Podcasts about merriam webster's word

Merriam-Webster officially announced the word ‘they' as its 2019 Word of the Year. Previously, singular ‘they' was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in September 2019 as a pronoun to be used to refer to a person whose gender identity is nonbinary. The word was a clear forerunner, as Merriam-Webster stated that searches for ‘they' increased by 313% in 2019 compared to 2018. This is unsurprising, as English has been notorious for lacking a gender-neutral singular pronoun. Thus, ‘they' has been used in this context for hundreds of years. ABOUT THE PODCAST: This podcast is an audio feed of the website, CadeHildreth.com where you'll learn what you SHOULD'VE been taught in school. As an LGBTQ + entrepreneur, real estate investor, former USA Rugby Player, and fitness enthusiast, Cade will teach you what your parents and teachers should have taught you but didn't know themselves. You'll learn how to increase your income, negotiate a raise, buy real estate, invest for cash flow, lose 10 lbs fast, reveal 6-pack abs, and so much more. CONNECT WITH CADE: Website: CadeHildreth.com Instagram: Instagram.com/CadeHildreth Twitter: Twitter/CadeHildreth Facebook: Facebook.com/CadeHildreth Pinterest: Pinterest.com/CadeHildreth

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 10, 2020 is: histrionic • his-tree-AH-nik • adjective 1 : deliberately affected : overly dramatic or emotional : theatrical 2 : of or relating to actors, acting, or the theater Examples: "How many water coolers, cocktail parties, and backyard barbecues have you been to where someone has exclaimed, usually in a flourish of histrionic frustration, that they wish they had their own island?" — Carmella DeCaria, The Westchester Magazine, 18 Jan. 2018 "The city's most extravagant and histrionic event of the fall, Theatre Bizarre, won't be taking place this October…. Typically taking over Detroit's Masonic Temple for two weekends just before Halloween, the indoor event includes hot-ticket masquerade balls, and a multi-floor spectacular that includes live music, burlesque, side show acts, food, drink and mandatory costumes—the more outrageous the better." — Melody Baetens, The Detroit News, 19 May 2020 Did you know? The term histrionic developed from histrio, Latin for "actor." Something that is histrionic tends to remind one of the high drama of stage and screen and is often stagy and over-the-top. It especially calls to mind the theatrical form known as the melodrama, where plot and physical action, not characterization, are emphasized. But something that is histrionic isn't always overdone; the word can also simply refer to an actor or describe something related to the theater. In that sense, it becomes a synonym of thespian.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 9, 2020 is: bromide • BROH-myde • noun 1 : a binary compound of bromine with another element or a radical including some (such as potassium bromide) used as sedatives 2 a : a commonplace or tiresome person : bore b : a commonplace or hackneyed statement or notion Examples: "In many ways, he's an outlier on the self-help circuit. Thomas isn't selling shortcuts to success or feel-good bromides. He makes achievement sound grueling. His knack is for transforming those he meets—a CEO, an NBA All-Star, a guy manning the desk at a hotel—into the sort of person who loves digging deep and grinding hard." — Leslie Pariseau, GQ, 28 May 2020 "Currently, Virginia's leaders are engaged in a tax debate over standard deductions for the middle class. Studying that problem would be a bromide that induces inertia. What is needed is action." — L. Scott Lingamfelter, The Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch, 20 Jan. 2019 Did you know? After bromine was discovered in the 1820s, chemists could not resist experimenting with the new element. It didn't take long before they found uses for its compounds, in particular potassium bromide. Potassium bromide started being used as a sedative to treat everything from epilepsy to sleeplessness, and by the 20th century, the word bromide was being used figuratively for anything or anyone that might put one to sleep because of commonness or just plain dullness. Today, bromides are no longer an ingredient in sedative preparations, but we can still feel the effects of figurative bromides as we encounter them in our daily routines.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 8, 2020 is: emulate • EM-yuh-layt • verb 1 a : to strive to equal or excel b : imitate; especially : to imitate by means of hardware or software that permits programs written for one computer to be run on another computer 2 : to equal or approach equality with Examples: Younger children will often try to emulate the behavior of their older siblings. "As part of its subsequent push to emulate the West, Meiji-era Japan encouraged the production of domestic versions of that same whiskey. Japanese distillers often used sweet potatoes, which were abundant, but they produced a much different spirit than the barley, corn and rye used in Scotland and America." — Clay Risen, The New York Times, 29 May 2020 Did you know? If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then past speakers of English clearly had a great admiration for the Latin language. The verb emulate joined the ranks of Latin-derived English terms in the 16th century. It comes from aemulus, a Latin term for "rivaling" or "envious." Two related adjectives—emulate and emulous—appeared within a half-century of the verb emulate. Both mean "striving to emulate; marked by a desire to imitate or rival" or sometimes "jealous," but emulous is rare these days and the adjective emulate is obsolete. The latter did have a brief moment of glory, however, when William Shakespeare used it in Hamlet:  "Our last king,  Whose image even but now appear'd to us,  Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,  Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,  Dar'd to the combat...."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 7, 2020 is: sound • SOWND • adjective 1 a : free from injury or disease b : free from flaw, defect, or decay 2 a : solid, firm b : stable; also : secure, reliable 3 : free from error, fallacy, or misapprehension 4 a : thorough b : deep and undisturbed c : hard, severe 5 : showing good judgment or sense Examples: The doctor's statement affirmed that the wealthy man was of sound mind when he decided to bequeath all of his money to the charitable foundation. "Social distancing, where people are advised to stay at least 6 feet apart, was sound advice when the idea was put forth during the pandemic's early days. It remains sound advice now, and will continue to be sound advice in the days ahead." — The Times, 7 May 2020 Did you know? English contains several sound homographs, all with distinct histories. For example, the sound that means "something heard" descends from Latin sonus ("sound"), whereas the sound that means "to measure the depth of water" traces to Middle French sonde ("sounding line"). Another sound, as in "of sound mind and body," is the contemporary form of Old English's gesund. Gesund is related to several words in other languages, such as Old Saxon gisund ("sound"), Old Frisian sund ("fresh, unharmed, healthy"), and Gothic swinths ("sound" or "healthy"). Another relative is Old High German's gisunt ("healthy"), which led to modern German's gesund, the root of gesundheit.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 6, 2020 is: legerdemain • lej-er-duh-MAYN • noun 1 : sleight of hand 2 : a display of skill and adroitness Examples: "An example of Mr. Northam's political legerdemain is his tax proposal, which avoided the minefields of income or sales tax increases. Instead, he suggested hiking the gas tax while scrapping mandatory annual vehicle inspections and halving vehicle registration fees." — The Washington Post, editorial, 20 Dec. 2019 "One must find the resonance between ancient and contemporary, blending incongruous elements in a way that seems not only right but inevitable: telling the story of a founding father with hip-hop lyrics, as in 'Hamilton,' or presenting the myth of Theseus in the milieu of reality television as in 'The Hunger Games.' Kekla Magoon manages a similar feat of legerdemain in 'Shadows of Sherwood,' her compelling reboot of the Robin Hood myth." — Rick Riordan, The New York Times, 23 Aug. 2015 Did you know? In Middle French, folks who were clever enough to fool others with fast-fingered illusions were described as leger de main, literally "light of hand." English speakers condensed that phrase into a noun when they borrowed it in the 15th century and began using it as an alternative to the older sleight of hand. (That term for dexterity or skill in using one's hands makes use of sleight, an old word from Middle English that derives from an Old Norse word meaning "sly.") In modern times, a feat of legerdemain can even be accomplished without using your hands, as in, for example, "an impressive bit of financial legerdemain."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 5, 2020 is: deracinate • dee-RASS-uh-nayt • verb 1 : uproot 2 : to remove or separate from a native environment or culture; especially : to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from Examples: The old-fashioned gardening book recommended deracinating every other plant in the row to allow the survivors room to grow. "In many ways, the couple's self-removal befits the deracinated monarchy. Once upon a time, English monarchs were sovereign, supreme. The occasion of democratizing reforms such as the Magna Carta beginning in the late Middle Ages brought the English monarchy down, down, like glistering Phaethon, into 'the base court.'" — Grant Addison, The Examiner (Washington, DC), 9 Jan. 2020 Did you know? There is a hint about the roots of deracinate in its first definition. Deracinate was borrowed into English in the late 16th century from Middle French and can be traced back to the Latin word radix, meaning "root." Although deracinate began life referring to literal plant roots, it quickly took on a second, metaphorical, meaning suggesting removal of anyone or anything from native roots or culture. Other offspring of radix include eradicate ("to pull up by the roots" or "to do away with as completely as if by pulling up by the roots") and radish (the name for a crisp, edible root). Though the second sense of deracinate mentions racial characteristics and influence, the words racial and race derive from razza, an Italian word of uncertain origin.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 4, 2020 is: aphelion • af-EEL-yun • noun : the point farthest from the sun in the path of an orbiting celestial body (such as a planet) Examples: "Our planet reaches aphelion only once a year, and the event typically falls approximately 14 days after the June solstice, which marks the first day of summer for the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter for the Southern Hemisphere. Similarly, perihelion happens two weeks after the December solstice." — Hanneke Weitering, Space.com, 4 July 2019 "Currently about 34 AU from the Sun, Pluto is still slowly approaching its aphelion, the farthest point in its orbit from the Sun, where it will lie nearly 50 AU from our star." — Alison Klesman, Astronomy, 3 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Aphelion and perihelion are troublesome terms. Which one means a planet is nearest to the sun and which means it is farthest away? An etymology lesson may help you keep those words straight. Just remember that the "ap" of aphelion derives from a Latin prefix that means "away from" (the mnemonic "'A' for 'away'" can help too); peri-, on the other hand, means "near." And how are aphelion and perihelion related to the similar-looking astronomical pair apogee and perigee? Etymology explains again. The "helion" of aphelion and perihelion is based on the Greek word hēlios, meaning "sun," while the "gee" of apogee and perigee is based on gaia, meaning "earth." The first pair describes distance in relation to the sun, the second in relation to the Earth.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 3, 2020 is: stentorian • sten-TOR-ee-un • adjective : extremely loud Examples: "'Let it Be' … was uncannily similar to 'Bridge Over Troubled Water,' not only in sentiment, but even to its churchy flavor. 'They're both very gospely songs,' [David] Wills says. 'I think 1968 was a very turbulent year … and in 1969 there was this life-affirming achievement of going to the moon. So I think that was in the zeitgeist, those stentorian, stately gospel piano-based songs.'" — Jim Beckerman, NorthJersey.com, 14 May 2020 "'Laughing together is as close as you can get without touching,' I wrote in my first book…. Laughter has always been the best medicine; I wasn't exactly making any boldly original statement almost three decades ago. I wasn't expecting a MacArthur grant. But what I expected even less … was that the not-touching part of my line would eventually be part of a stentorian, global prescription to combat COVID-19." — Gina Barreca, The Bedford (Pennsylvania) Gazette, 23 Mar 2020 Did you know? The Greek herald Stentor was known for having a voice that came through loud and clear. In fact, in the Iliad, Homer described Stentor as a man whose voice was as loud as that of fifty men together. Stentor's powerful voice made him a natural choice for delivering announcements and proclamations to the assembled Greek army during the Trojan War, and it also made his name a byword for any person with a loud, strong voice. Both the noun stentor and the related adjective stentorian pay homage to the big-voiced warrior, and both have been making noise in English since the early 17th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 2, 2020 is: obtain • ub-TAYN • verb 1 : to gain or attain usually by planned action or effort 2 : to be generally recognized or established : prevail Examples: The experiment was designed to obtain more accurate data about weather patterns. "By time of competition, [NHL deputy commissioner Bill] Daly said, the league will test players every night and obtain results by the time they report to the rink the next morning." — Matt Porter, The Boston Globe, 26 May 2020 Did you know? Obtain, which was adopted into English in the 15th century, comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin obtinēre, meaning "to hold on to, possess." Obtinēre was itself formed by the combination of ob-, meaning "in the way," and the verb tenēre, meaning "to hold." In its earliest uses, obtain often implied a conquest or a successful victory in battle, but it is now used for any attainment through planned action or effort. The verb tenēre has incontestably prevailed in the English language, providing us with such common words as abstain, contain, detain, sustain, and, perhaps less obviously, the adjectives tenable and tenacious.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2020 is: farrago • fuh-RAH-goh • noun : a confused mixture : hodgepodge Examples: "Combining these plots is a terrible idea for multiple reasons. One is simply logistical; the fusion turns two improbable but engaging stories into a ludicrous farrago." — Laura Miller, Slate, 8 Nov. 2019 "Although it's hard to know anything for sure about North Korea, the fertilizer-plant photo suggests the reporting about Kim over the past few weeks was a farrago of misinformation, non-information, half speculation and outright guessing." — Paul Farhi, The Washington Post, 5 May 2020 Did you know? Farrago might seem an unlikely relative of farina (the name for the mealy breakfast cereal), but the two terms have their roots in the same Latin noun. Both derive from far, the Latin name for spelt (a type of grain). In Latin, farrago meant "mixed fodder"—cattle feed, that is. It was also used more generally to mean "mixture." When it was adopted into English in the early 1600s, farrago retained the "mixture" sense of its ancestor. Today, we often use it for a jumble or medley of disorganized, haphazard, or even nonsensical ideas or elements.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23, 2020 is: fraternize • FRAT-er-nyze • verb 1 : to associate or mingle as brothers or on fraternal terms 2 a : to associate on close terms with members of a hostile group especially when contrary to military orders b : to be friendly or amiable Examples: The boss warned that fraternizing with the junior employees could be a risky career move for a manager. "Today's social distancing orders make the commonplace themes of pre-COVID ads—singles fraternizing in crowded bars, teen potato chip parties, folks all feasting from a communal bucket of fried chicken—look like cautionary tales, the unwitting equivalent of a 'This is your brain on drugs' PSA." — Lorraine Ali, The Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Both fraternize and fraternal (meaning "of, relating to, or involving brothers") come to us, by way of Medieval Latin, from Latin frater, meaning "brother." Other frater descendants in English include friar, fraternity, and confraternity ("a society devoted especially to a religious or charitable cause"). Even brother itself shares a relationship with frater. These days, although fraternize can still refer to a brotherly association or simple friendliness, it often occurs in contexts, such as "fraternizing with the enemy," implying friendliness toward someone who would be better avoided.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2020 is: crux • KRUKS • noun 1 : a puzzling or difficult problem : an unsolved question 2 : an essential point requiring resolution or resolving an outcome 3 : a main or central feature (as of an argument) Examples: "Manipulation is a key trait of individuals with controlling personalities. Call it gaslighting, whitewashing, or rewriting the script: The crux of the matter is the manipulator's desire to control the narrative and either be the hero or the victim." — Kristy Lee Hochenberger, Psychology Today, 22 Feb. 2020 "[David] Leib [chair of microbiology and immunology at Dartmouth College] said one of the challenges of combating COVID-19 in humans is the fact that viruses hijack our cells. 'This is really the crux of the reason why it has been so hard to develop antiviral drugs, because almost any drug that will stop viruses dead in [their] tracks will also stop our cells dead in their tracks,' he said." — Gabrielle Emanuel, WGBH.org, 27 Apr. 2020 Did you know? In Latin, crux referred literally to an instrument of torture, often a cross or stake, and figuratively to the torture and misery inflicted by means of such an instrument. Crux eventually developed the sense of "a puzzling or difficult problem"; that was the first meaning that was used when the word entered English in the early 18th century. Later, in the late 19th century, crux began to be used more specifically to refer to an essential point of a legal case that required resolution before the case as a whole could be resolved. Today, the verdict on crux is that it can be used to refer to any important part of a problem or argument, inside or outside of the courtroom.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 21, 2020 is: masterful • MASS-ter-ful • adjective 1 a : inclined and usually competent to act as master b : suggestive of a domineering nature 2 : having or reflecting the power and skill of a master Examples: "But he hasn't stopped challenging himself or his players or opponents on the baseball field.... Maddon has earned a reputation as a bright and innovative tactician, but more as a masterful leader and developer of young players in particular." — Kirk Wessler, The Journal Star (Peoria, Illinois), 9 Oct. 2015 "'The Last Dance' surpassed Netflix's hit 'Tiger King' in global popularity after last week's two episodes (3 and 4).... [E]ven two decades after their masterful run, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls are still so interesting." — Joe D’Amodio, SILive.com (Staten Island, New York), 3 May 2020 Did you know? Some commentators insist that masterful must only mean "domineering," reserving the "expert, skillful" sense for masterly. The distinction is a modern one. In earlier times, the terms were used interchangeably, with each having both the "domineering" and "expert" senses. The "domineering" sense of masterly fell into disuse around the 18th century, however, and in the 20th century the famous grammarian H. W. Fowler decided that masterful should be similarly limited to a single meaning. He summarily ruled that the "expert" definition of masterful was incorrect. Other usage writers followed his lead. But the "expert" meaning of masterful has continued to flourish in standard prose in spite of the disapproval, and, considering the sense's long history, it cannot really be called an error.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2020 is: envisage • in-VIZ-ij • verb 1 : to view or regard in a certain way 2 : to have a mental picture of especially in advance of realization Examples: In planning out their new patio, Betty and Sherman envisaged a place where they could grill food on the barbecue and invite friends over to relax. "The internet was envisaged as a decentralized global network, but in the past 25 years it has come to be controlled by a few, very powerful, centralized companies." — Mark van Rijmenam and Philippa Ryan, Blockchain, 2018 Did you know? Envisage has been part of the English language since the 17th century. It was sometimes used with the sense of "to meet squarely" or "to confront" (visage means "face" so the word suggests face-to-face encounters); however, that sense is now archaic and the word is primarily used in senses that involve having a particular conception or mental picture of something (visage also means "appearance" or "aspect"). In the early 20th century, some usage commentators began deriding envisage for reasons not entirely clear, declaring it "undesirable." Today, time and usage have won out, and envisage is widely used and accepted, though it is slightly formal in tone. Its near twin envision ("to picture to oneself"), which has been with us since the 19th century, is interchangeable with envisage in many contexts and is slightly less formal.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2020 is: stalwart • STAWL-wert • adjective : marked by outstanding strength and vigor of body, mind, or spirit Examples: "Hubert and Phan—two defenders—stepped in … and played key roles in a stalwart defensive attack that gave up a mere 17 goals all season." — Chris Jackson, The Coppell (Texas) Gazette, 11 May 2020 "But female birds make stalwart mothers. After all, theirs is the job of nest making. For example, a female northern cardinal collects nesting material of twigs, leaves, grasses and sundry fibers. The bird chews on twigs with her beak to make them pliable. Her feet then shove the bendable twigs into an open cup shape wedged against a fork of limbs in a bush or tree. Finally, the bird carpets the nest interior with leaves and grasses." — Gary Clark, The Houston Chronicle, 8 May 2020 Did you know? Sometime in the 15th century, English speakers began to use stalwart in place of the older form stalworth. Although stalworth is now archaic, it laid the groundwork for today's meaning of stalwart. During the 12th century, forms of stalworth began to be used to describe strongly built people or animals (a meaning stalwart carries). It also came to be used as an adjective for people who showed bravery or courage (likewise a meaning passed on to stalwart). So, in a way, stalwart has been serviceable in keeping the spirit of stalworth alive. This character of stalwart is true to its roots. Stalworth came from the Old English word stǣlwierthe (meaning "serviceable"), which, in turn, is thought to come from terms meaning "foundation" and "worth."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18, 2020 is: conflate • kun-FLAYT • verb 1 a : to bring together : fuse   b : confuse 2 : to combine (things, such as two readings of a text) into a composite whole Examples: "Some wonder if students are conflating a decision to put off school for a year, and maybe take a job, with the more formal process of an actual gap year—a planned experience that has career and academic benefits." — Bill Schackner, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11 May 2020 "Given its name, St. Thomas in Houston has on occasion been conflated with St. Thomas in Minnesota, which as one of the nation's most successful Division III programs is now trying to make the jump to NCAA Division I. St. Thomas in Houston has no such aspirations." — David Barron, The Houston Chronicle, 28 Apr. 2020 Did you know? We're not just blowing hot air when we tell you that conflate can actually be traced back to the same roots as the English verb blow. Conflate derives from conflatus, the past participle of the Latin verb conflare ("to blow together, to fuse"), which was formed by combining the prefix com-, meaning "with" or "together," with the Latin verb flare, which means "to blow" and is akin to English's blow. Other descendants of flare in English include afflatus ("a divine imparting of knowledge or power"), inflate, insufflation ("an act of blowing"), and flageolet (a kind of small flute—the flageolet referring to a green kidney bean is unrelated).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 17, 2020 is: harangue • huh-RANG • noun 1 : a speech addressed to a public assembly 2 : a ranting speech or writing 3 : lecture Examples: The comedian's stand-up act included some delightfully incisive harangues against celebrity culture. "The loquacious 49ers' cornerback always has a thought, opinion, retort, reply, instinct or handy harangue regarding just about anything. That's why the cameras and notebooks are usually in heavy supply for Sherman, whose skill as a crafty defender is accentuated by his proficiency as one of the NFL's deepest thinkers." — Jarrett Bell, USA Today, 29 Jan. 2020 Did you know? In Old Italian, the noun aringo referred to a public assembly, the verb aringare meant "to speak in public," and the noun aringa referred to a public speech. Aringa was borrowed into Middle French as arenge, and it is from this form that we get our noun harangue, which made its first appearance in English in the 16th century. Perhaps due to the bombastic or exasperated nature of some public speeches, the term quickly developed an added sense referring to a speech or writing in the style of a rant (though the word rant is not etymologically related). There is also a verb harangue, which refers to the act of making such a speech.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2020 is: null • NULL • adjective 1 : having no legal or binding force : invalid 2 : amounting to nothing : nil 3 : having no value : insignificant 4 a : having no elements b : having zero as a limit 5 : of, being, or relating to zero Examples: "If a teacher organization is found in contempt, any collective bargaining agreement they worked on would be rendered null and they would be barred from collecting dues." — Jesse Paul, The Denver Post, 23 Apr. 2018 "While negative and null results can often be overlooked—by authors and publishers alike—their publication is equally as important as positive outcomes and can help fill in critical gaps in the scientific record." — PLOS.org, 6 Apr. 2020 Did you know? English borrowed null from the Anglo-French nul, meaning "not any." That word, in turn, traces to the Latin word nullus, from ne-, meaning "not," and ullus, meaning "any." Null often pops up in legal and scientific contexts. It was originally used in Scottish law and still carries the meaning "having no legal or binding force." In mathematics, it is sometimes used to mean "containing nothing"; for example, the set of all whole numbers that are divisible by zero is the "null set" (that is, there are no numbers that fit that description). But null also has some more general uses. We often use it with the meaning "lacking meaning or value," as in "By the time I heard it, the news was null."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2020 is: bellwether • BEL-WEH-ther • noun : one that takes the lead or initiative : leader; also : an indicator of trends Examples: "The tech giant has long been a bellwether for global industry, and investors will now hope that is still the case. Apple said on Thursday that its revenue rose nearly 1 percent to $58.3 billion in the first three months of the year…." — Jack Nicas, The New York Times, 30 Apr. 2020 "That transition to natural gas as the bellwether of the state's energy portfolio has decreased emissions in the state nearly 90% since 1990 as natural gas production grew eleven-fold from 2010 to 2018." — Mike Butler, The Observer-Reporter (Washington, Pennsylvania), 4 May 2020 Did you know? We usually think of sheep more as followers than leaders, but in a flock one sheep must lead the way. Long ago, it was common practice for shepherds to hang a bell around the neck of one sheep in their flock, thereby designating it the lead sheep. This animal was called the bellwether, a word formed by a combination of the Middle English words belle (meaning "bell") and wether (a noun that refers to a male sheep that has been castrated). It eventually followed that bellwether would come to refer to someone who takes initiative or who actively establishes a trend that is taken up by others. This usage first appeared in English in the 15th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2020 is: divagate • DYE-vuh-gayt • verb : to wander or stray from a course or subject : diverge, digress Examples: The novel divagates and meanders through a labyrinth of subplots and asides. "Having spirited us briskly through Manhattan, New Bedford and Nantucket, and having flushed Ahab from his lair on to the deck of the Pequod, Herman Melville divagates into a disquisition on whale taxonomies." — Stephen Phillips, The Spectator, 2 Nov. 2019 Did you know? Divagate hasn't wandered far in meaning from its Latin ancestors. It descends from the verb divagari, which comes from dis-, meaning "apart," and vagari, meaning "to wander." Vagari also gave us vagabond, meaning "a wanderer with no home," and extravagant, an early, now archaic, sense of which was "wandering away." Latin vagari is also probably the source of our noun vagary, which now usually means "whim or caprice" but originally meant "journey, excursion, or tour." Even the verb stray may have evolved from vagari, by way of Vulgar Latin extravagare. Today, divagate can suggest a wandering or straying that is literal (as in "the hikers divagated from the trail"), but it is more often used figuratively (as in "she divagated from the topic").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2020 is: whodunit • hoo-DUN-it • noun : a detective story or mystery story Examples: "What made Broadchurch so inherently watchable was its odd-couple detectives: David Tennant's Hardy was as bitter and cantankerous as Olivia Colman's Miller was open and warm. The whodunit unfurled episode by episode, crossing off suspects who doubled as relatives and friends." — Gwen Inhat, The A.V. Club, 10 Apr. 2020 "For all the detective tales that dot television screens, the Agatha Christie-styled whodunit has gone curiously absent from movie theaters. The nostalgia-driven 'Murder on the Orient Express' (2017), popular as it was, didn't do much to dispel the idea that the genre has essentially moved into retirement, content to sit out its days in a warm puffy armchair, occasionally dusting itself off for a remake." — Jake Coyle, The Associated Press, 25 Nov. 2019 Did you know? In 1930, Donald Gordon, a book reviewer for News of Books, needed to come up with something to say about a rather unremarkable mystery novel called Half-Mast Murder. "A satisfactory whodunit," he wrote. The relatively new term (introduced only a year earlier) played fast and loose with spelling and grammar, but whodunit caught on anyway. Other writers tried respelling it who-done-it, and one even insisted on using whodidit, but those sanitized versions lacked the punch of the original and fell by the wayside. Whodunit became so popular that by 1939 at least one language pundit had declared it "already heavily overworked" and predicted it would "soon be dumped into the taboo bin." History has proven that prophecy false, and whodunit is still going strong.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 12, 2020 is: fictitious • fik-TISH-us • adjective 1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of fiction : imaginary 2 a : conventionally or hypothetically assumed or accepted b of a name : false, assumed 3 : not genuinely felt Examples: "'Outbreak' follows a team of U.S. Army medical researchers as they struggle to contain a fictitious disease, dubbed the Motaba virus, that's quickly spreading in a California town. In the film, they're successful in halting it in its tracks." — Brent Lang, Variety, 15 Apr. 2020 "Forensic auditors released details of their findings at the last regular trustee meeting, noting that more than $14 million was mismanaged…. About $600,000 was spent on lavish travel by former administrators and on payments to what appears to be a fictitious vendor." — Eva-Marie Ayala, The Dallas Morning News, 1 May 2020 Did you know? Fictitious is related to the Medieval Latin word fictīcius, meaning "artificial," "imaginary," "feigned," or "fraudulent." It was first used in English as an antonym for natural. For instance, a fake diamond would be referred to as a fictitious one. This use indicates the word's deeper Latin roots: fictīcius is from the Latin verb fingere, meaning "to mold, fashion, make a likeness of; pretend to be." Nowadays, fictitious is no longer used for physical things shaped by the human hand. Rather, it is typically used for imaginative creations or for feigned emotions.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2020 is: vilipend • VIL-uh-pend • verb 1 : to hold or treat as of little worth or account : contemn 2 : to express a low opinion of : disparage Examples: As a women's rights movement pioneer, Susan B. Anthony fought against the dicta of those who would vilipend women by treating them as second-class citizens. "Most people who retire do so after having invested multiple years in employment…. Most are on fixed incomes with tight budgets, hoping for good health and years of stress-free happiness. To vilipend them about their choice of not working, even if they are healthy enough, is just not fair." — John F. Sauers, letter in The Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, 26 June 2005 Did you know? Vilipend first appeared in English in the 15th century and had its heyday during the 19th century—being found in the works of such well-known authors as Sir Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray, and George Meredith—but it fell into relative obscurity by the 20th century. The word comes to us through French from the Latin roots vilis, meaning "cheap" or "vile," and pendere, meaning "to weigh" or "to estimate." These roots work in tandem to form a meaning of "to deem to be of little worth." Each has contributed separately to some other common English words. Other vilis offspring include vile and vilify, while pendere has spawned such terms as append, expend, and dispense.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2020 is: troubadour • TROO-buh-dor • noun 1 : one of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians often of knightly rank who flourished from the 11th to the end of the 13th century chiefly in the south of France and the north of Italy and whose major theme was courtly love 2 : a singer especially of folk songs Examples: "John Prine was a raspy-voiced heartland troubadour who wrote and performed songs about faded hopes, failing marriages, flies in the kitchen and the desperation of people just getting by. He was, as one of his songs put it, the bard of 'broken hearts and dirty windows.'" — Matt Schudel, The Independent (UK), 19 Apr. 2020 "With strict social distancing and isolation directives in place at care centers and assisted living facilities, Bressan has adopted the role of a wandering troubadour, offering songs both sacred and secular from outside the windows of patients like Sherry." — Jon Pompia, The Pueblo (Colorado) Chieftain, 8 Apr. 2020 Did you know? In the Middle Ages, troubadours were the shining knights of poetry (in fact, some were ranked as high as knights in the feudal class structure). Troubadours made chivalry a high art, writing poems and singing about chivalrous love, creating the mystique of refined damsels, and glorifying the gallant knight on his charger. Troubadour was a fitting name for such creative artists: it derives from an Old Occitan word meaning "to compose." In modern contexts, troubadour still refers to the song-meisters of the Middle Ages, but it has been extended to cover contemporary poet-musicians as well.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 9, 2020 is: lissome • LISS-um • adjective 1 a : easily flexed b : characterized by easy flexibility and grace : lithe 2 : nimble Examples: "A couple of images haunt me from this 'West Side Story,' and both do come from video. One is of an anonymous, lissome figure, barely detectable as he or she dances at the end of a long, dark street. The other is of a television playing while Maria and Anita are arguing about a recent gang slaying." — Ben Brantley, The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2020 "The visiting Americans … look dazed, like astronauts observing lissome green Martian women in a ’50s sci-fi cheapie." — David Edelstein, Vulture, 23 Aug. 2019 Did you know? Lissome (sometimes spelled lissom) is a gently altered form of its synonym, lithesome. While lissome tends to be the more popular choice these days, the two words have similar pasts. They both appeared in the 18th century, and they both trace back to the much older lithe, which first appeared in English during the 14th century and comes from an Old English word meaning "gentle." Lissome can also be an adverb meaning "in a supple or nimble manner," but this use is rare.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2020 is: gest • JEST • noun 1 : a tale of adventures; especially : a romance in verse 2 : adventure, exploit Examples: "The best authentic source of Robin Hood stories is the late medieval poem A Gest of Robyn Hode…, a compilation of traditional ballads and stories." — Guy McDonald, England, 2003 "I was looking forward to this film [Onward] for the last month. My mom follows 'new' movie trailers and called me as soon as she saw this one. The gest was essentially an adventure about two brothers." — Andrew McManus, The Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times, 11 Mar. 2020 Did you know? "Let the Queen know of our gests," Antony instructs his men after a hard-won victory on the battlefield in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Great deeds and heroic acts have been the stuff of gests since medieval days; in fact, the word is more often associated with knights and heroes of old than with modern adventurers. We may not be hearing about many 21st century gests, but we do frequently encounter other relatives of the word. Gest traces to Latin gestus, the past participle of the verb gerere, which means "to wage," "to bear," or "to carry," among other things. That Latin verb gave us stoutly enduring words like gesture, ingest, jest, register, and suggest.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 7, 2020 is: advocate • AD-vuh-kayt • verb : to support or argue for (a cause, policy, etc.) : to plead in favor of Examples: "During quarantine, teachers are broadcasting lessons from their own homes and figuring out new remote-learning technology and platforms on the fly, all while continuing to educate and connect with our kids. Advocating for the children of the world is no easy task, so I wanted to show teachers a little extra love right now." — Reese Witherspoon, quoted in The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Apr. 2020 "As a journalist, [Zimbabwean Zororo] Makamba often used his platform to advocate for reform and transparency. In his online talk show, 'State of the Nation,' as well as appearances on other current affairs programs, Makamba argued for renewable energy, school reform, anti-corruption measures and youth empowerment." — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 3 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Benjamin Franklin may have been a great innovator in science and politics, but on the subject of advocate, he was against change. In 1789, he wrote a letter to his compatriot Noah Webster complaining about a "new word": the verb advocate. Like others of his day, Franklin knew advocate primarily as a noun meaning "one who pleads the cause of another," and he urged Webster to condemn the verb's use. In truth, the verb wasn't as new as Franklin assumed (etymologists have traced it back as far as 1599), though it was apparently surging in popularity in his day. Webster evidently did not heed Franklin's plea. His famous 1828 dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, entered both the noun and the verb senses of advocate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2020 is: capricious • kuh-PRISH-us • adjective : governed or characterized by caprice : impulsive, unpredictable Examples: "Like all great children's writers, [Jacqueline] Wilson and [E.] Nesbit understood how strange and capricious children could be…." — Guy Lodge, Variety, 4 Apr. 2020 "[The television show] Succession doesn't just get the details right; mirroring the capricious world of media and its greedy overlords, it also makes sweeping plot turns that build to climaxes as bloody as Macbeth." — Laura Adamczyk, The A.V. Club, 11 Nov. 2019 Did you know? The noun caprice, which first appeared in English in the mid-17th century, is a synonym of whim. Evidence shows that the adjective capricious debuted before caprice; both words are believed to derive, via French, from Italian capriccio, which originally referred not to a sudden desire but to a sudden shudder of fear. The origin of capriccio is uncertain, but the going theory has a certain charm. Capriccio is thought to perhaps be a compounding of Italian capo, meaning "head," and riccio, meaning "hedgehog," The image evoked in this "hedgehog head" mashup is of someone shuddering in fear to such a degree that their hair stands on end, like the spines of a hedgehog.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 5, 2020 is: rendition • ren-DISH-un • noun : the act or result of rendering something: such as a : a performance or interpretation of something b : depiction c : translation d : surrender; specifically, US law : the surrender by a state of a fugitive to another state charging the fugitive with a crime : interstate extradition Examples: "Still, Cosme is bound to offer the 'hood plenty of surprises, including a mescal-spiked, cactus-studded rendition of Manhattan clam chowder." — Jeff Gordinier, The New York Times, 2 Sept. 2014 "The best part is the vast majority of adults will love [Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse]. Most know who Spider-Man is. We've seen many different renditions of this superhero." — Andrew McManus, The Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times, 27 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Rendition entered English in the early 17th century and can be traced to the Middle French word reddition and ultimately to the Latin verb reddere, meaning "to return." The English verb render is another descendant of reddere, so perhaps it is no surprise that rendition fundamentally means "the act or result of rendering." English speakers also once adopted reddition itself (meaning either "restitution, surrender" or "elucidation"), but that word has mostly dropped out of use. Incidentally, if you've guessed that surrender is also from the same word family, you may be right; surrender derives in part from the Anglo-French rendre, which likely influenced the alteration of reddition to rendition.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 4, 2020 is: posture • PAHSS-cher • verb 1 : to cause to assume a given posture : pose 2 : to assume a posture; especially : to strike a pose for effect 3 : to assume an artificial or pretended attitude : attitudinize Examples: "During the rut, grabbing a bite to eat was an afterthought for bucks, but right now and in the weeks to come, choosing a prime food source is key to their survival. Sure … bucks are still banging antlers and posturing to prove who's boss. But this is all happening at, or around, the best food sources in the area." — Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 6 Jan. 2020 "It's also been assumed that a rift exists between Elway and Harris, but according to the player, that couldn't be further from the truth, despite the two being postured as adversaries over contracts and money." — Chad Jensen, Sports Illustrated, 11 Jan. 2020 Did you know? The Latin verb ponere, meaning "to put" or "to place," had a role in putting quite a few English terms into place, including component, dispose, expose, impose, oppose, posit, position, positive, postpone, and, yes, posture. The past participle of ponere—positus—gave Latin the noun positura, which has the same meaning as the English noun posture. Positura passed through Italian and Middle French and was finally adopted by English speakers as posture in the late 16th century. The verb posture later developed from the noun, finding its place in English at around the midpoint of the 17th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2020 is: compunction • kum-PUNK-shun • noun 1 a : anxiety arising from awareness of guilt b : distress of mind over an anticipated action or result 2 : a twinge of misgiving : scruple Examples: "A big reason why Illinois' population continues to plummet is that college-age youth feel no compunction at all about heading out of state for college." — editorial board, The Chicago Tribune, 22 Feb. 2020 "Roses can get old and sick, and there are better varieties to try. I have no compunction ripping out a rose that no longer works for me." — Adrian Higgins, The Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2020 Did you know? An old proverb says "a guilty conscience needs no accuser," and it's true that the sting of a guilty conscience—or a conscience that is provoked by the contemplation of doing something wrong—can prick very hard indeed. The sudden guilty "prickings" of compunction are reflected in the word's etymological history. Compunction comes (via Anglo-French compunction and Middle English compunccioun) from Latin compungere, which means "to prick hard" or "to sting." Compungere, in turn, derives from pungere, meaning "to prick," which is the ancestor of some other prickly words in English, such as puncture and even point.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2020 is: eolian • ee-OH-lee-un • adjective : borne, deposited, produced, or eroded by the wind Examples: The park is known for its eolian caves—chambers formed in sandstone cliffs by powerful winds. "If an extremely tenuous atmosphere like that of Pluto can support the generation of bedforms from wind-driven sediment, what kind of eolian activity might we see on places like Io (a moon of Jupiter)…?" — Alexander Hayes, quoted in The Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2018 Did you know? When Aeolus blew into town, things really got moving. He was the Greek god of the winds and the king of the floating island of Aeolia. In The Odyssey, Homer claims Aeolus helped Odysseus by giving him a favorable wind. Aeolus also gave English speakers a few terms based on his name, including the adjective eolian (also spelled aeolian), which is often used for wind-sculpted geological features such as caves and dunes, and aeolian harp, the name for an instrument that makes music when the wind blows across its strings.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2020 is: stiction • STIK-shun • noun : the force required to cause one body in contact with another to begin to move Examples: "Stiction is stationary friction. Starting the bolt turning takes more force than keeping it turning. The tighter the bolt, the more stiction can affect torque readings." — Jim Kerr, SRTForums.com, 4 Mar. 2004 "The theme of blue continues on the fork stanchions. The upside-down fork itself is the same Showa unit seen on the standard bike, but in this case the inner tubes feature a special nitride coating to help reduce stiction and provide a smoother stroke." — Zaran Mody, ZigWheels.com, 14 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Stiction has been a part of the English language since at least 1946, when it appeared in a journal of aeronautics. While stiction refers to the force needed to get an object to move from a position at rest, it is not related to the verb stick. The word is a blend word formed from the st- of static ("of or relating to bodies at rest") and the -iction of friction ("the force that resists relative motion between two bodies in contact"). So, basically, it means "static friction" (or to put it another way, "stationary friction").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2020 is: palmy • PAH-mee • adjective 1 : marked by prosperity : flourishing 2 : abounding in or bearing palms Examples: "The new breed of the Silicon Valley lived for work. They were disciplined to the point of back spasms. They worked long hours and kept working on weekends. They became absorbed in their companies the way men once had in the palmy days of the automobile industry." — Tom Wolfe, Hooking Up, 2000 "In Beaufort Road was a house, occupied in its palmier days, by Mr Shorthouse, a manufacturer of acids...." — J.R.R. Tolkien, letter, July 1964 Did you know? The palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory. It is no wonder then that the word palm came to mean "victory" or "triumph" in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would employ palmy as a synonym for triumphant or flourishing in the tragedy Hamlet when the character Horatio speaks of the "palmy state of Rome / A little ere the mightiest Julius fell."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2020 is: gamut • GAM-ut • noun 1 : the whole series of recognized musical notes 2 : an entire range or series Examples: "Possibly the most interesting man-made structural material is reinforced concrete…. It is economical, available almost everywhere, fire-resistant, and can be designed to be light-weight to reduce the dead load or to have a whole gamut of strengths to satisfy structural needs." — Mario Salvadori, Why Buildings Stand Up, 1990 "[Beverly] Long, whose previous novels run a limited gamut from romance to paranormal romance to romantic suspense, scores well in her transition to hard-boiled thriller." — Jay Strafford, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 21 Mar. 2020 Did you know? To get the lowdown on gamut, we have to dive to the bottom of a musical scale to which the 11th-century musician and monk Guido of Arezzo applied his particular system of solmization—that is, of using syllables to denote the tones of a musical scale. Guido called the first line of his bass staff gamma and the first note in his scale ut, which meant that gamma ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma ut underwent a shortening to gamut but climbed the scale of meaning. It expanded to cover all the notes of Guido's scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2020 is: homonymous • hoh-MAH-nuh-mus • adjective 1 : ambiguous 2 : having the same designation 3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms Examples: "The Chelyabinsk meteorite became a media celebrity after the videos of its explosion in mid-air, occurring in February 2013 near the homonymous city, went viral on social networks." — Luca Maltagliati, Nature, 17 Feb. 2017 "Like the bird homonymous with his name, 'Cro' operates like he's under the cover of night. Though Cromartie's numerically best game came against Tulane this fall, in which the senior recorded six tackles and a sack, Downing tabbed South Florida and Connecticut as the raider's brightest." — Katherine Fominykh, The Capital Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland), 12 Dec. 2019 Did you know? The "ambiguous" sense of homonymous refers mainly to words that have two or more meanings. Logicians and scientists who wanted to refer to (or complain about) such equivocal words chose a name for them based on Latin and Greek, from Greek hom- ("same") and onyma ("name"). In time, English speakers came up with another sense of homonymous referring to two things having the same name (Hawaii, the state, and Hawaii, the island, for example). Next came the use of homonymous to refer to homonyms, such as see and sea. There's also a zoological sense. Sheep and goats whose right horn spirals to the right and left horn spirals to the left are said to be homonymous.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2020 is: instigate • IN-stuh-gayt • verb : to goad or urge forward : provoke Examples: "The big thing about effective advertising is that it uses data effectively to instigate behavior." — Nicole Ortiz, Adweek, 14 Apr. 2020 "In his usual genuine and silly fashion, [Chris] Martin sincerely explained his intent for making the live video and instigating a new series of live Instagram performances. 'What would be nice would be to check in with some of you out there and see how you're doing…. I had an idea that we could call this thing "Together At Home." And who knows, maybe tomorrow someone else will take it over,' he said." — Sean Glaister, The Johns Hopkins (University) News-Letter, 6 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Instigate is often used as a synonym of incite (as in "hoodlums instigating violence"), but the two words differ slightly in their overall usage. Incite usually stresses an act of stirring something up that one did not necessarily initiate ("the court's decision incited riots"). Instigate implies responsibility for initiating or encouraging someone else's action and usually suggests dubious or underhanded intent ("he was charged with instigating a conspiracy"). Another similar word, foment, implies causing something by means of persistent goading ("the leader's speeches fomented a rebellion"). Deriving from the past participle of the Latin verb instigare, instigate stepped into English in the 16th century, after incite and ahead of foment.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2020 is: xeriscape • ZEER-uh-skayp • noun : a landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (such as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and efficient irrigation) Examples: After the severe drought led to local water restrictions, some residents began to look into xeriscape for more easily maintainable yards. "This perennial has evergreen leaves from 2­-3 feet in length while the flower stalks can rise up to 5 feet with coral-colored tubular flowers. It's drought-resistant, and the flowers can attract hummingbirds. This one would be great for xeriscape or low-maintenance gardens." — Tom Ingram, The Tulsa (Oklahoma) World, 29 Feb. 2020 Did you know? Xēros is the Greek word for "dry" that is the base for a handful of English words related to mainly dry printing (xerography) and dry, or xerophilous, habitats and their plants. In the early 1980s, the Greek adjective was used to name a type of landscaping practiced primarily in the arid western regions of the United States. (The Water Department of Denver, Colorado, is credited with the coinage.) Xeriscape, as it is called, uses plants that require little water as well as techniques that efficiently use water and reduce evaporation.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2020 is: shaggy-dog • shag-ee-DAWG • adjective : of, relating to, or being a long-drawn-out circumstantial story concerning an inconsequential happening that impresses the teller as humorous or interesting but the hearer as boring and pointless; also : of, relating to, or being a similar humorous story whose humor lies in the pointlessness or irrelevance of the plot or punch line Examples: "Like most of Irving's other books, 'Owen Meany' is kind of a shaggy-dog story. It wanders all over the place and there are many seemingly loose ends." — Neil Gittleman, quoted in The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, 13 Apr. 2020 "A shaggy-dog tale that treats crisscrossing forklift traffic as a sight worthy of the Blue Danube waltz, the German feature 'In the Aisles' mostly takes place in an anonymous, highway-side megastore…." — Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times, 13 June 2019 Did you know? The origin of the adjective shaggy-dog isn't truly known, but lexicographer Eric Partridge rather believably tells us that it originated with a shaggy-dog story of the amusing sort that involves—of course!—a shaggy dog. Today, the word sometimes refers to a rambling story that impresses the teller as humorous or interesting but the hearer as boring and pointless, but it can also refer to a similar story (or movie or TV show) that is actually humorous and whose humor lies in its very pointlessness or irrelevance.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2020 is: preen • PREEN • verb 1 of a bird : to groom with the bill especially by rearranging the barbs and barbules of the feathers and by distributing oil from the uropygial gland 2 : to dress or smooth (oneself) up : primp 3 : to pride or congratulate (oneself) on an achievement 4 : to make oneself sleek 5 : to behave or speak with obvious pride or self-satisfaction Examples: "Adding a water source to your yard also will attract birds, providing not only drinking water for them but a place to wash their feathers and preen." — Joan Morris, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 13 Apr. 2020 "We keep tight control over our [Instagram] accounts' aesthetics, down to the color scheme…. A select few follow the lead of celebrities who log on to publicize their lavish lives to millions, turning Instagram into a place to preen and present a reality far above the mundane." — Diti Kohli, The Boston Globe, 8 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Preen hatched in 14th-century Middle English, and early on it displayed various spelling forms, including prenen, prayne, prene, and preyne. The word traces to Anglo-French puroindre, or proindre, linking pur-, meaning "thoroughly," with uindre, oindre, meaning "to anoint or rub." One of the first writers known to apply preen to the human act of primping was Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. Centuries later (sometime during the late 19th century), the prideful meaning of preen hatched, joining another bird-related word, plume, which was being used with the meaning "to pride or congratulate (oneself)" from the first half of the 17th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2020 is: cowcatcher • KOW-ketch-er • noun : an inclined frame on the front of a railroad locomotive for throwing obstacles off the track Examples: For his entry in the town parade, John outfitted his black truck with a cowcatcher and smoke stack to resemble a 19th-century locomotive. "Not in this show, unfortunately, is the amazing 'Galloping Goose,' which Springer photographed. Until the early 1950s its modified truck-boxcar mashup—with a cowcatcher in front—lumbered from Ridgway to Lizard Head Pass in Colorado." — Harriet Howard Heithaus, The Naples (Florida) Daily News, 17 June 2019 Did you know? New Jersey's Camden and Amboy Railroad was the first in the U.S. to adopt the cowcatcher, adding it to its John Bull locomotive in the early 1830s. But, as the Model Railroader Cyclopedia warned, "don't ever let a railroad man hear you use 'cowcatcher.'" In its heyday, railroad workers preferred the name pilot for that v-shaped frame. In the 1940s and '50s, cowcatcher jumped the tracks and took on a new life in TV and radio advertising jargon. The term was used for a commercial that was aired immediately before a program and that advertised a secondary product of the program's sponsor. Such ads apparently got the name because they "went in front."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 20, 2020 is: neoteric • nee-uh-TAIR-ik • adjective : recent in origin : modern Examples: "From the runways of Paris to the boutiques of New York to the time-sucking scroll of my social media-feeds, it seemed as if every few weeks I encountered some neoteric innovation that made me smirk or scratch my head, sometimes simultaneously." — Jacob Gallagher, The Wall Street Journal, 30 Dec. 2019 "The projects I have designed mirror the correlation between past and present, always celebrating the old and welcoming the neoteric. I am respectful of the strong impressive history and strive to elevate the level of what has been left behind in time." — Melinda Bell Dickey, quoted in The Danville (Virginia) Register & Bee, 15 Mar. 2020 Did you know? An odd thing about neoteric is that this word for things that are modern and new is itself rather old. It's been part of English since at least 1596, and its roots go back even further—to ancient Greek. We adapted the word from Late Latin neōtericus, which also means "recent." Neōtericus in turn comes from Late Greek neōterikós and ultimately from Greek néos, meaning "new" or "young." As old as its roots are, however, neoteric itself entered English later than its synonyms modern (which appeared earlier in the 16th century) and newfangled (which has been with us since the 15th century).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 19, 2020 is: disabuse • diss-uh-BYOOZ • verb : to free from error, misconception, or fallacy Examples: "While it's difficult to predict how the practice of hiring will evolve over time, one thing is clear: it is extremely difficult to disabuse people of their biases, especially when those biases become cultural norms." — Mark Travers, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2020 "[Anton] Chekhov has a way of disabusing us of our specialness, of making us realize that our problems are, in fact, just like everyone else's." — Megan O’Grady, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2020 Did you know? We know the verb abuse as a word meaning "to misuse," "to mistreat," or "to revile." But when disabuse first appeared in the early 17th century, there was a sense of abuse, now obsolete, that meant "to deceive." Sir Francis Bacon used that sense, for example, when he wrote in 1605, "You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand the King's power." The prefix dis- has the sense of undoing the effect of a verb, so it's not surprising that disabuse means "to undeceive." English speakers didn't come up with the idea of joining dis- to abuse all on their own, however. It was the French who first appended their prefix dés- to their verb abuser. English disabuse is modeled after French désabuser.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 18, 2020 is: exiguous • ig-ZIG-yuh-wus • adjective : excessively scanty : inadequate Examples: New computer equipment would be prohibitively expensive, given the rural school's exiguous resources. "[Adam] Smith's death was the subject of rather little interest, in England and even in Scotland. The published obituaries were exiguous…." — Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments, 2001 Did you know? Exiguous is so expansive sounding that you might expect it to mean "extensive" instead of "meager." Even a scanty glimpse at the word's etymology will disabuse you of that notion, however. Exiguous derives from the Latin exiguus, which has the same basic meaning as the modern English term. Exiguus, in turn, derives from the Latin verb exigere, which is variously translated as "to demand," "to drive out," or "to weigh or measure." The idea of weighing or measuring so precisely as to be parsimonious or petty gave exiguous its present sense of inadequacy. Just so we aren't accused of being skimpy with the details, we should also mention that exigere is the parent term underlying other English words including exact and exigent.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 17, 2020 is: malapropism • MAL-uh-prah-piz-um • noun : the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context Examples: "A malapropism is using the wrong word, but one that sounds similar to the right word—like saying that medieval cathedrals are supported by flying buttocks. A good malapropism can throw you off, so that you scrape your head trying to figure out the error, and then having to think what the word should have been. (It's flying buttresses, by the way)." — Britt Hanson, The Tucson (Arizona) Weekly, 3 July 2014 "[Gilda Radner] brought a lot of charm and energy as a player [on Saturday Night Live]; from her impressions of Lucille Ball … to her unforgettable characters like … the malapropism-prone Emily Litella, the geeky Lisa Loopner and the letter-reading Roseanne Roseannadanna." — Paolo Alfar, Screen Rant, 10 Mar. 2020 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 derives from this blundering character's name, which Sheridan took from the French term mal à propos, meaning "inappropriate."

This week we discuss Merriam Webster's Word of the Year, Trump's toilet topic, weird science squashes our dreams of leaving Earth, and we stroll down Jedgar's memory lane as he unveils his 13 favorite college debate programs. Oops All Music includes "Get Yourself Together" by The Black KeysSlide into those Twitter DMs at @TheJedgarIf you're reading, subscribe and review on Apple Podcasts! 

"Justice" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. What does that word mean to Jesuits? Mike Jordan Laskey from the Jesuit Conference called up Fr. Jeremy Zipple, SJ (https://twitter.com/jzipple), who's serving at St. Martin de Porres Parish and School in Belize. He offered some great insight into what it means to have a "faith that does justice." Learn more about Fr. Jeremy here: http://jesuits.org/story-details?TN=PROJECT-20130320034520&MTN=0748CD7A-E389-411E-B3EA-50C13761D85D

Nicole's enjoying #Australian slang, Catherine not enjoying being called "extra," and Terri just wishes people would stop making language harder. Mentioned: the website Urban Dictionary (https://www.urbandictionary.com); the book “What Did You Say? What Do You Mean?” (https://www.amazon.com/What-Did-You-Mean-Understanding/dp/1843102072/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1532509548&sr=8-1&keywords=what+did+you+say+what+do+you+mean&linkCode=ll1&tag=motherswithattit&linkId=32cbd7c1638f2842ae30d2e9e99ff15b&language=en_US); the podcast Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/merriam-websters-word-of-the-day/id164829166?mt=2). For quotes, archives, and more, visit us at http://parentingroundabout.com.

00:37 Shopping Shocker: You won't believe the article of clothing Catherine purchased for herself. 09:48 Gentle Ranting: We tried to rant about our kids, but it didn't really work out. We reserve the right to try again at any time.25:02 Speed Round: #MomBrags: These came much more easily!31:26 Roundabout Roundup: Dansko shoes, Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day podcast, and energy granola and fruit-filled energy bars from Clif Bar.36:33 Shameless Self-Promotion: Terri's new Patreon page, "12 Strategies to Engage Students Who Work Below Grade Level During Instructional Time," Catherine on Twitter.Thanks as always to Jon Morin for our fun in-and-out music. If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

temporize was Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day on 08/12/2017