Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2014 is: retinue • \RET-uh-noo\ • noun : a group of retainers or attendants Examples: "The Handkerchief Prince was trailed by a retinue of 40 or so Japanese media members, complete with satellite trucks." - From an article by Anthony Rieber in Newsday, March 28, 2014 "Eight men made its retinue, and two of the eight were armed with rusty sabres-sure signs that they followed a person of distinction, for the common folk do not bear arms." - From Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim Did you know? "Retinue" derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb "retenir," meaning "to retain." Another word deriving from "retenir" is "retainer," which means, among other things, "one who serves a person of high position or rank." In the 14th century, that high person of rank was usually a noble or a royal of some kind, and "retinue" referred to that person's collection of servants and companions. Nowadays, the word is often used with a bit of exaggeration to refer to the assistants, guards, publicists, and other people who accompany an actor or other high-profile individual in public. You might also hear such a collection called a "suite" or "entourage," two other words derived from French. 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 May 9, 2014 is: mien • \MEEN\ • noun 1 : air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality : demeanor 2 : appearance, aspect Examples: The minister projected a stern and serious mien from the pulpit, but we found him to be friendly and welcoming when we spoke with him in the social hall after the service. "Cooking in a Seattle Seahawks cap, McClenahan's mien is methodical, his moves practiced and precise." - From an article by Nancy Leson in the Seattle Times, March 31, 2014 Did you know? Like its synonyms "bearing" and "demeanor," "mien" means the outward manifestation of personality or attitude. "Bearing" is the most general, but now usually implies characteristic posture, as in "a woman of regal bearing." "Demeanor" suggests attitude expressed through outward behavior in the presence of others; for example, "the manager's professional demeanor." "Mien" is a somewhat literary term referring to both bearing and demeanor. "A mien of supreme self-satisfaction" is a typical use. "Mien" and "demeanor" are also linked through etymology. "Mien" arose through the shortening and alteration of the verb "demean," which comes from Latin "mener" ("to lead") and is also the root of "demeanor." In this case, "demean" means "to conduct or behave (oneself) usually in a proper manner," not "to degrade." That other "demean" is a distinct word with a different etymology. 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 May 8, 2014 is: cataract • \KAT-uh-rakt\ • noun 1 : a clouding of the lens of the eye or of its surrounding transparent membrane that obstructs the passage of light 2 a : waterfall; especially : a large one over a precipice b : steep rapids in a river c : downpour, flood Examples: "Kale contains tons of beta-carotene and lutein which can ward off blindness and cataracts caused by UV rays." - From an article by Brian Arola in the Hibbing Daily Tribune (Minnesota), April 3, 2014 "After a broken cataract of about twenty feet, the stream was received in a large natural basin filled to the brim with water, which, where the bubbles of the fall subsided, was so exquisitely clear that … the eye could discern each pebble at the bottom." - From Sir Walter Scott's 1814 novel Waverley Did you know? The meaning of "cataract" we're most familiar with is also the oldest. It dates to the 14th century and comes from the Latin word "cataracta," meaning "portcullis," probably because the ocular cataract obstructs vision in a way reminiscent of the way the portcullis's heavy iron grating obstructs passage into a fortress or castle. Latin "cataracta" has another meaning, however-"waterfall"-and that meaning gave us the water-related meanings that came in later centuries. The connection between the two Latin meanings can be seen in "katarassein," the Greek source of "cataracta." It means "to dash down"-an action we see in both the slamming portcullis and the cascading waterfall. 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 May 7, 2014 is: lionize • \LYE-uh-nyze\ • verb : to treat as an object of great interest or importance Examples: In his letter to the editor, Jeremy denounced the mass media's tendency to lionize accused murderers. "More than a music hall, the beloved nightclub in the space now occupied by The Social was a pop-culture salon. It was the place to see musicians later lionized in indie-rock-singer-songwriters such as Elliott Smith, bands such as Guided By Voices-in a room painstakingly devoted to the experience." - From an article by Jim Abbott in the Orlando Sentinel, April 1, 2014 Did you know? The lion is traditionally regarded as the king of beasts-perceived as brave, stately, and ferocious. Those qualities were probably in people's minds when, in the 18th century, "lion" came to be used for a person who is similarly well-regarded, especially after a long and distinguished career in a particular field. A veteran lawmaker might be considered one of the lions of the Senate; a literary lion has enjoyed a long career as a successful writer. This sense of "lion" forms the basis of "lionize," which first appeared in English in the early 19th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2014 is: gist • \JIST\ • noun 1 : the ground of a legal action 2 : the main point or part : essence Examples: I didn't catch every word, but I heard enough to get the gist of the conversation. "If you have seen the animated children's movie Balto, you know the gist of the Iditarod story; however, there is more to the story than a mysterious wolf/dog who beat the odds, carried the antitoxin across the tundra and got the girl." - From an article by Victoria Burris in The Omnibus (Southwest Baptist University), March 5, 2014 Did you know? "The gist of the conversation was that ...." The word "gist" often appears in such contexts to let us know that what follows will be a statement or summary that in some way encapsulates the main point or overarching theme. The gist of a conversation, argument, story, or what-have-you is what we rely on when the actual words and details are only imperfectly recalled, inessential, or too voluminous to recount in their entirety. "Gist" was borrowed from the Anglo-French legal phrase "[cest] action gist" ("[this] action lies") in the early 18th century, and was originally used in legal contexts as a term referring to the foundation or grounds for a legal action without which that action would not be legally sustainable. 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 May 5, 2014 is: scavenger • \SKAV-un-jer\ • noun 1 a : one that scavenges: as b : a garbage collector c : a junk collector 2 : an organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrion Examples: The owners of the new antique shop are ace scavengers whose skills were honed during college trash-picking outings. "Hunters have long provided wildlife scavengers with free meals." - From an article by Brett Prettyman in The Salt Lake Tribune, March 26, 2014 Did you know? You might guess that "scavenger" is a derivative of "scavenge," but the reverse is actually true; "scavenger" is the older word, first appearing in English in 1530, and the back-formation "scavenge" came into English in the mid-17th century. "Scavenger" is an alteration of the earlier "scavager," itself from Anglo-French "scawageour," meaning "collector of scavage." In medieval times, "scavage" was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents, in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that's how "scavenger" came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its more widely used sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items. 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 May 4, 2014 is: risible • \RIZZ-uh-bul\ • adjective 1 a : capable of laughing b : disposed to laugh 2 : arousing or provoking laughter; especially : laughable 3 : associated with, relating to, or used in laughter Examples: Megan's friends teased her for the risible notion that one day she'd find a unicorn lurking in her yard. "[The director] has a strong command of CGI technology and 3D effects, and the movie is so grand in scale that you can't help surrender to the spectacle, even if the stuff that's going on with the people in the film is often close to risible." - From a movie review by Rene Rodriguez in The Miami Herald, February 23, 2014 Did you know? If someone makes a ridiculous remark about your "risible muscles," he or she is not necessarily deriding your physique. "Risible" can also mean "associated with laughter," so "risible muscles" can simply be the ones used for laughing. (In fact, you've got a set of risorius muscles around your mouth that help you smile.) The next time you find something laughable, tip your hat to "ridēre," the Latin verb meaning "to laugh" that gave us "risible" and "risorius," as well as "ridiculous" and "deride." 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 May 3, 2014 is: escapade • \ESS-kuh-payd\ • noun : a usually adventurous action that runs counter to approved or conventional conduct Examples: Her latest film is a screwball comedy depicting the calamitous escapades of two men who stow away on a cruise ship. "Based on the popular comic strip Little Orphan Annie, created by Harold Gray, 'Annie' portrays the escapades of a lively orphan girl in New York City in the 1930s." - From an article in The Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, Massachusetts), March 29, 2014 Did you know? When it was first used in English, "escapade" referred to an act of escaping or fleeing from confinement or restraint. The relationship between "escape" and "escapade" does not end there. Both words derive from the Vulgar Latin verb "excappare," meaning "to escape," a product of the Latin prefix "ex-" and the Late Latin noun "cappa," meaning "head covering or cloak." ("Cappa" is also an ancestor of "cape.") While "escape" took a route through Anglo-French and Middle English, however, "escapade" made its way into English by way of Spanish "escapar" ("to escape") and French "escapade." 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 May 2, 2014 is: peach • \PEECH\ • verb 1 : to inform against : betray 2 : to turn informer : blab Examples: Debbie peached on her friends the moment the teacher demanded to know the truth about the prank. "They'll think his lordship, or perhaps his brother, peached on them.” - From Grace Burrowes' 2013 historical romance Gabriel: Lord of Regrets Did you know? If you guessed that the origin of this verb "peach" has something to do with a slightly fuzzy fruit, you are unfortunately incorrect. The fruit "peach" is an unrelated word that traces back to the Latin phrase "malum persicum," literally meaning "Persian fruit." The verb that we are featuring today evolved from Middle English "apechen" ("to accuse"), itself an offspring of an Anglo-French verb meaning "to ensnare." That Anglo-French word is also an ancestor of the English verb "impeach," meaning "to bring an accusation against." Both of these English verbs can be traced back further to a Latin word for a shackle for the feet, and that word is itself rooted in "ped-, pes," meaning "foot." 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 May 1, 2014 is: aplomb • \uh-PLAHM\ • noun : complete and confident composure or self-assurance : poise Examples: On her first day as a teacher, June handled herself with aplomb, keeping the class engaged and focused. "The ample chamber orchestra under Boyagian played with zest and aplomb." - From a concert review by Zachary Lewis in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), March 31, 2014 Did you know? In the 19th century, English speakers borrowed "aplomb," meaning "composure," from French. "Aplomb" can also mean "perpendicularity" in French and comes from the phrase "a plomb," meaning "perpendicularly" or literally "according to the plummet." A plummet is a lead weight that is attached to a line and used to determine vertical alignment. Not surprisingly, "aplomb" and English words like "plumber" and the verb "plumb" ("to measure depth" and "to explore critically and minutely") ultimately trace back to the Latin word for lead, "plumbum." 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 April 30, 2014 is: svelte • \SVELT\ • adjective 1 a : slender, lithe b : having even and smooth lines : sleek 2 : urbane, suave Examples: The actress stepped onto the red carpet looking svelte in a figure-hugging dress. "A trim, more svelte typeface on federal documents would slash the government's ink expenses and could save taxpayers more than $100 million a year in printing costs, an O'Hara-based researcher has found." - From an article by Adam Smeltz in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, March 29, 2014 Did you know? Svelte came to us, by way of French, from Italian svelto, which itself comes from the Italian verb svellere, meaning "to pluck out" or "to pull or stretch out." In English svelte has been used since the early 19th century to describe a slender appearance, as in A.B. Granville's 1838 description of a countess who was "tall, svelte, pale, and interesting." By the 20th century, English speakers had stretched the word's meaning to suggest an urbane or suave nature—as poet Ezra Pound did when he described "svelte Verona," a city he visited in north Italy. 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 April 29, 2014 is: fiscal • \FISS-kul\ • adjective 1 : of or relating to taxation, public revenues, or public debt 2 : of or relating to financial matters Examples: The governor was harshly criticized by his opponent for not showing more fiscal restraint during the slow economic recovery. "Let's remember that fiscal policy, or rather the financial management of the government, has two sides, expenditures and revenues." - From an opinion column by Gerald Petersen in The News-Press (Fort Myers, Florida), March 21, 2014 Did you know? "Fiscal" derives from the Latin noun "fiscus," meaning "basket" or "treasury." In ancient Rome, "fiscus" was the term for the treasury controlled by the emperor, where the money was literally stored in baskets and was collected primarily in the form of revenue from the provinces. "Fiscus" also gives us our word "confiscate," which now means "to seize" but once referred to the forfeiting of private property to public use. Today we find "fiscal" in a number of phrases, including "fiscal year" (referring to a 12-month accounting period not necessarily coinciding with the calendar year) and "fiscal cliff," a term that rose to prominence in the U.S. in 2012 when much attention was focused on a series of anticipated year-end tax increases and spending cuts. 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 April 28, 2014 is: bonnyclabber • \BAH-nee-klab-er\ • noun : sour milk that has thickened or curdled Examples: When Grandma was a little girl, one of her jobs was to feed the bonnyclabber to the chickens. "Robert Hale of Beverly, Massachusetts, washed up at the Cyr place in 1731. After a meal of bonnyclabber (a curdled milk dish akin to yogurt), fish, soup, and bread, he witnessed 'some of the Family on their Knees paying their Devotions to the Almighty.'" - From Christopher Hodson's 2012 book The Acadian Diaspora Did you know? In Irish Gaelic, "bainne clabair" means "thickened milk." In English, the equivalent word is "bonnyclabber." Whether or not this bonnyclabber is "the bravest, freshest drink you ever tasted" (as the English Earl of Strafford enthused in 1635) or "would make a hungry parson caper" (to quote English poet Thomas Ward in 1716), it has been a part of country folks' diets for many a year. Today, you might see "bonnyclabber" as a recommended substitute for buttermilk in a recipe for Irish soda bread (complete with directions for making your own bonnyclabber). The American version of bonnyclabber, brought to U.S. shores by Scotch-Irish immigrants, often goes one step further in the thickening process to produce something more akin to cottage cheese. 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 April 27, 2014 is: inkhorn • \INK-horn\ • adjective : ostentatiously learned : pedantic Examples: Richard's use of inkhorn terminology in his paper didn't impress his professor, whereas simple language demonstrating a clear understanding of the material would have done the trick. "It was not until the 18th century that dictionary-makers began to include everyday words and weed out the weighty-sounding inkhorn terms." - From an article by Faye Carney in The Times Educational Supplement, September 23, 2005 Did you know? Picture an ancient scribe, pen in hand, a small ink bottle made from an animal's horn strapped to his belt, ready to record the great events of history. In 14th-century England, such ink bottles were dubbed (not surprisingly) "inkhorns." During the Renaissance, learned writers often borrowed words from Latin and Greek, eschewing vulgar English alternatives. But in the 16th century, some scholars argued for the use of native terms over Latinate forms, and a lively intellectual debate over the merits of each began. Those who favored English branded what they considered ostentatious Latinisms "inkhorn terms" after the bottles carried by scholars, and since then we have used "inkhorn" as an adjective for Latinate or pretentious language. 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 April 26, 2014 is: mangle • \MANG-gul\ • verb 1 : to injure with deep disfiguring wounds by cutting, tearing, or crushing 2 : to spoil, injure, or make incoherent especially through ineptitude Examples: The band thoroughly mangled their cover of the classic rock anthem. "When Sanchez was put into that preseason game against the Giants in the fourth quarter in August-behind a backup offensive line-and got his right shoulder mangled, how often did you hear Sanchez complain? Never." - From an article by Mark Cannizzaro in The New York Post, March 23, 2014 Did you know? Today's word isn't the only "mangle" in English. We also have the noun "mangle" ("a machine for ironing laundry by passing it between heated rollers") and its related verb ("to press or smooth with a mangle"). There's no etymological relationship, however, between these two and the "mangle" that means "to mutilate or bungle." The ironing-related homographs come from Dutch and ultimately from a Late Latin word for a military engine used to hurl missiles. The injury-related "mangle" comes from Anglo-French and may be a descendant of "mahaigner," which means "to maim" and is an ancestor of the English words "maim" and "mayhem." 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 April 25, 2014 is: truckle • \TRUK-ul\ • verb : to act in a subservient manner : submit Examples: Duane eventually lost his job because he was unwilling to truckle to his managers and participate in their often illegal schemes. "An ever-increasing number of residents are increasingly angry at the City's truckling to business interests.…" - From an article by Peggy Clifford in the Santa Monica Dispatch, November 14, 2013 Did you know? When "truckle" was first used in English in the 15th century, it meant "small wheel" or "pulley." Such small wheels were often attached to the underside of low beds, to allow them to be easily moved under high beds for storage. These beds came to be known as "truckle beds" (or "trundle beds"), and a verb "truckle"-meaning "to sleep in a truckle bed"-came into being. By the 17th century, the fact that truckle beds were pushed under larger standard beds had inspired a figurative sense of "truckle": "to yield to the wishes of another" or "to bend obsequiously." The initial verb meaning became obsolete; the newer sense is fairly rare but is still in use. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2014 is: fissiparous • \fih-SIP-uh-rus\ • adjective 1 : tending to break up into parts 2 : creating disunity or dissension : divisive Examples: The election for class president had a fissiparous effect on the school as students took sides for their favorite candidate. "In Calvinism: A History, D.G. Hart … shows how Protestantism's fissiparous nature has allowed it to adapt and, in some instances, transmogrify to fit local and personal needs." - From a book review by Michael P. Orsi in the Washington Times (Washington D.C.), December 12, 2013 Did you know? When it first entered English in the 19th century, "fissiparous" was concerned with reproduction. In biology, a fissiparous organism is one that produces new individuals by fission; that is, by dividing into separate parts, each of which becomes a unique organism. (Most strains of bacteria do this.) Both "fissiparous" and "fission" trace back to Latin "findere" ("to split"). The second part of "fissiparous" is rooted in Latin "parere" ("to give birth to" or "to produce"). Other "parere" offspring refer to other forms of reproduction, including "oviparous" ("producing eggs that hatch outside the body") and "viviparous" ("producing living young instead of eggs"). By the end of the 19th century "fissiparous" had acquired a figurative meaning, describing something that breaks into parts or causes something else to break into parts. 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 April 23, 2014 is: bas-relief • \bah-rih-LEEF\ • noun : sculptural relief in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight and no part of the modeled form is undercut; also : sculpture executed in bas-relief Examples: Jamal admired the bas-reliefs carved into the walls of the ancient Assyrian palace. "Nearly 50 people … came to the unveiling on Friday afternoon and watched as Mayor Marina Khubesrian and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, pulled the covering off the bas-relief to reveal a father reading to his three daughters." - From an article by Zen Vuong in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune (California), March 22, 2014 Did you know? The best way to understand the meaning of "bas-relief" is to see one-and the easiest way to do that is to pull one out of your pocket. Just take out a penny, nickel, or other coin and examine the raised images on it; they're all bas-reliefs. English speakers adopted "bas-relief" from French (where "bas" means "low" and "relief" means "raised work") during the mid-1600s. A few decades earlier, we also borrowed the synonymous "basso-relievo" from Italian. The French and Italian terms have common ancestors (and, in fact, the French word is likely a translation of the Italian), but English speakers apparently borrowed the two independently. "Bas-relief" is more prevalent in English today, although the Italian-derived term has not disappeared completely from the language. 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 April 22, 2014 is: cock-a-hoop • \kah-kuh-HOOP\ • adjective 1 : triumphantly boastful : exulting 2 : awry Examples: The driver's pit crew was cock-a-hoop as they watched her cross the finish line to victory lane. "The cock-a-hoop pride and sensitivity of these former colonials were mere annoyances, almost impossible to take seriously for a nation with a world war to win." - From Patricia Brady's 2011 book A Being So Gentle: The Frontier Love Story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson Did you know? The adjective "cock-a-hoop" comes from a curious 16th- and 17th-century expression, "to set cock a hoop," which meant "to be festive" or "to drink or celebrate without restraint." Etymologists, however, are not entirely certain about the origin of that old expression. Although no one knows if it originally had any connection with the "rooster" sense of "cock," many people thought it did-and this perceived association influenced the current meaning of "cock-a-hoop." The cock is known for its triumphant crow, and "cock-a-hoop" is now used to refer to something triumphantly boastful. 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 April 21, 2014 is: minutia • \muh-NOO-shee-uh\ • noun : a minute or minor detail Examples: The self-help book said it was easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of everyday life and fail to notice important opportunities. "Jackson, though, is smart enough to hire people to figure out salary caps and contract minutia." - From a column by Tim Dahlberg via the Associated Press, March 18, 2014 Did you know? "Minutia" was borrowed into English in the late 18th century from the Latin plural noun "minutiae," meaning "trifles" or "details" and derived from the singular noun "minutia," meaning "smallness." In English, "minutia" is most often used in the plural as either "minutiae" or, on occasion, as simply "minutia" (as illustrated in our second example sentence). Latin "minutia," incidentally, comes from "minutus," an adjective meaning "small" that was created from the verb "minuere," meaning "to lessen." A familiar descendant of "minutus" is "minute." 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 April 20, 2014 is: cockamamy • \kah-kuh-MAY-mee\ • adjective : ridiculous, incredible Examples: Ted missed the meeting again, phoning the receptionist with some cockamamy excuse. "Colin Farrell is good in this time-traveling romance, but it's tastefully cockamamie and increasingly gloppy." - From a movie listing in The Hartford Courant (Connecticut), February 20, 2014 Did you know? By the look and sound of it, "cockamamy" (also spelled "cockamamie") seems like an arbitrarily coined nonsense word-but a reasonable explanation for its origin exists. Supposedly, "cockamamy" is an altered form of the term "decalcomania," which denotes a process of transferring pictures and designs from specially prepared paper to surfaces such as glass or porcelain. The word "decalcomania" comes from the combination of French "décalquer," meaning "to copy by tracing," and "-manie," meaning "mania." In the 1940s, painted strips of paper with images capable of being transferred to the skin were called "decals" or "cockamanies." They were naturally regarded by many as silly novelties. Hence, in time, the variant "cockamamie" came to be used as an adjective meaning "ridiculous." 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 April 19, 2014 is: oblige • \uh-BLYJE\ • verb 1 : to constrain by physical, moral, or legal force or by the exigencies of circumstance 2 a : to earn the gratitude of b : to do a favor for or do something as a favor Examples: "The state's highest court Monday ruled that Long Island guitar-string maker D'Addario & Co. is not obliged to pay $227,000 in interest for reneging on a 2006 real estate deal." - From an article by Joe Ryan in Newsday (Long Island, New York), November 19, 2012 "He was already in Nashville and had left his warm jacket in Jackson. He asked if I could bring it to the airport, since we were on the same flight. I obliged, delivered the jacket and began a friendship that I treasure." - From an article by Dan Morris in the Jackson Sun (Tennessee), March 15, 2014 Did you know? "Oblige" shares some similarities with its close relative "obligate," but there are also differences. "Oblige" derived via Middle English and Anglo-French from Latin "obligare" ("to bind to"), a combination of "ob-" ("to or toward") and "ligare" ("to bind"), whereas "obligate" descended directly from the past participle of "obligare." Both "oblige" and "obligate" are frequently used in their past participle forms to express a kind of legal or moral constraint. "Obligated" once meant "indebted for a service or favor," but today it typically means "required to do something because the law requires it or because it is the right thing to do." "Obliged" is now the preferred term for the sense that Southern author Flannery O'Connor used in a 1952 letter: "I would be much obliged if you would send me six copies." 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 April 18, 2014 is: lodestar • \LOHD-stahr\ • noun : one that serves as an inspiration, model, or guide Examples: When she started her own business, Melinda used her father's motto-"Trust your instincts"-as her lodestar. "For a generation of computer programmers, astrophysicists and other scientists, Mr. Munroe and his online comic, xkcd, have been lodestars." - From an article by Noam Cohen in The New York Times, March 17, 2014 Did you know? The literal, albeit archaic, meaning of "lodestar" is "a star that leads or guides" and it is a term that has been used especially in reference to the North Star. (The first half of the word derives from the Middle English word "lode," meaning "course.") Both the literal and the figurative sense ("an inspiration or guide") date back to the 14th century, the time of Geoffrey Chaucer. The literal sense fell out of use in the 17th century, and so, for a while, did the figurative sense-but it appeared again 170 years later, when Sir Walter Scott used it in his 1813 poem The Bridal of Triermain. 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 April 17, 2014 is: oneiric • \oh-NYE-rik\ • adjective : of or relating to dreams : dreamy Examples: The paintings, filled with fantastical imagery conjured by the artist's imagination, have a compellingly oneiric quality. "Most of the actors here are double and triple cast, and if they barely differentiate among their roles, that just adds to the oneiric effect." - From a theater review by Jeffrey Gantz in The Boston Globe, March 12, 2012 Did you know? The notion of using the Greek noun "oneiros" (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective "oneiric" wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few "oneiros" spin-offs, giving English "oneirocriticism," "oneirocritical," and "oneirocritic" (each referring to dream interpreters or interpretation). The surge in "oneiros" derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus. 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 April 16, 2014 is: utopia • \yoo-TOH-pee-uh\ • noun : an impractical scheme for social improvement Examples: To some people, gated communities are visions of Utopia-safe, quiet, and out of the way. "Peninsula Players has entertained generations of audiences since it was founded in 1935 by a brother-and-sister team, Caroline and Richard Fisher, who dreamed of an artistic utopia where actors, designers and technicians could focus on their craft while being surrounded by nature in a contemplative setting." - From an article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, March 12, 2014 Did you know? In 1516, English humanist Sir Thomas More published a book titled Utopia. It compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those of an ideal society on an imaginary island located off the coast of the Americas. More wanted to imply that the perfect conditions on his fictional island could never really exist, so he called it "Utopia," a name he created by combining the Greek words "ou" (meaning "no, not") and "topos" (meaning "place," a root used in our word "topography"). The earliest generic use of "utopia" was for an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. The current use of "utopia," referring to an ideal place or society, was inspired by More's description of Utopia's perfection. 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 April 15, 2014 is: Walter Mitty • \WAWL-ter-MIT-ee\ • noun : a commonplace unadventurous person who seeks escape from reality through daydreaming Examples: Alan is a Walter Mitty who loves to read travel books but rarely ventures beyond the limits of his own small town. "Ralphie eventually has to resort to his own Walter Mitty-esque flights of fancy to deal with his real-life predicament." - From an article by Bill Eggert in The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pennsylvania), December 14, 2013 Did you know? The original Walter Mitty was created by humorist James Thurber in his famous story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." In Walter's real life, he is a reticent, henpecked proofreader befuddled by everyday life. But in his fantasies, Walter imagines himself as various daring and heroic characters. Thurber's popular story was first published in The New Yorker in 1939. "Walter Mitty" has since become the eponym for dreamers who imagine themselves in dramatic or heroic situations. 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 April 14, 2014 is: madeleine • \MAD-uh-lun\ • noun 1 : a small rich shell-shaped cake 2 : one that evokes a memory Examples: "The evening started with wine and snacks, which included house-made charcuterie, cheese, and cornbread madeleines-the latter, I thought, a clever mashup of French and US traditions…." - From an article by Tom Philpott on MotherJones.com, March 11, 2014 "Every year, the family gathered in the backyard to roast a whole pig in a pit. Between the smell and the smoke, it makes for my own 35-pound madeleine." - From an article by Ana Menéndez in Gourmet, September 2007 Did you know? The madeleine is said to have been named after a 19th-century French cook named Madeleine Paumier, but it was the French author Marcel Proust who immortalized the pastry in his 1913 book Swann's Way, the first volume of his seven-part novel Remembrance of Things Past. In that work, a taste of tea-soaked cake evokes a surge of memory and nostalgia. As more and more readers chewed on the profound mnemonic power attributed to a mere morsel of cake, the word "madeleine" itself became a designation for anything that evokes a memory. 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 April 13, 2014 is: tabula rasa • \TAB-yuh-luh-RAH-zuh\ • noun 1 : the mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state before receiving outside impressions 2 : something existing in its original pristine state Examples: "In those pioneering days, I was something of a tabula rasa in the kitchen, unless you count my knack for toasting a flawless Pop-Tart." - From an article by Andy Borowitz in Food & Wine, June 2003 "When city officials began handing out development contracts in the 1980s, there was no urban context to go by. It was as close as a city gets to tabula rasa: two square mile of parking lots, vacant warehouses and abandoned railroad tracks." - From an article by Matt Chaban in the New York Daily News, March 7, 2014 Did you know? Philosophers have been arguing that babies are born with minds that are essentially blank slates since the days of Aristotle. (Later, some psychologists took up the case as well.) English speakers have called that initial state of mental blankness "tabula rasa" (a term taken from a Latin phrase that translates as "smooth or erased tablet") since the 16th century, but it wasn't until British philosopher John Locke championed the concept in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1690 that the term gained widespread popularity in our language. In later years, a figurative sense of the term emerged, referring to something that exists in its original state and that has yet to be altered by outside forces. 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 April 12, 2014 is: recondite • \REK-un-dyte\ • adjective 1 : hidden from sight : concealed 2 : difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend : deep 3 : of, relating to, or dealing with something little known or obscure Examples: "We hear from mathematicians that bees have practically solved a recondite problem, and have made their cells of the proper shape to hold the greatest possible amount of honey, with the least possible consumption of precious wax in their construction." - From Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species "The week after Michelle Obama went on Jimmy Fallon's 'Late Night' show to present the recondite art of Mom Dancing, her segment doomed Jay Leno in Fallon's favor." - From an article by Jeff Simon in The Buffalo News (New York), December 29, 2013 Did you know? While "recondite" may be used to describe something difficult to understand, there is nothing recondite about the word's history. It dates to the early 1600s, when it was coined from the synonymous Latin word "reconditus." "Recondite" is one of those underused but useful words that's always a boon to one's vocabulary, but take off the "re-" and you get something very obscure: "condite" is an obsolete verb meaning both "to pickle or preserve" and "to embalm." If we add the prefix "in-" to "condite" we get "incondite," which means "badly put together," as in "incondite prose." All three words have Latin "condere" at their root; that verb is translated variously as "to put or bring together," "to put up, store," and "to conceal." 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 April 11, 2014 is: collimate • \KAH-luh-mayt\ • verb : to make (something, such as light rays) parallel Examples: "Amazingly, some astrophysical jets-streams of charged particles collimated and accelerated over astronomical distances-also exhibit a helical structure." - From an article by Mario Livio on The Huffington Post, November 20, 2013 "The higher cost and fixed eyepieces of the … binoculars are distinct disadvantages, but setup time is reduced-there's no need to collimate optics or align tube assemblies." - From a product review by Phil Harrington in Astronomy, February 2004 Did you know? One might expect a science-y word like "collimate" to have a straightforward etymology, but that's not the case. "Collimate" comes from Latin "collimare," a misreading of the Latin word "collineare," meaning "to direct in a straight line." The erroneous "collimare" appeared in some editions of the works of ancient Roman statesman Cicero and scholar Aulus Gellius. The error was propagated by later writers-most notably by astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler, who wrote in Latin. And so it was the spelling "collimate," rather than "collineate," that passed into English in the 19th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 10, 2014 is: kith • \KITH\ • noun : familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives Examples: Alan looked forward to the annual block party as a way to stay connected with his kith. "Many urban dwellers, embedded in networks of kith and kin, wouldn't dream of swapping the spiciness of the city for the white-bread pleasures of suburbia." - From an article by David L. Kirp in The New York Times, October 20, 2013 Did you know? "Kith" has had many meanings over the years. In its earliest uses it referred to knowledge of something, but that meaning died out in the 1400s. Another sense, "one's native land," had come and gone by the early 1500s. The sense "friends, fellow countrymen, or neighbors" developed before the 12th century and was sometimes used as a synonym of "kinsfolk." That last sense got "kith" into hot water after people began using the word in the alliterative phrase "kith and kin." Over the years, usage commentators have complained that "kith" means the same thing as "kin," so "kith and kin" is redundant. Clearly, they have overlooked some other historical definitions, but if you want to avoid redundancy charges, be sure to include friends as well as relatives among your "kith and kin." 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 April 9, 2014 is: rancid • \RAN-sid\ • adjective 1 : having a rank smell or taste 2 : offensive Examples: Although considered healthier, unsaturated fats become rancid much more easily than saturated fats do. "Oddly enough, this wild conjecture is about as far as McGinniss goes into the rancid waters of tabloid gossip." - From a book review by Jonathan Yardley in the Washington Post, March 11, 2014 Did you know? "Rancid" has a fairly straightforward history; it derives from Latin "rancidus," itself from the Latin verb "rancēre," meaning "to be rancid" or "to stink." In addition to the related words "rancidness" and "rancidity," another descendant of "rancēre" in English is "rancor," meaning "bitter deep-seated ill will." ("Rancor" passed through Middle French rather than being borrowed into English directly.) These days, "rancid" also has developed a second, extended sense which is used in the context of offenses to less literal or physical senses than those of smell or taste, and you might see references to "rancid behavior" or "a rancid personality." 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 April 8, 2014 is: virescent • \vuh-RESS-unt\ • adjective : beginning to be green : greenish Examples: Buds formed on the bare trees, infusing the stark branches with a slight virescent tint. "While Heisman Trophy winner and National Football League quarterback Tim Tebow read 'Green Eggs and Ham,' during Dr. Seuss Week, Lincoln Elementary kindergarten teacher Mary Jo Bures quietly slipped away to a meeting. None of the kindergartners noticed, their eyes fixated on the screen, their ears absorbing the story of Sam I Am and his never wavering quest to get the narrator to try the virescent foods." - From an article by Chris Dunker in the Beatrice Daily Sun (Nebraska), February 25, 2014 Did you know? "Virescent" first appeared in English in 1826. It derives from the present participle of "virescere," a Latin verb meaning "to become green" and a form of another verb, "virēre," meaning "to be green." "Virēre" also gave us another adjective meaning green, "verdant," only the route to that adjective takes a stop at Old French "verdoier" ("to be green"). "Virescent" has seen occasional general use, as when Thomas Hardy wrote, in his 1881 novel A Laodicean, of "[t]he summer … tipping every twig with a virescent yellow." But it is nowadays found most frequently in scientific contexts, especially those pertaining to botany. 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 April 7, 2014 is: spandex • \SPAN-deks\ • noun : any of various elastic textile fibers made chiefly of polyurethane; also : clothing made of this material Examples: While spandex is appropriate for running races and perhaps errands too, few of us can get away with donning it in the workplace. "[Olympic bobsled brakeman Chris] Fogt says his athletic life and his military career have some similarities, particularly the camaraderie forged in the trenches…. 'For us, it's obviously slightly different. Your life's not in danger. At the same time, you're sliding down an icy track in a bathtub with four men in spandex. You get very close.'" - From an article by Rick Maese in the Washington Post, February 24, 2014 Did you know? Spandex is a fiber that has had an impact on fashion high and low, casual and formal, outer and under. It's not a trademark, as a number of the names of other fibers are, among them "Dacron," "Lycra," and "Orlon." It's a generic term, coined in 1959 as an anagram of the word "expands." Anagrammatic coinages are not common; the only other in our dictionaries that the average person is likely to be familiar with is "sideburns." "Sideburns" is an anagram (and synonym) of "burnsides," from Ambrose E. Burnside, a Union general in the American Civil War credited with originating the fashion (in the U.S., at least) also known as "side-whiskers." 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 April 6, 2014 is: epistolary • \ih-PIST-uh-lair-ee\ • adjective 1 : of, relating to, or suitable to a letter 2 : contained in or carried on by letters 3 : written in the form of a series of letters Examples: "Jonathan Franzen, with whom he had struck up an epistolary friendship, offered to get together that April when he was in Boston." - From D.T. Max's 2012 biography Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace "If we replace simple letters with their instant always-on alternatives, we relinquish so much epistolary architecture too. The elegant opening address and sign-off, the politeness of tone and the correct grammar and spelling." - From an article by Simon Garfield in The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), February 14, 2014 Did you know? "Epistolary" was formed from the noun "epistle," which refers to a composition written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group. In its original sense, "epistle" refers to one of the 21 letters (such as those from the apostle Paul) found in the New Testament. Dating from the 13th century, "epistle" came to English via Anglo-French and Latin from the Greek noun "epistolē," meaning "message" or "letter." "Epistolē," in turn, came from the verb "epistellein," meaning "to send to" or "to send from." "Epistolary" appeared in English four centuries after "epistle" and can be used to describe something related to or contained in a letter (as in "epistolary greetings") or composed of letters (as in "an epistolary novel"). 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 April 5, 2014 is: debunk • \dee-BUNK\ • verb : to expose the sham or falseness of Examples: At the premiere of their new movie, the actor and actress addressed the media to debunk the rumor that they were dating. "Illusionists and comedians Penn and Teller have made a career out of pulling back the curtain, whether to reveal the methods magicians employ in their tricks or to debunk pseudoscientific claptrap on their former television series." - From a movie review by Marc Mohan in The Oregonian (Portland) , March 7, 2014 Did you know? If you guessed that "debunk" has something to do with "bunk," meaning "nonsense," you're correct. We started using "bunk" at the beginning of the 20th century. (It derived, via "bunkum," from a remark made by a congressman from Buncombe county, North Carolina.) A little less than 25 years later, "debunk" was first used in print for the act of taking the "bunk" out of something. There are plenty of synonyms for "debunk," including "disprove," "rebut," "refute," and the somewhat rarer "confute." Even "falsify" can mean "prove something false," in addition to "make something false." "Debunk" itself often suggests that something is not merely untrue, but also a sham; one can simply disprove a myth, but if it is "debunked," the implication is that it was a grossly exaggerated or foolish claim. 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 April 4, 2014 is: narwhal • \NAHR-wahl\ • noun : an arctic cetacean (Monodon monoceros) about 20 feet (6 meters) long with the male having a long twisted ivory tusk Examples: In medieval times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes passed off and sold as the horn of the fabled unicorn. "Polar bears and narwhals-some of the Arctic's most unusual and beloved creatures-are the focus of a family activity day at the Whatcom Museum, part of its continuing events in support of the 'Vanishing Ice' exhibit." - From an article by Robert Mittendorf in The Bellingham Herald (Washington), January 9, 2014 Did you know? The narwhal is a [toothed whale](/dictionary/toothed whale) found throughout arctic waters. Its Latin binomial, Monodon monoceros, is derived from the Greek words for "single-toothed" and "single-horned." Its English name (also sometimes spelled "narwhale") comes from the Norwegian and Danish "narvhal" and the Swedish "narval," words which are probably a modification of the Icelandic "nárhvalur," which comes from the Old Norse "nāhvalr." In Old Norse "hvalr" means "whale" and is akin to the Old English "hwæl," the ancestor of the Modern English "whale." The first element of "nāhvalr" is believed to be "nār," the Old Norse word for "corpse," from the resemblance of the animal's color to that of a human corpse. 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 April 3, 2014 is: cadge • \KAJ\ • verb : beg, sponge Examples: Mike tried to cadge a cigarette from Paula, but she told him to get his own pack. "With a straight face I actually said that I was still hungry and tried to cadge a second half-pound burrito. I failed." - From a blog post by Karl Wilder at HuffingtonPost.com, March 4, 2014 Did you know? As long ago as the 1400s, peddlers traveled the British countryside, each with a packhorse or a horse and cart, first carrying produce from rural farms to town markets, then returning with small wares to sell to country folk. The Middle English name for such traders was "cadgear"; Scottish dialects rendered the term as "cadger." Etymologists are pretty sure the verb "cadge" was created as a back-formation of "cadger" (which is to say, it was formed by removal of the "-er" suffix). At its most general, "cadger" meant "carrier," and the verb "cadge" meant "to carry." More specifically, the verb meant to go about as a cadger or peddler. By the 1800s, it was used when someone who posed as a peddler turned out to be more of a beggar-and that use led to our present-day one. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 2, 2014 is: hirsute • \HER-soot\ • adjective 1 : hairy 2 : covered with coarse stiff hairs Examples: Turner wore a hirsute mask as part of his werewolf costume for the school play. "Forget the Oscars … and make way for ... The Fluffies. No, it's nothing to do with overly hirsute cats or cute rabbits. The latest awards concerning the travel industry are for the best towels and pillows found in hotels across the UK." - From an article on MailOnline, February 28, 2014 Did you know? "Hirsute" has nearly the same spelling and exactly the same meaning as its Latin parent, "hirsutus." The word isn't quite one of a kind, though; it has four close relatives: "hirsutism" and "hirsuties," synonymous nouns naming a medical condition involving excessive hair growth; "hirsutal," an adjective meaning "of or relating to hair"; and "hirsutulous," a mostly botanical term meaning "slightly hairy" (as in "hirsutulous stems"). The latter three are not especially common but are entered in our Unabridged Dictionary. 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 April 1, 2014 is: hospitalist • \HAH-spih-tuh-list\ • noun : a physician who specializes in treating hospitalized patients of other physicians Examples: "George has been practicing adult medicine in the St. Louis area since 1999, including 10 years of experience as a hospitalist." - From an article in newsmagazinenetwork.com, September 16, 2013 "As an internist with nearly a decade of practice as a hospitalist at Stanford University Medical Center, the physician was speaking from firsthand knowledge." - From a press release by the American Pharmacists Association in the States News Service, February 25, 2014 Did you know? "Hospitalist" refers to what is rapidly becoming a new specialty in medicine, perhaps due in part to the rise of organized health care. These days, the care that you receive during a hospital stay may be coordinated and monitored by a doctor who is not your regular doctor or the referring physician. The word "hospitalist" itself first appeared in print in 1996 and derives, of course, from "hospital," which in turn can be traced back to the Medieval Latin word "hospitale," meaning "hospice" or "guest house." 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 31, 2014 is: reverberate • \rih-VER-buh-rayt\ • verb 1 : to reflect or to become reflected 2 : to continue in or as if in a series of echoes : resound Examples: The sound of footsteps reverberated through the hallway. "We take some comfort knowing that the guy who ran the backhoe-mounted pavement breaker that created weeks of ear-splitting din was able to feed his family and make his house payment. The money reverberated through the economy and left behind a roadway that will last long after we're gone." - From an editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 20, 2014 Did you know? The letter sequence "v-e-r-b" in "reverberate" might make you think at first of such word-related brethren as "proverb," "verbal," and "verbose," all of which derive from the Latin noun "verbum," meaning "word." In fact, "reverberate" comes from a much different source: the Latin verb "verberare," meaning "to whip, beat, or lash," which is related to the noun "verber," meaning "rod." "Reverberate" entered the English language in the 15th century, and one of its early meanings was "to beat, drive, or cast back." By the early 1600s it began to appear in contexts associated with sound that repeats or returns the way an echo does. 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 30, 2014 is: callous • \KAL-us\ • adjective 1 a : being hardened and thickened b : having calluses 2 a : feeling no emotion b : feeling or showing no sympathy for others : hard-hearted Examples: The company responsible for the fuel leak demonstrated callous disregard for the welfare of the people who lived downstream. "One of the most remarkable achievements of Carthage is Cressida Mayfield herself, and how utterly unlikable she remains…. Strong-willed yet sensitive, Cressida has a callous attitude toward others for which Oates peppers the story with vague explanations." -From a book review by Elizabeth Langemak on Philly.com, February 23, 2014 Did you know? A callus is a hard, thickened area of skin that develops usually from friction or irritation over time. Such a hardened area often leaves one less sensitive to the touch, so it's no surprise that the adjective "callous," in addition to describing skin that is hard and thick, can also be used as a synonym for "harsh" or "insensitive." Both "callus" and "callous" derive via Middle English from Latin. The figurative sense of "callous" entered English almost 300 years after the literal sense, and Robert Louis Stevenson used it aptly when he wrote, in Treasure Island, "But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 29, 2014 is: yen • \YEN\ • noun : a strong desire or propensity : longing; also : urge, craving Examples: Though it has been years since he moved away from home, Johnnie still experiences the occasional yen for his grandmother's cooking. "The first of the five to enlist was Ford, a devout Irish American Catholic with a yen for the seafaring life." - From a book review by M.G. Lord in the Los Angeles Times (California), February 20, 2014 Did you know? Although "yen" suggests no more than a strong longing these days, at one time someone with a yen was in deep trouble indeed. The first meaning of "yen" was an intense craving for opium. The late 19th-century English term evolved from the Cantonese "yīn-yáhn," which itself combines "yīn,” meaning “opium,” and "yáhn," meaning "craving." In English, the Chinese syllables were transformed to "yen-yen" and ultimately abbreviated to simply "yen." Eventually, "yen" was generalized to the more innocuous meaning of "a strong desire," and the link to drug cravings was lost. 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 28, 2014 is: adscititious • \ad-suh-TISH-us\ • adjective 1 : derived or acquired from something on the outside 2 : supplemental, additional Examples: "We should choose our books as we would our companions, for their sterling and intrinsic merit, not for their adscititious or accidental advantages." - From Charles Caleb Colton's 1832 book Lacon "I thrilled to crates of chilly hardware-coffee tins of rusty nails and mismatched bolts and nuts, odd attachments, gimcrack, rickrack, and adscititious crap…." - From William Davies King's 2008 book Collections of Nothing Did you know? "Adscititious" comes from a very "knowledgeable" family-it ultimately derives from "scire," the Latin verb meaning "to know." "Scire" also gave us "science," "conscience," "prescience" ("foreknowledge"), and "nescience" ("lack of knowledge"). "Adscititious" itself comes to us from "scire" by way of the Latin verb "adsciscere," which means "to admit" or "to adopt." This explains why "adscititious" describes something adopted from an outside source. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2014 is: infix • \IN-fiks\ • noun : a derivational or inflectional affix appearing in the body of a word Examples: The Philippine language of Tagalog adds infixes such as "-um-" and "-su-" to verbs to convey different tenses and voices. "As Mark Peters writes, [The Simpsons character Ned] Flanders is 'hyper-holy,' and his infixes sanctify a typically profane process. He is also gratingly cheerful … and diddly perfectly conveys his sunny attitude: murder and dilemma sound a lot less forbidding when infixed as murdiddlyurder and dididdlyemma…." - From Michael Adams' 2009 book Slang: The People's Poetry Did you know? Like prefixes and suffixes, infixes are part of the general class of affixes ("sounds or letters attached to or inserted within a word to produce a derivative word or an inflectional form"). Infixes are relatively rare in English, but you can find them in the plural forms of some words. For example, "cupful," "spoonful," and "passerby" can be pluralized as "cupsful," "spoonsful," and "passersby," using "s" as an infix. Another example is the insertion of an (often offensive) intensifier into a word, as in "fan-freakin'-tastic." Such whole-word insertions are sometimes called "infixes," though this phenomenon is more traditionally known as "tmesis." 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 26, 2014 is: sallow • \SAL-oh\ • adjective : of a grayish greenish yellow color suggesting sickliness Examples: She decided not to buy the beige blouse because it made her skin look washed-out and sallow. "Butterfield is perfect in the title role, his sallow complexion, sunken eyes and haunted gaze every inch the angst-ridden lad that Card created on the page." - From a movie review by Derrick Bang in The Davis Enterprise (California), November 1, 2013 Did you know? There is no hint of sickliness in the etymology of "sallow." The word appears in Old English as "salu" or "salo," and could mean "dusky" or "dark" or "grayish greenish yellow." "Salu" (or "salo") is akin to Old English "sōl" ("dark, dirty"), Old High German "salo" ("murky, dirty gray"), Old Norse "sölr" ("dirty"), and even Sanskrit "sāra" or "sāla," which carries the basic meaning of "dirty gray." "Sallow," however, has for much of its history been used specifically to describe the skin or complexion of one who is unwell. 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 25, 2014 is: opusculum • \oh-PUSK-yuh-lum\ • noun : a minor work (as of literature) Examples: The book is a collection of opuscula written by the author between her two major novels. "Little surprise, then, that McCall Smith has written a kindly, avuncular, contemplative opusculum sharing his enthusiasm with the uninitiated." - From an article by Richard Davenport-Hines in The Spectator, November 9, 2013 Did you know? "Opusculum"-which is often used in its plural form "opuscula"-comes from Latin, where it serves as the diminutive form of the noun "opus," meaning "work." In English, "opus" can refer to any literary or artistic work, though it often specifically refers to a musical piece. Logically, then, "opusculum" refers to a short or minor work. ("Opusculum" isn't restricted to music, though. In fact, it is most often used for literary works.) The Latin plural of "opus" is "opera," which gave us (via Italian) the word we know for a musical production consisting primarily of vocal pieces performed with orchestral accompaniment. 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 24, 2014 is: smite • \SMYTE\ • verb 1 : to strike sharply or heavily 2 a : to kill or severely injure by striking b : to attack or afflict suddenly and injuriously 3 : to affect as if by striking Examples: Susan jokingly declared that her mother would smite her if she ever went out in the winter with wet hair. "For 10 years or more I was that guy at work with the order form and the sheepish grin, guilt-tripping colleagues into buying 'discount cards' and inflated-price cookie dough that they didn't want. For me to then turn down the next wave of sheepishly grinning co-workers would be like challenging God to smite me with a lightning bolt just on principle." - From an editorial by Robert Price in the Bakersfield Californian, February 15, 2014 Did you know? Today's word has been part of the English language for a very long time; the earliest documented use in print dates to the 12th century. "Smite" can be traced back to an Old English word meaning "to smear or defile" and is a distant relative of the Scottish word "smit," meaning "to stain, contaminate, or infect." In addition to the straightforward "strike" and "attack" senses that we've defined and illustrated above, "smite" also has a softer side. It can mean "to captivate or take"-a sense that is frequently used in the past participle in such contexts as "smitten by her beauty" or "smitten with him" (meaning "in love with him"). 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 23, 2014 is: timorous • \TIM-uh-rus\ • adjective 1 : of a timid disposition : fearful 2 : expressing or suggesting timidity Examples: The study seems to suggests that timorous people suffer from stress more frequently than their more aggressive peers. "Hwang's quest to prove his daughter died from a workplace-related illness has pitted him against the world's biggest technology company and a largely timorous South Korean media." - From an article by Justin McCurry in The Guardian (London), February 6, 2014 Did you know? "Timid" and "timorous" don't just have similar spellings and meanings; they are etymologically related as well. Both words ultimately derive from the Latin verb "timēre," meaning "to fear." The immediate ancestor of "timid" is Latin "timidus" (same meaning as "timid"), whereas "timorous" traveled to Middle English by way of the Latin noun "timor" ("fear") and the Medieval Latin adjective "timorosus." "Timid" may be the more common of the two words, but "timorous" is older. It first appeared in English in the mid-15th century; "timid" came on the scene a century later. Both words can mean "easily frightened" (as in "a timid mouse" or "a timorous child") as well as "indicating or characterized by fear" (as in "he gave a timid smile" or "she took a timorous step forward"). 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 22, 2014 is: knackered • \NAK-erd\ • adjective : tired, exhausted Examples: She was knackered after a hard day of work and decided not to join us for an evening out. "But when Shmuel, knackered and self-satisfied, walks into the house after an afternoon's absence of indeterminate length and implausible itinerary, my heart expands in gratitude." - From an article by Leslie Kolbrener in The Forward, July 19, 2013 Did you know? "Knackered" is derived from the past participle of "knacker," a slang term meaning "to kill," but also "to tire, exhaust, or wear out." The origins of the verb "knacker" are uncertain, but the word is perhaps related to an older noun "knacker," which originally was used to indicate a harness-maker or saddlemaker, and later for buyers of worn-out animals (or their carcasses) and old structures. The origins of the noun "knacker," however, remain obscure. "Knackered" is used on both sides of the Atlantic but is more common among British speakers. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.