Podcasts about Webster

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2026 is: tenuous • TEN-yoo-us • adjective Something described as tenuous is flimsy, weak, or uncertain. // The theater had a tenuous existence for years, but today is on much more solid financial footing. See the entry > Examples: “While more non-screen-based interactive technology could be an antidote to our screen-obsessed society, it's an extremely tenuous link to more human interaction ...” — Jennifer Pattinson Tuohy, The Verge, 4 May 2026 Did you know? Lean into the history of tenuous and you'll find that the word comes to English from the Latin adjective tenuis, meaning “fine-drawn, thin, narrow, or slight,” and is a relative of thin. Like that more familiar word, tenuous has a wide array of meanings: it can describe a literal thinness, as in “a silkworm's tenuous threads,” or rarity (the opposite of density), as in “a tenuous fluid,” or it can describe things that are figuratively thin or flimsy. If one team in a game has a tenuous lead, either team still has a chance at winning. If there is only a tenuous connection between two events, those events are likely unrelated.

Kenny Webster interviews comedian Jesse Peyton.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2026 is: emblazon • im-BLAY-zun • verb To emblazon something is to decorate its surface, usually with a name, slogan, or picture. // Her favorite souvenir from her trip to the Grand Canyon was a t-shirt emblazoned with a rosy sunset over the famous chasm. See the entry > Examples: “Later that week we were boarding our flight with the painting secured in an enormous case with a toothy, bespectacled cartoon squirrel emblazoned on the back and a speech bubble that read ‘I'M JUST NUTS ABOUT PUZZLES!'” — Orlando Whitfield, All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art, 2025 Did you know? Blazon is a less commonly used synonym of the more familiar coat of arms. Both centuries-old terms refer to heraldic designs, symbols, and other imagery (think crosses, lions, stripes, etc.) that typically appear on banners, shields, armor, and elsewhere. The verb form of blazon meaning “to depict heraldic figures or designs in drawing or engraving” and emblazon, “to inscribe or adorn with or as if with heraldic figures or designs,” came into use around the same time in the late 1500s, from the French spoken in medieval England. (The word heraldry, also ultimately from Anglo-French, came into use then too.) Emblazon still refers to marking something with an emblem of heraldry, but it is now more often used for adorning or publicizing something in any conspicuous way, whether with eye-catching decoration or colorful words of praise.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2026 is: hale • HAIL • adjective Someone described as hale is in good and often exceptional health. Hale is commonly used in the phrase "hale and hearty." // Their mother remains hale and hearty in her old age. See the entry > Examples: "Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star [in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes] as two vivacious all-American showgirls whose friendship is as fast as their attitudes to men are poles apart. Whereas Monroe's Lorelei Lee prizes wealth and devotion in a suitor, Russell's Dorothy Shaw is more inclined towards the hale and hunky ..." — Robbie Collin, The Telegraph (United Kingdom), 2 May 2026 Did you know? English has two hale homographs: the adjective that is frequently paired with hearty to describe those healthy and strong, and the somewhat uncommon verb that has to do with literal or figurative hauling or pulling. (One can hale a boat onto shore, or hale a person into a courtroom with the aid of legal ramifications for resistance.) The verb comes from the Middle English halen (also the root of our word haul), but the adjective has a bifurcated origin, with two Middle English terms identified as sources: hale and hail. Both of those come from words meaning "healthy," the former from the Old English hāl, and the latter from the Old Norse heill. The Middle English hail is also the source of the three modern English words spelled as hail, the verb, interjection, and noun that have to do with greeting.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 12, 2026 is: blandishment • BLAN-dish-munt • noun Blandishments are nice things that you say or do to convince someone to do something. Blandishment is usually used in the plural form. // Despite the many blandishments of the dressing room attendant, we were resolved not to overspend at the fashion boutique. See the entry > Examples: “… he sought to turn the attack around by saying his vast wealth—which has allowed him to richly fund his political endeavors—made him immune to the blandishments of plutocrats and corporate interests.” — Mark Z. Barabak, The Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2026 Did you know? When Star Wars audiences first meet former smuggler Lando Calrissian—played iconically by Billy Dee Williams—in The Empire Strikes Back, he is full of blandishments, offering flattery (telling Leia “You truly belong here with us among the clouds”) and gifts to our heroes in the form of food and drink (“Will you join me for a little refreshment?”) in order to entice them into what we soon discover is a trap. Notably, before the whole sordid deal goes down (and before Lando's eventual redemption), Han Solo calls him “an old smoothie.” Lando's verbal smoothness can be linked to blandishment too: the word was formed from the verb blandish, meaning “to coax with flattery.” Blandish ultimately comes from the Latin adjective blandus, meaning “influencing others by flattery,” source too of our adjective bland, which typically describes things boring and flavorless but which can also mean “smooth and soothing in manner or quality”—a meaning that also applies to everyone's favorite Cloud City administrator.

Usually just for Patreon Subscribers. Mark goes into the comments and gets your thoughts on everything that is happening in Rochester, NY. This time the Pride flag in Webster and fights at the beach. Leave your comments below about any Rochester news story to be on the show.

Westfair Communications hosted its 2026 C-Suite Awards on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at the Mansion on Broadway in White Plains, NY. The evening celebrated outstanding senior executives and organizations across Fairfield and Westchester Counties, highlighting the visionary strategies and innovative initiatives driving the local economy. It brought together regional leaders and decision-makers to honor stories of resilience and leadership, emphasizing how individual business success helps elevate the entire community.Marissa Weidner, the Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer at Webster Bank, spoke with Westchester Talk Radio host Joan Franzino at the event. Marissa discussed the varied nature of her role, noting that her responsibilities can change every 30 minutes, ranging from regulatory compliance to brand awareness campaigns and community engagement initiatives. She highlighted her oversight of a $6.5 billion community investment strategy designed to drive real impact, which she credits alongside her supportive team for helping her earn the award that evening.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2026 is: saturnine • SAT-er-nyne • adjective Saturnine is a literary word that typically describes people who are glum and grumpy, or things that suggest or express gloom. It can also mean “slow to act or change.” // A walk in the sunshine can improve your mood significantly, raising the spirits of even the most saturnine among us. See the entry > Examples: “If he was once more cautious in interviews, coming across as a little saturnine, he's looser now, illuminated by flashes of wry humour.” — Patrick Smith, The Independent (United Kingdom), 1 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Saturnine is far—even astronomically far—from the cheeriest of words. It has a long history of describing the glum and grouchy among us, and comes ultimately from Sāturnus, name of the Roman god of agriculture, who was often depicted as a bent old man with a stern, sluggish, and sullen nature. Saturn, the ringed gas giant that is one of five planets visible to the naked eye, is of course the namesake of Sāturnus, and Saturn does indeed seem to dawdle; it requires over 29 of our Earth years to orbit the sun. The ancient Romans (like some astrologers today) believed those who are born when Saturn is rising in the sky tend toward being a Gloomy Gus or Debbie Downer. We don't know A. A. Milne's take on the influence of Saturn, but his gloomy, cynical gray donkey Eeyore is famously saturnine, a fact Eeyore himself would surely stoically accept as true if it were pointed out to him.

Kenny Webster interviews @StevesLovesAmmo.

Webster's Dictionary defines challenge as:  to dispute especially as being unjust, invalid, or outmoded; to […]

Sonny Webster joins James Smith for an honest conversation about what training, money and ambition actually look like once you hit your 30s. A British Olympic weightlifter who competed at Rio 2016, Sonny is now a fitness entrepreneur building global training platforms, and he doesn't hold back on the realities of optimisation culture, the TRT debate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2026 is: foible • FOY-bul • noun Foibles are minor flaws or shortcomings in someone's character or behavior. In fencing, foible refers to the weakest part of a sword's blade, between the middle and point. // You have to be able to laugh at your own foibles. See the entry > Examples: "The British sketch comedy troupe Monty Python loved taking aim at contemporary foibles through its twisted and liberal reading of history." — David Faris, The Week, 29 Apr. 2026 Did you know? Many word lovers agree that the pen is mightier than the sword. But be they honed in wit or form, even the sharpest tools in the shed have their flaws. That's where foible comes in handy. Borrowed from French in the 1600s, the word originally referred to the weakest part of a fencing sword, that part being the portion between the middle and the pointed tip. The English foible soon came to be applied not only to weaknesses in blades but also to minor failings in character. Foible ultimately traces back to the Old French term feble, which is also the source of our English adjective feeble.