ebullient: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for January 11 is:

ebullient \ih-BULL-yunt\ adjective
1 : boiling, agitated
*2 : having or showing liveliness and enthusiasm : exuberant

Example sentence:
Students found Mr. Brennan's science class to be a challenge, but his ebullient style made his lectures very entertaining.

Did you know?
Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the adjective "ebullient" derives from the Latin verb "ebullire," which means "to bubble out." (The stem "bullire" is an ancestor of our word "boil" and derives from "bulla," the Latin word for "bubble.") In its earliest known uses in English in the late 1500s, "ebullient" was used in the sense of "boiling" or "bubbling" that might have described a pot simmering on the stove. Only later did the word's meaning broaden to encompass emotional agitation in addition to the tempestuous roiling of a boiling liquid.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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