skylark: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for August 27 is:

skylark \SKYE-lark\ verb
1 : to run up and down the rigging of a ship in sport
*2 : frolic, sport

Example sentence:
As the couple was walking past the playground, they stopped and watched the happy children laugh and skylark and thought about how they would soon be having a child.

Did you know?
As far as we know, people were skylarking at sea before they were larking on land. "Skylarking" was originally a term used by seamen for their scampering about on the rigging of ships. The first known use of the word in print is from 1809, though the term was part of the sailor's vernacular before that. "Lark," meaning "to engage in harmless fun or mischief," didn't get jotted down until 1813. Whether or not the meanings of these words came about from the song and/or behavior of birds is uncertain. One theory of the verb "lark" is that it began as a misinterpretation of the verb "lake," which in British dialect means "to play or frolic."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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