcohol with -ic, meaning "of or relating to." People evidently saw a parallel between someone addicted to alcohol and someone "addicted" to shopping. This is not the first time alcoholic has spawned a spinoff word-shopaholic was preceded by workaholic and chocoholic, both of which first turned up in 1968. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 1, 2014 is: penultimate • \pih-NUL-tuh-mut\ • adjective 1 : occurring immediately before the last one : next to the last 2 : of or relating to the next to the last syllable of a word Examples: The word edamame places its primary stress on the penultimate syllable. "The decision to bump off two major characters in last week's episode of Boardwalk Empire made for an excellent hour of television, but the unfortunate trade-off is that the show's penultimate episode, 'Friendless Child,' is almost painfully anticlimactic." - Sarene Leeds, Entertainment Weekly, October 19, 2014 Did you know? Penultimate isn't the last word in words for things that are next to last. There is a pair of noun synonyms that are used commonly enough to have gained entry into abridged dictionaries: penult and penultima. Although all three can refer to something that's next to last, penult and penultima are usually a bit more specific; they are used most often to identify the next to last syllable of a word. All three derive from paenultima, a Latin root from paene ("almost") and ultima ("last"). You may occasionally hear the word penultimate used as an intensified version of ultimate, as in "a race they've called 'the penultimate challenge.'" This use isn't typically found in edited prose, however-or in dictionaries. One of our editors discusses it in this video. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2014 is: abbreviate • \uh-BREE-vee-ayt\ • verb : to make briefer; especially : to reduce to a shorter form intended to stand for the whole Examples: Due to time constraints, the last speaker at the ceremony had to abbreviate her speech. "You know, originally, my team had prepared some remarks.… But given the dialogue that we had the last time, I thought it was useful for me to abbreviate my remarks, speak off the cuff at the top and then spend most of the time just having a conversation." - Barack Obama, quoted in CNN Transcripts, December 5, 2012 Did you know? Abbreviate and abridge both mean "to make shorter," so it probably will come as no surprise that both derive from the Latin verb brevis, meaning "short." Abbreviate first appeared in print in English in the 15th century and derives from abbreviatus, the past participle of Late Latin abbreviare, which in turn can be traced back to brevis. Abridge, which appeared a century earlier, also comes from abbreviare but took a side trip through Anglo-French before arriving in Middle English as abregen. Brevis is also the ancestor of English brief itself, as well as brevity and breviary ("a prayer book" or "a brief summary"), among others. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 29, 2014 is: vicious circle • \VISH-us-SER-kul\ • noun 1 : an argument or definition that begs the question 2 : a chain of events in which the response to one difficulty creates a new problem that aggravates the original difficulty Examples: Lower profits led to spending cuts which caused falling sales, creating a vicious circle. "Diabetes symptoms disturb sleep, while sleep loss contributes to diabetes. Add obesity and stress, and you have a vicious circle." - Leslie Mann, Baltimore Sun, October 30, 2014 Did you know? Vicious circle originally referred to a circular argument, that is, an argument that assumes the conclusion as one of its premises. That sense was first documented around the end of the 18th century. Approximately 50 years later, vicious circle acquired the now more common "chain of events" sense as people began to think of the circle as a metaphorical circle rather than a circular argument. Today, vicious cycle is a common variant for the "chain of events" sense. Vicious spiral, in which the ill effects are cumulative as well as self-aggravating, puts in an occasional appearance as well. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2014 is: heterodox • \HET-uh-ruh-dahks\ • adjective 1 : contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion : unorthodox, unconventional 2 : holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines Examples: A lifelong contrarian, Alexa was known for putting forth heterodox opinions in her weekly culture column. "Levy is an intellectual descendant of the economist Hyman Minsky, a heterodox thinker who spent many years working at the Jerome Levy Economic Institute and whose theories were largely ignored by economists up until the latest financial crisis." - Chris Matthews, Fortune, October 28, 2014 Did you know? "Orthodoxy ... is my doxy-heterodoxy is another man's doxy," quipped 18th-century bishop William Warburton. He was only punning, but it is true that individuals often see other people's ideas as unconventional while regarding their own as beyond reproach. The antonyms orthodox and heterodox developed from the same root, the Greek doxa, which means "opinion." Heterodox derives from doxa plus heter-, a combining form meaning "other" or "different"; orthodoxy pairs doxa with orth-, meaning "correct" or "straight." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 27, 2014 is: nostrum • \NAHSS-trum\ • noun : a usually questionable remedy or scheme : panacea Examples: Critics predict the mayor's plan to revitalize the downtown area by offering tax breaks to businesses will prove a costly and ineffective nostrum. "For example, the Internet will likely soon be overflowing with nostrums, essential oils, tree bark, eye of toad and essence of newt promising to prevent or cure Ebola. The FDA and FTC should be gathering their lawyers right now to get this claptrap off the web." - Arthur Leonard Caplan, Forbes, September 30, 2014 Did you know? "Whether there was real efficacy in these nostrums, and whether their author himself had faith in them, is more than can safely be said," wrote 19th-century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, "but, at all events, the public believed in them." The word nostrum has often been linked to quack medicine and false hopes for miracle cures, but there's nothing deceitful about its etymology. It has been a part of English since at least 1602, and comes from the Latin noster, meaning "our" or "ours." Some think that specially prepared medicinal concoctions came to be called nostrums because their purveyors marketed them as "our own" remedy. In other words, the use of nostrum emphasized that such a potion was unique or exclusive to the pitchman peddling it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.