mellifluous: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for August 4 is:

mellifluous \muh-LIFF-luh-wus\ adjective
*1 : having a smooth rich flow
2 : filled with something (as honey) that sweetens

Example sentence:
Lucy recognized the actor's mellifluous voice immediately from the many voice-overs he had done for commercials, station breaks, and documentaries.

Did you know?
In Latin, "mel" means "honey" and "fluere" means "to flow." Those two linguistic components flow smoothly together in Late Latin "mellifluus" and Middle English "mellyfluous," the ancestors of "mellifluous." Nowadays the adjective most often applies to the sound of words or speech or music-- as it has for centuries. In 1671, for example, poet John Milton wrote in _Paradise Regained_ of the "Wisest of men; from whose mouth issu'd forth / Mellifluous streams...." But "mellifluous" can also be used of flavor, as in the following rave from an article entitled "The Sublime Wine": "The first taste sensation is an electric sweetness that explodes within the mouth, but what emerges after swallowing is a mellifluous, lingering flavor...." (James Villas, _Town & Country_, December 1991)

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