apropos - Word of the Day - 30/09/17

apropos

preposition

Pronunciation

ap-ruh-POH PrevNext
 

Definition

: with regard to (something) : concerning

Examples

Sean interrupted our conversation about politics and, apropos of nothing, asked who we thought would win the basketball game.

"Around that time I came across a felicitous quote by Mark Twain, which said, apropos the difficulty of writing about childhood, that you have to be old to write young." — Andrew Winer, The Color Midnight Made, 2002

Did You Know?

English speakers borrowed apropos from the French phrase à propos, literally "to the purpose." Since it first appeared in the 17th century, apropos has been used as an adverb, adjective, noun, and preposition. Left alone, the word probably wouldn't have gotten much attention, but in 1926 noted language expert H. W. Fowler declared of apropos "that it is better always to use of rather than to after it…." While this prescription seems to be based on the use of the preposition de ("of") in the French construction à propos de, rather than the actual usage history of apropos in English, some language commentators take Fowler's recommendation to be virtually a commandment. But others have noted that apropos is sometimes used by itself in professionally edited prose, or, more rarely, is followed by to.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a preposition that is synonymous with apropos: NNTAE.

Merriam-Webster

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ensconce - Word of the Day - 29/09/17

ensconce

verb

Pronunciation

 in-SKAHNSS

 Definition

1 : to place or hide securely : conceal
2 : to establish or settle firmly, comfortably, or snugly

Examples

Though kept—and used—for years in a private home, the unusual 17th-century porcelain bowl is now safely ensconced behind glass in a local museum.

"Using their strong back legs, female loggerheads dig until a pit is created that is deep enough to safely ensconce their eggs." — The Press and Standard (Walterboro, South Carolina), 20 July 2016

Did You Know?

You might think of a sconce as a type of candleholder or lamp, but the word can also refer to a defensive fortification, usually one made of earth. Originally, then, a person who was ensconced was enclosed in or concealed by such a structure, out of harm's way. One of the earliest writers to apply the verb ensconce with the general sense of "hide" was William Shakespeare. In The Merry Wives of Windsor, the character Falstaff, hoping to avoid detection when he is surprised during an amorous moment with Mrs. Ford, says "She shall not see me; I will ensconce me behind the arras." (An arras is a tapestry or wall hanging.)

Name That Synonym

What 6-letter synonym of ensconce begins with "n" and can also mean "to press closely and affectionately"?

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pace - Word of the Day - 28/09/17

pace

preposition

Pronunciation

PAY-see

Definition

: contrary to the opinion of — usually used as an expression of deference to someone's contrary opinion

Examples

Pace the editorialist, there are in fact multiple solutions to these kinds of problems.

"The public museums, great and small, that are one of America's educational glories house collections expensively assembled by rich men and (pace Isabella Gardner and Baltimore's Cone sisters) women with lofty but not selfless motives." — John Updike, The New York Review of Books, 5 Oct. 2006

Did You Know?

Though used in English since the 19th century, the preposition pace has yet to shed its Latin mantle, and for that reason it's most at home in formal writing or in contexts in which one is playing at formality. The Latin word pace is a form of pax, meaning "peace" or "permission," and when used sincerely the word does indeed suggest a desire for both. This Latin borrowing is unrelated to the more common noun pace (as in "keeping pace") and its related verb ("pacing the room"); these also come from Latin, but from the word pandere, meaning "to spread."

Test Your Memory

What former Word of the Day means "to hold spellbound" and in the past also meant "to hold in slavery"?

Merriam-Webster

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disparate - Word of the Day - 27/09/17

disparate

adjective

Pronunciation

 DISS-puh-rut

Definition

1 : containing or made up of fundamentally different and often incongruous elements
2 : markedly distinct in quality or character

Examples

The proposed law has the support of a disparate collection of interest groups.

"Released at San Diego's Comic-Con, the first full-length trailer for the CBS All Access series shows off all the Star Trek hallmarks, sweet ships, scary aliens, and the very human struggle that comes from disparate cultures coming together in unsure times." — Tim Surette, TV Guide, 23 July 2017

Did You Know?

Have you ever tried to sort differing objects into separate categories? If so, you're well prepared to understand the origins of disparate. The word, which first appeared in English in the 16th century, derives from disparatus, the past participle of the Latin verb disparare, meaning "to separate." Disparare, in turn, comes from parare, a verb meaning "to prepare." Other descendants of parare in English include both separate and prepare, as well as repair, apparatus, and even vituperate ("to criticize harshly and usually publicly"). Disparate also functions as a noun. The noun, which is rare and usually used in the plural, means "one of two or more things so unequal or unlike that they cannot be compared with each other," as in "The yoking of disparates, the old and the new, continues to be a [poet Anne] Carson strategy" (Daisy Fried, The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2013).

Quiz

What verb derived from Latin parare can mean "to ward off a weapon or blow" or "to evade"?

Merriam-Webster

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broadside- Word of the Day - 26/09/17

broadside

noun

Pronunciation

BRAWD-syde

Definition

1 a : a sizable sheet of paper printed on one side; also : a sheet of paper printed on one or both sides and folded (such as for mailing)
   b : something (such as a ballad) printed on a broadside
2 : all the guns on one side of a ship; also : their simultaneous discharge
3 : a volley of abuse or denunciation : a strongly worded attack
4 : a broad or unbroken surface

Examples

"When the Declaration of Independence was ratified, Congress ordered that it be read throughout the colonies. The first broadside was printed in Philadelphia by John Dunlap on the evening of July 4, 1776." — The Salem (Massachusetts) News, 29 Mar. 2016

"In response, Kobach said Hensley's broadside was larded with misrepresentations certain to be distasteful to Kansans hungry for decency in politics." — Tim Carpenter, The Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal, 16 Aug. 2017

Did You Know?

What do sheets of printed paper and a ship's artillery have in common? Not a whole lot besides their broadsides. The printing and naval senses of broadside arose independently of one another. Printed broadsides may have first been decrees intended for public posting, so they were necessarily printed on one side of large sheets of paper. Soon even matters printed on one side of smallish sheets were called broadsides—advertisements, for example, or the so-called "broadside ballads," popular ditties that people stuck on the wall to sing from. In the nautical sense, broadside was originally the entire side of a ship above the water—which is where the guns were placed. The further use of broadside to refer to firing of the guns eventually led to the figurative "volley of abuse" sense.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of broadside referring to a strongly worded attack: c _ _ no _ _ de.

Merriam-Webster

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anathematise - Word of the Day - 25/09/17

anathematise

verb

Pronunciation

 uh-NATH-uh-muh-tyze

Definition

: curse, denounce

Examples

"A great deal has happened in a very short time.… Feminist reforms in the home and workplace … have gained renewed momentum. Youth culture has anathematized bullying and accorded pride of place to nerd culture." — Jonathan Chait, The New York Magazine, 29 June 2015

"Its reception of [George] Orwell serves as a fascinating case study of Commonweal's history and editorial culture. The magazine's editors and contributors neither anathematized Orwell nor sprinkled him with holy water. Instead they simply gave him the respect they thought he deserved…." — John Rodden and John Rossi, Commonweal, 23 Sept. 2016

Did You Know?

When 16th-century English speakers needed a verb meaning "to condemn by anathema" (that is, by an official curse from church authority), anathematize proved to be just the right word. But anathematize didn't originate in English as a combination of the noun anathema and the suffix -ize. Rather, our verb is based on forebears in Late Latin (anathematizare) and Greek (anathematizein). Anathematize can still indicate solemn, formal condemnation, but today it can also have milder applications. The same is true of anathema, which now often means simply "a vigorous denunciation," or more frequently, "something or someone intensely disliked or loathed."

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of anathematize meaning "to curse": LDIATMCE.

Merriam-Webster

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legerity - Word of the Day - 24/09/17

legerity

noun

Pronunciation

 luh-JAIR-uh-tee

Definition

: alert facile quickness of mind or body

Examples

The novel's less than compelling plot is counterbalanced by the narrator's wit and legerity.

"There are brand new vehicles, brand new tracks and brand new ways to get gamers to exercise the kind of hand-digit legerity that other games don't like to employ because it might make the casual audience actually have to work for a victory." — William Usher, CinemaBlend.com, 16 May 2014

Did You Know?

When legerity first appeared in English in the 1500s, it drew significantly upon the concept of being "light on one's feet," and appropriately so. It is derived from the Middle and Old French legereté ("lightness"), which was formed from the Old French adjective leger ("light in weight"). Leger comes from an assumed Vulgar Latin adjective, leviarius, a descendent of the older Latin levis ("having little weight"). These days, legerity can describe a nimbleness of mind as well as of the feet. A cousin of legerity in English is legerdemain, meaning "sleight of hand" or "a display of skill or adroitness." Legerdemain comes from the French phrase leger de main, meaning "light of hand."

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of legerity meaning "quickness of mind": d _ _ t _ _ i _ y.

Merriam-Webster

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toothsome - Word of the Day - 23/09/17

toothsome

adjective

Pronunciation

TOOTH-sum

Definition

1 : agreeable, attractive
2 : of palatable flavor and pleasing texture : delicious

Examples

"Next came toothsome slices of bread with three spreads: an herbaceous carrot top pesto, creamy local butter and Cheeky Monkey, a garlicky tomato oil made in Syracuse." — Tracy Schuhmacher, The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), 16 Aug. 2017

"But the fall brings its own set of toothsome exhibitions that encompass a range of mediums, from the always-solid shows at Bullseye Projects that demonstrate the creative limits of glass to textile art, prints, photography, drawings and, oh yes, lots of painting." — Briana Miller, The Globe and Mail (Toronto), 30 May 2017

Did You Know?

One meaning of tooth is "a fondness or taste for something specified." Toothsome comes from this definition of tooth plus the suffix -some, meaning "characterized by." Although toothsome was at first used to describe general attractiveness, it quickly developed a second sense that was specific to the sense of taste (perhaps because from as far back as Chaucer's time, tooth could also refer specifically to eating and the sense of taste). In addition, toothsome is now showing signs of acquiring a third sense, "toothy" (as in "a toothsome grin"), but this sense is not yet established enough to qualify for dictionary entry.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of toothsome meaning "delicious": de _ _ c _ a _ _ e.


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yeasty - Word of the Day - 22/09/17

yeasty

adjective

Pronunciation

YEE-stee

Definition

1 : of, relating to, or resembling yeast
2 a : immature, unsettled
   b : marked by change
   c : full of vitality
d : frivolous

Examples

"[A]ll this yeasty mingling of dimly understood facts with vague but deep impressions … had been disturbing her during the weeks of her engagement." — George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, 1876

"'O.K., I'm ready,' Ms. Boym said, addressing this reporter's microphone and letting loose a warm, yeasty laugh." — William L. Hamilton, The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2002

Did You Know?

The word yeast has existed in English for as long as the language has existed. Spellings have varied over time—in Middle English it was yest and in Old English gist or giest—but the word's meaning has remained basically the same for centuries. In its first documented English uses in the 1500s, the adjective yeasty described people or things with a yellowish or frothy appearance similar to the froth that forms on the top of fermented beverages (such as beers or ales). Since then, a number of extended figurative senses of yeasty have surfaced, all of which play in some way or another on the excitable, chemical nature of fermentation, such as by connoting unsettled activity or significant change.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective meaning "formal" or "stiff": s _ _ rc _ _.

Merriam-Webster

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shofar - Word of the Day - 21/09/17

shofar

noun

Pronunciation

 SHOH-far

Definition

: the horn of an animal (usually a ram) blown as a trumpet by the ancient Hebrews in battle and during religious observances and used in modern Judaism especially during Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur

Examples

"A collection of local artists will be selling their artwork, crafts, jewelry and Judaica, and gift booths will offer T-shirts, books and traditional Jewish and Israeli items, from mezuzahs to shofars." — Jennifer Nixon, The Arkansas (Little Rock) Democrat-Gazette, 27 Apr. 2017

"So I sat as still as possible, letting the melodic intonations of Hebrew roll through me, letting the haunting sound of the shofar fill my chest." — Robyn K. Schneider, Silent Running, 2015

Did You Know?

One of the shofar's original uses was to proclaim the Jubilee year (a year of emancipation of Hebrew slaves and restoration of alienated lands to their former owners). Today, it is mainly used in synagogues during the High Holy Days. It is blown daily, except on Shabbat, during the month of Elul (the 12th month of the civil year or the 6th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar), and is sounded a number of times during the Rosh Hashanah services, and again at the end of the last service (known as neilah) on Yom Kippur. The custom is to sound the shofar in several series that alternate shorter notes resembling sobbing and wailing with longer unbroken blasts.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for the blare of a trumpet or horn: t _ n _ _ ra.


Merriam-Webster

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holus-bolus - Word of the Day - 20/09/17

holus-bolus

adverb

Pronunciation

 hoh-lus-BOH-lus

Definition

: all at once

Examples

If you shout your questions at me holus-bolus, instead of asking them one at a time, then I won't be able to hear any of them.

"Grasses are a conundrum. If you plant too many, you end up with a hayfield—not a great look in a garden…. Lazy landscapers shove them in holus-bolus because they will survive just about anything." — Marjorie Harris, The Globe and Mail (Toronto), 30 May 2017

Did You Know?

The story of holus-bolus is not a hard one to swallow. Holus-bolus originated in English dialect in the mid-19th century and is believed to be a waggish reduplication of the word bolus. Bolus is from the Greek word bōlos, meaning "lump," and has retained that Greek meaning. In English, bolus has additionally come to mean "a large pill," "a mass of chewed food," or "a dose of a drug given intravenously." Considering this "lumpish" history, it's not hard to see how holus-bolus, a word meaning "all at once" or "all in a lump," came about.

Test Your Vocabulary

What adverb means "in an undecided or hesitating manner" and was formed by reduplication of the phrase "shall I"?

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glabrous - Word of the Day - 19/09/17

glabrous

adjective

Pronunciation

 GLAY-brus

Definition

: smooth; especially : having a surface without hairs or projections

Examples

Unlike the fuzzy peach, the nectarine has a glabrous skin.

"[T]o augment the body's own ability to shed heat …, Roy Kornbluh and his colleagues … are focusing on the body's glabrous, or hairless, areas. In mammals, these parts act like a car radiator, helping heat escape from the surface. In humans, the palms of the hands and soles of the feet are vital." — Hal Hodson, New Scientist, 30 Jan. 2016

Did You Know?

"Before them an old man, / wearing a fringe of long white hair, bareheaded, / his glabrous skull reflecting the sun's / light…." No question about it—the bald crown of an old man's head (as described here in William Carlos Williams's poem "Sunday in the Park") is a surface without hairs. Williams's use isn't typical, though. More often glabrous appears in scientific contexts, such as the following description of wheat: "The white glumes are glabrous, with narrow acuminate beaks." And although Latin glaber, our word's source, can mean simply "bald," when glabrous refers to skin with no hair in scientific English, it usually means skin that never had hair (such as the palms of the hands).

Name That Antonym

Unscramble the letters to create an antonym of glabrous: SITHERU.

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amanuensis - Word of the Day - 18/09/17

amanuensis

noun

Pronunciation

 uh-man-yuh-WEN-sis

Definition

: one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript

Examples

"He then proceeded in his investigation, dictating, as he went on, the import of the questions and answers to the amanuensis, by whom it was written down." — Sir Walter Scott, Waverley, 1814

"In this version of the myth, Holmes is a real-world character whose exploits were rendered in print by his sidekick and amanuensis Dr. Watson, who's long since dead." — Marc Mohan, The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 17 July 2015

Did You Know?

In Latin, the phrase servus a manu translates loosely as "slave with secretarial duties." (The noun manu, meaning "hand," gave us words such as manuscript, which originally referred to a document written or typed by hand.) In the 17th century the second part of this phrase was borrowed into English to create amanuensis, a word for a person who is employed (willingly) to do the important but sometimes menial work of transcribing the words of another. While other quaint words, such as scribe or scrivener, might have similarly described the functions of such a person in the past, these days we're likely to call him or her a secretary or an administrative assistant.

Test Your Vocabulary

What is the name for someone who writes in shorthand?

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portentous - Word of the Day - 17/09/17

portentous

adjective

Pronunciation

por-TEN-tuss

Definition

1 : of, relating to, or constituting a portent
2 : eliciting amazement or wonder : prodigious
3 a : being a grave or serious matter
   b : self-consciously solemn or important : pompous
   c : ponderously excessive

Examples

Our host had a habit of making portentous proclamations about the state of modern art, which was a bit of a turnoff for us as two art majors.

"[Glen Campbell] briefly joined the instrumental rock group the Champs, who'd had some success, in 1958, with 'Tequila,' still one of the best encapsulations of the portentous elation brought on by ice-cold margaritas." — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2017

Did You Know?

At the heart of portentous is portent, a word for an omen or sign, which comes to us from the Latin noun portentum of the same meaning. And indeed, the first uses of portentous did refer to omens. The second sense of portentous, describing that which is extremely impressive, developed in the 16th century. A third definition—"grave, solemn, significant"—was then added to the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary in 1934. The word's connotations, however, have since moved into less estimable territory. It now frequently describes both the pompous and the excessive.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of portentous meaning "eliciting wonder": _ _ rv _ _ o _ s.

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travesty - Word of the Day - 16/09/17

travesty

noun

Pronunciation

TRAV-uh-stee

Definition

1 : a burlesque translation or literary or artistic imitation usually grotesquely incongruous in style, treatment, or subject matter
2 : a debased, distorted, or grossly inferior imitation

Examples

"What petty whims of a few higher-ups trampling the nation under their boots, ramming back down their throats the people's cries for truth and justice, with the travesty of state security as a pretext." — Émile Zola, letter, 13 Jan. 1898

"Fans of anime are ferociously purist and loyal, and for them, I suspect, the very notion of converting [Mamoru] Oshii's masterpiece (as it is deemed to be) into a live-action Hollywood remake smells of both travesty and sellout." — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2017

Did You Know?

The noun travesty, which current evidence dates to the 17th century, comes from the French verb travestir, meaning "to disguise." The word's roots, however, wind back through Italian to the Latin verb vestire, meaning "to clothe" or "to dress." Travesty is not the only English descendent of vestire. Others include vestment, divest, and investiture. Travesty, incidentally, can also be a verb meaning "to make a travesty of" or "to parody."

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for a literary work marked by freedom of style and elements of burlesque: e _ _ ra _ _ g _ n _ a.

Merriam-Webster

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inoculate - Word of the Day - 15/09/17

inoculate

verb

Pronunciation

ih-NAHK-yuh-layt

Definition

1 a : to introduce a microorganism into
   b : to introduce (something, such as a microorganism) into a suitable situation for growth
   c : to introduce immunologically active material (such as an antibody or antigen) into especially in order to treat or prevent a disease
2 : to introduce something into the mind of
3 : to protect as if by inoculation

Examples

In 1796, the English physician Edward Jenner discovered that inoculating people with cowpox could provide immunity against smallpox.

"Typically, ambrosia beetles have a symbiotic relationship with a fungus the beetles carry as spores on their bodies. When the beetles bore into the sapwood of the host tree, the galleries formed from the beetle boring are inoculated with the fungal spores." — Les Harrison, The Wakulla News (Crawfordville, Florida), 12 July 2017

Did You Know?

If you think you see a connection between inoculate and ocular ("of or relating to the eye"), you are not mistaken—both words look back to oculus, the Latin word for "eye." But what does the eye have to do with inoculation? Our answer lies in the original use of inoculate in Middle English: "to insert a bud in a plant for propagation." Latin oculus was sometimes applied to things that were seen to resemble eyes, and one such thing was the bud of a plant. Inoculate was later applied to other forms of engrafting or implanting, including the introduction of vaccines as a preventative against disease.

Quiz

Fill in the blanks to complete a word derived from oculus that refers to a glance of the eye: o _ i _ l _ d _.

Merriam-Webster

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marginalia - Word of the Day - 14/09/17

marginalia

noun

Pronunciation

 mahr-juh-NAY-lee-uh

Definition

1 : marginal notes or embellishments (such as in a book)
2 : nonessential items

Examples

"Over the next nine days, [John Hughes] completed the first draft of Home Alone, capped by an eight-hour, 44-page dash to the finale. Before finishing, he'd expressed concerns in the marginalia of his journal that he was working too slowly." — James Hughes, The Chicago Magazine, 10 Nov. 2015

"In Arderne's texts the marginalia has a clear purpose, but in other manuscripts the meaning of the drawings can be indecipherable. There are countless examples of unusual marginalia—monkeys playing the bagpipes, centaurs, knights in combat with snails, naked bishops, and strange human-animal hybrids that seem to defy categorization." — Anika Burgess, Atlas Obscura, 9 May 2017

Did You Know?

We don't consider a word's etymology to be marginalia, so we'll start off by telling you the etymology of this one. Marginalia is a New Latin word that borrows from the Medieval Latin adjective marginalis ("marginal") and ultimately from the noun  margo, meaning "border." Marginalia is a relatively new word; it dates from the 19th century despite describing something—notes in the margin of a text—that had existed as far back as the 11th century. An older word, apostille (or apostil) once referred to a single annotation made in a margin, but that word is rare today.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of marginalia meaning "nonessential items": s _ _ p _ _ sa _ e.

Merriam-Webster

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precocious - Word of the Day - 13/09/17

precocious

adjective

Pronunciation

prih-KOH-shus

Definition

1 : exceptionally early in development or occurrence
2 : exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age

Examples

"They explained to me that we were going to watch people audition…. I ended up jumping onstage and singing something…. They thought I was precocious enough to be put in the chorus of the production. I was the only kid." — Johnny Galecki, quoted in The Las Cruces (New Mexico) Sun-News, 8 Mar. 2017

"Apricots, almonds, and other fruit trees are notoriously vulnerable to frost damage of buds or precocious flowers…." — Michael Bone et al., Steppes: The Plants and Ecology of the World's Semi-arid Regions, 2015

Did You Know?

Precocious got started in Latin when the prefix prae-, meaning "ahead of," was combined with the verb coquere, meaning "to cook" or "to ripen," to form the adjective praecox, which means "early ripening" or "premature." By the mid-1600s, English speakers had turned praecox into precocious and were using it especially of plants that produced blossoms before their leaves came out. By the 1670s, precocious was also being used to describe humans who developed skills or talents before others typically did.

Quiz

Fill in the blanks to complete a verb derived from Latin coquere that means "to prepare by combining raw materials": co _ _ o _ t.

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scour - Word of the Day - 12/09/17

scour

verb

Pronunciation

SKOW-er

Definition

1 : to move about quickly especially in search
2 : to go through or range over in or as if in a search

Examples

The dog scoured the terrain in search of the tennis ball I had thrown.

"The rescue team scoured the ground and a New Hampshire National Guard Black Hawk helicopter also searched the area." — Emily Sweeney, The Boston Globe, 18 July 2017

Did You Know?

There are two distinct homographs of the verb scour in English. One means to clean something by rubbing it hard with a rough object; that scour, which goes back to at least the early 14th century, probably derives—via Middle Dutch and Old French—from a Late Latin verb, excurare, meaning "to clean off." Today's word, however, which appears in the 13th century, is believed to derive from the Old Norse skūr, meaning "shower." (Skūr is also distantly related to the Old English scūr, the ancestor of our English word shower.) Many disparate things can be scoured. For example, one can scour an area (as in "scoured the woods in search of the lost dog") or publications (as in "scouring magazine and newspaper articles").

Test Your Memory

What is the meaning of vermicular, our August 13th Word of the Day?

Merriam-Webster

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bibelot - Word of the Day - 10/09/17

bibelot

noun

Pronunciation

BEE-buh-loh

Definition

: a small household ornament or decorative object : trinket

Examples

"Moonlight furbished the brown cylindrical floor vase and its gnarled branch, as well as an aquarium bibelot in the shape of a ruined arch on his bedside table." — Nicholson Baker, The New Yorker, 27 June - 4 July 1994

"The sitting room is inviting, with its smart soft furnishings and bibelots, many of them from Samantha's mother, Lady Astor's, furnishing business, OKA—a sort of one-stop-tasteful decorating shop for the well-heeled." — Debora Robertson, The Telegraph (UK), 4 Aug. 2017

Did You Know?

Can you think of a six-letter synonym of bibelot that starts with the letter "g"? No? How about an eight-letter one? Crossword puzzle whizzes might guess that the words we are thinking of are gewgaw and gimcrack. Like these, bibelot, which English speakers borrowed from French, has uses beyond wordplay. In addition to its general use as a synonym of trinket, it can refer specifically to a miniature book of elegant design (such as those made by Tiffany and Faberge). It also appears regularly in the names of things as diverse as restaurants and show dogs.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of bibelot: k _ c _ s _ _ w.


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conversant - Word of the Day - 10/09/17

conversant

adjective

Pronunciation

 kun-VER-sunt

Definition

: having knowledge or experience

Examples

The ideal candidate for the sommelier position will have expert knowledge of the various wine varieties served in the restaurant and be conversant in the rich vocabulary of viniculture.

"My sister is a cognitive scientist at M.I.T., more conversant than most people in the mental processes involved in tracking and misplacing objects." — Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 13 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

The adjectives conversant and conversational are related; both are descendants of Latin conversari, meaning "to associate with." Conversant dates to the Middle Ages, and an early meaning of the word was simply "having familiar association." One way to associate with others is to have a conversation with them—in other words, to talk. For a short time in the 19th century conversant could mean "relating to or suggesting conversation," but for the most part that meaning stayed with conversational while conversant went in a different direction. Today, conversant is sometimes used, especially in the United States, with the meaning "able to talk in a foreign language," as in "she is conversant in several languages," but it is more often associated with knowledge or familiarity, as in "conversant with the issues."

Test Your Vocabulary

Unscramble the letters to create an adjective that can mean "conversational": LIOLOACLQU.

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disport - Word of the Day - 09/09/17

disport

verb

Pronunciation

dih-SPORT

Definition

1 : divert, amuse
2 : display
3 : to amuse oneself in light or lively fashion : frolic

Examples

"At a very early hour in the morning, twice or thrice a week, Miss Briggs used to betake herself to a bathing-machine, and disport in the water in a flannel gown and an oilskin cap." — William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848

"More stunts follow in Act II: Les Incredibles, an enormous Russian man who flings his tiny Canadian wife through the air; a stunning aerialist known as Lucky Moon; a family of three, Los Lopez, disporting themselves on the high-wire." — Margaret Gray, The Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2017

Did You Know?

Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the earliest writers to amuse the reading public with the verb disport. Chaucer and his contemporaries carried the word into English from Anglo-French, adapting it from desporter, meaning "to carry away, comfort, or entertain." The word can ultimately be traced back to the Latin verb portare, meaning "to carry." Deport, portable, and transport are among the members of the portare family.

Word Quiz

What verb is derived from Latin portare and is a synonym of behave?

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extemporaneous - Word of the Day - 08/09/17

extemporaneous

adjective

Pronunciation

 ek-stem-puh-RAY-nee-us

Definition

1 : composed, performed, or uttered on the spur of the moment : impromptu
2 : provided, made, or put to use as an expedient : makeshift

Examples

Everyone was surprised to hear my normally taciturn brother give a heartfelt, extemporaneous speech at our parents' 50th anniversary party.

"At the last Japanese performance—in Fukui, some 200 miles to the west of Tokyo—audiences were so exuberant that Slatkin and solo pianist Makoto Ozone indulged in an extemporaneous duet." — Michael H. Hodges, The Detroit News, 26 July 2017

Did You Know?

Extemporaneous, which comes from Latin ex tempore ("out of the time"), joined the English language sometime in the mid-17th century. The word impromptu was improvised soon after that. In general usage, extemporaneous and impromptu are used interchangeably to describe off-the-cuff remarks or speeches, but this is not the case when they are used in reference to the learned art of public speaking. Teachers of speech will tell you that an extemporaneous speech is one that has been thoroughly prepared and planned but not memorized, whereas an impromptu speech is one for which absolutely no preparations have been made.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of extemporaneous meaning "makeshift": CLAEJGK.

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propagate - Word of the Day - 07/09/17

propagate

verb

Pronunciation

 PRAH-puh-gayt

Definition

1 : to reproduce or cause to reproduce biologically : multiply
2 : to cause to spread out and affect a greater number or greater area : extend
3 : to pass along to offspring
4 : to foster growing knowledge of, familiarity with, or acceptance of (such as an idea or belief) : publicize

Examples

"It is always observable that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to say." — Samuel Johnson, The Adventurer, 25 Aug. 1753

"… Jonathan Anderson … wonders if he could propagate a honeysuckle-scented yellow azalea that is blooming around an early Georgian garden temple…." — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, August 2017

Did You Know?

The origins of propagate are firmly rooted in the field of horticulture. The word was borrowed into English in the 16th century from Latin propagatus, the past participle of the verb propagare, which means "to set (onto a plant) a small shoot or twig cut for planting or grafting." Propagare, in turn, derives from propages, meaning "layer (of a plant), slip, offspring." It makes sense, therefore, that the earliest uses of propagate referred to facilitating reproduction of a plant or animal. Nowadays, however, the meaning of propagate extends to the "reproduction" of something intangible, such as an idea or belief. Incidentally, propaganda also comes to us from propagare, although it took a somewhat different route into English.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for a place from which a specified type of person or thing propagates: _ em _ n _ _ y.

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robot - Word of the Day - 06/09/17

robot

noun

Pronunciation

ROH-baht

Definition

1 a : a machine that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts (such as walking or talking) of a human being; also : a similar but fictional machine whose lack of capacity for human emotions is often emphasized
   b : an efficient insensitive person who functions automatically
2 : a device that automatically performs complicated often repetitive tasks
3 : a mechanism guided by automatic controls

Examples

Isaac Asimov is famous for writing science-fiction stories about robots which were governed by specific laws of behavior.

"The six-girl team and their chaperone completed their journey just after midnight from their hometown of Herat, Afghanistan, to enter their ball-sorting robot in the three-day high school competition starting Sunday in the U.S. capital." — Josh Lederman, The St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch, 17 July 2017

Did You Know?

In 1920, Czech writer Karel Ĉapek published a play titled R.U.R. Those initials stood for "Rossum's Universal Robots," which was the name of a fictional company that manufactured human-like machines designed to perform hard, dull, dangerous work for people. The machines in the play eventually grew to resent their jobs and rebelled—with disastrous results for humans. During the writing of his play, Ĉapek consulted with his brother, the painter and writer Josef Ĉapek, who suggested the name robot for these machines, from the Czech word robota, which means "forced labor." Robot made its way into our language in 1922 when R.U.R. was translated into English.

Test Your Vocabulary

What is the name of the test used to prevent spamming software from accessing a website by requiring visitors to solve a simple puzzle?

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scrupulous - Word of the Day - 05/09/17

scrupulous

adjective

Pronunciation

SKROO-pyuh-lus

Definition

1 : having moral integrity : acting in strict regard for what is considered right or proper
2 : punctiliously exact : painstaking

Examples

"As a child, I somehow absorbed the idea that getting in the way of other people or wasting their time was a terrible offense. I have been scrupulous about standing to the right on escalators, not blocking aisles, not showing up late." — Rebecca Solnit, Harper's, July 2017

"Don't do business on the side with an elected official who can benefit your clients by lowering their property assessments. But if you do, be absolutely scrupulous about filling out every disclosure form. Or you'll look like you're trying to hide something—and maybe you are." — The Chicago Sun-Times, 27 July 2017

Did You Know?

Scrupulous and its close relative scruple ("an ethical consideration or principle") come from the Latin noun scrupulus, the diminutive of scrupus. Scrupus refers to a sharp stone, so scrupulus means "a small sharp stone." Scrupus retained its literal meaning but eventually also came to be used with the metaphorical meaning "a source of anxiety or uneasiness," the way a sharp pebble in one's shoe would be a source of pain. When the adjective scrupulous entered the language, it meant "principled," but now it also commonly means "painstaking" or "careful."

Name That Antonym

Fill in the blanks to complete an antonym of scrupulous: _ nc _ _ s _ _ o _ a _ _ e.

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fruition - Word of the Day - 04/09/17

fruition

noun

Pronunciation

froo-ISH-un

Definition

1 : pleasurable use or possession : enjoyment
2 a : the state of bearing fruit
   b : realization

Examples

"… wife and husband had nothing to do but to link each other's arms together, and wander gently downwards towards old age in happy and perfect fruition." — William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848

"Many brands depend on crowdfunding to bring a concept to fruition." — Curtis Sparrer, Adweek.com, 7 Apr. 2017

Did You Know?

Fruition must come from the word fruit, right? Not exactly. Fruition and fruit are related (both ultimately come from the Latin verb frui, meaning "to enjoy"), but they were derived independently. The original meaning of fruition had nothing to do with fruit. Rather, when the term was first used in the early 15th century, it meant only "pleasurable use or possession." Not until the 19th century did fruition develop a second meaning, "the state of bearing fruit," possibly as the result of a mistaken assumption that fruition evolved from fruit. The "state of bearing fruit" sense was followed quickly by the figurative application to anything that can be "realized" and metaphorically bear fruit, such as a plan or a project.

Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word that refers to the right to use or enjoy something: u _ _ fr _ _ t.

Merriam-Webster

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vociferous - Word of the Day - 04/09/17

vociferous

adjective

Pronunciation

voh-SIF-uh-rus

Definition

: marked by or given to vehement insistent outcry

Examples

"A few days after NBC decided to cancel time-traveling adventure drama Timeless, the network changed its mind and renewed the series for a second season, thanks in part to a vociferous fan campaign…. — USA Today, 17 July 2017

"Legislation for a pilot program that would install speed-detecting cameras on the most dangerous traffic corridors … has been shelved after facing vociferous opposition and tepid support." — Robert Salonga, The Marin Independent Journal (California), 27 Apr. 2017

Did You Know?

Vociferous, deriving from a combination of the Latin vox ("voice") with ferre ("to carry"), is one of a number of English words that describe those who compel attention by being loud and insistent. Vociferous implies a vehement shouting or calling out, but to convey the insistency of a demand or protest, clamorous might be a better choice. You could use strident to suggest harsh and discordant noise in a protest, or obstreperous to imply loud, unruly and aggressive resistance to restraint. But someone who is noisy and turbulent due to high spirits rather than dissatisfaction might more aptly be called boisterous.

Word Quiz

What adjective is derived from Latin vox and means "having one meaning only" or "unambiguous"?

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enthral - Word of the Day - 02/09/17

enthral

verb

Pronunciation

in-THRAWL

Definition

: to hold spellbound : charm

Examples

"But [Luke] Bryan didn't need much trickery to enthrall the crowd, ready to party to 'Rain is a Good Thing,' 'Crash My Party' and 'Do I' among his string of hits." — Amanda St. Amand, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 15 June 2013

"In this picture she gazes up, her thoughts far from the page, seemingly too enthralled by her photographer to concentrate on her task." — Megan Marshall, Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast, 2017

Did You Know?

In Middle English, enthrallen meant "to hold in thrall." Thrall then, as now, meant "bondage" or "slavery"; it comes from an Old Norse word, thraell, which is probably related to an Old High German word for "servant." An early figurative use of enthrall appeared in the following advice from the 16th century, translated from a Latin text by Thomas Newton: "A man should not … enthrall his credit and honour to Harlots." But we rarely use even this sense of mental or moral enslavement anymore. Today the word is often used in its participle form, enthralled, which sometimes means "temporarily spellbound" ("we listened, enthralled, to the old woman's oral history"), but more often suggests a state of being generally captivated, delighted, or taken by some particular thing.

Name That Synonym

Unscramble the letters to create a synonym of enthrall: SNTAFCIEA.

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confrere - Word of the Day - 01/09/17

confrere

noun

Pronunciation

 KAHN-frair

Definition

: colleague, comrade

Examples

"Antonio Sánchez is a drummer of sharp and sweeping talent, best known to some observers as the percussive engine behind the movie 'Birdman' and to others as a close confrere of the guitarist Pat Metheny." — The New York Times, 2 Sept. 2016

"A practiced collaborator …, [Andy] Warhol made other creatives his confreres early on too.… Working with interior designer Suzie Frankfurt, the pair's 'Wild Raspberries' was a silly, mock cookbook accompanied by delightfully oddball illustrations." — Felicia Feaster, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9 June 2017

Did You Know?

Confrere arrived in English from Anglo-French in the 15th century, and ultimately derives from the Medieval Latin confrater, meaning "brother" or "fellow." (Frater, the root of this term, shares an ancient ancestor with our word brother.) English speakers also began using another descendant of confrater in the 15th century: confraternity, meaning "a society devoted to a religious or charitable cause." In the past, confrere was often used specifically of a fellow member of a confraternity, but these days it is used more generally.

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a Russian-derived synonym of confrere: t _ v _ r _ _ h.

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