Summary: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2012 is: quadrate \KWAH-drayt\ adjective : being square or approximately square Examples: The linoleum featured a colorful pattern of large quadrate shapes. "For dessert, Namiri brings out quadrate slices of baklava accompanied by strong Turkish coffee." From a review by Christy Khoshaba in the Monterey County Weekly, May 26, 2011 Did you know? Sharp-eyed readers may recognize the "quad" in "quadrate," suggesting the number four. "Quadrate" is in fact a relative of Latin "quattuor," meaning "four," though its direct line of descent links to "quadrum," meaning "square." Other descendants of "quadrum" in English include "quadrille" (a square dance for four couples), "quarrel" (a square-headed bolt or arrow), and "quarry" (a place where large amounts of stone are dug out of the ground); the latter of these can be traced back to a Latin word meaning "squared stone." "Quadrate," incidentally, can also be used in much more specific senses to describe a type of heraldic cross or a portion of the skull in some vertebrates.
