PLAY PODCASTS
mansuetude
Episode 4111

mansuetude

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day · Merriam-Webster

January 25, 20181m 47s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (rss.art19.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2018 is:


mansuetude \MAN-swih-tood\ noun

: the quality or state of being gentle : meekness, tameness


Examples:

"… he espied over the plateau … the old brown villa itself, rich in memories of one after another of the family of the Antonines. As he approached it, such reminiscences crowded upon him, above all of the life there of the aged Antoninus Pius, in its wonderful mansuetude and calm." — Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurian, 1885

"While Barbara was swimming to meet the dawn, Miltoun was bathing in those waters of mansuetude and truth which roll from wall to wall in the British House of Commons." — John Galsworthy, The Patrician, 1911


Did you know?

Mansuetude was first used in English in the 14th century, and it derives from the Latin verb mansuescere, which means "to tame." Mansuescere itself comes from the noun manus (meaning "hand") and the verb suescere ("to accustom" or "to become accustomed"). Unlike manus, which has many English descendants (including manner, emancipate, and manicure), suescere has only a few English progeny. One of them is desuetude, which means "disuse" and comes to us by way of Latin desuescere ("to become unaccustomed"). Two others are custom and accustom, which derive via Anglo-French from Latin consuescere, meaning "to accustom."

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Topics

VOCABULARYWORDSWEBSTERWORD A DAYLANGUAGEENGLISHMERRIAM-WEBSTERWORDMERRIAMWORD OF THE DAYDICTIONARY