expeditious: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for January 6 is:

expeditious \ek-spuh-DISH-us\ adjective
: characterized by or acting promptly and efficiently

Example sentence:
Poisonous snakebites require expeditious treatment.

Did you know?
Like "expeditious," all of the following words contain "ped." Can you guess which ones get those three letters from the same Latin root as "expeditious"?

encyclopedia expedition stampede torpedo orthopedic impede

The Latin source of "expeditious" is the verb "expedire," which means "to extricate," "to prepare," or "to be useful." The "ped" is from "pes," meaning "foot." (The "ex-" means "out of," and the literal sense of "expedire" is "to free the feet.") The "ped" in "impede" also comes from "pes." But the "ped" in "encyclopedia" and "orthopedic" is from the Greek "pais," meaning "child"; "stampede" is from the Spanish "estampar," meaning "to stamp"; and "torpedo" is from the Latin "torpere," meaning "to be sluggish." What about "expedition"? Meaning both "a journey" and "promptness," it too is from "expedire."

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