Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Build your vocabulary with Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day! Each day a Merriam-Webster editor offers insight into a fascinating new word -- explaining its meaning, current use, and little-known details about its origin.
Thu, March 13, 2025
curfew
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 13, 2025 is: curfew • \KER-fyoo\ • noun Curfew refers to a law or order that requires people to be indoors after a certain time at night, as well as to the period of time when such an order or law is in effect. Chiefly in the United States, curfew is also used to refer to the time set by a parent or caregiver at which a child has to be back home after going out. // No one is allowed on the streets during the curfew . // Lana has a 10 o’clock curfew , so we need to bring her home right after the movie. See the entry > Examples: “ [Lew] Alcindor narrowed his college choice to Michigan, Columbia, St. John’s, and UCLA. He liked Columbia as the chance to attend school walking distance to Harlem and a subway ride to the jazz clubs he had to leave early as a high schooler to make curfew .” — Scott Howard-Cooper, Kingdom on Fire: Kareem, Wooden, Walton, and the Turbulent Days of the UCLA Basketball Dynasty , 2024 Did you know? Curfews set by parents (and kept or broken by their offspring) do not echo the origins of the word curfew in any discernable way—if they did, they’d need to at least hint at the sound of a bell. When curfew was first used in the 14th century, it referred to the sounding of a bell at evening to alert people that they should cover their hearth fires for the night—a necessary warning, as many European houses in the Middle Ages were close enough to each other that fires could spread easily from one to the next. The word came to English from Anglo-French, in which the signal was called coverfeu , a compound of covrir , meaning “to cover,” and feu , “fire.” Even when hearth fires were no longer regulated, many towns had other rules that called for ringing an evening bell, including one that required people to be off the streets by a given time, a development that granted curfew permission to go out and about with a broader meaning.
Wed, March 12, 2025
multifarious
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 12, 2025 is: multifarious • \mul-tuh-FAIR-ee-us\ • adjective Something described as multifarious has great diversity or variety, or is made up of many and various kinds of things. Multifarious is a formal word and a synonym of diverse . // He participated in multifarious activities throughout college. See the entry > Examples: "Over the course of his multifarious career, [musician Pat] Metheny has led numerous bands, more than a few of whose members later became band leaders in their own right." — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune , 26 Oct. 2023 Did you know? Before the late 16th-century appearance of multifarious , English speakers used another word similar in form and meaning: multifary , meaning "in many ways," appeared—and disappeared—in the 15th century. Before either of the English words existed, there was the Medieval Latin word multifarius , from the Latin adverb multifariam , meaning "in many places." Multi- , as you may know, means "many," and is used to form, well, multifarious English words, from multicultural to multimillion . The word omnifarious ("of all varieties, forms, or kinds"), a relative of multifarious , is created with omni- ("all") rather than multi- .
Tue, March 11, 2025
quark
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 11, 2025 is: quark • \KWORK\ • noun Quark is a word used in physics to refer to any one of several types of very small particles that make up matter. // Quarks , which combine together to form protons and neutrons, come in six types, or flavors : up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. See the entry > Examples: “One quantum field is special because its default value can change. Called the Higgs field , it controls the mass of many fundamental particles, like electrons and quarks . Unlike every other quantum field physicists have discovered, the Higgs field has a default value above zero. Dialing the Higgs field value up or down would increase or decrease the mass of electrons and other particles. If the setting of the Higgs field were zero, those particles would be massless.” — Matt Von Hippel, Wired , 19 Aug. 2024 Did you know? If you were a physics major, chances are that James Joyce didn’t make it onto your syllabus. While literature majors are likely more familiar with his work, Joyce has a surprising tie to physics. In the early 1960s, American physicist Murray Gell-Man came up with the word quork , which he used to refer to his concept of an elementary particle smaller than a proton or neutron (by his own account he was in the habit of using names like “squeak” and “squork” for peculiar objects). He later settled on the spelling quark after reading a line from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake : “Three quarks for Muster Mark! / Sure he has not got much of a bark / And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.” The name stuck and has been used by physicists ever since.
Mon, March 10, 2025
imperturbable
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 10, 2025 is: imperturbable • \im-per-TER-buh-bul\ • adjective Imperturbable describes someone or something marked by extreme calm; such a person or thing is very hard to disturb or upset. // The imperturbable captain did not panic when the boat sailed into the path of a violent storm. // Nothing disrupted the contestant's imperturbable focus. See the entry > Examples: "The thick heat is not letting up after a long stretch of nearly-90-degree-days, though the crowd has not seemed to notice. Instead, these thousands of people emanate a truly imperturbable energy as they get to see gospel legend Mavis Staples for free." — David Cohn, The Daily Californian (UC Berkeley), 13 Oct. 2024 Did you know? Imperturbable is a bit of a mouthful, but don’t let its five syllables perturb you. Instead, let us break it down: this word, as well as its antonym perturbable , comes from the Latin verb perturbare , meaning "to agitate, trouble, or throw into confusion." Perturbare comes in turn from the combination of per -, meaning "thoroughly," and turbare , meaning "to disturb"; unsurprisingly perturbare is also the source of the English verb perturb . Other perturbare descendants include disturb ("to destroy the tranquility or composure of") and turbid ("thick or opaque with or as if with roiled sediment").
Sun, March 09, 2025
wend
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 9, 2025 is: wend • \WEND\ • verb Wend is a literary word that means “to move slowly from one place to another usually by a winding or indirect course”; wending is traveling or proceeding on one’s way in such a manner. // Hikers wend along the marked trails to the top of the mountain, which provides a panoramic view of the area towns. // We wended our way through the narrow streets of the city’s historic quarter. See the entry > Examples: “Otters do not like to share food.... There is a flickering movement of jaws before they swallow and dive again. For a moment I think they have left, then they surface once more and I make out two long shapes, one just ahead of the other. They wend their way further down the waterway before insinuating themselves back into the dark.” — Miriam Darlington, Otter Country: In Search of the Wild Otter , 2024 Did you know? “Out through the fields and woods / And over the walls I have wended …” So wrote poet Robert Frost in “ Reluctance ,” using the word’s familiar sense of “to direct one’s course.” By the time of the poem’s publication in 1913, many other senses of wend had wended their way into and out of popular English usage including “to change direction,” “to change someone’s mind,” “to transform into something else,” and “to turn (a ship’s head) in tacking .” All of that turning is linked to the word’s Old English ancestor, wendan , which shares roots with the Old English verb, windan , meaning “to twist” ( windan is also the ancestor of the English verb wind as in “the river winds through the valley”). Wend is also to thank for lending the English verb go its past tense form went (as a past tense form of wend , went has long since been superseded by wended ).
Sat, March 08, 2025
gregarious
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 8, 2025 is: gregarious • \grih-GAIR-ee-us\ • adjective Gregarious is used to describe someone who enjoys the company of other people. // Justin’s gregarious personality made it easy for him to get to know people at the networking event. See the entry > Examples: “How can we reap the benefits of deep connection if we are not naturally gregarious and extroverted? But as I have delved into the evidence, I have discovered that our social skills are like our muscles—the more we use them, the stronger they become. Even self-declared introverts can learn to be more sociable, if they wish.” — David Robson, BBC , 23 July 2024 Did you know? Everyone knows that birds of a feather flock together , so it comes as no surprise that gregarious was applied mainly to animals when it first began appearing in English texts in the 17th century. After all, gregarious comes from the Latin noun grex , meaning “flock” or “herd,” and it’s tough to avoid being social when you’re part of a flock, flying and roosting cheek by jowl (or beak) with your fellow feathered friends. Take starlings , for example, which congregate in massive numbers—we define the word starling as “any of a family of usually dark gregarious birds,” meaning that starlings are inclined to associate with others of their kind. By the 18th century gregarious was being used to describe social human beings as well, be they chatty Cathys or convivial Connors who relish being in the company of others.
Fri, March 07, 2025
emollient
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 7, 2025 is: emollient • \ih-MAHL-yunt\ • noun An emollient is something, such as a lotion, that softens or soothes. // She keeps a number of oils in the bathroom—argan, almond, and coconut—to use as emollients . See the entry > Examples: " Jojoba oil and squalene are plant oils and emollients , which means they moisturize and soften skin by reinforcing its natural barrier and forming a layer that prevents moisture from escaping; beef tallow is considered an emollient , too." — Katie Mogg, The New York Times , 18 July 2024 Did you know? The noun emollient is used most often in reference to a substance—such as an oil, cream, lotion, butter, or balm—used to treat someone's skin or hair. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it traces back to a Latin word, the verb emollire , meaning "to soften or soothe." Emollire , in turn, formed in part from the adjective mollis , meaning "soft." (Another descendant of mollis is mollify , which means "to make softer in temper or disposition.") Emollient first appeared in print in English in the early 1600s as an adjective with the meaning "making soft or supple," describing things such as herbs, medicines, and poultices ; the noun arrived on the scene soon after.
Thu, March 06, 2025
career
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 6, 2025 is: career • \kuh-REER\ • verb To career is to go at top speed especially in a headlong manner. // The tourists gripped their seats and exchanged anxious looks as the bus careered along the narrow roads. See the entry > Examples: “This winter, I attended a livestock auction on California’s remote northern coast. Ranchers sat on plywood bleachers warming their hands as the auctioneer mumble-chanted and handlers flushed cows into a viewing paddock one by one. Most of the cows were hale animals, careering in and cantering out.” — Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic , 12 Apr. 2024 Did you know? If you’re already familiar with career ’s equestrian history, surely you joust. The noun career dates to the early 16th century, when it referred to the speed of something moving along a particular course. To go “in full career” or “at full career” was to hurtle , barrel , blaze , or zip , a meaning employed by Sir Walter Scott in a jousting scene in his historical romance Ivanhoe : “The trumpets sounded, and the knights charged each other in full career.” The verb career thus originally conveyed the action of a horse or rider making a short gallop or charge, as when the very aptly named John Speed wrote in his 1611 Historie of Great Britain “his horse of a fierce courage carrierd [=careered] as he went.” Career later gained additional senses applied to the movement of horses, such as “to prance or caracole ” (“to turn to one side and another in running”), as well as one—“to rush forward quickly and recklessly”—that can be applied to anything or anyone feeling their oats , velocity-wise. Note that careen can also be used with that last meaning, but it originally meant something else .
Wed, March 05, 2025
askew
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 5, 2025 is: askew • \uh-SKYOO\ • adjective Askew means “not straight” or “at an angle,” and can be used as both an adjective and an adverb. // The picture on the cabin wall was slightly askew . // The picture was hung askew on the cabin wall. See the entry > Examples: “I reread ‘Biography of Nigeria’s Foremost Professor of Statistics, Prof. James Nwoye Adichie,’ by Emeritus Professor Alex Animalu, Professor Peter I. Uche, and Jeff Unaegbu, published in 2013, three years before my father was made professor emeritus of the University of Nigeria. The printing is uneven, the pages slightly askew , but I feel a euphoric rush of gratitude to the authors. Why does this line—‘the children and I adore him’—from my mother’s tribute soothe me so; why does it feel pacifying and prophetic? It pleases me that it exists, forever declared in print.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The New Yorker , 10 Sept. 2020 Did you know? If you watch enough nature documentaries you may notice that gazelles are able to escape the claws (and, subsequently, jaws) of cheetahs when they zigzag across the savannah rather than simply run in a straight line. In Middle English, prey outmaneuvering a predator in this way might be said to be “skewing.” Skew means both “to take an oblique course” (as it does in modern English too) as well as “to escape,” and comes from the Anglo-French word eschiver , meaning “to escape or avoid.” It’s this skew , with its suggestion of crooked lines, that forms the basis of the adjective askew (the prefix a- means “in [such] a state or condition”). Askew is used as both an adjective and an adverb to describe things or actions that are a little off, not straight, or at an angle. The “escape” sense of the Middle English skew isn’t so much implied by askew , but we suppose that a painting hanging askew on one’s wall could be, metaphorically speaking, attempting to escape from the rest of the décor.
Tue, March 04, 2025
schadenfreude
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 4, 2025 is: schadenfreude • \SHAH-dun-froy-duh\ • noun Schadenfreude refers to a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people. // Schadenfreude was felt by many viewers when the arrogant contestant was voted off the show. See the entry > Examples: “In 1995, Sox fans were overjoyed to see the Yankees get knocked out of the playoffs in a thrilling divisional series.... It was Boston schadenfreude , to be sure ...” — Chris Young, The Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, Massachusetts), 13 Sep. 2024 Did you know? Ever a popular lookup on our site, schadenfreude refers to the joy you might feel at another person’s pain. It’s a compound of the German nouns Schaden , meaning “damage,” and Freude , meaning “joy.” Schadenfreude was a favored subject in Germany by the time it was introduced to English in the mid-1800s; discussed by the likes of Schopenhauer , Kant , and Nietzsche , schadenfreude was showing up in psychology books, literature for children, and critical theory. In English, the word was used mostly by academics until the early 1990s, when it was introduced to more general audiences via pop culture. In a 1991 episode of The Simpsons , for example, Lisa explains schadenfreude to Homer, who is gloating at his neighbor’s failure; she also tells him that the opposite of schadenfreude is sour grapes . “Boy,” he marvels, “those Germans have a word for everything.”
Mon, March 03, 2025
draconian
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 3, 2025 is: draconian • \dray-KOH-nee-un\ • adjective Draconian describes something (often a law, policy, restriction, etc.) that is very severe or cruel. // The editorial criticizes the draconian measures being taken by city hall to rein in spending. See the entry > Examples: “The auras that surround the Sharks and the Hawks are wildly distinct, even if the teams’ records are close to the same. To put it in Chicago terms, one team has the vibe of a Ferris Bueller (plays hooky, joins random parades, chicks dig him)—and the other is, I’m sorry to say, increasingly Principal Rooney–esque (grim faced, tightly wound, represents a draconian institution).” — Katie Baker, The Ringer , 15 Jan. 2025 Did you know? Draconian comes from Drakōn , the name (later Latinized as Draco ) of a 7th-century B.C. Athenian legislator who created a written code of law. Drakōn’s code was intended to clarify existing laws, but its severity is what made it really memorable. According to the code, even minor offenses were punishable by death, and failure to pay one's debts could result in slavery. Draconian , as a result, is used especially for authoritarian actions that are viewed as cruel or harsh.
Sun, March 02, 2025
transpire
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 2, 2025 is: transpire • \tran-SPYRE\ • verb Transpire is a formal verb that means “to happen,” or in other words “to take place or occur.” It can also mean “to come to light” or “to become known,” as in “It transpired that they had met previously.” In botany, to transpire is to give off or exude watery vapor especially from the surfaces of leaves. // The monument will ensure that posterity will not soon forget the historic events that transpired on that day. See the entry > Examples: “Since that first super-eruption, there have been two more of comparable size, roughly 1.3 million years ago and 630,000 years ago. If this trend continues, with mega-eruptions taking place every 600,000 to 700,000 years, then Yellowstone is due for another major event. But whether it happens tomorrow, in 50,000 years, or never transpires , no one can say.” — Randall K. Wilson, A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park , 2024 Did you know? If you’re someone who gets in a sweat over the now-common use of transpire meaning “to occur,” we hope this explainer helps you cool down and breathe easier—it just so happens that the word’s expansion from its technical origins transpired in a logical, or at least understandable, progression over the centuries. Transpire comes from the Latin verb spirare (“to breathe”), which also breathed life into perspire , aspire , and inspire , among other words. Wafting up into English in the late 16th century, transpire was originally used (as it still is) for the action of vapor passing out of the pores of a living membrane such as the skin. From this use followed the related senses of “to become known” and “to be revealed; to come to light” (think of information “leaking” or “slipping out”). Although some usage commentators maintain that these are the only proper figurative uses of transpire , none other than Abigail Adams used it to mean “to happen” in a 1775 letter to her husband (“there is nothing new transpired since I wrote you last”) and Noah Webster recognized the new sense in his dictionary of 1828. Today it is firmly established as standard, occurring widely in published prose. </
Sat, March 01, 2025
factoid
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 1, 2025 is: factoid • \FAK-toyd\ • noun A factoid is a brief and usually unimportant or trivial fact. Factoid may also refer to an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print. // The book is really just a collection of interesting factoids . See the entry > Examples: "Straight from the [ Lake Como , Italy] hotel docks, our captain showed us around the various villas and properties dotted around the lake, peppering in some historical and pop-culture factoids , like how the idyllic Villa Balbianello was featured in the Star Wars prequel films." — Nashia Baker, Architectural Digest , 7 Dec. 2024 Did you know? In his 1973 book Marilyn (about Marilyn Monroe), Norman Mailer describes factoids as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority ." Mailer's use of the -oid suffix (which traces back to the ancient Greek word eidos , meaning "appearance" or "form") follows in the pattern of humanoid : just as a humanoid appears to be human but is not, a factoid appears to be factual but is not. The word has since evolved so that now it most often refers to things that decidedly are facts, just not ones that are significant.
Fri, February 28, 2025
cryptic
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 28, 2025 is: cryptic • \KRIP-tik\ • adjective Something described as cryptic has or seems to have a hidden meaning, or is difficult to understand. // The singer posted a cryptic message on her social media accounts, and fans raced to decipher it. See the entry > Examples: "When Neon first met with 'Longlegs' writer-director Osgood Perkins, [chief marketing officer, Christian] Parkes' team pitched a cryptic viral ad campaign that put viewers in the perspective of Maika Monroe's detective. ... 'We give the audience these clues that they can piece together to unlock the mystery of the film,' Parkes explains." — Tim Grierson, The Los Angeles Times , 2 Jan. 2025 Did you know? The history of cryptic starts with krýptein , a Greek word meaning "to hide or conceal." Can you uncover other krýptein relatives in English? Not surprisingly, crypt , meaning "underground chamber," is one, as is the name of the element krypton . Krýptein also gave us several words having to do with secret codes, such as cryptogram ("a communication in cipher or code") and cryptography ("the coding and decoding of secret messages"). And cryptocurrency is currency that exists digitally and that relies on computer encryption (secret code) to prevent counterfeiting and fraud.
Thu, February 27, 2025
doff
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 27, 2025 is: doff • \DAHF\ • verb To doff a hat or other piece of clothing is to take it off. // They doffed their coats when they came inside the house. See the entry > Examples: “On the ferry from Oakland to San Francisco [Oscar] Wilde was introduced to a group of reporters who courteously doffed their hats. Wilde failed to return the gesture, much to the annoyance of one interviewer who used it as a pretext for blasting Wilde in his article.” — Rob Marland, LitHub.com , 11 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Time was, people talked about doffing and donning articles of clothing with about the same frequency. But in the mid-19th century the verb don became significantly more popular and left doff to flounder a bit in linguistic semi-obscurity. Doff and don have been a pair from the start: both date to the 14th century, with doff arising as a Middle English contraction of the phrase “to do off” and don as a contraction of “to do on.” Shakespeare was among the first, as far as we know, to use the word as it’s defined in the more general sense of “to rid oneself of” or “put aside.” He has Juliet give voice to this sense when she says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet. / … Romeo, doff thy name; / And for that name, which is no part of thee, / Take all myself.”
Wed, February 26, 2025
ignoramus
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2025 is: ignoramus • \ig-nuh-RAY-mus\ • noun An ignoramus is an utterly ignorant or stupid person. // I can't believe they let an ignoramus like that run the company. See the entry > Examples: "The alleged purpose of the [fee] increase was to discourage young people from taking courses that didn't lead to jobs where the demand for workers was great. Predictably, it didn't work. And only an ignoramus would regard an arts degree as of little value." — Ross Gittins, The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald , 7 Aug. 2024 Did you know? Ignoramus is the title of a farce by George Ruggle (1575-1622) that was first produced in 1615. The title character, whose name in Latin literally means "we are ignorant of," is a lawyer who fancies himself to be quite clever but is actually foolish and ignorant. Ruggle may have been inspired in his choice of the name by a proceeding in the English judicial system: the term ignoramus was written on bills of indictment when the evidence presented seemed insufficient to justify prosecution. In these cases ignoramus indicated "we take no notice of (i.e., we do not recognize) this indictment." Such a reference would have been most appropriate for Ruggle's satire of the judiciary.
Tue, February 25, 2025
superfluous
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 25, 2025 is: superfluous • \soo-PER-floo-us\ • adjective Superfluous is a formal word used to describe things that exceed what is necessary or sufficient, or that are simply not needed. // Further discussion seems superfluous , given the thorough conversation we just had. See the entry > Examples: “On the final single from his album Manning Fireworks , MJ Lenderman sketches a character study of a man so preoccupied with superfluous status symbols that he finds himself totally isolated from the world.” — Arielle Gordon, Pitchfork , 2 Dec. 2024 Did you know? If, say, you were to go chasing waterfalls in addition to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to, such a pursuit would be superfluous. In other words, you would be exceeding what is necessary to satisfy your need for water-based enjoyment and recreation. “You’ve already got rivers and lakes,” your friends might advise with a bit of TLC , “just stick to them!” “Extra water” is also key to understanding the history of the word superfluous , which entered Middle English from the Latin adjective superfluus , meaning literally “running over.” Superfluus , in turn, comes from the verb superfluere (“to overflow”), which combines the prefix super- (meaning “over”) and fluere , “to flow.” In addition to influencing superfluous , fluere also flowed into the English words affluent , influence , and fluid , among others.
Mon, February 24, 2025
quip
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 24, 2025 is: quip • \KWIP\ • noun Quip can refer to a clever, usually taunting remark, or to a witty or funny observation or response usually made on the spur of the moment. // They traded quips over a beer and laughed themselves silly. See the entry > Examples: "He's always got a story, is always ready with a quip and isn't afraid to let the four-letter words roll off the tongue in the most creative ways." — Nathan Brown, The Indianapolis Star , 26 Apr. 2023 Did you know? To tweak a well-known line from Hamlet , brevity is the soul of quip . While jokes are often brief stories with setups followed by surprising and funny endings (chickens crossing roads, elephant footprints in the butter, etc.) quips are even briefer, and not so planned or scripted. They are more likely to arise naturally in conversation when someone is especially quick-witted, firing off zingers , retorts , or—if you want to get extra fancy about it— bon mots . Brevity also plays a role in quip 's etymology: quip is a shortening of quippy , a now-obsolete noun of the same meaning. Quippy 's origins are uncertain, but they may lie in the Latin word quippe , meaning "indeed" or "to be sure," which was often used ironically . Quip entered English as a noun in the 1500s, but was verbified within decades; the verb quip means "to make quips" or "to jest or jibe at."
Sun, February 23, 2025
tousle
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 23, 2025 is: tousle • \TOW-zul\ • verb To tousle something is to dishevel it—that is, to make it untidy or unkempt. Tousle is usually, though not always, used specifically when a person’s hair is being so treated. // Vic stood in front of the mirror and tousled his hair, trying to get a cool, disheveled look. See the entry > Examples: “One of her hands tousled her long hair, which she wore down, and the other hand hovered in front of her skirt as she hooked a thumb in its waistband. She paired the fashion set with a choker necklace and dangling hoop earrings.” — Meghan Roos, Parade , 21 Mar. 2024 Did you know? The verb tousle today is typically used for the action of mussing someone’s hair playfully (“tousling the toddler’s hair”) or fussily (“tousling her tresses for that just-woke-up look”), but the word’s history is a bit edgier. Tousle and its synonym touse come from -tousen (“to pull or handle roughly”), a frequentative of the Middle English verb touselen . (A frequentative indicates repeated or recurrent action; sniffle , for example, is a frequentative of sniff .) Both tousle and touse have older meanings having to do with rough handling in general; before hair was tousled, people were—ouch. It’s no coincidence that another frequentative of -tousen , the Scots word tussillen , is the ancestor of the English verb tussle , meaning “to scuffle” or “to fight or struggle with someone by grabbing or pushing.”
Sat, February 22, 2025
astute
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 22, 2025 is: astute • \uh-STOOT\ • adjective Someone or something described as astute has or shows an ability to notice and understand things clearly. In other words, they are mentally sharp or clever. Astute can also describe someone who is crafty or wily. // They made some astute observations about the movie industry. // Astute readers will notice the error. See the entry > Examples: “Geraldine and Claire were out walking their dog, Daisy. They felt as though Daisy was very astute at reacting to their mood, rather than reflecting it.” — Robbie Meredith, BBC , 4 Dec. 2024 Did you know? Road Runner always bests Wile E. Coyote in the famous Looney Tunes cartoon series, but both characters help demonstrate meanings of the word astute . Astute comes from the Latin adjective astutus , meaning “cunning, crafty, or clever,” which in turn comes from the noun astus , meaning “craft.” The English adjective, accordingly, can describe both the crafty and the wily . It’s easy to see how this applies to Wile E. Coyote: in each episode, Road Runner races along the highways of the American Southwest while the coyote sets an elaborate trap for the bird, usually with the aid of some goofy product ordered from the fictitious Acme company. But alas, Road Runner is astute, as in “mentally sharp or clever.” In other words, he is not only quick on his feet, but quick on the uptake . He usually catches wind of the schemes, which ultimately backfire due to either the products’ chronic unreliability or Coyote’s own ineptitude. Road Runner, never captured or damaged, responds with a characteristic “Beep! Beep!” and runs off.
Fri, February 21, 2025
jabberwocky
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 21, 2025 is: jabberwocky • \JAB-er-wah-kee\ • noun Jabberwocky refers to meaningless speech or writing. // When the character gets angry or flustered, she talks in a sort of agitated jabberwocky that is really quite comical. See the entry > Examples: "The British press now converted the book into their native tongue, that jabberwocky of bonkers hot takes and classist snark . Facts were wrenched out of context, complex emotions were reduced to cartoonish idiocy, innocent passages were hyped into outrages—and there were so many falsehoods." — J. R. Moehringer, The New Yorker , 15 May 2023 Did you know? In his poem titled "Jabberwocky," from Through the Looking-Glass , Lewis Carroll warned readers about a frightful beast: Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! This nonsensical poem caught the public's fancy upon its publication in late 1871, and by the turn of the 20th century jabberwocky was being used as a generic term for meaningless speech or writing. The word bandersnatch has also seen some use as a general noun, with the meaning "a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual." It's a much rarer word than jabberwocky , though, and is entered only in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary .
Thu, February 20, 2025
flounder
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2025 is: flounder • \FLOUN-der\ • verb To flounder is to struggle, whether that struggle is about moving or obtaining footing (as in “horses floundering through deep snow”) or about knowing what to do or say. // Caught off-guard by the reporter’s question, the mayor floundered for a few moments before remembering the talking points he had rehearsed. See the entry > Examples: “In those early days we floundered in a city we didn’t know. Tottenham in 1992 wasn’t the London we’d imagined. There were no top hats, no smog, no Holmes, no Watson, no ladies, no gents, and no afternoon tea. Not for us. We lived in a different London. In our London, people swore and spat, drank, quarreled, and laughed in fretful bursts. They spoke strange words in accents we couldn’t parse.” — Leo Vardiashvili, Hard By a Great Forest , 2024 Did you know? There’s nothing fishy about flounder ... the verb, that is. While the noun referring to a common food fish is of Scandinavian origin, the verb flounder , which dates to the late 16th century, is likely an alteration of an older verb, founder . The two verbs have been confused ever since. Today, founder is most often used as a synonym of fail , or, in contexts involving a waterborne vessel, as a word meaning “to fill with water and sink.” Formerly, it was also frequently applied when a horse stumbled badly and was unable to keep walking. It’s likely this sense of founder led to the original and now-obsolete meaning of flounder : “to stumble.” In modern use, flounder typically means “to struggle” or “to act clumsily”; the word lacks the finality of founder , which usually suggests complete collapse or failure, as that of a sinking ship.
Wed, February 19, 2025
obtuse
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2025 is: obtuse • \ahb-TOOSS\ • adjective Obtuse is a formal word that describes someone who is not able to think clearly or to understand what is obvious or simple. It can also suggest a refusal to see something apparent to others, or a willful ignorance of or insensitivity to the real facts of a situation. Obtuse can also describe something that is difficult to understand because it is unclear or imprecise. // They were too obtuse to take a hint. // The text is poorly written and downright obtuse . See the entry > Examples: “Engineers love complicated problems, but we have a reputation for being obtuse about personal interactions. I often tell my fellow engineers, ‘You won't find any problems more complicated than those involving people.’” — Bill Austin, Inc.com , 15 Jan. 2025 Did you know? There’s a lot to understand about obtuse , so we’ll get straight to the point. Obtuse comes from a Latin word, obtusus , meaning “dull” or “blunt.” It can describe a geometric angle that is not acute (in other words one that exceeds 90 degrees but is less than 180 degrees), a leaf that is rounded at its free end, or a person who isn’t thinking clearly or who otherwise refuses to see something apparent to others—if someone asks you if you’re being obtuse about something, they are not paying you a compliment. Another common sense (no pun intended) of obtuse related to apprehension is “hard to comprehend,” often applied to speech or writing that isn’t clearly expressed or thought out. This sense may have developed due to the influence of two similar-sounding words: abstruse , a formal word that also means “hard to comprehend,” and obscure , a word that can mean, among other things, “not readily understood or clearly expressed.”
Tue, February 18, 2025
chutzpah
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2025 is: chutzpah • \KHOOTS-puh\ • noun Chutzpah is audacious boldness often paired with reckless self-confidence. Someone with chutzpah dares to do or say things that seem shocking to others. // It took a lot of chutzpah to stand up to her boss the way she did. See the entry > 1. list text here Examples: “... [Anne] Hathaway is not easily talked out of things she believes in. She took drama classes, understudied future Tony winner Laura Benanti in a production of Jane Eyre at 14, and had the chutzpah to write to an agent with her headshot at 15.” — Julie Miller, Vanity Fair , 25 Mar. 2024 Did you know? The word chutzpah has been boldly circulating through English since the mid-1800s. It comes from the Yiddish word khutspe , which comes in turn from the Hebrew word ḥuṣpāh . The ch in chutzpah indicates a rasping sound from the back of the throat that exists in many languages, including Yiddish. That sound is not part of English phonology , so it follows that the c is sometimes dropped in both the pronunciation and spelling of the word. Some speakers of Yiddish feel that chutzpah has been diluted in English use, no longer properly conveying the monumental nature of the gall that is implied. A classic example can be found in Leo Rosten’s 1968 book The Joys of Yiddish , which defines chutzpah as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”
Mon, February 17, 2025
pertain
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 17, 2025 is: pertain • \per-TAYN\ • verb To pertain to someone or something is to relate, refer, or have a connection to that person or thing. // That law pertains only to people who live in this state. See the entry > Examples: "There are certain rules of conduct that pertain to office dressing no matter how lax your HR department may be. No shirt, no shoes, no job. But keeping it professional doesn’t have to mean feeling stuffy or boring ..." — Aemilia Madden, The Cut , 20 Nov. 2024 Did you know? Pertain comes to English via Anglo-French from the Latin verb pertinēre , meaning "to reach to" or "to belong." Pertinēre , in turn, was formed by combining the prefix per- (meaning "through") and tenēre ("to hold"). Tenēre is a popular root in English words and often manifests with the -tain spelling that can be seen in pertain . Other descendants include abstain , contain , detain , maintain , obtain , retain , and sustain , to name a few of the more common ones. Not every -tain word has tenēre in its ancestry, though. Ascertain , attain , and certain are certainly exceptions. And a few tenēre words don't follow the usual pattern: tenacious and tenure are two.
Sun, February 16, 2025
non sequitur
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 16, 2025 is: non sequitur • \NAHN-SEK-wuh-ter\ • noun A non sequitur is a statement that either does not logically follow from, or is not clearly related to, what was previously said. // We were talking about the new restaurant when she threw in some non sequitur about her dog. See the entry > Examples: “Late on Saturday, as members of Congress scrambled to strike a deal for legislation that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling, they agreed to a total non sequitur in the text they would release the next day. After a series of late-in-the-game interventions by lobbyists and energy executives, the draft bill declared the construction and operation of a natural gas pipeline to be ‘required in the national interest.’ It wasn’t really germane to the debt ceiling, at least not in the literal sense.” — Jonathan Mingle, The New York Times , 1 June 2023 Did you know? Non sequitur comes directly from Latin, in which language it means “it does not follow.” Although the Latin non sequitur can constitute a phrase or even a complete sentence, in English non sequitur is a noun, and thus it follows that the plural of non sequitur is non sequiturs . Borrowed into English in the 16th century by logicians, non sequitur initially referred to a conclusion that did not follow the statements preceding it. The meaning has now broadened to include statements that are seemingly unrelated to the topic at hand, or that seem to come out of the blue. So if you ever forget the definition of non sequitur , just remember: a penny saved is a penny earned.
Sat, February 15, 2025
livid
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 15, 2025 is: livid • \LIV-id\ • adjective Livid means "very angry, enraged, or furious." It may also describe things having a dark purplish or reddish color. // The teen's parents were livid when they discovered she had lied about her whereabouts. // He had a livid bruise on his right arm. See the entry > Examples: "Activists and vulnerable nations were understandably livid at the failure to garner stronger commitments on the reduction of fossil fuel use, noting that ... fossil fuels are barely referenced despite being the primary driver of global emissions." — David Carlin, Forbes , 26 Nov. 2024 Did you know? Livid has a colorful history. The Latin adjective livēre , "to be blue," gave rise to Latin lividus , meaning "discolored by bruising." French adopted the word along with its meaning as livide , which English borrowed in the 15th century as livid . For a few centuries the English word described bruised flesh as well as a shade of dark gray and other colors having a dark grayish tone. By the 18th century people were livid, first by being pale with extreme emotion ("a pale, lean, livid face" —Henry James), and then by being reddish with the same ("His face glared with a livid red." —James Francis Barrett). By the late 19th century a livid person could also be furiously angry, which is the word's typical application today.
Fri, February 14, 2025
billet-doux
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 14, 2025 is: billet-doux • \bill-ee-DOO\ • noun A billet-doux is a love letter. The word's plural is billets-doux . // Since their relationship was long-distance, the couple thought it would be cute to send each other billets-doux on their anniversary. See the entry > Examples: "... [Jon] Batiste creates splendid music—those of us with kids likely experienced it lately on his soundtrack to the Pixar hit 'Soul.' 'Batiste: Movement 11',' the composition of his that’s nominated for a Grammy in a classical category, is nearly two minutes of intense, pensive joy tinctured with darkness, of the kind that people send to each other as a billet-doux …" — John McWhorter, The New York Times , 25 Feb. 2022 Did you know? When love is in the air, it's time to put it down on paper. If you ever find yourself having trouble thinking of Valentine's Day or anniversary gift ideas, how about sending your sweetie pie a billet-doux that reminds them of your perfect meet-cute , or invites them to see the latest rom-com ? Wouldn’t that be sweet? In French, billet doux means "sweet letter." English writers first fell in love with the word during the 17th century and have been committed to using it as a romantic alternative to "love letter" ever since.
Thu, February 13, 2025
gallant
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 13, 2025 is: gallant • \GAL-unt\ • adjective Someone or something described as gallant is very courageous and brave. Gallant is also sometimes used to mean “large and impressive” (as in “a gallant ship”), or to describe someone who has or shows politeness and respect for women. // Though they failed to reach the summit, the mountaineering team made a gallant attempt. See the entry > Examples: “He turned to go, and was promptly whacked across the backside by Miss Chokfi. ‘Ouch?’ he said. ‘What was that for?’ She was standing up very straight and gallant , though it still left her a foot and a half shorter than him, with the office stapler ready by her hand. ‘That was for not stopping him ,’ she said. ‘Was there anything else you need?’ ‘Not a thing,’ said Barrow, and tipped his hat to her.” — Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz: A Novel , 2024 Did you know? If you’re familiar with the long-running comic strip “Goofus and Gallant,” created by Garry Cleveland Myers and published in the monthly children’s magazine Highlights , you likely have a particularly good sense of the meaning of the adjective gallant . In the comic, the character of Goofus demonstrates to young readers all sorts of bad habits and behaviors, while Gallant provides examples of proper conduct and comportment when in circumstances similar to those of his ill-mannered counterpart. The characters’ names were, of course, chosen with purpose. We record several different senses of gallant and all are compliments. Someone described as gallant may be smartly dressed, courteous and chivalrous , or valiant and brave. Goofus, bless his heart, is none of these things (while we do not define the adjective goofus , the Oxford English Dictionary does: “stupid, foolish”). Perhaps ironically, gallant comes from the Middle French verb galer , meaning “to squander in pleasures”; such squandering is something Goofus is likely to do, and Gallant never would.
Wed, February 12, 2025
hagiography
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2025 is: hagiography • \hag-ee-AH-gruh-fee\ • noun Hagiography is biography that idealizes or idolizes a person and their life. // The book gives a good idea of his virtues without resorting to hagiography . See the entry > Examples: "The sisters’ show can sometimes feel like hagiography ; there is little discussion of Basquiat’s demons or the aspects of his home life that may have been difficult." — Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times , 9 Apr. 2022 Did you know? The second part of hagiography is familiar: the combining form - graphy , which comes from the Greek verb graphein, meaning "to write," is found in biography and calligraphy (among many others) too. Hagio -, however, is more unusual; it comes from a Greek word that meant "holy, sacred" in Ancient Greek and more recently "saintly," by way of the term Hagiographa , another name for the Ketuvim , the third part of the Jewish Scriptures. English's hagiography can refer to biography of actual saints, but it is more typically applied to biography that treats ordinary human subjects as if they were saints.
Tue, February 11, 2025
ruminate
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 11, 2025 is: ruminate • \ROO-muh-nayt\ • verb To ruminate is to think carefully and deeply about something. // We ruminated over the implications of our decision. See the entry > Examples: “Most of the songs bear the name of a store you’d see in every mall in the United States before they became sad ghost towns, air conditioning and smooth jazz blasting in the emptied, echoing caverns of capitalism. ... The trio uses nostalgia as a tool of examination, ruminating on the not-too-distant past in order to process the funny and sometimes heartbreaking process of getting older together.” — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork , 8 July 2024 Did you know? When you ruminate, you chew something over, either literally or figuratively. Literal rumination may seem a little gross to humans, but to cows, chewing your cud (partially digested food brought up from the stomach for another chew) is just a natural part of life. Figurative ruminating is much more palatable to humans; that kind of deep, meditative thought is often deemed quite a worthy activity. The verb ruminate has described metaphorical chewing over since the early 1500s and actual chewing since later that same century. Our English word comes from and shares the meanings of the Latin verb ruminari (“to chew the cud” or “muse upon”), which in turn comes from rumen , the Latin name for the first stomach compartment of ruminant animals (that is, creatures like cows that chew their cud).
Mon, February 10, 2025
vestige
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 10, 2025 is: vestige • \VESS-tij\ • noun A vestige is a trace, mark, or visible sign left by something lost or vanished. // The ruins here are the last vestiges of the Roman occupation in this part of Britain. See the entry > Examples: "Filled with vestiges of yesteryear, the Butte [Montana] historic district is one of the largest in the country." — Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Janie Osborne, The New York Times , 29 Dec. 2024 Did you know? Though English is categorized as a Germanic language, there’s no denying the enormousness of Latin’s footprint on its lexicon . Among English’s plethora of Latin derivatives is vestige , a word that traces back to the Latin noun vestigium , meaning "footstep, footprint, or track." Like its forebear, vestige refers to a perceptible sign made by something that has passed, or to a tangible reminder, such as a fragment or remnant, of what is past and gone. Vestige also happens to be one of only a few vestiges of vestigium itself, along with the adjective vestigial ("remaining as the last part of something that existed before") and the familiar verb investigate .
Sun, February 09, 2025
ecstatic
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 9, 2025 is: ecstatic • \ek-STAT-ik\ • adjective Someone described as ecstatic is very happy or excited; the person feels or shows ecstasy —that is, rapturous delight. // Greta and Sam were ecstatic when their daughter called to tell them that they were soon going to be grandparents. See the entry > Examples: “... through reading, through reporting, I begin to comprehend a truth. That moment of comprehension is ecstatic . Writing and rewriting is the attempt to communicate not just a truth but the ecstasy of a truth. It is not enough for me to convince the reader of my argument; I want them to feel that same private joy that I feel alone.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates , The Message , 2024 Did you know? If you feel like “a hot air balloon that could go to space” or, perhaps, “like a room without a roof,” you might—with all due respect to Pharrell Williams —be not just happy but ecstatic. In other words: euphoric , over the moon, positively brimming with joy or excitement. Ecstatic has been used in English since the late 1500s, arriving (via Medieval Latin) from the Greek adjective ekstatikós meaning, among other things “out of one’s senses.” Ekstatikós , in turn, was formed in part from eksta- , the stem of such verbs as existánai , “to displace or confound,” and exístasthai “to be astonished or lose consciousness.” That seems an appropriate history for a word that can describe someone who is nearly out of their mind with intense emotion. Eksta- , it should be noted, also contributed to the Greek noun ékstasis , meaning “astonishment” or “trance,” which led to ecstasy (the English word, of course, not the universal feeling).
Sat, February 08, 2025
finesse
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 8, 2025 is: finesse • \fuh-NESS\ • verb To finesse something is to bring it about, direct it, or manage it by skillful maneuvering. // We managed to finesse a favorable deal on some Beatles LPs at the flea market through subtle bargaining. See the entry > Examples: “Many times, the teams that can lead a company to a successful public listing are not the ones best equipped to finesse the delicate relationship with equity research analysts.” — Ilona Limonta-Volkova, Forbes , 20 Dec. 2024 Did you know? The noun finesse originally referred to the “fineness” or delicacy of something’s texture, structure, or workmanship. It later came to be applied to the delicacy of someone’s skill in handling tricky situations before gaining a sense specific to taking tricks in cards. In games such as bridge or whist , finesse refers to a particular stratagem that involves the clever withholding of a winning card. Although the verb finesse is now most often used in situations where a person handles something in a skillful or clever way, its oldest sense emerged at the gaming tables—to finesse in bridge or whist is simply to make a finesse.
Fri, February 07, 2025
malapropism
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 7, 2025 is: malapropism • \MAL-uh-prah-piz-um\ • noun A malapropism is an amusing error that occurs when a person mistakenly uses a word that sounds like another word but that has a very different meaning. // "It's lovely to see all of you on this suspicious occasion," our host said. A flurry of snickers were heard in reply; the malapropism (she had of course meant to call it an "auspicious" occasion) was characteristic. See the entry > Examples: "Words were precious playthings to Roald Dahl . The Welsh-born writer was a master toymaker with his wildly imaginative prose, embracing spoonerisms and malapropisms to invent scrumdiddlyumptious words that tickled the ear and fizzled on the tongue when spoken aloud." — i-news , 21 Dec. 2024 Did you know? Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals , was known for her verbal blunders. "He is the very pine-apple of politeness," she exclaimed, complimenting a courteous young man. Thinking of the geography of contiguous countries, she spoke of the "geometry" of "contagious countries," and she hoped that her daughter might " reprehend " the true meaning of what she was saying. She regretted that her " affluence " over her niece was small. The word malapropism comes from this blundering character's name, which Sheridan took from the French term mal à propos , meaning "inappropriate."
Thu, February 06, 2025
ad-lib
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 6, 2025 is: ad-lib • \AD-LIB\ • verb To ad-lib something, such as a performance or part of a performance, is to improvise it—that is, to make up words or music instead of saying, singing, or playing something that has been planned. // The actor forgot his lines, so he ad-libbed . See the entry > Examples: “My real appreciation for [Céline] Dion grew in 2018, when I saw her perform in Vegas. I had agreed to attend with some friends, expecting a silly night of singing along to her hits like I was a kid again. It was the best live performance I had ever seen. Her singing was stunning, of course. She ad-libbed frequently, taking pleasure in showing off her range, and her voice was warm and supple.” — Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic , 18 July 2024 Did you know? Let’s play a word game—just fill in a word of your choosing within the brackets in the following sentence, according to the category in italics: The word ad-lib comes from [ language ] and was first [ past-tense verb ] as a [ part of speech ] in the [ ordinal number ] century. If you jotted down “Latin,” “used,” “adverb,” and “eighteenth” you would be correct; ad-lib comes from Latin and was first used as an adverb in the eighteenth century. However, as the word game allows players to fill in whatever words they choose in accordance with their wishes, there were no wrong answers, a fact which also points toward the meaning of the verb ad-lib , which is a shortening of the Latin phrase ad libitum , meaning “in accordance with one’s wishes.” To ad-lib is to improvise, to go off-script, to say (or sing, or play on an instrument) whatever comes into your head in lieu of, or in spite of, a script or score. While ad-libbing may seem like a risky venture, some of the most famous lines in movie history were ad-libbed, from “ Here’s looking at you, kid ” to “ You’re gonna need a bigger boat .” Isn’t that [ adjective ]?
Wed, February 05, 2025
canard
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 5, 2025 is: canard • \kuh-NARD\ • noun Canard refers to a false report or story, or to a belief or rumor that isn't true. It can also refer to a kind of airplane as well as to a kind of small airfoil . // The book unfortunately repeats some of history's oldest canards . See the entry > Examples: "It's such a canard to think young people don't care about great information. They do. ... [W]e have to start thinking, as media, of where they’re getting it." — Kara Swisher, quoted at The Atlantic , 29 Feb. 2024 Did you know? In 16th-century France, vendre des canards à moitié was a colorful way of saying "to fool" or "to cheat." The French phrase means, literally, "to half-sell ducks." No one now knows just what was meant by "to half-sell"; the saying was probably based on some story widely known at the time, but the details have not survived. Lost stories aside, the expression led to the use of canard , the French word for "duck," to refer to a hoax or fabrication. English speakers adopted this canard in the mid-1800s. The aeronautical sense of canard , used from the early days of flying, comes from the stubby duck-like appearance of the aircraft.
Tue, February 04, 2025
zaftig
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 4, 2025 is: zaftig • \ZAHF-tig\ • adjective Someone described as zaftig has a full, rounded figure, or in other words is pleasingly plump. // Portraits of zaftig models are exhibited in the artist's collection. See the entry > Examples: "... Pablo Picasso produced an estimated 13,500 paintings, in addition to astounding quantities of drawings, prints, sculptures and ceramics. ... He veered between opposite poles of abstraction and realism, between the gaunt, poetic figures of his Blue Period and the zaftig matrons of his Rose Period, between the paper-lightness of his wildly inventive collages and the bulbous tonnage of his sculpted bronze heads." — Deborah Solomon, The New York Times , 9 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Zaftig has been in use in English—mainly in the United States—since the 1920s; a couple of the earliest known uses are found in Variety magazine, in reviews of burlesque dancers. The word comes from the Yiddish zaftik , meaning "juicy" or "succulent," which in turn comes from zaft , meaning "juice" or "sap." If this word is new to you and you would like to take it out for a spin, please be advised that even though most dictionaries define it as implying attractiveness, people to whom it might apply may not appreciate its use.
Mon, February 03, 2025
sarcophagus
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 3, 2025 is: sarcophagus • \sahr-KAH-fuh-gus\ • noun Sarcophagus refers to a coffin, and specifically a stone coffin. // The crypt under the abbey church contains the sarcophagus of the monastery's founding abbot . See the entry > Examples: "Experts found as many as 1,035 artwork fragments, as well as one hundred graves increasing the cathedral's total record to more than five hundred burials. Many of the coffins, along with scattered bones, remain unidentified. A lead sarcophagus that may belong to the poet Joachim du Bellay is among one of the more notable burials." — Francesca Aton, ARTNews , 4 Dec. 2024 Did you know? Body-eating coffins might sound like something out of a horror film, but flesh-eating stone? The latter plays a role in the etymology of sarcophagus ; it is the literal translation of líthos sarkóphagos , the Greek phrase that underlies the English term. The phrase traveled through Latin between Greek and English, taking on the form lapis sarcophagus before being shortened to sarcophagus . It's not clear whether the ancient Romans believed that a certain type of limestone from the region around Troy would dissolve flesh (and thus was desirable for making coffins); that assertion came from Roman scholar Pliny the Elder , but he also reported such phenomena as dog-headed people and elephants who wrote Greek. Regardless, there is no doubt that the ancient Greek word for the limestone traces back to a combination of sárx , meaning "flesh," and a derivative of phagein , a verb meaning "to eat."
Sun, February 02, 2025
presage
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 2, 2025 is: presage • \PRESS-ij\ • verb To presage something is to give or be a sign that it will happen in the future. Presage is a formal synonym of foreshadow , foretell , and predict . // The sudden gloom and ominous dark clouds clearly presaged a nasty storm. See the entry > Examples: “What we’re really looking for are handsome, vigorous chickens who do well in cold climes. … Adding birds of different breeds presaged an important change in our understanding: now that it was easier to tell birds apart, the distinct personalities of individuals began to reveal themselves more clearly.” — Sy Montgomery, What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird , 2024 Did you know? Although sages , being known for their great wisdom, are sometimes believed to possess the ability to predict the future, there is no connection between the noun sage and the verb presage , which means—as you’ve likely foreseen—“to foretell or predict.” While sage comes from the Latin verb sapere (“to be wise”), presage comes instead from a different Latin source: the adjective praesagus , a combination of the prefix prae and sagus , meaning “prophetic.” Presage entered English first as a noun referring to an omen, that is, something that foreshadows or portends a future event. A couple of centuries later it was joined by the verb, which is used for the action of foreshadowing, as in “the current economic slowdown could presage another recession,” and may apply to suggesting a coming event or indicating its likelihood.
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