xylography : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 30 is:

xylography \zye-LAH-gruh-fee\ noun
: the art of making engravings on wood especially for printing

Example sentence:
"Since the Great Storm of 1987 unexpectedly unleashed so much material for woodcutters and print-makers, interest in xylography has burgeoned." (_The Observer_, April 3, 1994)

Did you know?
"Xylography" combines "xylo-," meaning "wood," and "-graphy," which denotes writing in a specified manner. "Xylography" didn't appear in print in English until 1816, but it is linked to printing practices that are much older. In fact, the oldest known printed works (from Japan and China in the 8th and 9th centuries) were made by xylography, a printing technique that involves carving text in relief upon a wooden block, which is then inked and applied to paper. This method of wood-block printing appeared in Europe in the 14th century, and eventually inspired Johannes Gutenberg to create individual and reusable pieces of type out of metal. These days, "xylography" can also describe the technique of engraving wood for purely artistic purposes.

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kapellmeister: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 29 is:

kapellmeister \kuh-PELL-my-ster\ noun
: the director of a choir or orchestra

Example sentence:
Reverend Clayton was desperate -- the Christmas season was approaching and he still hadn't found a new kappellmeister.

Did you know?
As you may have guessed, "kapellmeister" originated as a German word -- and in fact, even in English it is often (though not always) used for the director of a German choir. "Kapelle" once meant "choir" in German and "Meister" is the German word for "master." The Latin "magister" is an ancestor of both "Meister" and "master," as well as of our "maestro," meaning "an eminent composer or conductor." "Kapelle" comes from "cappella," the Medieval Latin word for "chapel." As it happens, we also borrowed "kapelle" into English, first to refer to the choir or orchestra of a royal or papal chapel, and later to describe any orchestra. "Kapellmeister" is used somewhat more frequently than "kapelle" in current English, though neither word is especially common.

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instigate : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 28 is:

instigate \IN-stuh-gayt\ verb
: to goad or urge forward : provoke, incite

Example sentence:
It was believed that much of the public backlash against the mayor was instigated by his political rival, who published a smear attack in the local newspaper.

Did you know?
Although "instigate" is often used to mean "incite" (as in "hoodlums instigating violence"), 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" definitely 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" first appeared in English in the mid-16th century, approximately 60 years after "incite" and about 70 years before "foment."

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effulgence: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 27 is:

effulgence \ih-FULL-junss\ noun
: radiant splendor : brilliance

Example sentence:
Though autumn's effulgence has passed in the north, down south the Chinese tallow trees have just begun a respectable display of their own.

Did you know?
English speakers first took a shine to "effulgence" in the late 1600s, but it has older relatives in the English language. It derives from the Latin verb "fulgere," which means "to shine," a word that is also the root of "fulgent," a synonym of "radiant" that English speakers have used since the 15th century. "Refulgence" also appeared in the 1600s -- but in the earlier half -- and has a close meaning to "effulgence." It means "a radiant or resplendent quality or state" and, like "effulgence," is synonymous with "brilliance."

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mayhap: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 26 is:

mayhap \MAY-hap\ adverb
: perhaps

Example sentence:
"We are just wondering and looking and mayhap seeing what we never perceived before." (James Robinson, _A Treasury of Science_)

Did you know?
If "mayhap" looks to you like a relative of "perhaps," you're right -- the words are related. Both ultimately derive from the Middle English noun "hap," meaning "chance, fortune." "Mayhap" was formed by combining the phrase "(it) may hap" into a single word. "Hap" here is a verb essentially meaning "happen" (the word "maybe," another synonym of "mayhap" and "perhaps," was developed similarly from "may" and the verb "be"), and the verb "hap" comes from the noun "hap." "Perhaps" came about when "per" (meaning "through the agency of") was combined directly with the noun "hap" to form one word. Today "mayhap" is a rare word indeed in contrast with the very common "maybe" and "perhaps," but it does show up occasionally.

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tchotchke: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 25 is:

tchotchke \CHAHCH-kuh\ noun
: knickknack, trinket

Example sentence:
Upon returning home from his trip to Maine, Jerry ceremoniously placed his new ceramic lobster next to the other tchotchkes on his mantelpiece.

Did you know?
Just as trinkets can dress up your shelves or coffee table, many words for "miscellaneous objects" or "nondescript junk" decorate our language. "Knickknack," "doodad," "gewgaw," and "whatnot" are some of the more common ones. While many such words are of unknown origin, we know that "tchotchke" comes from the Yiddish "tshatshke" of the same meaning, and ultimately from a now-obsolete Polish word, "czaczko." "Tchotchke" is a pretty popular word these days, but it wasn't commonly used in English until the 1970s.

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solidus: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 24 is:

solidus \SAH-luh-dus\ noun
1 : an ancient Roman gold coin introduced by Constantine and used to the fall of the Byzantine Empire
*2 : a mark / used typically to denote "or" (as in and/or), "and or" (as in straggler/deserter), or "per" (as in feet/second)

Example sentence:
In her latest thriller, the author manipulates her readers into believing there are two killers until the final page, where she connects their two names with a solidus.

Did you know?
Call it a solidus, or call it a slash/diagonal/slant/virgule -- whatever you call it, you are bound to run into this useful mark with some regularity. These days, one place the mark is commonly seen is in Internet addresses (http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl, for example), but the history of the word "solidus" takes us back to a time well before computers. The ancient Roman emperor Constantine the Great borrowed the Latin term for "solid" ("solidus") for the gold coin that was the successor to the aureus. And in Medieval Latin, "solidus" designated the shilling. Before the introduction of decimal coinage, abbreviations of the shilling ("s," "sh," or "shil") were used. Eventually, the abbreviations were replaced with the simple symbol "/," which became known as a solidus.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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obsequious : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 23 is:

obsequious \ub-SEE-kwee-uss\ adjective
: marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness

Example sentence:
The movie star traveled with an entourage of obsequious attendants who indulged her every whim and waited on her hand and foot.

Did you know?
An obsequious person is more likely to be a follower than a leader. Use that fact to help you remember the meaning of "obsequious." All you need to do is bear in mind that the word comes from the Latin root "sequi," meaning "to follow." ("Sequi" is a linguistic great-grandparent here; we adopted "obsequious" from a form of the Latin verb "obsequi" -- "to comply" -- which comes from "sequi" plus the prefix "ob-," meaning "toward.") "Sequi" is the source of a number of other English words, too, including "consequence" (a result that follows from an action), "sequel" (a novel, film, or TV show that follows an original version), and "non sequitur" (a conclusion that doesn't follow from what was said before).

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heinous: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 22 is:

heinous \HAY-nuss\ adjective
: hatefully or shockingly evil : abominable

Example sentence:
The hottest video game this holiday season once again features a brawny hero who battles heinous beasts with his highly advanced arsenal of weapons.

Did you know?
Humans have contrasted love with hate and good with evil for eons, putting love and good on one side and hate and evil on the other. The etymology and development of "heinous" reflects the association of hate with that which is evil or horrible. During the 14th century, English borrowed "heinous" from the Anglo-French adjective "hainus" (same meaning as our English word), which in turn derives from the Anglo-French noun "haine," meaning "hate." English speakers have long used "heinous" to reflect the sense of horror evoked by intense hatred typically toward flagrantly criminal or wicked offenses and sins.

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elan: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 21 is:

elan \ay-LAHNG (the "NG" is not pronounced, but the vowel is nasalized)\ noun
: vigorous spirit or enthusiasm

Example sentence:
With all the requisite elan, our guest blessed the food, toasted the cook, carved the roast turkey, served it around, and ate multiple helpings of everything.

Did you know?
Once upon a time, English speakers did not have "elan" (the word, that is; that's not to say we haven't always had potential for vigourous spirit). We had, however, "elance," a verb meaning "to hurl" that was used specifically for throwing lances and darts. "Elance" derived down the line from Middle French "(s')eslancer," meaning "to rush" or "dash" (that is, "to hurl oneself forth"). With the decline of lance-throwing, we tossed out "elance" a century and half ago. Just about that time we found "elan," a noun that traces to "(s')eslancer." We copied "elan" in form from the French, but we dispensed with the French sense of a literal "rush" or "dash," retaining the sense of enthusiastic animation that we sometimes characterize as "dash."

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linchpin : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 20 is:

linchpin \LINCH-pin\ noun
1 : a locking pin inserted crosswise (as through the end of an axle or shaft)
*2 : one that serves to hold together parts or elements that exist or function as a unit

Example sentence:
Jane's canceled check was the linchpin of the case against her, because it proved that she did know about the sale of Aunt Jessie's vase.

Did you know?
"There was the good old custom of taking the linch-pins out of the farmers' and bagmens' gigs at the fairs, and a cowardly blackguard custom it was." That custom, described by British writer Thomas Hughes in his 1857 novel _Tom Brown's School Days_, was "blackguard" indeed. The linchpin in question held the wheel on the carriage and removing it made it likely that the wheel would come off as the vehicle moved. Such a pin was called a "lynis" in Old English; Middle English speakers added "pin" to form "lynspin." Modern English speakers modified it to "linchpin" and, in the mid-20th century, began using the term figuratively for anything as critical to a complex situation as a linchpin is to a wagon.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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utile : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 19 is:

utile \YOO-til\ adjective
: useful

Example sentence:
Shaker crafts are simple, meticulously constructed, pleasing to the eye, and eminently utile, all at the same time.

Did you know?
For over a hundred years before "useful" entered our language, "utile" served us well on its own. We borrowed "utile" from Middle French in the 15th century. The French derived it from Latin "utilis," meaning "useful," which in turn comes from "uti," meaning "to use." "Uti" (the past participle of which is "usus") is also the source of our "use" and "useful." We've been using "use" since at least the 13th century, but we didn't acquire "useful" until the late 16th century, when William Shakespeare inserted it into _King John_. Needless to say, we've come to prefer "useful" over "utile" since then, though "utile" functions as a very usable synonym. Other handy terms derived from "uti" include "utilize," "usury," "abuse," and "utensil."

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bumbershoot : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 18 is:

bumbershoot \BUM-ber-shoot\ noun
: umbrella

Example sentence:
As the light sprinkle gradually turned into steady rain, Uncle Winston said, "I'm glad I remembered to carry my bumbershoot!"

Did you know?
Umbrellas have plenty of nicknames. In Britain, "brolly" is a popular alternative to the more staid "umbrella." Sarah Gamp, a fictional nurse who toted a particularly large umbrella in Charles Dickens' novel _Martin Chuzzlewit_, has inspired some English speakers to dub oversize versions "gamps."
"Bumbershoot" is a predominantly American nickname, one that has been recorded as a whimsical, slightly irreverent handle for umbrellas since the late 1890s. As with most slang terms, the origins of "bumbershoot" are a bit foggy, but it appears that the "bumber" is a modification of the "umbr-" in "umbrella" and the "shoot" is an alteration of the "-chute" in "parachute" (since an open parachute looks a little like an umbrella).

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alleviate: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 17 is:

alleviate \uh-LEE-vee-ayt\ verb
: relieve, lessen: as *a : to make (as suffering) more bearable b : to partially remove or correct

Example sentence:
Mom suggested that ibuprofen and tea would perhaps alleviate some of the misery of my cold.

Did you know?
"Alleviate" derives from the past participle of Late Latin "alleviare" ("to lighten or relieve"), which in turn was formed by combining the prefix "ad-" and the adjective "levis," a Latin word meaning "light" or "having little weight." ("Levis" comes from the same ancient word that gave rise to that "light" in English.) We acquired "alleviate" in the 15th century, and for the first few centuries the word could mean either "to cause (something) to have less weight" or "to make (something) more tolerable." The literal "make lighter" sense is no longer used, however, so today we have only the "relieve" sense. Incidentally, not only is "alleviate" a synonym of "relieve," it's also a cousin; "relieve" comes from "levare" ("to raise"), which in turn comes from "levis."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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quietus : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 16 is:

quietus \kwy-EE-tus\ noun
1 : final settlement (as of a debt)
2 : removal from activity; especially : death
*3 : something that quiets or represses

Example sentence:
"The constant rain and the cold have combined to put a quietus on outdoor activities." (Glenn Tucker, quoted in the _Bangor Daily News_ [Maine], Oct. 10, 2005)

Did you know?
In the early 1500s, English speakers adopted the Medieval Latin phrase "quietus est" (literally "he is quit") as the name for the writ of discharge exempting a baron or knight from payment of a knight's fee to the king. The expression was later shortened to "quietus" and applied to the termination of any debt. William Shakespeare was the first to use "quietus" as a metaphor for the termination of life in his tragedy _Hamlet_: "For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, ... When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin?" The third meaning, which is more influenced by "quiet" than "quit," appeared in the 19th century. It often occurs in the phrase "put the quietus on" (as in our example sentence).

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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waggish : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 15 is:

waggish \WAG-ish\ adjective
*1 : resembling or characteristic of a wag
2 : done or made in waggery or for sport : humorous

Example sentence:
Lisa listens to the same waggish DJ every morning, never tiring of his prank phone calls and irreverent impressions of local politicians.

Did you know?
One who is waggish acts like a wag. What, then, is a wag? Etymologists think "wag" probably came from "waghalter," a word that was once used for a "gallows bird" (that is, a person who was going to be, or deserved to be, hanged). "Waghalter" was apparently shortened to "wag" and used jokingly or affectionately for mischievous pranksters or youths. Hence a wag is a joker, and waggery is merriment or practical joking. "Waggish" can describe the prank itself as well as the prankster type; the class clown might be said to be prone to "waggish antics" or even to have a "waggish disposition."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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praxis: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 14 is:

praxis \PRAK-sis\ noun
1 : exercise or practicing of an art, science, or skill
2 : customary practice or conduct
*3 : practical application of a theory

Example sentence:
Working in a law office allowed Anne to see firsthand the praxis of the ideas she learned in her classes.

Did you know?
It's one thing to have an idea or knowledge about something, and quite another to turn that knowledge into action; the word "praxis" is often called upon to represent the latter of these. First appearing in English in the 16th century, "praxis" came to our language via Medieval Latin and ultimately derives from the Greek verb "prassein," meaning "to do" or "to practice." That Greek verb also gave us such words as "practical" and "pragmatic." Something that is done as praxis applies an abstract theory toward practical purposes, and for that reason "praxis" is often used in contexts that pointedly contrast it with "theory."

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flippant: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 13 is:

flippant \FLIP-unt\ adjective
: lacking proper respect or seriousness

Example sentence:
The young attorney reddened when she realized the reply she'd just given the frowning judge bordered on flippant.

Did you know?
"Flippant" was probably created from the verb "flip," which in turn likely originated as an imitation of the sound of something flipping. Among early senses of the adjective were "nimble" and "limber." One could be flippant not only on one's feet, but also in speech; that is, someone "flippant" might have a capacity for easy, flowing speech. But people who speak freely and easily can sometimes seem too talkative, even impertinent, and from the beginning "flippant" referred to such overly glib speech as well. By the end of the 18th century, the flip-flop was complete -- the positive sense of "flippant" had slipped from use, and the "disrespectful" sense had taken over.

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nescience: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 12 is:

nescience \NESH-ee-unss\ noun
: lack of knowledge or awareness : ignorance

Example sentence:
As the conversation among the group turned to movies, Rob feared that his silence might betray his nescience toward all things related to the cinema.

Did you know?
Eighteenth-century British poet, essayist, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson once said, "There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not know it." He undoubtedly knew a thing or two about the history of the word "nescience," which evolved from a combination of the Latin prefix "ne-," meaning "not," and "scire," a verb meaning "to know," and which first appeared in English in the early 17th century. And Johnson probably also knew that "scire" is also an ancestor of "science," a word whose original meaning in English was "knowledge." From that point, it takes no stretch of the imagination to see that "scire" also gave us other words relating to the mind, including "conscience," "conscious," and "prescience."

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skulk: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 11 is:

skulk \SKULK\ verb
1 : to move in a stealthy or furtive manner
2 *a : to hide or conceal something (as oneself) often out of cowardice or fear or with sinister intent b chiefly British : malinger

Example sentence:
During the thunderstorm, we realized that we hadn't seen our dog in a while; when we searched, we found her skulking under the bed.

Did you know?
Here's one for the word-puzzle lovers. Can you name three things that the word "skulk" has in common with all of these other words: "booth," "brink," "cog," "flit," "give,"
"kid," "meek," "scab," "seem," "skull," "snub," and "wing"? If you noticed that all of the terms on that list have just one syllable, then you've got the first (easy) similarity, but the next two are likely to prove a little harder to guess. Give up? All of the words listed above are of Scandinavian origin and all were first recorded in English in the 13th century. As for "skulk," its closest Scandinavian relative is Norwegian dialect "skulka," which means "to lie in wait" or "lurk."

* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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carceral: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 10 is:

carceral \KAHR-suh-rul\ adjective
: of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison

Example sentence:
When James first glimpsed his new campus, he thought there was something rather carceral about the school?s tall wrought-iron fence.

Did you know?
Describing a painting of John Howard visiting a prison in 1787, writer Robert Hughes reminds us that Howard was "the pioneer of English carceral reform" (_Time Magazine_, November 11, 1985). Huges might have said "prison reform," but what about Vladimir Nabokov, when, in his inimitable prose, he describes a prison scene in _Invitation to a Beheading_: "The door opened, whining, rattling and groaning in keeping with all the rules of carceral counterpoint." Here we find "carceral" not only practical but practically poetical. An adjective borrowed directly from Late Latin, "carceral" appeared shortly after "incarcerate" ("to imprison"), which first showed up in English around the mid-1500s; they're both ultimately from "carcer," Latin for "prison."

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yahoo: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 9 is:

yahoo \YAH-hoo\ noun
: a boorish, crass, or stupid person

Example sentence:
The local teenagers' reputation as a bunch of yahoos was belied by their courteous treatment of the stranded motorists.

Did you know?
We know exactly how old "yahoo" is because its debut in print also marked its entrance into the English language as a whole. "Yahoo" began life as a made-up word invented by Jonathan Swift in his book _Gulliver's Travels_, which was published in 1726. The Yahoos were a race of brutes, with the form and vices of humans, encountered by Gulliver in his fourth and final voyage. They represented Swift's view of mankind at its lowest. It is not surprising, then, that "yahoo" came to be applied to any actual human who was particularly unpleasant or unintelligent. Yahoos were controlled by the intelligent and virtuous Houyhnhnms, a word which apparently did not catch people's fancy as "yahoo" did.

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vulnerary: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 8 is:

vulnerary \VUL-nuh-rair-ee\ adjective
: used for or useful in healing wounds

Example sentence:
Native Americans prized the herb echinacea for its vulnerary properties, using it to treat burns and snakebite as well as arrow wounds.

Did you know?
"Vulnus," in Latin means "wound." You might think, then, that the English adjective "vulnerary" would mean "wounding, causing a wound." And, indeed, "vulnerary" has been used that way, along with two obsolete adjectives, "vulnerative" and "vulnific." But for the lasting and current use of "vulnerary," we took our cue from the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. In his _Natural History_, he used the Latin adjective "vulnerarius" to describe a plaster, or dressing, for healing wounds. And that's fine -- the suffix "-ary" merely indicates that there is a connection, which, in this case, is to wounds. (As you may have already suspected, "vulnerable" is related; it comes from the Latin verb "vulnerare," which means "to wound.")

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detritus: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 7 is:

detritus \dih-TRYE-tus\ noun
1 : loose material (as rock fragments or organic particles) that results directly from disintegration
2 a : a product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away : debris *b : miscellaneous remnants : odds and ends

Example sentence:
"The blog originated ... as a catch basin for mental detritus, for the kind of stuff not good enough for print, but too good to waste on casual conversation." (Joel Achenbach, _The Washington Post_, August 21, 2005)

Did you know?
In the late 18th century, Scottish geologist James Hutton borrowed the Latin word "detritus" (meaning "rubbing away") for the process of wearing away or wearing down rock. His use of the word, however, was short-lived: one of the last appearances of this usage is in an 1802 book on his geologic theory. In that book, "detritus" was also used to describe the loose material that results from disintegration. It is that use, unlike Hutton's original, which has withstood the test of time and is firmly established in geology. Not surprisingly, "detritus," with its erudite sound and figurative possibility, was also taken up by non-geologists, from other scientists to nonscientists.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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temporize : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 6 is:

temporize \TEM-puh-ryze\ verb
1 : to act to suit the time or occasion : yield to current or dominant opinion
*2 : to draw out discussions or negotiations so as to gain time

Example sentence:
The senators have been accused of temporizing while the budget crisis continues to worsen.

Did you know?
"Temporize" comes from the Medieval Latin verb "temporizare" ("to pass the time"), which itself comes from the Latin noun "tempus," meaning "time." ("Tempus" is also an ancestor of such words as "tempo," "contemporary," and "temporal.") If you need to buy some time, you might resort to temporizing -- but you probably won't win admiration for doing so. "Temporize" can have a somewhat negative connotation. For instance, a political leader faced with a difficult issue might temporize by talking vaguely about possible solutions without actually doing anything. The point of such temporizing is to avoid taking definite -- and possibly unpopular -- action, in hopes that the problem will somehow go away. But the effect is often just to make matters worse.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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zenith: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 5 is:

zenith \ZEE-nith\ noun
1 : the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the nadir and vertically above the observer
2 : the highest point reached in the heavens by a celestial body
*3 : culminating point : acme

Example sentence:
"Winning a gold medal at the Olympic games would be the zenith of my career," said the skier in a recent interview.

Did you know?
When you reach the zenith, you're at the top, the pinnacle, the summit, the peak. "Zenith" developed from Arabic terms meaning "the way over one's head." As long ago as the 1300s, English speakers used "zenith" to name the highest point in the celestial heavens, directly overhead. By the 1600s, "zenith" was being used in English for other high points as well.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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ab ovo: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 4 is:

ab ovo \ab-OH-voh\ adverb
: from the beginning

Example sentence:
"Would you live your life differently if you could start again ab ovo?" Rachel asked.

Did you know?
"Ab ovo usque ad mala." That phrase translates as "from the egg to the apples," and it was penned by the Roman poet Horace. He was alluding to the Roman tradition of starting a meal with eggs and finishing it with apples. Horace also applied "ab ovo" in an account of the Trojan War that begins with the mythical egg of Leda from which Helen (whose beauty sparked the war) was born. In both cases, Horace used "ab ovo" to allude to a literal egg while figuratively suggesting the meaning "from the beginning." It was this figurative meaning that found its way into English in the 16th century, when Sir Philip Sidney wrote: "If [the dramatic poets] wil represent an history, they must not (as Horace saith) beginne Ab ouo: but they must come to the principall poynt of that one action."

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catachresis: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 3 is:

catachresis \kat-uh-KREE-sis\ noun
*1 : use of the wrong word for the context
2 : use of a forced and especially paradoxical figure of speech

Example sentence:
The paper printed a correction for the previous day's catachresis: dubbing a local artist-philanthropist a "socialist" when they meant "socialite."

Did you know?
As you might have guessed, "catachresis" is a word favored by grammarians. It can be employed as a fancy label of disparagement for whatever uses the grammarian finds unacceptable. Thus could Henry Fowler, in the 1920s, call "mutual" in "our mutual friend" a catachresis. (Fowler preferred "common," but "mutual" does have an established sense which is correct in that context.) More often, "catachresis" is used for an unintentional misuse and is very close in meaning to "malapropism," which usually refers to an unintentionally _humorous_ misuse of a word. "Catachresis" has been used to describe (or decry) misuses of words since at least 1550. The word comes to us by way of Latin from the Greek noun "katachresis," which means "misuse."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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jejune: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 2 is:

jejune \jih-JOON\ adjective
1 : lacking nutritive value
*2 : devoid of significance or interest : dull
3 : juvenile, puerile

Example sentence:
Professor Hazlett's jejune lectures often left students dozing in the auditorium.

Did you know?
If you are starved for excitement, you won't get it from something jejune. That term derives from the Latin "jejunus," which means "empty of food," "meager," or "hungry." Back in the 1600s, English speakers used "jejune" in senses very similar to those of its Latin parent, lamenting "jejune appetites" and "jejune morsels." Something that is meager usually doesn't satisfy one's desires, and before long "jejune" was being used not only for meager meals or hunger, but also for things wanting in intellectual or emotional substance. The word most likely gained its "juvenile" or "childish" sense when people confused it with the look-alike French word "jeune," which means "young."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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golden handcuffs: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 1 is:

golden handcuffs \GOAL-dun-HAND-kuffs\ noun
: special benefits offered to an employee as an inducement to continue service

Example sentence:
Dad eventually accepted the golden handcuffs and agreed to five more years with the company.

Did you know?
Chances are you've heard of a "golden handshake," which is a particularly tempting severance agreement offered to an employee in an effort to induce the person to retire early. People started getting "golden handshakes" (by that name) around 1960; by 1976, English speakers had also coined the accompanying "golden handcuffs" to describe a situation in which someone is offered a special inducement to stay. The expression turns up often in quasi-literal uses, such as "slapped golden handcuffs on" or reference to "a shiny new set of golden handcuffs." (It's also common in British, as well as American, usage.)

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