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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2024 is:
qua • \KWAH\ • preposition
Qua is a preposition used in formal speech or writing that means “in the capacity or character of (someone or something).” It is used synonymously with as to indicate that someone or something is being referred to or thought about in a particular way.
// The artist qua artist is less interesting to me than the artist as a human being.
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Examples:
“He [Charlie Chaplin] financed his own films; he wrote them; he took music credit; he even choreographed. Most of the cast and crew were on his payroll. He even co-owned his distribution company. The box-office take went straight into his pocket. He was not beholden to anyone, but he was not indispensable, either. Losing the Chaplin studio had a negligible impact on the movie business qua business.” — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
Did you know?
A preposition is a word—and almost always a very small, very common word—that shows direction (to in “a letter to you”), location (at in “at the door”), or time (by in “by noon”), or that introduces an object (of in “a basket of apples”) or a capacity or role (as in “works as an editor”). As such, prepositions tend not to attract as much attention as other parts of speech (unless there is some foofaraw about whether or not it’s okay to end a sentence with one). Qua, however, though very small is not very common—at least in everyday speech or writing. As one 20th-century usage writer commented, “Qua is sometimes thought affected or pretentious, but it does convey meaning economically.” Qua’s meaning is quite specific—it can substitute for the phrase “in the capacity or character of” or the preposition as in the right context, as in “they wanted to enjoy the wine qua wine, not as a status symbol.”
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2024 is:
circumlocution • \ser-kum-loh-KYOO-shun\ • noun
Circumlocution refers to the use of many words to say something that could be said more clearly and directly with fewer words. Usually encountered in formal speech and writing, circumlocution can also refer to speech that is intentionally evasive.
// The judge coughed and pointed to her watch, clearly impatient with the attorney's tiresome circumlocutions in defense of his client.
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Examples:
“The slight stiltedness of her … English merges with the circumlocution of business-school lingo to produce phrases like ‘the most important aspect is to embrace a learning mind-set’ and ‘I believe we’re going to move forward in a positive way.’” — Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, 1 Oct. 2023
Did you know?
In The King’s English (1906), lexicographers H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler advised, “Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.” It’s good advice: using more words than necessary to convey a point can confuse and annoy one’s audience. Circumlocution itself combines two Latin elements: the prefix circum-, meaning “around,” and locutio, meaning “speech.” In essence, circumlocution may be thought of as “roundabout speech.” Since at least the early 16th century, English writers have used circumlocution with disdain, naming a thing to stop, or better yet, to avoid altogether. Charles Dickens used the word to satirize political runarounds in the 1857 novel Little Dorrit with the creation of the fictional Circumlocution Office, a government department that delayed the dissemination of information and just about everything else.
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Eksik bölüm mü var?
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 16, 2024 is:
inalienable • \in-AY-lee-uh-nuh-bul\ • adjective
Something considered inalienable is impossible to take away or give up.
// The American ethos is built on the belief that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights.
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Examples:
"Despite the hurdles, comedians continue to negotiate their inalienable need to do stand-up to the point that money comes as a secondary concern." — Jake Kroeger, The Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2023
Did you know?
Alien, alienable, inalienable—it's easy enough to see the Latin word alius, meaning "other," at the root of these three words. Alien joined our language in the 14th century, and one of its earliest meanings was "belonging to another." By the early 1600s that sense of alien had led to alienable, an adjective describing something you can give away or transfer to another owner. The word unalienable came about as its opposite, but so did inalienable, a word most likely borrowed into English on its own from French. Inalienable is the more common form today, and although we often see both forms used to modify "rights," it was unalienable that was used in the Declaration of Independence to describe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2024 is:
purloin • \per-LOYN\ • verb
To purloin is to take something that belongs to someone else—that is, to steal it. Purloin is much more formal-sounding than steal, but is often—though not always—encountered in humorous contexts, suggesting that the theft is not serious.
// The puppy managed to purloin a few cookies from the plate when no one was looking.
// The studio stepped up security, fearing that someone might attempt to purloin a copy of the script for the show’s season finale.
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Examples:
“The pitch for every tax scam is the same: ‘We will help you avoid paying the IRS.’ While there are hundreds of legitimate ways to reduce your federal income tax bill, fraud merchants purloin millions through what the IRS calls its ‘Dirty Dozen.’ Most of the swindles involve bogus tax breaks.” — John F. Wasik, Forbes, 5 May 2023
Did you know?
Picture a pie cooling on a windowsill. Peach, possibly, or perhaps plum—with perfect perfumed plumes puffing out from the holes poked in its crust. And then, suddenly, the pie is gone (as is our alliteration, at least for now). Those familiar with the classic pie-windowsill thievery of cartoons and comics know that the dessert has not been merely stolen, or even swiped, but purloined! Purloin comes from the Anglo-French verb purluigner, meaning “to prolong, postpone, or set aside.” English speakers of the 15th century borrowed purloin to use it in much the same way, applying it when someone sets something aside, concealing it so that it cannot be used by someone else. The sense meaning “to steal” developed not long after in the same century. The whiff of unseriousness often carried by purloin is not a constant; even today, it is common to read reports of people purloining large sums of money, not just delicious plum pies. But purloin does tend to carry the same particular piquancy as pinch and pilfer.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2024 is:
furlong • \FER-lawng\ • noun
A furlong is a unit of distance equal to 220 yards (about 201 meters), and is used chiefly in horse racing.
// To win the Kentucky Derby, a Thoroughbred must run 10 furlongs, or one and 1/4 miles.
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Examples:
“My battle with this monster began a decade ago when a wayward seedling popped up in my perennial bed. It subsequently flowered so gloriously that, like a common dolt, I left it there. What I didn’t realize is that every bloom drops lots of seeds. Even worse, after the plant’s foliage withers in summer, spreading roots grow by the furlong in every direction. A pink primrose tsunami swept over my garden the following spring, choking the phlox and drowning the daylilies.” — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 26 Sept. 2023
Did you know?
Furlong is an English original that can be traced back to Old English furlang, a combination of the noun furh (“furrow”) and the adjective lang (“long”). Though now standardized as a length of 220 yards (or 1/8th of a mile), the furlong was originally defined less precisely as the length of a furrow—a trench in the earth made by a plow—in a cultivated field. This length was equal to the long side of an acre—an area originally defined as the amount of arable land that could be plowed by a yoke of oxen in a day, but later standardized as an area measuring 220 yards (one furlong) by 22 yards, and now defined as any area measuring 4,840 square yards. In contemporary usage, furlong is often encountered in references to horse racing.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2024 is:
brusque • \BRUSK\ • adjective
A person may be described as brusque when they are talking or behaving in a very direct, brief, and unfriendly way. Brusque can also describe speech that is noticeably short and abrupt.
// We knew something was wrong when our normally easygoing professor was brusque and impatient with our class.
// She asked for a cup of coffee and received a brusque reply: “We don't have any.”
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Examples:
“Archaeologists look down on him because of his working-class background, and his brusque manner hasn't won him many friends. He doesn't argue with those he disagrees with; he just walks away.” — Dan Lybarger, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 19 Feb. 2021
Did you know?
If you’ve ever felt swept aside by someone with a brusque manner, that makes a certain amount of etymological sense. Brusque, you see, comes ultimately from bruscus, the Medieval Latin name for butcher’s broom, a shrub whose bristly, leaf-like twigs have long been used for making brooms. Bruscus was modified to the adjective brusco in Italian, where it meant “sour” or “tart.” French, in turn, changed brusco to brusque, and the word in that form entered English in the 1600s. English speakers initially applied brusque to tartness in wine, but the word soon came to describe a harsh and stiff manner, which is just what you might expect of a word bristling with associations to stiff, scratchy brooms.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 12, 2024 is:
surfeit • \SER-fut\ • noun
Surfeit is a formal word that refers to an amount or supply that is too much or more than you need. It is synonymous with the word excess.
// The organization ended up with a surfeit of volunteers who simply got in each other's way.
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Examples:
"Pet owners can have a tougher time finding apartments because of the surfeit of landlords who don't allow dogs, cats or other animals in their buildings." — Andrew J. Campa, The Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2024
Did you know?
There is an abundance—you could almost say a surfeit—of English words that come from the Latin verb facere, meaning "to do." The connection to facere is fairly obvious for words spelled with "fic," "fac," or "fec," such as sacrifice, fact, and infect. For words like stupefy (a modification of the Latin word stupefacere) and hacienda (originally, in Old Spanish and Latin, facienda) the facere relation is not so apparent. As for surfeit, a "c" was dropped along the path that led from Latin through Anglo-French, where facere became faire ("to do") and sur- was added to make the verb surfaire, meaning "to overdo." It is the Anglo-French noun surfet ("excess"), however, that Middle English borrowed, eventually settling on the spelling surfeit.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11, 2024 is:
discomfit • \diss-KUM-fit\ • verb
To discomfit someone is to make them confused or upset. Discomfit is a formal synonym of the also formal (but slightly less so) disconcert.
// Jacob was discomfited by the new employee’s forward, probing questions.
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Examples:
“Bosley Crowther, chief film critic for The New York Times, didn’t quite know what to make of Dr. Strangelove at the time of its release in January 1964. … What exactly was Kubrick’s point? ‘…I want to know what this picture proves.’ We may find it odd for an influential critic to expect a movie to ‘prove’ anything. Kubrick’s aim was manifestly not to prove, but to subvert and discomfit.” — Andrew J. Bacevich, The Nation, 23 Mar. 2023
Did you know?
Disconcerted by discomfit and discomfort? While the two look similar and share some semantic territory, they’re etymologically unrelated. Unlike discomfort, discomfit has no connection to comfort, which comes ultimately from the Latin adjective fortis, meaning “strong.” Instead, discomfit was borrowed from Anglo-French in the 13th century with the meaning “to defeat in battle.” Within a couple centuries, discomfit had expanded beyond the battlefield to mean “to thwart,” a meaning that eventually softened into the now-common “to disconcert or confuse” use—one quite close to the uneasiness and annoyance communicated by discomfort. For a time, usage commentators were keen to keep a greater distance between discomfit and discomfort; they recommended that discomfit be limited to its original “to defeat” meaning, but they’ve largely given up now, and the “disconcert or confuse” meaning is fully established. There is one major difference between discomfit and discomfort, though: discomfit is used almost exclusively as a verb, while discomfort is much more commonly used as a noun than a verb.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 10, 2024 is:
vicarious • \vye-KAIR-ee-us\ • adjective
A vicarious emotion or experience is one felt by watching, hearing about, or reading about someone else rather than by doing something yourself.
// He felt a vicarious thrill as his daughter crossed the stage to accept her diploma.
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Examples:
“That Jagger can still sing and dance up a storm, at 80, is a triumph for him and should provide a vicarious thrill for anyone who attends a concert by the Rolling Stones next year.” — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2023
Did you know?
If you love to read adventure tales from the comfort of home, you’re already a pro at living vicariously, so throw on those readers and let us paint a picture. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to study language and share what you’ve learned with the world. You wake up and pour yourself a strong cup of coffee, and then the work begins. Today, you are tasked with understanding the history of vicarious. Your research confirms that this word originally described something having the function of a substitute—that is, something that serves instead of another thing—and that it comes from the Latin noun vicis, which means “change” or “stead.” What’s more, you learn that vicis is also the source of the English prefix vice- (as in “vice president”), meaning “one that takes the place of.” Keeping in mind the most common meaning of vicarious (“experienced through imaginative or sympathetic participation”), you write it all down so others can share in your experience. Mission accomplished!
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 9, 2024 is:
aegis • \EE-jus\ • noun
Aegis is a formal word that refers to the power to protect, control, or support something or someone. It is often used in the phrase under the aegis of.
// The issue will be decided under the aegis of an international organization.
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Examples:
“French President Emmanuel Macron visited Notre Dame Cathedral on Friday, one year before its scheduled reopening in 2024. … During his visit, Macron paid homage to Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, who oversaw the reconstruction and died in August. Wearing a hardhat, Macron was given a tool to assist as Georgelin’s name was inscribed in the wood of the spire under the aegis of an artisan, memorializing the general’s contribution to the cathedral.” — Thomas Adamson and Sylvie Corbet, The Associated Press, 8 Dec. 2023
Did you know?
English borrowed aegis from Latin, but the word ultimately comes from the Greek noun aigís, meaning “goatskin.” In ancient Greek mythology, an aegis was something that offered physical protection. It has been depicted in various ways, including as a magical protective cloak made from the skin of the goat that suckled Zeus as an infant, and as a shield fashioned by Hephaestus that bore the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. The word first entered English in the 15th century as a noun referring to the shield or breastplate associated with Zeus or Athena. It later took on a more general sense of “protection” and, by the late-19th century, it had acquired the extended senses of “auspices” and “sponsorship.”
