ossify: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for January 26 is:

ossify \AH-suh-fye\ verb
1 : to become or change into bone or bony tissue
*2 : to become or make hardened or set in one's ways

Example sentence:
Harold was open to new ideas in his youth, but his mind has ossified as the years have passed and he's now an inflexible curmudgeon.

Did you know?
Initially, the skeletons of mammals consist mainly of soft cartilage that gradually transforms into hard bone as an individual matures. Since the late 17th century, English speakers have referred to this bone-building process as "ossification." Linguistic research suggests that usage of the verb "ossify" solidified soon after the noun appeared. English speakers began to use "ossification" and "ossify" for more figurative types of hardening (such as that of the heart, mind, or soul) in the 19th century. "Ossify" and "ossification" both descend from the Latin root "os," meaning "bone." "Os" is also an English word that appears in scientific contexts as a synonym of "bone," and the Latin term is an ancestor of the word "osseous," which means "consisting of or resembling bone."

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