Podcasts about Webster

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2025 is: tutelage • TOO-tuh-lij • noun Tutelage is a formal word that refers to the instruction or guidance especially of an individual student by a teacher. Tutelage may also refer to an act or process of serving as guardian or protector. // Under the tutelage of his high school swim coach, Luis has greatly improved his times at meets. // The company is relying on the expert tutelage of its new director to increase profits. See the entry > Examples: "[Hercules] Mulligan helped with [Alexander] Hamilton's education, including placing him under the tutelage of William Livingston of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), who was a leading local American revolutionary. ... Mulligan is said to have deeply influenced Hamilton towards engagement in revolutionary activity." — Brian Maye, The Irish Times, 2 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Tutelage comes from the Latin verb tueri, meaning "to look at" or "to guard." When it first appeared in English at the turn of the 17th century, this word was used mainly in the protective sense of tueri; writers would describe serfs and peasants of earlier eras as being "under the tutelage of their lord." Over time, however, the word's meaning shifted away from guardianship and toward instruction. This pattern of meaning can also be seen in the related nouns tutor, which shifted from "a guardian" to "a private teacher," and tuition, which now typically refers to the cost of instruction but which originally referred to the protection, care, or custody by a parent or guardian over a child or ward.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2025 is: Herculean • her-kyuh-LEE-un • adjective Something described as Herculean (often uncapitalized as herculean) is characterized by extraordinary power, extent, intensity, or difficulty. // Although starting a garden sounded fun in theory, the constant weeding and pest control turned it into a herculean task. See the entry > Examples: “Strong doesn't even properly describe [Ashton] Jeanty's Herculean, how-is-he-doing-that kind of strength. Before his sophomore year of college, he squatted 575 pounds. [Coach James] Montgomery thought that Jeanty had maxed out. He was wrong. Now Jeanty easily squats 605 pounds ‘like a hot knife through butter,' Montgomery says.” — Mirin Fader, The Ringer, 5 Dec. 2024 Did you know? The hero Hercules, son of the god Zeus by a human mother, was famous for his superhuman strength. To pacify the wrath of the god Apollo, he was forced to perform twelve enormously difficult tasks, or “labors.” These ranged from descending into the underworld to bring back the terrifying dog that guarded its entrance to destroying the many-headed monster called the Hydra. The feats he accomplished explain how Herculean in the 16th century came to be used for any job or task that's extremely difficult or calls for enormous strength.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2025 is: proscribe • proh-SCRYBE • verb Proscribe is a formal word meaning “to condemn or forbid something as harmful or unlawful.” More broadly, it can mean simply “to not allow something.” // The town has passed an ordinance that proscribes the ownership of snakes and other exotic pets. See the entry > Examples: “While the order proscribes new drilling along most of both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the order does not affect active drilling permits and carves out the most important areas of offshore production such as the western Gulf of Mexico near Texas and Louisiana.” — Jeff Young, Newsweek, 6 Jan. 2025 Did you know? Signs, signs, everywhere, signs: some prescribe (“do this”) and others proscribe (“don't do that”). Don't take it as a bad sign if you have difficulty telling prescribe and proscribe apart, however; you've got plenty of company, and a good excuse. Proscribe and prescribe both come from Latin words that combine a prefix meaning “before” with the verb scribere, meaning “to write.” Yet the two words have very distinct, often nearly opposite meanings, hints of which emerge upon a closer look at their origins. Prescribe comes from praescribere, meaning “to dictate, order”—clear enough for a word used when making rules and giving orders. Proscribe has a more complex history: proscribere means both “to publish” and, more specifically, “to publish the name of someone who is condemned to death and whose property is now forfeited to the state.” This narrower meaning is the one proscribe carried into English when it was first used in the 15th century. By the early 17th century, the word had expanded from merely signaling condemnation to actual condemning or prohibiting.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2025 is: opportune • ah-per-TOON • adjective Opportune describes something that is suitable or convenient for a particular situation, or that is done or happening at an appropriate time. // They chose an opportune time to invest in real estate. // She is waiting for an opportune moment to ask for a raise. See the entry > Examples: “It [the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut] was constructed on the site of an 1830s shipyard built by three mariner brothers, George, Clark, and Thomas Greenman. They, like other entrepreneurs in the booming seafaring community of Mystic, took over low-lying and marshy lands whose gently sloping banks and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean were opportune for shipbuilding.” — Annabel Keenan, The New York Times, 22 Apr. 2025 Did you know? If you've never had the opportunity to learn the history behind opportune, now's your chance. Both opportune and opportunity come from Latin opportūnus, which can mean “favoring one's needs,” “serviceable,” or “convenient.” Opportūnus itself, constructed from the prefix ob-, meaning “to,” portu- (stem of the noun portus, meaning “port” or “harbor”), and the adjective suffix -nus, suggests the value of any port available when a storm is brewing or raging. Portus has dropped anchor in other English words as well, including portal, passport, and of course port. Its footprint is also scattered across our maps in coastal place names, from Newport to Puerto Rico to Porto Alegre.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2025 is: gust • GUST • noun Gust refers to a sudden strong wind. It is also used figuratively for a sudden outburst of something, such as a feeling. // Today's weather will be windy, with gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. See the entry > Examples: “This subversive comedy is now a posh panto, directed by Max Webster. It gets gusts of laughter but can feel rather forced, and the joyous language is left to fend for itself.” — Robert Gore-Langton, The Mail on Sunday (London), 8 Dec. 2024 Did you know? You're no doubt familiar with the breezy gust meaning “a brief burst of wind.” But about a century and a half before that word first appeared in print in the late 16th century, a different gust blew onto the scene. The windy gust likely comes from a synonymous Old Norse word, gustr, whereas the older gust, which refers to the sensation of taste as well as to a feeling of enthusiastic delight, comes ultimately from gustus, the Latin word for “taste.” English speakers eventually mostly dropped that older gust, replacing it in the early 17th century with a similar gustus word borrowed from Italian: gusto is now the go-to word when you want to refer to enthusiastic and vigorous enjoyment or appreciation. You can use it with gusto.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2025 is: nascent • NASS-unt • adjective Nascent is a formal word used to describe something that is just beginning to exist, or in other words, is recently formed or developed. // The actress is now focused on her nascent singing career. See the entry > Examples: “I asked my father, recently, if I might borrow one of his old journals as research for a nascent writing project. It felt like there might be something there—in the poetry of varietal names (Beedy's Camden Kale, Ruby Perfection Cabbage), or the steady plotless attention to the natural world.” — Fiona Warnick, LitHub.com, 9 May 2024 Did you know? Nascent descends from the Latin verb nasci, meaning “to be born,” as does many an English word, from nation and nature to innate and renaissance. But rather than describing the birth of literal babies—as in pups, kits, hoglets, et al.—nascent is applied to things (such as careers or technologies) that have recently formed or come into existence, as when scholar Danille K. Taylor-Guthrie wrote of Toni Morrison being “an integral part of a nascent group of black women writers who would alter the course of African American, American, and world literature.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2025 is: nascent • NASS-unt • adjective Nascent is a formal word used to describe something that is just beginning to exist, or in other words, is recently formed or developed. // The actress is now focused on her nascent singing career. See the entry > Examples: “I asked my father, recently, if I might borrow one of his old journals as research for a nascent writing project. It felt like there might be something there—in the poetry of varietal names (Beedy's Camden Kale, Ruby Perfection Cabbage), or the steady plotless attention to the natural world.” — Fiona Warnick, LitHub.com, 9 May 2024 Did you know? Nascent descends from the Latin verb nasci, meaning “to be born,” as does many an English word, from nation and nature to innate and renaissance. But rather than describing the birth of literal babies—as in pups, kits, hoglets, et al.—nascent is applied to things (such as careers or technologies) that have recently formed or come into existence, as when scholar Danille K. Taylor-Guthrie wrote of Toni Morrison being “an integral part of a nascent group of black women writers who would alter the course of African American, American, and world literature.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2025 is: fiasco • fee-ASK-oh • noun A fiasco is a complete failure or disaster. // The entire fiasco could have been avoided if they'd simply followed the instructions. See the entry > Examples: "Fyre's first iteration, in 2017, was widely seen as a massive failure. The luxe accommodations promised on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma turned out to be tents and instead of the promised gourmet fare, guests were served cold cheese sandwiches. After musical acts bailed at the last minute, attendees were left stranded as organizers canceled the festival entirely. The fiasco resulted in at least two documentaries." — Theresa Braine, The Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg, Massachusetts), 24 Feb. 2025 Did you know? English speakers picked up fiasco from the French, who in turn adopted it from the Italian phrase fare fiasco—literally, "to make a bottle." Just what prompted the development of the meaning "failure" from "bottle" has remained obscure. One guess is that when a Venetian glassblower would discover a flaw developing in a beautiful piece they were working on, they would turn it into an ordinary bottle to avoid having to destroy the object. The bottle would naturally represent a failure to the glassblower, whose would-be work of art was downgraded to everyday glassware. This theory, however, remains unsubstantiated.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2025 is: interminable • in-TER-muh-nuh-bul • adjective Interminable describes things that have or seem to have no end, especially because they continue for a very long time. // The family played games to pass the time during the interminable wait for their delayed flight. See the entry > Examples: "After what has felt like an interminable winter, spring is finally in the air. Birds are singing, daffodils and crocuses are pushing their way through the mud, and best of all, Greater Manchester has finally been treated to some sunshine this week." — Greta Simpson, The Manchester (England) Evening News, 1 Mar. 2025 Did you know? We promise not to ramble on endlessly about the origins of interminable. This word was borrowed into English in the 15th century, from a Latin word combining the prefix in- ("not") and the verb terminare, meaning "to terminate" or "to limit." Interminable describes not only something without an actual end (or no end in sight, such as "interminable traffic"), but also events, such as tedious lectures, that drag on in such a way that they give no clear indication of ever wrapping up. Some relatives of interminable in English include terminate, determine, terminal, and exterminate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2025 is: commemorate • kuh-MEM-uh-rayt • verb Something, such as a plaque, statue, or parade, is said to commemorate an event, person, etc. when it serves as a memorial; it exists or is done in order to recall the event or person. A person or group commemorates an event, person, etc. by doing something special in order to remember and honor that event or person. // The plaque commemorates the battle that took place here 200 years ago. // Each year on this date we commemorate our ancestors with a special ceremony. See the entry > Examples: “Over the past year, members of the Vietnamese community have hosted a series of 50 events to commemorate the 50 years since they arrived in New Orleans. They have ranged from cooking classes and festivals to art shows and panel discussions. Last week, more than 500 Vietnamese Americans from across the United States gathered for the 50th reunion of former residents of the fishing region, Phuoc Tinh, located in Vietnam.” — Sophia Germer, The New Orleans Advocate, 11 Apr. 2025 Did you know? When you remember something, you are mindful of it. And you are especially mindful when you commemorate something, formalizing your remembrance by doing something special, such as attending a parade or taking part in a ceremony. It's appropriate, therefore, that commemorate and other related memory-associated words (including memorable, memorial, remember, and memory itself) come from the Latin root memor, meaning “mindful.” English speakers have been marking the memory of important events with commemorate since the late 16th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2025 is: dyspeptic • diss-PEP-tik • adjective Dyspeptic is a formal and old-fashioned word used to describe someone who is bad-tempered (in other words, easily annoyed or angered), or something that shows or is characteristic of a bad temper. The noun form of dyspeptic is dyspepsia. // The comedian's shtick of delivering dyspeptic rants on the daily annoyances of modern life was enormously popular. See the entry > Examples: “Statler and Waldorf from ‘The Muppet Show' made a long-running joke of dyspeptic critics. Never once in my teenage years did I point to the TV and say, ‘Mom and Dad, that is what I want to be when I grow up.'” — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2024 Did you know? If you've ever told someone (or been told yourself) to “quit bellyaching,” then you should have no trouble grokking the gastronomic origins of dyspeptic, an adjective used in formal speech and writing to describe someone with a bad temper. To wit, indigestion (aka dyspepsia) is often accompanied by nausea, heartburn, and gas—symptoms that can turn even your cheeriest chum into a curmudgeonly crank. So it's no wonder that dyspepsia can refer both to a sour stomach and a sour mood, or that its adjective form, dyspeptic, can describe someone afflicted by either. The pep in both words comes from the Greek pep-, base of the verb péptein meaning “to cook, ripen, or digest.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2025 is: limn • LIM • verb Limn is a formal verb most often used especially in literary contexts to mean "to describe or portray," as in "a novel that limns the life of 1930s coastal Louisiana." It can also mean "to outline in clear sharp detail," as in "a tree limned by moonlight," and "to draw or paint on a surface," as in "limning a portrait." // The documentary limns the community's decades-long transformation. // We admired every detail of the portrait, gracefully limned by the artist's brush. See the entry > Examples: "... the story of Ronald Reagan's jelly beans is not simply about his love of a cute candy. It speaks to how he weaned himself from tobacco, judged people's character, and deflected scrutiny. It limns the role of the sugar industry and food marketing. And it demonstrates how food can be a powerful communications tool. Reagan's jelly beans sent a message to voters: 'I like the same food you do, so vote for me.'" — Alex Prud'homme, Dinner with the President: Food, Politics, and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House, 2023 Did you know? Limn is a word with lustrous origins, tracing ultimately to the Latin verb illuminare, meaning "to illuminate." Its use in English dates back to the Middle Ages, when it was used for the action of illuminating (that is, decorating) medieval manuscripts with gold, silver, or brilliant colors. William Shakespeare extended the term to painting in his poem "Venus and Adonis": "Look when a painter would surpass the life / In limning out a well-proportioned steed …" Over time, limn gained a sense synonymous with delineate meaning "to outline in clear sharp detail" before broadening further to mean "to describe or portray." Such limning is often accomplished by words, but not always: actors are often said to limn their characters through their portrayals, while musicians (or their instruments) may limn emotions with the sounds they make.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2025 is: bastion • BAS-chun • noun A bastion is a place or system in which something (such as an idea) is protected and continues to survive. // The restaurant is a bastion of the region's ancient culinary traditions. See the entry > Examples: “In 2017, Harlem residents took to the streets to protest Keller Williams after the real estate company began marketing the neighborhood's 15-block southern radius (between 110th Street and 125th Street) as ‘SoHa' (South Harlem) without their approval. The biggest worry? That newcomers would attempt to erase Harlem's history as a civil rights nexus and bastion of Black American culture. In response, then-New York Sen. Brian Benjamin introduced legislation that banned unsolicited name changes and fined real estate firms for using names like SoHa.” — Jake Kring-Schreifels, Spokeo, 26 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Bastion today usually refers to a metaphorical fortress, a place where an idea, ethos, philosophy, culture, etc. is in some way protected and able to endure. But its oldest meaning concerned literal fortifications and strongholds. Bastion likely traces back to a verb, bastir, meaning “to build or weave,” from Old Occitan, a Romance language spoken in southern France from about 1100 to 1500. Bastir eventually led to bastia, an Italian word for a small quadrangular fortress, and from there bastione, referring to a part of a fortified structure—such as an outer wall—that juts or projects outward. Bastione became bastion in Middle French before entering English with the same meaning. You may be familiar with another bastir descendent, bastille, which refers generically to a prison or jail, but is best known as the name of the Parisian fortress-turned-prison stormed by an angry mob at the start of the French Revolution; the Bastille's fall is commemorated in France by the national holiday Bastille Day.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2025 is: voluble • VAHL-yuh-bul • adjective Someone may be described as voluble if they are talking a lot in a rapid, energetic way. // Bri knew something was bothering her normally voluble friend when he was reluctant to talk about his day. See the entry > Examples: “The movie is built around an interview with the legendary 91-year-old actor, still vigorous and voluble, with a seize-the-day cornball glow to him. In ‘You Can Call Me Bill,' Shatner sits under the hot lights, with the camera close to his face, talking, talking, and talking—about life, death, acting, fame, love, desolation, and trees.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 Mar. 2023 Did you know? In a chapter titled “Conversation,” from her 1922 book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, Emily Post offers her trademark good advice for the loquacious among us: “There is a simple rule, by which if one is a voluble chatterer ... one can at least refrain from being a pest or a bore. And the rule is merely, to stop and think.” Voluble, as is clear in this context, describes someone or something (as in “voluble personality/prose/presence”) characterized by ready or rapid speech. Voluble traces back to the Latin verb volvere, meaning “to set in a circular course” or “to cause to roll.” Another volvere descendant, volume, can also be a help in remembering voluble's meaning, not because someone described as voluble speaks at a loud volume, per se, but because they have volumes to say.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2025 is: voluble • VAHL-yuh-bul • adjective Someone may be described as voluble if they are talking a lot in a rapid, energetic way. // Bri knew something was bothering her normally voluble friend when he was reluctant to talk about his day. See the entry > Examples: “The movie is built around an interview with the legendary 91-year-old actor, still vigorous and voluble, with a seize-the-day cornball glow to him. In ‘You Can Call Me Bill,' Shatner sits under the hot lights, with the camera close to his face, talking, talking, and talking—about life, death, acting, fame, love, desolation, and trees.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 Mar. 2023 Did you know? In a chapter titled “Conversation,” from her 1922 book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, Emily Post offers her trademark good advice for the loquacious among us: “There is a simple rule, by which if one is a voluble chatterer ... one can at least refrain from being a pest or a bore. And the rule is merely, to stop and think.” Voluble, as is clear in this context, describes someone or something (as in “voluble personality/prose/presence”) characterized by ready or rapid speech. Voluble traces back to the Latin verb volvere, meaning “to set in a circular course” or “to cause to roll.” Another volvere descendant, volume, can also be a help in remembering voluble's meaning, not because someone described as voluble speaks at a loud volume, per se, but because they have volumes to say.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2025 is: hapless • HAP-lus • adjective Hapless means "having no luck." It's a synonym of unfortunate. // The documentary follows a hapless victim of false allegations. See the entry > Examples: "The New York Yankees had a nice, feel-good return to their spring training home this weekend by beating up on the hapless Tampa Bay Rays." — Kristie Ackert, Athlon Sports, 19 Apr. 2025 Did you know? Hapless means exactly what you'd expect it to mean: "without hap"—hap being another word for fortune or luck. Hap comes from the Old Norse word for "good luck," which is also the source of happen and happy. English has several words to describe those lacking good fortune, including ill-starred, ill-fated, unlucky, and luckless, a word formed in parallel to hapless by adding the suffix -less. Ill-starred suggests bringing calamity or the threat of a terrible fate ("the ill-starred year the Great Depression began"). Ill-fated refers only to being doomed ("the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic"). Unlucky and luckless usually apply to a person or thing notably or chronically unfortunate ("an unlucky slots player," "some luckless investors swindled in the deal"). Hapless is often imbued with a touch of pity, humor, or both for those to whom it refers, as in "a hapless goalie who couldn't block a shot to save his life."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 20, 2025 is: chagrin • shuh-GRIN • noun Chagrin refers to a feeling of frustration or annoyance caused by failure or disappointment. // I decided to take a gap year to the chagrin of my parents. See the entry > Examples: “Hundreds of fans decked out in Dodger blue crammed into Tokyo Haneda Airport's arrival hall dreaming of pointing at and snapping a photo of the team or their favorite player. To their chagrin, the airport constructed partitions that blocked any view of the squad.” — Andrew J. Campa, The Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Despite what its second syllable may lead one to believe, chagrin has nothing to do with grinning or amusement—quite the opposite, in fact. Chagrin, which almost always appears in phrases such as “to his/her/their chagrin,” refers to the distress one feels following a humiliation, disappointment, or failure. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the word's French ancestor, the adjective chagrin, means “sad.” What may be surprising is that the noun form of the French chagrin, meaning “sorrow” or “grief,” can also refer to a rough, untanned leather (and is itself a modification of the Turkish word sağrı, meaning “leather from the rump of a horse”). This chagrin gave English the word shagreen, which can refer to such leather, or to the rough skin of various sharks and rays.