Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2015 is: morganatic \mor-guh-NAT-ik\ adjective : of, relating to, or being a marriage between a member of a royal or noble family and a person of inferior rank in which the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the parent of higher rank Examples: The king's son, the child of a morganatic marriage, will never rule. "His marriage, when it came, was anything but conventional: a long-lasting morganatic alliance to actress Louisa Fairbrother, which produced several children but was never recognized by the queen." — Martin Rubin, The Washington Times, January 9, 2014 Did you know? Although the deprivations imposed on the lower-ranking spouse by a morganatic marriage may seem like a royal pain in the neck, the word morganatic actually comes from a word for a marriage benefit. The New Latin term morganatica means "morning gift" and refers to a gift that a new husband traditionally gave to his bride on the morning after the marriage. So why was the New Latin phrase matrimonium ad morganaticam, which means literally "marriage with morning gift," the term for a morganatic marriage? Because it was just that—the wife got the morning gift, but that's all she was entitled to of her husband's possessions.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2015 is: pandiculation \pan-dik-yuh-LAY-shun\ noun : a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as when fatigued and drowsy or after waking from sleep) Examples: "He was coming on to yawn. His breath sucked in the draught from the window. His shoulders hunched, his legs stretched to their toes, he made claws of his fingers in his hands—a fierce pandiculation of his limbs." — Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, 2001 "Carefully orchestrated pandiculations follow a routine: Lips part, the tongue hunkers down, and muscles in the face, mouth and diaphragm engage as the head tilts back." — Laura Sanders, Science News, May 7, 2011 Did you know? Cat and dog owners who witness daily their pets' methodical body stretching upon awakening might wonder if there is a word to describe their routine—and there is: pandiculation. Pandiculation (which applies to humans too) is the medical term for the stretching and stiffening of the trunk and extremities, often accompanied by yawning, to arouse the body when fatigued or drowsy. The word comes from Latin pandiculatus, the past participle of pandiculari ("to stretch oneself"), and is ultimately derived from pandere, meaning "to spread." Pandere is also the source of expand.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 20, 2015 is: septentrional \sep-TEN-tree-uh-nul\ adjective : northern Examples: When he tired of the long, septentrional winters of New England, Grandfather retired to Florida. "Once the tourists have filtered back to their septentrional homes in Europe, the men of Spetsai resume their norm of shooting birds…." — C. L. Sulzberger, The New York Times, September 28, 1986 Did you know? Look to the northern night skies for the origin of septentrional. Latin Septentriones (or Septemtriones) refers to the seven stars in Ursa Major that make up the Big Dipper, or sometimes to the seven stars in Ursa Minor that comprise the Little Dipper. Because of the reliable northerly presence of these stars, Septentriones was extended to mean "northern quarter of the sky," or simply "the north"—hence, our borrowed adjective septentrional, meaning "northern." The noun septentrion also appears in works in Middle and Early Modern English to designate "northern regions" or "the north." In Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part III, for example, the Duke of York rebukes Queen Margaret, saying: "Thou art as opposite to every good … as the South to the Septentrion."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2015 is: tintinnabulation \tin-tuh-nab-yuh-LAY-shun\ noun 1 : the ringing or sounding of bells 2 : a jingling or tinkling sound as if of bells Examples: The tintinnabulation that could be heard throughout the village was from the church on the common announcing morning services. "The song opens with the far-away electric tintinnabulation of an ice cream truck." — Colette McIntyre, Styleite, September 4, 2014 Did you know? If the sound of tintinnabulation rings a bell, that may be because it traces to a Latin interpretation of the sound a ringing bell makes. Our English word derives from tintinnabulum, the Latin word for "bell." That Latin word, in turn, comes from the verb tintinnare, which means "to ring, clang, or jingle." Like the English terms "ting" and "tinkle," tintinnare originated with a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it—that is, it is onomatopoeic. Edgar Allan Poe celebrates the sonic overtones of tintinnabulation in his poem "The Bells," which includes lines about "the tintinnabulation that so musically wells / From the bells, bells, bells, bells, / Bells, bells, bells—/ From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2015 is: gratuitous \gruh-TOO-uh-tuss\ adjective 1 : done or provided without recompense : free 2 : not called for by the circumstances : unwarranted Examples: John seems incapable of talking about anything he owns without a gratuitous reference to the amount of money he spent on it. "Each gratuitous 'Mr.,' 'Mrs.,' 'Miss,' or 'Ms.' appeared not so much respectful as nostalgic, a yearning for a return to the days when all but the closest acquaintances addressed one another with titles and surnames." — Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, December 10, 2014 Did you know? Like gratitude, grace, and congratulate, gratuitous is a descendant of the Latin word gratus, which means "pleasing" or "grateful." When gratuitous was first used in the middle of the 17th century, it meant "free" or "given without return benefit or compensation." The extended meaning "done without good reason" or "unwarranted" came about just a few decades later, perhaps from the belief held by some people that one should not give something without getting something in return. Today, that extended meaning is the more common sense, often used in such phrases as "a gratuitous insult" or to describe elements of a story that are not relevant to the plot.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2015 is: distemper \dis-TEM-per\ verb : to throw out of order Examples: Martha worried that employee morale at the company would be distempered if the rumored merger were to happen. "The night was rightfully dedicated to much of the new album, 'Come On a Get It' opening the set while the Schoolhouse Rock-influenced 'Stand' and bolder still 'Rock Star City Life' distempered the more recognizable pellets in Kravitz's arsenal." — Selena Fragassi, PopMatters, February 15, 2013 Did you know? If you temper something, you soften or dilute it by mixing in something else. You might, for example, temper wine with water or temper judgment with mercy. But what if you add the wrong thing and just end up with a big mess? That's the general idea behind distemper, which came to English in the 14th century from Late Latin distemperare ("to mix badly"). Nowadays, we often use the participial form distempered to refer to a mood that is affected by negative feelings. There's also the noun distemper, which can mean "bad humor or temper" or "a serious virus disease of dogs." Another noun and verb pair of distemper entered English centuries after our featured word. The noun refers to a painting process in which pigments are mixed with glutinous substances, like egg yolks or whites. The related verb means "to paint in or with distemper."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 06, 2014 is: bouleversement \bool-vair-suh-MAHNG\ noun 1 : reversal 2 : a violent disturbance : disorder Examples: The darkening sky prompted a bouleversement of the captain's order to prepare to set sail. "In fact, [Susan Sontag] had written two novels at the beginning of her career, in the sixties. She didn't like them much, so she became a critic, indeed, the most famous and influential young critic of the sixties and seventies, a central figure in the aesthetic bouleversement of that period.…" — Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, January 10, 2005 Did you know? English picked up bouleversement from French in the latter part of the 18th century (it ultimately traces to Middle French boule, meaning "ball," and verser, meaning "to overturn"), and while not very common, it has steadily remained in use since that time. F. Scott Fitzgerald, for one, used it in his 1920 novel This Side of Paradise: "For the second time in his life Amory had had a complete bouleversement and was hurrying into line with his generation." Both Fitzgerald's use and our first example sentence suggest the idea of turning something around, but as shown in our second example, some usage of bouleversement dispenses with this notion and instead implies a general kind of upheaval or dramatic change, as in a revolution.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 05, 2014 is: deride \dih-RYDE\ verb 1 : to laugh at contemptuously 2 : to subject to usually bitter or contemptuous ridicule Examples: Although derided by classmates for his cocksure insistence that he would be a millionaire by the age of 25, he achieved his goal when his Internet startup went public. "The aggressive, scowling superstar who'd deride you for your lack of taste and even tell you you're holding your phone wrong suddenly wants to invite you to dinner." — Chris Matyszczyk, CNET, November 2, 2014 Did you know? When deride was borrowed into English in the 16th century, it came to us by combining the prefix de- with ridēre, a Latin verb meaning "to laugh." Ridēre is also the ancestor of the English words risible ("laughable") and ridiculous. Of course, English has a number of words meaning "to laugh at unkindly"; in addition to deride, we have ridicule, mock, and taunt. Deride suggests laughter loaded with contemptuousness or bitterness, whereas ridicule implies a deliberate often malicious belittling ("consistently ridiculed everything she said"). Mock implies scorn often ironically expressed by mimicry or sham deference ("mocking the speaker's impassioned tones"). Taunt suggests jeeringly provoking insult or challenge ("hometown fans taunted the visiting team").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 04, 2014 is: caitiff \KAY-tif\ adjective : cowardly, despicable Examples: "Oh, horrible wretch! a murderer! unmanly murderer!—a defenceless woman smothered by caitiff hands!" — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It?, 1858 "… the Vichy cabinet accepted the German offer of air support from Sicily and Sardinia. This caitiff decision enabled the Germans to take the quick, decisive action of occupying airfields in Tunisia, with all its costly consequences upon our campaign." — Winston Churchill, The Hinge of Fate, 1950 Did you know? Caitiff is pretty rare in contemporary use, but it has functioned since the 14th century as an adjective and also as a noun meaning "a base, cowardly, or despicable person" (as in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure: "O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal!"). Both the adjective and the noun evolved from the Anglo-French adjective caitif, meaning "wretched, despicable." The French word in turn derived from the Latin captivus, meaning "captive"—the shift from "captive" to "wretched" being perhaps prompted by the perception of captives as wretched and worthy of scorn.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 03, 2014 is: haggard \HAG-urd\ adjective 1 a : wild in appearance b : having a worn or emaciated appearance : gaunt Examples: The mountain climbers were hungry and haggard but were otherwise in good shape after having been stranded on the mountain for more than a week. "[Dorothea] Lange's 1936 photographs of California migrant worker Florence Owens Thompson and her children capture the haggard desperation of Thompson and her brood during the Great Depression…." — Chuck Sudo, Chicagoist, November 7, 2014 Did you know? Haggard comes from falconry, the sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey. The birds used in falconry were not bred in captivity until very recently. Traditionally, falconers trained wild birds that were either taken from the nest when quite young or trapped as adults. A bird trapped as an adult is termed a haggard, from the Middle French hagard. Such a bird is notoriously wild and difficult to train, and it wasn't long before the falconry sense of haggard was being applied in an extended way to a "wild" and intractable person. Next, the word came to express the way the human face looks when a person is exhausted, anxious, or terrified. Today, the most common meaning of haggard is "gaunt" or "worn."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 02, 2014 is: shopaholic \shah-puh-HAH-lik\ noun : one who is extremely or excessively fond of shopping Examples: Susie is such a shopaholic that her friends refuse to set foot in a mall with her when there are big sales. "Uncle Sam is a shopaholic, the world's most prolific buyer of goods and services. Every year, the federal government spends between $350 billion and $500 billion on procurement." — editorial, The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), September 20, 2014 Did you know? The word alcoholic refers to someone who has a serious disorder. Addictive shopping can be serious, too, but the word shopaholic is most often used playfully to suggest mere excess rather than true addiction. Shopaholic first appeared in print in 1983. It was formed on the model of alcoholic, which was itself created many years earlier by combining alcohol with -ic, meaning "of or relating to." People evidently saw a parallel between someone addicted to alcohol and someone "addicted" to shopping. This is not the first time alcoholic has spawned a spinoff word—shopaholic was preceded by workaholic and chocoholic, both of which first turned up in 1968.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 01, 2014 is: penultimate \pih-NUL-tuh-mut\ adjective 1 : occurring immediately before the last one : next to the last 2 : of or relating to the next to the last syllable of a word Examples: The word edamame places its primary stress on the penultimate syllable. "The decision to bump off two major characters in last week's episode of Boardwalk Empire made for an excellent hour of television, but the unfortunate trade-off is that the show's penultimate episode, 'Friendless Child,' is almost painfully anticlimactic." — Sarene Leeds, Entertainment Weekly, October 19, 2014 Did you know? Penultimate isn't the last word in words for things that are next to last. There is a pair of noun synonyms that are used commonly enough to have gained entry into abridged dictionaries: penult and penultima. Although all three can refer to something that's next to last, penult and penultima are usually a bit more specific; they are used most often to identify the next to last syllable of a word. All three derive from paenultima, a Latin root from paene ("almost") and ultima ("last"). You may occasionally hear the word penultimate used as an intensified version of ultimate, as in "a race they've called 'the penultimate challenge.'" This use isn't typically found in edited prose, however—or in dictionaries. One of our editors discusses it in this video.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2014 is: abbreviate \uh-BREE-vee-ayt\ verb : to make briefer; especially : to reduce to a shorter form intended to stand for the whole Examples: Due to time constraints, the last speaker at the ceremony had to abbreviate her speech. "You know, originally, my team had prepared some remarks.… But given the dialogue that we had the last time, I thought it was useful for me to abbreviate my remarks, speak off the cuff at the top and then spend most of the time just having a conversation." — Barack Obama, quoted in CNN Transcripts, December 5, 2012 Did you know? Abbreviate and abridge both mean "to make shorter," so it probably will come as no surprise that both derive from the Latin verb brevis, meaning "short." Abbreviate first appeared in print in English in the 15th century and derives from abbreviatus, the past participle of Late Latin abbreviare, which in turn can be traced back to brevis. Abridge, which appeared a century earlier, also comes from abbreviare but took a side trip through Anglo-French before arriving in Middle English as abregen. Brevis is also the ancestor of English brief itself, as well as brevity and breviary ("a prayer book" or "a brief summary"), among others.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 29, 2014 is: vicious circle \VISH-us-SER-kul\ noun 1 : an argument or definition that begs the question 2 : a chain of events in which the response to one difficulty creates a new problem that aggravates the original difficulty Examples: Lower profits led to spending cuts which caused falling sales, creating a vicious circle. "Diabetes symptoms disturb sleep, while sleep loss contributes to diabetes. Add obesity and stress, and you have a vicious circle." — Leslie Mann, Baltimore Sun, October 30, 2014 Did you know? Vicious circle originally referred to a circular argument, that is, an argument that assumes the conclusion as one of its premises. That sense was first documented around the end of the 18th century. Approximately 50 years later, vicious circle acquired the now more common "chain of events" sense as people began to think of the circle as a metaphorical circle rather than a circular argument. Today, vicious cycle is a common variant for the "chain of events" sense. Vicious spiral, in which the ill effects are cumulative as well as self-aggravating, puts in an occasional appearance as well.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2014 is: heterodox \HET-uh-ruh-dahks\ adjective 1 : contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion : unorthodox, unconventional 2 : holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines Examples: A lifelong contrarian, Alexa was known for putting forth heterodox opinions in her weekly culture column. "Levy is an intellectual descendant of the economist Hyman Minsky, a heterodox thinker who spent many years working at the Jerome Levy Economic Institute and whose theories were largely ignored by economists up until the latest financial crisis." — Chris Matthews, Fortune, October 28, 2014 Did you know? "Orthodoxy ... is my doxy—heterodoxy is another man's doxy," quipped 18th-century bishop William Warburton. He was only punning, but it is true that individuals often see other people's ideas as unconventional while regarding their own as beyond reproach. The antonyms orthodox and heterodox developed from the same root, the Greek doxa, which means "opinion." Heterodox derives from doxa plus heter-, a combining form meaning "other" or "different"; orthodoxy pairs doxa with orth-, meaning "correct" or "straight."