Tare

WORD OF THE DAY


tare \ TAIR \ noun
 
Definition
1 : a deduction from the gross weight of a substance and its container made in allowance for the weight of the container; also : the weight of the container
2 : counterweight


Examples
Factoring in a tare of 10,000 pounds for the trailer, the transportation officer determined that the truck's cargo load still exceeded the legal limit.


"I hooked my scale to the net, grabbing a tare weight that required me to double-check: '12 lb 3 oz' read the digital display. Subtracting the '1 lb 15 oz' reading of my net by itself, my eyes widened at the realization that this 10.25-pound fish was my heaviest to-date."
— Luke Ovgard, The Herald & News (Klamath Falls, Oregon), 19 May 2017


Did You Know?
Tare came to English by way of Middle French from the Old Italian term tara, which is itself from the Arabic word ṭarḥa, meaning "that which is removed." One of the first known written records of the word tare in English is found in the naval inventories of Britain's King Henry VII.
The record shows two barrels of gunpowder weighing, "besides the tare," 500 pounds. When used of vehicles, tare weight refers to a vehicle's weight exclusive of any load. The term tare is closely tied to net weight, which is defined as "weight excluding all tare."

Fester

WORD OF THE DAY
fester \ FESS-ter \ verb
 
Definition
1 : to generate pus
2 : putrefy, rot
3a : to cause increasing poisoning, irritation, or bitterness
3b: rankle
3c: to undergo or exist in a state of progressive deterioration


Examples
"For more than a generation, instead of forging a path to reconciliation, we have allowed the wounds the war inflicted on our nation, our politics and our families to fester."
— Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, The New York Times, 29 May 2017


"Tunisians have made tremendous progress. Yet their experiment is teetering on the brink. The economy is stuck in the doldrums. Poverty and corruption fester."
— Christian Caryl, The Washington Post, 26 May 2017


Did You Know?
Fester entered English in the 14th century. It was used as we now use the word fistula for an abnormal passage leading from an abscess or hollow organ and permitting passage of fluids or secretions. It was also applied as a word for a sore that discharges pus.
The connection between fester and fistula is no accident—both descend from Latin fistula, which has the same meaning as the English word but can also mean "pipe" or "tube" or "a kind of ulcer." Fester made the trip from Latin to English by way of Anglo-French. The word's use as a verb meaning "to generate pus" has also developed extended senses implying a worsening state.

Akimbo

WORD OF THE DAY


akimbo \ uh-KIM-boh \ adjective or adverb
 
Definition
1 : having the hand on the hip and the elbow turned outward
2 : set in a bent position


Examples
The model, arms akimbo, struck a pose at the end of the runway.


"Off the kitchen, the metal skeleton of what is supposed to be a human-size dinosaur puppet sits akimbo."
— Kayla Epstein, The Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2017


Did You Know?
It's akimbo nowadays, but in Middle English, the adverbial phrase in kenebowe was used for the bent, hand-on-hip arm (or later, for any bent position). Originally, the term was fairly neutral, but now saying that a person is standing with "arms akimbo" implies a posture that communicates defiance, confidence, aggressiveness, or arrogance.
In her novel Little Women, Louisa May Alcott took the word one step further, extending it into the figurative realm when she explained that tomboyish Jo had not been invited to participate in an elegant event with the other young ladies of the neighborhood because "her elbows were decidedly akimbo at this period of her life."

Wreak

WORD OF THE DAY
wreak \ REEK \ verb
 
Definition
1 : to cause the infliction of (vengeance or punishment)
2 : to give free play or course to (malevolent feeling)
3 : bring about, cause


Examples
"A cheeky peacock has wreaked havoc inside a California liquor store, smashing over $500 worth of expensive wine and champagne."
— Heat Street, 7 June 2017


"Don't be fooled by Mike Brown's big smile and happy-go-lucky demeanor. The Golden State Warriors' acting head coach is probably salivating over his chance to wreak brutal vengeance against the Cleveland Cavaliers—the team that fired him twice."
— Chuck Barney, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 7 June 2017


Did You Know?
Wreak is a venerable word that first appeared in Old English as wrecan, meaning "to drive, drive out, punish, or avenge." Wrecan is related to a number of similar words in the Germanic languages, including Middle Dutch wreken ("to punish, avenge"), Old High German rehhan ("to avenge"), Old Norse reka ("to drive, push, or avenge"), and Gothic wrikan ("to persecute").
It may also be related to Latin urgēre ("to drive on, urge"), the source of the English verb urge.
In modern English, vengeance is a common object of the verb wreak, reflecting one of its earlier uses in the sense "to take vengeance for"—as when Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus proclaims:
"We will solicit heaven, and move the gods
To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs."

Haphazard

WORD OF THE DAY

haphazard / hap-HAZZ-erd / adjective

Definition

1: marked by lack of plan, order, or direction

Examples

"… his intense work ethic has made such a feat of releasing back-to-back projects appear effortless, conscious and polished, as opposed to what could have been … a haphazard effort scraping together 34 assorted tracks from his never-ending archive." 

— Billboard.com, 24 Feb. 2017

"Once the taxidermy is set up and artists escorted out, the doors to the exhibit hall are closed.… The hall is large and chilly, the scene is otherworldly, a haphazard zoo suspended in time, bald eagles perched beside African lions reclining beside wild turkeys standing beside trunkfish swimming alongside cape buffalo and snow leopards." 

— Christopher Borrelli, The Chicago Tribune, 28 May 2017

Did You Know?

The hap in haphazard comes from an English word that means "happening," as well as "chance or fortune," and that derives from the Old Norse word happ, meaning "good luck." 

Perhaps it's no accident that hazard also has its own connotations of luck: while it now refers commonly to something that presents danger, at one time it referred to a dice game similar to craps. (The name ultimately derives from the Arabic al-zahr, meaning "the die.") 

Haphazard first entered English as a noun (again meaning "chance") in the 16th century, and soon afterward was being used as an adjective to describe things with no apparent logic or order.

Gauche

WORD OF THE DAY
gauche \ GOHSH \ adjective
 
Definition
1a: lacking social experience or grace
1b: not tactful
1c: crude
2: crudely made or done


Examples
"We were described by our parents as classless and free, but instructed that chewing gum was gauche."
— Kira von Eichel-Butler, Vogue, October 2016


"The second thing I did was request soy sauce, which wasn't on the table. The waiter managed to remain calm and respectful while dryly informing me that all necessary condiments are already infused into the dishes in the appropriate combinations. My request had apparently been quite gauche…."
— Gene Weingarten, The Key West (Florida) Citizen, 21 May 2017


Did You Know?
Gauche is one of several words that come from old suspicions or negative associations surrounding the left side and use of the left hand. In French, gauche literally means "left," and it has the extended meanings "awkward" and "clumsy."
These meanings may have come about because left-handed people could appear awkward trying to manage in a right-handed world, or perhaps they came about because right-handed people appear awkward when they try to use their left hand.
In fact, awkward comes from the Middle English awke, meaning "turned the wrong way" or "left-handed." On the other hand, adroit and dexterity have their roots in words meaning "right" or "on the right side."

Crucible

WORD OF THE DAY


crucible \ KROO-suh-bul \ noun
 
Definition
1 : a vessel in which metals or other substances are heated to a very high temperature or melted
2 : a severe test
3 : a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development


Examples
Living in the crucible that was Paris in the spring of 1968, Remi got to witness firsthand the angry confrontations between workers, students, and government.


"They each also possess, in their own way, a startling self-awareness and self-possession forged by the crucibles they and their families endured."
— John Nagy, The Pilot (Southern Pines, North Carolina), 6 May 2017


Did You Know?
Crucible looks like it should be closely related to the Latin combining form cruc- ("cross"), but it isn't. It was forged from the Medieval Latin crucibulum, a noun for an earthen pot used to melt metals, and in English it first referred to a vessel made of a very heat-resistant material (such as porcelain) used for melting a substance that requires a high degree of heat.
But the resemblance between cruc- and crucible probably encouraged people to start using crucible to mean "a severe trial." That sense is synonymous with one meaning of cross, a word that is related to cruc-.
The newest sense of crucible ("a situation in which great changes take place"—as in "forged in the crucible of war") recalls the fire and heat that would be encountered in the original heat-resistant pot.

Edacious

WORD OF THE DAY
edacious \ ih-DAY-shus \ adjective
 
Definition
1a: having a huge appetite
1b: ravenous
2a: excessively eager
2b: insatiable


Examples
Living with three edacious teenagers, Marilyn and Roger were dismayed by how much they had to spend on groceries week after week.


"... Stone's narrative prowess had been such as to infect me ... with his Weltschmerz. In fairness, Stone alone was not to blame. For too many years my edacious reading habits had been leading me into one unappealing corner after another...."
— Tom Robbins, Harper's, September 2004


Did You Know?
"Tempus edax rerum."
That wise Latin line by the Roman poet Ovid translates as "Time, the devourer of all things."
Ovid's correlation between rapaciousness and time is appropriate to a discussion of edacious.
That English word is a descendant of Latin edax, which is a derivative of the verb edere, meaning "to eat." In its earliest known English uses, edacious meant "of or relating to eating."
It later came to be used generally as a synonym of voracious, and it has often been used specifically in contexts referring to time. That's how Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle used it when he referred to events "swallowed in the depths of edacious Time."

Vindicate

WORD OF THE DAY
vindicate \ VIN-duh-kayt \ verb
 
Definition
1 : avenge
2a : to free from allegation or blame
2b: confirm, substantiate
2c: to provide justification or defense for
2d: justify
2e: to protect from attack or encroachment
2f: defend
3 : to maintain a right to


Examples
The defendant's lawyer feels his client will be completely vindicated by the witness' testimonies.


"For us comic book fans back in that dark age of aesthetic awareness, the 'Batman' show meant significantly more. Its unexpected popularity briefly vindicated our obsession with what was considered inappropriate reading for anybody over the age of 9 (I was 11 when it hit the air)."
— Bob Strauss, The Daily News of Los Angeles, 11 June 2017


Did You Know?
It's not surprising that the two earliest senses of vindicate are "to set free" (a sense that is now obsolete) and "to avenge."
Vindicate, which has been used in English since at least the mid-16th century, derives from Latin vindicatus, the past participle of the verb vindicare, meaning "to set free, avenge, or lay claim to."
Vindicare, in turn, derives from vindex, a noun meaning "claimant" or "avenger." Other descendants of vindicare in English include such vengeful words as avenge itself, revenge, vengeance, vendetta, and vindictive.
Closer cousins of vindicate are vindicable ("capable of being vindicated") and the archaic word vindicative ("punitive").

Steadfast

WORD OF THE DAY


steadfast \ STED-fast \ adjective
 
Definition
1a: firmly fixed in place
1b: immovable
1c: not subject to change
2a: firm in belief, determination, or adherence
2b: loyal


Examples
Maureen knew she could count on the steadfast support of her best friend even in the hardest of times.


"He advised the graduating class to approach each day with steadfast determination and grit and to remember to be humble and appreciative."
— Austin Ramsey, The Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Kentucky), 20 May 2017


Did You Know?
Steadfast has held its ground in English for many centuries. Its Old English predecessor, stedefæst, combined stede (meaning "place" or "stead") and fæst (meaning "firmly fixed").
An Old English text of the late 10th century, called The Battle of Maldon, contains our earliest record of the word, which was first used in battle contexts to describe warriors who stood their ground.
Soon, it was also being used with the broad meaning "immovable," and as early as the 13th century it was applied to those unswerving in loyalty, faith, or friendship. Centuries later, all of these meanings endure.

Savant

WORD OF THE DAY
savant \ sa-VAHNT \ noun
 
Definition
1 : a person of learning; especially : one with detailed knowledge in some specialized field (as of science or literature)
2 : a person affected with a mental disability (such as autism) who exhibits exceptional skill or brilliance in some limited field (such as mathematics or music); especially autistic savant


Examples
"His conversation, I remember, was about the Bertillon system of measurements, and he expressed his enthusiastic admiration of the French savant."
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1893


"It's romantic to imagine that every artist is a brilliant lone wolf savant who sends his pages by carrier pigeon to an awestruck editor who sends them out into the world as is, but that's really not how it works…."
— Dana Schwartz, The New York Observer, 1 May 2017


Did You Know?
Savant comes from Latin sapere ("to be wise") by way of Middle French, where savant is the present participle of savoir, meaning "to know." Savant shares roots with the English words sapient ("possessing great wisdom") and sage ("having or showing wisdom through reflection and experience").
The term is sometimes used in common parlance to refer to a person who demonstrates extraordinary knowledge in a particular subject, or an extraordinary ability to perform a particular task (such as complex arithmetic), but who has much more limited capacities in other areas.

Meme

WORD OF THE DAY
meme \ MEEM \ noun
 
Definition
1 : an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture
2 : an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media


Examples
"Graffiti have been the elemental memes of political speech ... in all the oppressed countries of this world."
— Claude I. Salem, The New York Times Magazine, 17 Apr. 2011


"Memes are often harmless images—think of the photos of the scowling 'Grumpy Cat'—with humorous text over it, like 'the worst part of my Monday is hearing you complain about yours.'"
— Michael Levenson, The Boston Globe, 6 June 2017


Did You Know?
In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, British scientist Richard Dawkins defended his newly coined word meme, which he defined as "a unit of cultural transmission." Having first considered, then rejected, mimeme, he wrote: "Mimeme comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like gene." (The suitable Greek root was mim-, meaning "mime" or "mimic."
The English suffix -eme indicates a distinctive unit of language structure, as in grapheme, lexeme, and phoneme.) Like any good meme, meme caught on and evolved, eventually developing the meaning known to anyone who spends time online, where it's most often used to refer to any one of those silly captioned photos that the Internet can't seem to get enough of.

Onerous

WORD OF THE DAY


onerous \ AH-nuh-rus \ adjective


Definition
1a : involving, imposing, or constituting a burden
1b : troublesome
2 : having legal obligations that outweigh the advantages


Examples
"Payroll is a complex set of data and tasks. It requires as much simplicity in terms of user interface and navigation as developers can manage..... Every payroll service I've reviewed this year does a good job of simplifying this onerous process."
— David Harsanyi, The Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas), 12 Mar. 2016


"Seems to me that, to be a superfood, a food's got to deliver more than nutrients. It has to be cheap, versatile, good-tasting, not too onerous to prepare and not so perishable that you end up tossing it."
— Tamar Haspel, The Oregonian, 7 June 2017


Did You Know?
Onerous, which traces back to the Latin onus, meaning "burden," has several synonyms. Like onerous, burdensome, oppressive, and exacting all refer to something which imposes a hardship of some kind.
Onerous stresses a sense of laboriousness and heaviness, especially because something is distasteful ("the onerous task of cleaning up the mess"). Burdensome suggests something which causes mental as well as physical strain ("the burdensome responsibilities of being a supervisor").
Oppressive implies extreme harshness or severity in what is imposed ("the oppressive tyranny of a police state"). Exacting suggests rigor or sternness rather than tyranny or injustice in the demands made or in the one demanding ("an exacting employer who requires great attention to detail").

Repudiate

WORD OF THE DAY
repudiate \ rih-PYOO-dee-ayt \ verb
 
Definition
1: to divorce or separate formally from (a woman)
2a: to refuse to have anything to do with
2b: disown
3a: to refuse to accept; especially : to reject as unauthorized or as having no binding force
3b: to reject as untrue or unjust
4 : to refuse to acknowledge or pay


Examples
"He immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife, and to contract a new marriage with the princess of Trebizond…."
— Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 6, 1788


"Our cover girl, Gigi Hadid, … might not seem at first glance to define bravery, but when she sternly repudiated the vicious online sniping about her body last year she stood up not only for herself but for the many, many young women who don't live up to some people's ridiculous and extremely narrow—literally—ideal of a fashionable physique."
— Anna Wintour, Vogue, August 2016


Did You Know?
In Latin, the noun repudium refers to the rejection of a spouse or prospective spouse, and the related verb repudiare means "to divorce" or "to reject." In the 16th century, English speakers borrowed repudiare to create the English verb repudiate, which they used as a synonym of divorce when in reference to a wife and as a synonym of disown when in reference to a member of one's family.
They also used the word more generally in the sense of "to reject or cast off." By the 18th century repudiate had also come to be used for the rejection of things that one does not accept as true or just, ranging from opinions and accusations to contracts and debts.

Assay

WORD OF THE DAY
assay \ a-SAY \ verb
 
Definition
1a: to analyze (something, such as an ore) for one or more specific components
1b: to judge the worth of
1c: estimate
2 : try, attempt
3 : to prove to be of a particular nature by means of analysis


Examples
"Each burger will be assayed by visitors and a panel of judges, including local chefs Jen Knox, Gina Sansonia, Judith Able, Bret Hauser, Camilo Cuartas and Peter Farrand."
— Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com, 19 May 2017


"He bounced from job to job, working on a shrimp boat and later for Pan American Laboratories assaying chemicals coming in from Mexico."
— Steve Clark, The Brownsville (Texas) Herald, 21 Apr. 2017


Did You Know?
Usage experts warn against confusing the verbs assay and essay. Some confusion shouldn't be surprising, since the two words look alike and derive from the same root, the Middle French essai, meaning "test" or "effort" (a root that, in turn, comes from the Late Latin exagium, meaning "act of weighing").
At one time, the two terms were synonyms, sharing the meaning "try" or "attempt," but many modern usage commentators recommend that you differentiate the two words, using essay when you mean "to try or attempt" (as in "he will essay a dramatic role for the first time") and assay to mean "to test or evaluate" (as in "the blood was assayed to detect the presence of the antibody").

Ludic

WORD OF THE DAY


ludic \ LOO-dik \ adjective
 
Definition
1: of, relating to, or characterized by play
2: playful


Examples
"[Mo] Willems's humor is often ludic…. The classic shaggy-dog structure of 'I Broke My Trunk!' centers on Gerald [an elephant] telling a long heroic story that involves him balancing on his trunk first just Hippo … and then also Rhino … and then also Hippo's big sister, playing a grand piano."
— Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2017


"Born of her childhood, Ono's art has remained essentially ludic. Her works usually invite participation. She describes her pieces as 'unfinished' until the audience interacts with them…."
— Jack Feerick, Kirkus Reviews, 17 Dec. 2012


Did You Know?
Here's a serious word, just for fun. That is to say, it means "fun," but it was created in all seriousness around 1940 by psychologists. They wanted a term to describe what children do, and they came up with "ludic activity." That may seem ludicrous—why not just call it "playing"?—but the word ludic caught on, and it's not all child's play anymore.
It can refer to architecture that is playful, narrative that is humorous and even satirical, and literature that is light. Ludic is ultimately from the Latin noun ludus, which refers to a whole range of fun things—stage shows, games, sports, even jokes. The more familiar word ludicrous also traces back to the same source.

Inalienable

WORD OF THE DAY
inalienable \ in-AY-lee-uh-nuh-bul \ adjective
 
Definition
: incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred


Examples
The American ethos is built on the belief that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights.


"'Downward Dog' … goes a particularly funny step further by reflecting another truism: People are dogs, too. We also have complicated emotional lives, further complicated by our professional ones. We also seek food. We also seek love. We obsess.… [T]his terrific series works—because it abides by these simple, inalienable truths."
— Verne Gay, Newsday, 13 May 2017


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.

Sericeous

WORD OF THE DAY

sericeous \ suh-RISH-us \ adjective

Definition

: covered with fine silky hair

Examples

The plant was small and delicate, with narrow sericeous leaves.

The major characters distinguishing this taxon from other members of the genus within its range are the combination of a short habit, sericeous leaves, and relatively large involucres.... 

— Field Guide to Washington's Rare Plants, 1999

Did You Know?

In the writings of the ancient Greeks, there is mention of the Sēres, an eastern Asian people who made what the Greeks called sērikos fabrics. Historians now believe that the Sēres were the Chinese, from whom the ancient Greeks first obtained silk. The ancient Romans wove the Sēres' name into their language, creating sericum, the Latin word for silk. 

The English word silk is also assumed to be spun—with some significant alterations from Old English to Middle English—from the same Greek fiber. Both silk and silken have been in the English language for many, many centuries, but scientists wanted a new term to describe the silky hairs on some leaves and bodies, and so they adapted the Late Latin word sericeus ("silken") to create sericeous, a word that appears almost exclusively in technical contexts.

Construe

WORD OF THE DAY

construe \ kun-STROO \ verb

Definition

1 : to analyze the arrangement and connection of words in (a sentence or sentence part)

2 : to understand or explain the sense or intention of usually in a particular way or with respect to a given set of circumstances

Examples

"A tall, slim girl, 'half-past sixteen,' with serious gray eyes and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down …, firmly resolved to construe so many lines of Virgil." 

— Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, 1909

"He liked barge-size American automobiles, and regularly wore a Stetson. Such habits were not to be construed as affectation. Melville was immune to the idle whim." 

— Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 1 May 2017

Did You Know?

In the 14th century, English speakers acquired the closely linked words construe and construction. You may think of construction as a word having to do with building houses or highways, but it has long had other meanings, including "the arrangement of words in a sentence" and "interpretation." Similarly, construe can mean "to analyze the arrangement and connection of words in a sentence" or "to interpret or explain." Both construe and construction come from the Latin verb construere ("to construct or construe"). In the 15th century, English speakers added mis- to construe to create misconstrue, a word meaning "to put a wrong construction (that is, a wrong interpretation) on."