delate: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 29 is:

delate \dih-LAYT\ verb
*1: accuse, denounce
2 : report, relate

Example sentence:
"In that year Archbishop Blackadder of Glasgow delated some thirty heretics to James IV who let the matter go with a jest." (J.D. Mackie, _A History of Scotland_)

Did you know?
To "delate" someone is to "hand down" that person to a court of law. In Latin, "delatus" is the unlikely-looking past participle of "deferre," meaning "to bring down, report, or accuse," which in turn comes from "ferre," meaning "to carry." Not surprisingly, our word "defer," meaning "to yield to the opinion or wishes of another," can also be traced back to "deferre." At one time, in fact, "defer" and "delate" had parallel meanings (both could mean "to carry down or away" or "to offer for acceptance"), but those senses are now obsolete. Today, you are most likely to encounter "delate" or its relatives "delation" and "delator" in the context of medieval tribunals, although the words can also relate to modern ecclesiastical tribunals.

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dog days: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 28 is:

dog days \DOG-DAYZ\ noun
*1 : the hot sultry period of summer between early July and early September in the northern hemisphere
2 : a period of stagnation or inactivity

Example sentence:
With the steamy dog days upon us, air conditioners are selling like hotcakes.

Did you know?
Dogs aren't the only creatures uncomfortable in oppressive heat, so why does a dog get singled out in "dog days"? The dog here is actually the Dog Star, which is also called "Sirius." The star has long been associated with sultry weather in the northern hemisphere because it rises simultaneously with the sun during the hottest days of summer. In the ancient Greek constellation system, this star (called "Seirios" in Greek) was considered the hound of the hunter Orion and was given the epithet "Kyon," meaning "dog." The Greek writer Plutarch referred to the hot days of summer as "hemerai kynades" (literally, "dog days") and a Latin translation of this expression as "dies caniculares" is the source of our English phrase.

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jeunesse doree: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 27 is:

jeunesse doree \zheuh-ness-dor-RAY\ noun
: young people of wealth and fashion

Example sentence:
"On any sunny afternoon in Dublin, you will see the jeunesse doree taking their ease under the awnings of pavement cafes." (Bruce Anderson, _The Spectator_, July 2001)

Did you know?
French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre and his allies, the Jacobins, gained many enemies for their role in the Reign of Terror. One of their fiercest opponents was Louis Freron, a former Jacobin who played a key role in overthrowing their government. On July 27, 1794, counter-revolutionaries toppled the Jacobin regime and had Robespierre arrested and executed. In the midst of the chaos that followed, Louis Freron organized gangs of fashionably dressed young toughs to terrorize the remaining Jacobins. French speakers called those stylish young thugs the "jeunesse doree" -- literally, the "gilded youth." By the time the term "jeunesse doree" was adopted into English in the 1830s, it had lost its association with violent street gangs and simply referred to any wealthy young socialites.

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euchre: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 23 is:

euchre \YOO-ker\ verb
1 : to prevent from winning three tricks in euchre
*2 : cheat, trick

Example sentence:
The report said that people in the community were being euchred out of their life savings by scammers presenting phony investment opportunities.

Did you know?
Euchre is a card game for four players that is played in tricks, or rounds, with a deck of 32 cards. Etymologists are not sure where we got the name for the game, though they do know that it first appeared in English in the mid-19th century. The first sense of the verb "euchre" arose from an action that takes place during the game: a player is "euchred" when an opponent blocks him or her from winning three or more tricks after making trump. Deception can often be key to a winning strategy, and sure enough it took almost no time at all for "euchre" to develop a sense meaning "cheat" or "trick."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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schadenfreude: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 19 is:

schadenfreude \SHAH-dun-froy-duh\ noun, often capitalized
: enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others

Example sentence:
"There is simply no higher level of schadenfreude than when the rich or famous stumble." (John Gonzalez, _Boston Magazine_, August 2005)

Did you know?
"Schadenfreude" is a compound of the German nouns "Schaden," meaning "damage" or "harm," and "Freude," meaning "joy," so it makes sense that "schadenfreude" means joy over some harm or misfortune suffered by another. "What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others," wrote Richard Trench of Dublin, an archbishop with literary predilections, of the German "Schadenfreude" in 1852; perhaps it was just as well he didn't live to see the word embraced by English speakers before the century was out.

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dauntless: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 18 is:

dauntless \DAWNT-lus\ adjective
: fearless, undaunted

Example sentence:
Following a defeat by the French, dauntless George Washington wrote, "I luckily escap'd with't a wound tho' I had four Bullets through my Coat and two Horses shot under me." (Letter to Robert Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755)

Did you know?
The history of the world is peopled with dauntless men and women who refused to be subdued or "tamed" by fear. The word "dauntless" can be traced back to Latin "domare," meaning "to tame" or "to subdue." When our verb "daunt" (a "domare" descendant borrowed by way of Anglo-French) was first used in the 14th century, it shared these meanings. The now-obsolete "tame" sense referred to the taming or breaking of wild animals (particularly horses). An "undaunted" horse was an unbroken horse. Not until the late 16th century did we use "undaunted" with the meaning "undiscouraged and courageously resolute" to describe people. By then, such lionhearted souls could also be described as "undauntable," and finally, in _Henry VI_, Part 3, Shakespeare gave us "dauntless."

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dearth: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 17 is:

dearth \DERTH\ noun
1 : scarcity that makes dear; specifically : famine
*2 : an inadequate supply : lack

Example sentence:
Teri had forgotten to bring a book, and the dearth of reading material in her uncle's house had her visiting the town library the first morning of her stay.

Did you know?
The facts about the history of the word "dearth" are quite simple: the word derives from the Middle English form "derthe," which has the same meaning as our modern term. That Middle English form is assumed to have developed from an Old English form that was probably spelled "dierth" and was related to "deore," the Old English form that gave us the word "dear." ("Dear" also once meant "scarce," but that sense of the word is now obsolete.) Some form of "dearth" has been used to describe things that are in short supply since at least the 13th century, when it often referred to a shortage of food.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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hirsute: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 16 is:

hirsute \HER-soot\ adjective
*1 : hairy
2 : covered with coarse stiff hairs

Example sentence:
Todd is hirsute, and gets a five-o'clock shadow, whereas his best friend Ryan can get away without shaving every day.

Did you know?
"Hirsute" has nearly the same spelling and exactly the same meaning as its Latin parent, "hirsutus." The word isn't quite one of a kind, though; it has four close relatives: "hirsutism" and "hirsuties," synonymous nouns naming a medical condition involving excessive hair growth; "hirsutal," an adjective meaning "of or relating to hair"; and "hirsutulous," a mostly botanical term meaning "slightly hairy" (as in "hirsutulous stems"). The last three are not especially common, but are entered in _Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged_.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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oppugn : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 15 is:

oppugn \uh-PYOON\ verb
1 : to fight against
*2 : to call in question

Example sentence:
As a young research assistant, Erin had the audacity to oppugn the conclusions of her department head.

Did you know?
"Oppugn" was first recorded in English in the 15th century. It came to Middle English from the Latin verb "oppugnare," which in turn derived from the combination of "ob-," meaning "against," and "pugnare," meaning "to fight." "Pugnare" itself is descended from the same ancient word that gave Latin the word "pugnus," meaning "fist." It's no surprise, then, that "oppugn" was adopted into English to refer to fighting against something or someone, either physically (as in "the dictatorship will oppugn all who oppose it") or verbally (as in "oppugn an argument"). Other descendants of "pugnare" in English include the equally aggressive "pugnacious," "pungent," "repugnant," and the rare "inexpugnable" ("incapable of being subdued or overthrown").

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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zillionaire : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 14 is:

zillionaire \zil-yuh-NAIR\ noun
: an immeasurably wealthy person

Example sentence:
The mansion on the hill is owned by a zillionaire investment banker.

Did you know?
The word "millionaire" has been used in English to designate a person who is worth a million pounds or dollars, depending on the side of the ocean, since 1826. We borrowed the word straight from the French, whose millions, of course, were in francs. When "millionaire" no longer sufficed, English speakers coined "billionaire" in 1860. The turn of the century apparently brought a turn of fortune, for soon afterwards "multimillionaire" and "multibillionaire" were created. By the 1940s we needed "zillionaire," so it's a good thing we had coined "zillion" -- for an indeterminately large number -- the previous decade. "Zillion" and "zillionaire" aren't used in the most formal of writing, but they have found their way into plenty of serious publications.

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conurbation: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 13 is:

conurbation \kah-ner-BAY-shun\ noun
: an aggregation or continuous network of urban communities

Example sentence:
While some cities are built around a central hub, others, such as Los Angeles, are often described as sprawling conurbations with no fixed center.

Did you know?
When Sir Patrick Geddes, a Scottish biologist turned sociologist, sat down in 1915 to write _Cities in Evolution_, a work on urban planning, he needed a word. How should he refer to thickly populated regions consisting of a sprawling range of cities clustered together? "Some name, then, for these city-regions, these town aggregates, is wanted....What of 'conurbations'?" he asked rhetorically early on in his work. For his coinage, Geddes combined "urbs" (the Latin word for "city," already familiar in "urban" and "suburb") with the Latin prefix "con-" ("together") and the English noun suffix "-ation." It turned out that his word suited English speakers just fine -- we've been using it ever since.

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preen: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 12 is:

preen \PREEN\ verb
1 of a bird : to groom with the bill
2 : to dress or smooth up : primp
*3 : to pride or congratulate (oneself) for achievement
4 : gloat

Example sentence:
Jim had just beat the chess club's best player, so nobody could blame him for preening himself on his victory.

Did you know?
The incubation of "preen" began in the 14th century with the spelling "prenen," which can itself be traced to the Anglo-French forms "pur-," meaning "thoroughly," and "uindre" or "oindre," meaning "to anoint or rub." One of the first writers to apply "preen" to the human act of primping was Geoffrey Chaucer in _The Canterbury Tales_. It took a long time -- around 500 years -- for the prideful meaning of "preen" to hatch, but another bird-related word, "plume," was available for use with the meaning "to pride or congratulate (oneself)" from the first half of the 17th century.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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widdershins: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 11 is:

widdershins \WID-er-shinz\ adverb
: in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction : counterclockwise

Example sentence:
In the book, the members of the coven hold hands and dance widdershins around the fire.

Did you know?
By the mid-1500s, English speakers had adopted "widdershins" (which is from the Middle High German "wider," meaning "back against," and "sinnen," meaning "to travel") for anything following a path that is opposite to the apparent direction of the sun as it travels across the sky in the Northern Hemisphere (or opposite the direction of the movement of the shadow on a sundial or the hands on a clock). In its earliest known uses, "widdershins" was used to describe cases of bad hair in which unruly locks stood on end or fell the wrong way. But because many people in times past considered the widdershins direction to be "backwards," it has long been associated with magic, witchcraft, and, sometimes, the devil.

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fealty : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 10 is:

fealty \FEE-ul-tee\ noun
1 a : the fidelity of a vassal or feudal tenant to his lord b : the obligation of such fidelity
*2 : intense fidelity

Example sentence:
Out of fealty to his boss, who had hired him after no other employer would, Jesse stayed on with the struggling company.

Did you know?
In 1626, Francis Bacon wrote, "Fealty is to take an oath upon a book, that he will be a faithful Tenant to the King." That's a pretty accurate summary of the early meaning of "fealty." Early forms of the term were used in Middle English around 1300, when they specifically designated the loyalty of a vassal to a lord. Eventually, the meaning of the word broadened. Fealty can be paid to a country, a principle, or a leader of any kind -- though the synonyms "fidelity" and "loyalty" are more commonly used. "Fealty" comes from the Anglo-French word "feelte," or "fealte," which comes from the Latin "fidelitas," meaning "fidelity." These words are ultimately derived from "fides," the Latin word for "faith."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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requisite: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 9 is:

requisite \REK-wuh-zit\ adjective
: essential, necessary

Example sentence:
The menu had all the requisite summer cookout offerings: hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and watermelon.

Did you know?
Acquiring an understanding of where today's word comes from won't require a formal inquiry. Without question, the quest begins with Latin "quaerere," which means "to ask" and is an ancestor of a number of English words, including "acquire," "require," "inquiry," "question," "quest," and, of course, "requisite." From "quaerere" came "requirere," meaning "to ask again." Repeated requests can express a need, and the past participle of "requirere," which is "requisitus," came to mean "needed" or "necessary." The English language acquired "requisite" when it was adopted into Middle English back in the 1400s.

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grubstake : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 8 is:

grubstake \GRUB-stayk\ verb
: to provide with material assistance (as a loan) for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances

Example sentence:
"Hoping to turn the situation around in California, the state now grubstakes entrepreneurs to try their hand at salvaging urban woods." (John Balzar, _Los Angeles Times_, March 8, 2004)

Did you know?
"Grubstake" is a linguistic nugget that was dug up during the famous California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Sometime between the first stampede and the early 1860s, when the gold-seekers headed off to Montana, prospectors combined "grub" ("food") and "stake," meaning "an interest or share in an undertaking." At first "grubstake" was a noun, referring to any kind of loan or provisions that could be finagled to make an undertaking possible (with the agreement that the "grubstaker" would get a cut of any profits). By 1879, "grubstake" was also showing up as a verb meaning "to give someone a grubstake," and, since at least 1937, it has been applied to other situations in which a generous benefactor comes through with the funds.

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razzmatazz: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 7 is:

razzmatazz \raz-muh-TAZ\ noun
*1 : a confusing or colorful often gaudy action or display : razzle-dazzle
2 : inflated, involved, and often deliberately ambiguous language : double-talk
3 : vim, zing

Example sentence:
It was a rally like any other, perhaps, but amidst all the flag-waving and razzmatazz, we detected a stronger than usual strain of genuine patriotic feeling.

Did you know?
Before early forms of "razzmatazz" entered English, "razzle-dazzle" appeared on the scene, and long before "razzle-dazzle" there was simply "dazzle" (from "daze"). English speakers are fond of forming new words through reduplication of a base word, usually with just a slight change of sound. Think of "okey-dokey," "fuddy-duddy," "super-duper," "roly-poly," "fiddle-faddle," and "dilly-dally." A hundred or so years ago, the spirit that prompted "razzle-dazzle" seems to have also inspired "razzmatazz" shortly afterward. The coiners of "razzmatazz" may have had "jazz" in mind. Some of the earliest turn-of-the century uses of "razzmatazz" refer to rag-time or early jazz styles. By the 40s, we'd come round to the "razzle-dazzle" sense, though we still haven't completely settled on the spelling. You might, for example, see "razzamatazz."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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paronomasia : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 6 is:

paronomasia \pair-uh-noh-MAY-zhee-uh\ noun
: a play on words : pun

Example sentence:
Humorists claim that Harry Truman offered the delightful paronomasia "Missouri loves company" when he invited a friend to join him in Independence, Missouri, for a home-cooked meal.

Did you know?
Puns (essentially, humorous uses of words to suggest more than one interpretation) have their share of critics as well as fans. English philosopher-poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, for example, called puns "the lowest form of wit." "Paronomasia," which derives from a Greek verb meaning "to call with a slight change of name," can simply be a synonym of "pun." But it can also be used, somewhat playfully, to suggest an uncontrollable urge to make puns (as if it were a dread disease, rather than harmless word play). For example, in the July 6, 1980 _New York Times_, William Safire announced, "an epidemic of paronomasia has raced around the world." And on January 1, 1989, Jerry Kobrin of _The Orange County Register_ resolved to seek treatment "for a near-terminal case of paronomasia."

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rife : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 5 is:

rife \RYFE\ adjective
1 : prevalent especially to an increasing degree
2 : abundant, common
*3 : copiously supplied : abounding -- usually used with "with"

Example sentence:
The article was rife with grammatical and factual errors.

Did you know?
English is rife with words that have Germanic connections, many of which have been handed down to us from Old English. "Rife" is one of those words -- it's related to Middle Low German "rive," meaning "abundant." Not a whole lot has changed with "rife" in its 900-year history. We continue to use the word, as we have since the 12th century, for negative things, especially those that are widespread or prevalent. Typical examples are "shoplifting was rife" or "the city was rife with greed and corruption." "Rumors" and "speculation" are also frequently described as "rife," as well. But "rife" can also be appropriately used, as it has been for hundreds of years, for good or neutral things. For example, you might speak of "the summer garden, rife with scents."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Yankee: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 4 is:

Yankee \YANG-kee\ noun
1 a : a native or inhabitant of New England b : a native or inhabitant of the northern U.S.
*2 : a native or inhabitant of the U.S.

Example sentence:
"They mistake who assert that the Yankee has few amusements...and men and boys do not play so many games as they do in England." (Henry David Thoreau, _Walden_)

Did you know?
Many etymologies have been proposed for "Yankee," but its origin is still uncertain. What we do know is that in its earliest recorded use "Yankee" was a pejorative term for American colonials used by the British military. The first evidence we have is in a letter written in 1758 by British General James Wolfe, who had a very low opinion of the American troops assigned to him. We also have a report of British troops using the term to abuse citizens of Boston. In 1775, however, after the battles of Lexington and Concord had shown the colonials that they could stand up to British regulars, "Yankee" became suddenly respectable and the colonials adopted the British pejorative in defiance. Ever since then, a derisive and a respectable use of "Yankee" have existed side by side.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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tourbillion : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 3 is:

tourbillion \toor-BILL-yun\ noun
1 : whirlwind
*2 : a vortex especially of a whirlwind or whirlpool

Example sentence:
"In the history of any art there are unexpected eddies and tourbillions." (C. B. Cox, _The Twentieth-Century Mind_)

Did you know?
"Tourbillion" comes from the same root as "turbine" -- namely, the Latin word "turbo," meaning "top" (as in a spinning object) or "whirlwind." "Tourbillion" has been used over time to refer to other spinning objects besides an actual whirlwind. Among watchmaking enthusiasts, "tourbillion" is the name of a kind of watch with a mechanism designed to compensate for the effects of gravity on its movement. Among pyrotechnics fans, a tourbillion is a kind of firework having a spiral flight. The variety of meanings for "tourbillion" is enough to make one's head spin!

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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prepossessing: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 2 is:

prepossessing \pree-puh-ZESS-ing\ adjective
: tending to create a favorable impression : attractive

Example sentence:
"Although it is not an especially prepossessing plant, it is one of my favorites." (Barbara J. Euser, _Marin Independent Journal_, March 11, 2006)

Did you know?
If you've heard of the word "unprepossessing," it probably comes as no surprise to you that there's also a "prepossessing." You may not know, however, that both derive from the verb "prepossess," which is also still used in English, although it's quite rare. When "prepossess" first appeared in print in English in 1614, it meant "to take previous possession of," but that sense is now obsolete. The adjective "prepossessing" came into use approximately 30 years later, based on a later sense, "to influence favorably beforehand." Someone or something that is prepossessing, therefore, makes a good first impression.

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sempiternal: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for July 1 is:

sempiternal \sem-pih-TER-nul\ adjective
: of never-ending duration : eternal

Example sentence:
The owner of the lost exotic bird made it clear that whoever found his pet would receive a handsome cash reward as well as his sempiternal gratitude.

Did you know?
Despite their similarities, "sempiternal" and "eternal" come from different roots. "Sempiternal" is derived from the Late Latin "sempiternalis" and ultimately from "semper," Latin for "always." (You may recognize "semper" as a key element in the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps: "semper fidelis," meaning "always faithful.") "Eternal," on the other hand, is derived by way of Middle French and Middle English from the Late Latin "aeternalis" and ultimately from "aevum," Latin for "age" or "eternity." "Sempiternal" is much less common than "eternal," but some writers have found it useful. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, wrote, "The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves...to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why...."

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