bombinate: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for January 13 is:

bombinate \BAHM-buh-nayt\ verb
: buzz, drone

Example sentence:
Mr. Carter bombinated on, seemingly oblivious to the frequency of yawning and watch-checking in the audience.

Did you know?
"Bombinate" sounds like it should be the province of bombastic blowhards who bound up and bombard you with droning blather at parties -- and it is. The word derives from the Greek "bombos," a term that probably originated as an imitation of a deep, hollow sound (the kind we would likely refer to as "booming" nowadays). Latin speakers rendered the original Greek form as "bombus," and that root gave forth a veritable din of raucous English offspring, including not only "bombinate," but also "bomb," "bombard," "bombilate" (which means the same thing as "bombinate"), and "bound" ("to leap"). However, the Latin "bombus" is not a direct ancestor of "bombastic," which traces to "bombyx," a Greek name for the silkworm.

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