Episoder
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 3, 2025 is:
addlepated • \AD-ul-pay-tud\ • adjective
Someone described as addlepated is mixed-up or confused. Addlepated can also be used as synonym of eccentric.
// Some addlepated clerk confused our hotel reservation with that of another, similarly named, party.
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Examples:
âOverwhelmed and a little at sea (so to speak), this viewer combed these scenes for cinematic clues to whatever the narrative takeaway would be. ... The cinematic stuff was misdirection, and the mission ends with an addlepated navigator getting promoted because of his mistakes.â â Lili Loofbourow, The Washington Post, 26. Jan 2024
Did you know?
In this hectic, often confusing world of ours, itâs probably safe to say that even the sharpest thinkersâthe wonks and eggheads among usâget a little addlepated from time to time. In fact, the idea of an addlepated egghead makes some etymological sense. Addlepated combines the words addle and pate. While the meaning of the somewhat rare noun pate (âheadâ) is straightforward, cracking open the adjective addle is where things get interesting. In Old English, the noun adela referred to filth, or to a filthy or foul-smelling place. In Middle English, adela came to be used as an adjective in the term adel eye, meaning âputrid egg.â For its first few centuries of adjectival use, and with various spellings, addle was used strictly for eggs, but in the 16th century it gained a figurative sense that, when applied disparagingly to peopleâs heads or brains, suggested the diminished or rotten condition of an addle (or addled) egg. Today, addle is often found in combination with words referring to oneâs noggin, addlebrained, and addle-headed, and most common of all, addlepated.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2025 is:
potpourri • \poh-pur-REE\ • noun
Potpourri is a mixture of dried flower petals, leaves, and spices that is used to make a room smell pleasant. When used figuratively potpourri refers to a collection of various different things.
// Her favorite winter potpourri includes cinnamon sticks, cloves, and orange peel.
// The book is a potpourri of stories about family, community, and food.
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Examples:
âThe windows here are festooned with a potpourri of book jackets, portraits of Ataturk cheek by jowl with Turkeyâs great poet of opposition, NĂązım Hikmet, and stars of YeĆilçam, the populist Turkish cinema of days gone by.â â Barry Yourgrau, LitHub.com, 15 Feb. 2023
Did you know?
Some people delight in the scent of potpourri, and others find it cloying. Happily, this word manages to contain elements which will make each of these groups feel that their preferences are linguistically supported. Potpourri is used today to refer literally to a fragrant mixture of flowers, herbs, etc., and figuratively to a miscellaneous collection, or medley, of things. But potpourri first referred to a kind of stew of meat and vegetables, usually including sausage and chickpeas. It was borrowed from French, where pot pourri translates directly as âputrid potâ; the French word was a translation of the Spanish olla podrida, which likewise means ârotten pot.â We don't know why both the Spanish and the French gave their stews such unappetizing names, although it has been suggested that the Spanish method of slowly cooking this dish over a fire may have had something to do with it. Regardless, after referring solely to stew for its first hundred and some-odd years, potpourri began to be used for an aromatic blend of dried flowers in the middle of the 18th century, and within the next hundred years was being applied to mixtures and collections of all kinds of things.
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Manglende episoder?
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 1, 2025 is:
rejuvenate • \rih-JOO-vuh-nayt\ • verb
To rejuvenate a person, parts of the body, etc., is to make them feel young, healthy, or energetic again. To rejuvenate something abstract, such as an economy or career, is to give it new strength or energy.
// The hotel package includes a day at the spa to rejuvenate guests.
// Small businesses opening along the main street have rejuvenated the downtown area.
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Examples:
"Made with shea butter and other hydrating ingredients, these hand creams rejuvenate the hands with each use." â Mia Meltzer, Rolling Stone, 28 Nov. 2024
Did you know?
The word rejuvenate is intended for mature audiencesâthat is, it applies to people and things that are no longer green to this world. While there is no true Fountain of Youth that can turn back the clock, rejuvenation can at least restore a bit of youthful appearance, health, or vigor. Rejuvenate originated as a combination of the prefix re-, which means "again," and the Latin juvenis, meaning "young." (It will come as no surprise that juvenis is also an ancestor of juvenile and junior). Its first-known use in the mid-18th century was in reference to "certain Potions" rejuvenating "the noble Parts" of those suffering prolonged ailments, but it didn't take long for the word to see life outside of medical contexts. Today one might rejuvenate an old car with a fresh coat of paint, a losing football team with a new quarterback, or depleted soil with some nitrogen-fixing legumes, to name just a few examples.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2024 is:
zeitgeist • \TSYTE-gyste\ • noun
Zeitgeist refers to the general beliefs, ideas, and spirit of a time and place.
// The artistâs songs perfectly captured the zeitgeist of 1990s America.
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Examples:
"In appointing Pharrell Williams as creative director in 2023, Louis Vuitton tapped further into the zeitgeist, refreshing the brand's image and broadening both its appeal and its dedication to cultural excellence." â Olivia Morelli, CondĂ© Nast Traveler, 23 Oct. 2024
Did you know?
Scholars have long maintained that each era has a unique spirit, a nature or climate that sets it apart from all others. In German, such a spirit is known as Zeitgeist, from the German words Zeit, meaning "time," and Geist, meaning "spirit" or "ghost." (This same Geist, when combined with poltern, meaning "to knock," led to the English word poltergeist referring to a noisy ghost.) It is common nowadays to read about something "tapping into" or "capturing" the zeitgeist, as doing so often entails popularity or profitability in appealing to a great many people, though sometimes the zeitgeist of a particular time and place is only recognized in hindsight, either due to nostalgia or with the benefit of (one hopes) greater wisdom.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2024 is:
urbane • \er-BAYN\ • adjective
Someone described as urbane is notably polite, confident, or polished in manner. Urbane is also used to describe things that are fashionable and somewhat formal.
// "When did my willful, childish cousin turn into this urbane young artist greeting the guests at her opening reception?" wondered Elena.
// We were impressed by the hotel's urbane sophistication.
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Examples:
"The classical-meets-country-house architecture offers a relaxed lifestyle fused with urbane glamour and a thoroughly modern slate of creature comforts." â Mark David, Robb Report, 18 June 2024
Did you know?
City slickers and country folk have long debated whether life is better in town or in the wide-open spaces, and urbane is a term that springs from the throes of that debate. In its earliest English uses, urbane was synonymous with its close relative urban ("of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a city"). Both words come from the Latin adjective urbanus ("urban, urbane"), which in turn comes from urbs, meaning "city." The modern sense of urbane developed from the belief (no doubt fostered by cosmopolitan city dwellers) that living in the city made one more suave and polished than did leading a rural life.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2024 is:
linchpin • \LINCH-pin\ • noun
Linchpin, sometimes spelled lynchpin, literally refers to a locking pin inserted crosswise, as at the end of an axle or shaft. In figurative use, linchpin refers to a person or thing that serves to hold together parts or elements that exist or function as a unit; such a linchpin is often understood as the most important part of a complex situation or system.
// Investors are betting that the new product line will be the linchpin that secures the company's place in the very competitive market in the years and decades to come.
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Examples:
âWhen people tell the story of my life, when I tell this story of my life, Trisha doesnât get much space, but she is a linchpin. For me the linchpin is that tiny bit of aid that holds things together when they might otherwise fall apart that keeps you rolling down the road to where you were already going. Itâs not the engine, itâs not the track. Itâs invisible but in the moment essential help.â â Alice Randall, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Musicâs Black Past, Present, and Future, 2024
Did you know?
In his 1857 novel, Tom Brownâs School Days, Thomas Hughes describes the âcowardlyâ custom of âtaking the linch-pins out of the farmersâ and bagmensâ gigs at the fairs.â The linchpin in question held the wheel on the carriage, and removing it made it likely that the wheel would come off as the vehicle moved. Such a pin was called a lynis in Old English; Middle English speakers added pin to form lynspin. By the early 20th century, English speakers were using linchpin for anything as critical to a complex situation as a linchpin is to a wagon, as when Winston Churchill, in 1930, wrote of Canada and the role it played in the relationship between Great Britain and the United States, that âno state, no country, no band of men can more truly be described as the linchpin of peace and world progress.â
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 28, 2024 is:
condone • \kun-DOHN\ • verb
To condone something that is considered wrong is to forgive or approve it, or to allow it to continue.
// We cannot condone that kind of behavior.
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Examples:
"... remaining quiet is the same as condoning bad behavior. Choose to say or do something, as this will help hold people accountable for their words and actions and encourage others to follow your lead." â Sherri Gordon, Health.com, 17 Sept. 2024
Did you know?
If you're among folks who don't condone even what they consider minor usage slips, you might want to hew to the more established meaning of condone. Although English speakers sometimes use condone to mean "encourage" or "approve of" (as in "officials accused of condoning corruption"), some people feel strongly that it should only mean something closer to "pardon" or "overlook." Condone comes from the Latin verb condonare, which means "to absolve." Condonare in turn combines the Latin prefix com-, indicating thoroughness, and donare, meaning "to give." Not surprisingly, donare is also the source of our words donate and pardon.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 27, 2024 is:
feisty • \FYE-stee\ • adjective
Feisty describes someone who has or shows a lively aggressiveness especially in being unafraid to fight or argue. In some regions of the US, feisty may also be used as a synonym of fidgety, quarrelsome, or frisky.
// Even her opponents admire her feisty spirit.
See the entry >
Examples:
"Hummingbirds may be tiny, but the feisty birds can be fearless. A video ... shows a falcon eating a dragonfly while perched on a tree. Then, out of nowhere, a hummingbird flies into the frame and starts flitting around the bird of prey." â Shelby Slade and Tiffany Acosta, The Arizona Republic, 26 Sept. 2024
Did you know?
In some parts of the southern United States, the word feist (pronounced to rhyme with heist) has been used since the 18th century as a term for a small dog used in hunting more diminutive game animals (such as squirrels). The word comes from the much older, now obsolete word fisting (pronounced as âfeistingâ would be) meaning âbreaking wind,â which was used scornfully in the 16th and 17th centuries to describe gassy pooches. Feisty developed in the late 19th century, its flatulent origin lost, but its small-dog association still visible with a squint: the term conveys the spunk and determination that one may associate with a dog that manages to make its presence known, through its bark or its biteâor perhaps even its indifference to olfactory decorumâdespite its small size.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2024 is:
menorah • \muh-NOR-uh\ • noun
A menorah is a candelabra with seven or nine lights that is used in Jewish worship.
// At sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, Elliott's father helped him light the first candle on the menorah.
See the entry >
Examples:
"Rich with history and laced with just a bit of latke grease, Hanukkah is a time for Jews to gather with family and friends and retell a fabled story of resistance. While certain symbols of the holiday like the menorah (a decorative candelabra) and the dreidel (a four-sided spinning top) may be more easily recognizable in popular culture, there is plenty more to learn about Hanukkah and why it is celebrated." â Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 7 Dec. 2023
Did you know?
In English, menorah was originally the name for the seven-branched candelabra used in Jewish worship. The nine-branched Hanukkah candelabra is called hanukkiah in Hebrew, but English speakers came to use menorah for this too. The Hanukkah menorah recalls expulsion by Judah Maccabee of invading forces from the Temple of Jerusalem. Maccabee and his followers sought oil for the templeâs menorah so that the sanctuary could be rededicated, but they found only enough oil for a single day. Miraculously, that tiny amount of oil burned for eight days, until a new supply could be obtained. The Hanukkah menorah includes a candle for each day the oil burned, plus the shammes, a "servant candle" that is used to light the others.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2024 is:
evergreen • \EV-er-green\ • adjective
Evergreen in its figurative uses describes something, such as a plot, that retains its freshness or interest over a long period of time, or something, such as an issue or concern, that is universally and continually relevant. In botany, evergreen describes foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season.
// For their first pick of the new year, the book club chose an evergreen self-help book.
// Some of the most popular evergreen trees used as Christmas trees are balsam fir, Fraser fir, and Norway spruce.
See the entry >
Examples:
ââ... My hope and my assumption is ... that this movie is an evergreen story about cousins who are trying to experience something very personal.... You canât predict the context that will surround the thing you wrote two years ago, so it would be foolish to attempt to make some kind of commentary on a world that is ever-changing.ââ â Jesse Eisenberg, quoted in The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2024
Did you know?
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum: as you are one of the most universally recognized symbols for both the secular and religious observances of Christmas, decorating your lovely branches is an evergreen tradition in two ways. First, because you are almost always an evergreen tree, aka a conifer (such as a fir, spruce, or pine) whose foliage remains green through more than one growing season. Second, because bringing an evergreen into oneâs home in late December is an evergreen tradition: one that has occurred perennially, or yearly, since at least the 16th century, when people in what is now Germany used evergreens to celebrate December 24th, the feast day of Adam and Eve. The adjective evergreen is older than its noun counterpart; it was first used literally to describe trees and their foliage, then later took on the figurative senses of âperennialâ and âcontinually relevant.â
