Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 06, 2012 is: conjecture \kun-JEK-cher\ verb 1 : to arrive at or deduce by surmise or guesswork : guess 2 : to form a supposition or inference Examples: Some scientists have conjectured that the distant planet could sustain life. "[Kim Kardashian's] changing wardrobe, everyone conjectured, must be Kanye's influence—he's a bona fide designer these days with affinity for top models like Chanel Iman and Anja Rubik and top labels like Givenchy, Celine and Hermes." —From an article in the Style section of The Huffington Post, August 24, 2012 Did you know? When the noun "conjecture" entered English in the 14th century, it referred to the act of interpreting signs or omens (as for making prognostications). That sense is now obsolete, but by the 16th century both the noun and verb "conjecture" had acquired the meanings of speculation and inference that we use today. "Conjecture" derived via Middle English and Middle French from the Latin verb "conicere" ("to throw together"), a combination of "com-" ("together") and "jacere" ("to throw").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 05, 2012 is: devoir \duh-VWAHR\ noun 1 : duty, responsibility 2 : a usually formal act of civility or respect Examples: "The Grand Master, having allowed the apology of Albert Malvoisin, commanded the herald to stand forth and do his devoir." — From Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel Ivanhoe "Our feet are always faithful, never fickle. Now, don't contradict this. I don't know about yours, but my feet pursue me everywhere; they are perfectly content with their commitment to me, and I am more than grateful for their devoir." — From an article by Jean Guerrero in the Daily Trojan, February 8, 2007 Did you know? "Devoir" was borrowed twice, in a manner of speaking. We first borrowed it in its Anglo-French form, "dever," back in the days of Middle English. As is so often the case when an adopted word becomes established in English, its pronunciation shifted to conform to English pronunciation standards. The French put the stress on the last syllable, but English speakers stressed the first. One hundred or so years later, some writers changed the English spelling to "devoir" to match the modern French. That French borrowing was actually pronounced like French (as well as English speakers could, anyway)—just as it is today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 04, 2012 is: seriocomic \seer-ee-oh-KAH-mik\ adjective : having a mixture of the serious and the comic Examples: The intergenerational meal was a seriocomic affair, with the younger generation refereeing the jabs their elders hurled at one another while trying to keep the youngest generation from getting a true sense of just what was going on. "Inspired by actual events surrounding the visit of Britain's King George and Queen Elizabeth to the New York residence of sitting President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, in the summer of 1939, the film is a seriocomic look at one of history's little known footnotes." — From a movie trailer review on HollywoodOutbreak.com, September 3, 2012 Did you know? "Seriocomic" may have a modern ring to it, but our earliest evidence of the word in print is from 1783. Another "comic" word—"heroicomic," meaning "comic by being ludicrously noble, bold, or elevated"—is slightly older; evidence of it dates to 1756. Both words are about a century younger than our third "comic" word, "tragicomic" ("manifesting both tragic and comic aspects"), which print evidence dates to 1683. (Evidence of the variant "tragicomical," however, dates all the way back to 1567.)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 03, 2012 is: placate \PLAY-kayt\ verb : to soothe or mollify especially by concessions : to calm the anger or bitterness of Examples: In an effort to placate the angry customer, the store manager replaced the defective product with a more expensive model at no extra charge. "He said he supported the septic tank tax but voted against it to placate the townships in his district." — From an editorial in The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Michigan), August 22, 2012 Did you know? The earliest documented uses of "placate" in English date from the late 17th century. The word is derived from Latin "placatus," the past participle of "placare," and even after more than 300 years in English, it still carries the basic meaning of its Latin ancestor: "to soothe" or "to appease." Other "placare" descendants in English are "implacable" (meaning "not easily soothed or satisfied") and "placation" ("the act of soothing or appeasing"). Even "please" itself, derived from Latin "placēre" ("to please"), is a distant relative of "placate."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 02, 2012 is: fourth estate \FORTH-ih-STAYT\ noun : the public press Examples: "We should all be concerned," the senator asserted, "about the plight of newspapers and the consequences of a weakened fourth estate on our democracy." "As someone firmly entrenched in the fourth estate, I am not too agreeable to most censoring, and would fight such impositions on the press or any other body, tooth and nail." — From an article by Sunil Dang in The Day After, July 1, 2012 Did you know? It might be news to you that the term "fourth estate" has been around for centuries. In Europe, going back to medieval times, the people who participated in the political life of a country were generally divided into three classes or "estates." In England they were the three groups with representation in Parliament, namely, the nobility, the clergy, and the common people. Some other group, like the mob or the public press, that had an unofficial but often great influence on public affairs, was called the "fourth estate." In the 19th century, "fourth estate" came to refer exclusively to the press, and now it's applied to all branches of the news media.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 01, 2012 is: excoriate \ek-SKOR-ee-ayt\ verb 1 : to wear off the skin of : abrade 2 : to censure scathingly Examples: "Every blow that shakes it will serve to harden it against a future stroke; as constant labour thickens the skin of the hand, and strengthens its muscles instead of wasting them away: so that a day of arduous toil, that might excoriate a lady's palm, would make no sensible impression on that of a hardy ploughman." — From Anne Brontë's 1847 novel Agnes Grey "One consequence of writing for a broader public was a growing disposition to write about people and places that I admired, and not just those whom it gave me pleasure to excoriate." — From Tony Judt's 2012 book Thinking the Twentieth Century Did you know? "Excoriate," which first appeared in English in the 15th century, comes from "excoriatus," the past participle of the Late Latin verb "excoriare," meaning "to strip off the hide." "Excoriare" was itself formed from a pairing of the Latin prefix "ex-," meaning "out," and "corium," meaning "skin" or "hide" or "leather." "Corium" has several other descendants in English. One is "cuirass," a name for a piece of armor that covers the body from neck to waist (or something, such as bony plates covering an animal, that resembles such armor). Another is "corium" itself, which is sometimes used as a synonym of "dermis" (the inner layer of human skin).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 30, 2012 is: bombinate \BAHM-buh-nayt\ verb : buzz, drone Examples: The only sounds Jared could hear in the office that night were those of his own typing and the air conditioner bombinating. "Time passes in Suttree, but nothing and no one develops—excepting, perhaps, time itself in its running out. People fart around, they raise a little local hell, they marinate, they bombinate, they get carted off either to jail or to the morgue." — From Peter Josyph's 2010 book Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy Did you know? "Bombinate" sounds like it should be the province of bombastic blowhards who bound up and bombard you with droning blather at parties—and it is. The word derives from the Greek word "bombos," a term that probably originated as an imitation of a deep, hollow sound (the kind we would likely refer to as "booming" nowadays). Latin speakers rendered the original Greek form as "bombus," and that root gave forth a veritable din of raucous English offspring, including not only "bombinate," but also "bomb," "bombard," and "bound" ("to leap"). However, Latin "bombus" is not a direct ancestor of "bombastic," which traces to "bombyx," a Greek name for the silkworm.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 29, 2012 is: elegiac \el-uh-JYE-ak\ adjective 1 a : of, relating to, or consisting of two dactylic hexameter lines the second of which lacks the arsis in the third and sixth feet b : of or relating to the period in Greece about the seventh century B.C. when poetry written in such couplets flourished 2 : of, relating to, or comprising elegy or an elegy; especially : expressing sorrow often for something now past Examples: The editorial was an elegant, elegiac lament for the golden era of the author's long-ago past. "His speech was ruminative and elegiac, marking the closing of an era rather than the closing of a conference." — From an article by Eitan Kensky in The Forward, May 15, 2012 Did you know? "Elegiac" was borrowed into English in the 16th century from the Late Latin "elagiacus," which in turn derives from the Greek "elegeiakos." "Elegeiakos" traces back to the Greek word for "elegiac couplet" or "elegy," which was "elegeion." It is no surprise, then, that the earliest meaning of "elegiac" referred to such poetic couplets. These days, of course, the word is also used to describe anything sorrowful or nostalgic. As you may have guessed, another descendant of "elegeion" in English is "elegy," which in its oldest sense refers to a poem in elegiac couplets, and now can equally refer to a somewhat broader range of laments for something or someone that is now lost.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 28, 2012 is: dearth \DERTH\ noun 1 : scarcity that makes dear; specifically : famine 2 : an inadequate supply : lack Examples: 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. "This wryly funny take on the classic ghost story, with its tributes to horror thrillers from Halloween to Friday the 13th and rich cast of characters, has distinctive Tim Burton-esque visuals and a welcome dearth of potty humor." — From a movie review by Claudia Puig in USA Today, August 17, 2012 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 "dēore," 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.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 27, 2012 is: festinate \FESS-tuh-nut\ adjective : hasty Examples: "I assure you," said the Ambassador, "I am all too aware of the dangers inherent in a festinate decision." "Novell's proxy servers, caching and firewalls may not be such utter failures, but growth in crowded fields dominated by companies with better track records is just as illusory. Even successes like GroupWise, ManageWise and ZENworks are vestiges of 1990s thinking. They may halt a festinate death, but you don't build a company around them." — From an article by Fritz Nelson in Network Computing, August 21, 2000 Did you know? "Festinate" is one among many in the category of words whose first recorded use is in the works of Shakespeare ("Advise the Duke where you are going, to a most festinate preparation." — King Lear, III.vii.10). Perhaps the Bard knew about "festinatus," the Latin predecessor of "festinate," or was familiar with the Latin proverb "festina lente"—"make haste slowly." Shakespeare also gets credit for the adverb "festinately" (first seen in Love’s Labour’s Lost, III.i.6: "Bring him festinately hither."), but another writer beat him to the verb "festinate" (pronounced \FESS-tuh-nayt\), meaning "to hasten."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 26, 2012 is: interrobang \in-TAIR-uh-bang\ noun : a punctuation mark ‽ designed for use especially at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question Examples: The essay was peppered with interrobangs and exclamation points, communicating—intentionally or not—an incredulity and outrage that didn't feel very hospitable. "Inevitably, however, you'll cheat on the Period with the Ampersand, Semi-Colon, or possibly the Interrobang." — From an article by Jen Doll in the Atlantic Wire, August 21, 2012 Did you know? Most punctuation marks have been around for centuries, but not the interrobang: it's a product of the 1960s. The mark gets its name from the punctuation that it is intended to combine. "Interro" is from "interrogation point," the technical name for the question mark, and "bang" is printers' slang for the exclamation point. The interrobang is not commonly used—its absence from standard keyboards can explain its paucity in print perhaps just as well as its paucity in print can explain its absence from standard keyboards. Most writers who want to communicate what the interrobang communicates continue to do as they did before the advent of the mark, throwing in !? or ?! as they feel so moved.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 24, 2012 is: kitsch \KITCH\ noun 1 : something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality 2 : a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition Examples: The "country store" seemed to sell mostly cheaply made kitsch and other tacky memorabilia. "Across the board there was a welcome absence of kitsch." — From a review by Guy Trebay in The New York Times, June 28, 2012 Did you know? "The fashionable clothing label ... kicked off the revival last June..., putting its models in Miranda-inspired swimsuits and marching them through a gantlet of 50 tons of bananas," writes Mac Margolis in Newsweek International (January 2006) of a fabulously kitschy gala commemoration for the late Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. Since we borrowed "kitsch" from German in the 1920s, it has been our word for things in the realm of popular culture that dangle, like car mirror dice, precariously close to tackiness. But although things that can be described with "kitsch" and the related adjective "kitschy" are clearly not fine art, they may appeal to certain tastes—some folks delight in velvet paintings, plastic flamingos, dashboard hula dancers, and Carmen Miranda revivals!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 23, 2012 is: forsooth \fer-SOOTH\ adverb : in truth : indeed — often used to imply contempt or doubt Examples: "Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue; so your face bids me, though you say nothing." — From Shakespeare's King Lear, Act I, Scene iv "Forsooth, your kids aren't into Shakespeare? They will be once they see the Rebel Shakespeare Company." — From an article by Elizabeth Gehrman in The Boston Globe, April 22, 2012 Did you know? Although it is still a part of the English language, "forsooth" is now primarily used in humorous or ironic contexts, or in a manner intended to play off the word's archaic vibe. "Forsooth" is formed from the combination of the preposition "for" and the noun "sooth." "Sooth" survives as both a noun (meaning "truth" or "reality") and an adjective (meaning "true," "sweet," or "soft"), though it is rarely used by contemporary speakers. It primarily lives on in English in the verb "soothe" (which originally meant "to show, assert, or confirm the truth of") and in the noun "soothsayer" (that is, "truthsayer"), a name for someone who can predict the future.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 22, 2012 is: emolument \ih-MAHL-yuh-munt\ noun : the returns arising from office or employment usually in the form of compensation or perquisites Examples: James has contributed countless volunteer hours to the organization and continues to refuse any emolument for his work. "For her first six years Johnson, though serving full-time on the court with the same responsibilities and emoluments as her colleagues, was officially styled an appeal-court judge on permanent assignment upstairs." — From an article by James Gill in the Times-Picayune (New Orleans), July 11, 2012 Did you know? "To Sir Thomas Williams Person of the Parish ... of Saint Andrew at Baynards Castle in London for his yearly pension 40 shillings ... in recompense of certain offerings, oblations, and emoluments unto the said benefice due...." Thus was recorded in "The Wardrobe Accounts of Edward the Fourth," along with every expense of the realm, the first ever known use of "emolument." By the year 1480, when that entry was made, Latin "emolumentum" had come to mean simply "profit" or "gain"; it had become removed from its own Latin predecessor, the verb "molere," meaning "to grind." The original connection between the noun and this verb was its reference to the profit or gain from grinding another's grain. (The notion of grinding away at our jobs didn't show up in our language until the 1800s.)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 21, 2012 is: orphic \OR-fik\ adjective 1 : of or relating to Orpheus or the rites or doctrines ascribed to him 2 : of, relating to, being, or resembling an oracle : oracular, mystic 3 : fascinating, entrancing Examples: "'No summer ever came back, and no two summers ever were alike,' said I, with a degree of Orphic wisdom that astonished myself." — From Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1852 novel The Blithedale Romance "The cosmos itself reverberates through the orphic strings of the bridge's supporting cables, creating one song, one bridge of fire, linked to the stars themselves and to the deepest human desires for Cathay, meaning for Hart Crane perfection of place, fulfillment in the social order." — From Kevin Starr's 2010 book Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge Did you know? Orpheus was a hero of Greek mythology who was supposed to possess superhuman musical skills. With his legendary lyre, he was said to be able to make even the rocks and trees dance around. In fact, when his wife Eurydice died, he was nearly able to use his lyre to secure her return from the underworld. Later on, according to legend, he was killed at the bidding of Dionysus, and an oracle of Orpheus was established that came to rival the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. Because of the oracle of Orpheus, "orphic" can mean "oracular." Because of Orpheus' musical powers, "orphic" can mean "entrancing."