Chastise

WORD OF THE DAY

chastise / verb / chass-TYZE

Definition

1a: to censure severely 

1b: castigate

2: to inflict punishment on (as by whipping)

Examples

The boss eventually had to chastise certain employees for being consistently late.

"Strikingly, each time the company encounters another privacy outcry, its initial response is not to own up to the situation, explain, apologize and listen, but rather to chastise its users for daring to ask." 

— Kalev Leetaru, Forbes, 6 Apr. 2018

Did You Know?

Chastise, castigate, chasten, correct, and discipline all imply the infliction of a penalty in return for wrongdoing. Chastise often applies to verbal censure or denunciation ("she chastised her son for neglecting his studies"). 

Castigate usually implies a severe, typically public censure ("an editorial was published castigating the entire city council"), while chasten suggests any affliction or trial that leaves someone humbled or subdued ("chastened by a landslide election defeat"). 

Correct implies punishment aimed at reforming an offender ("the function of prison is to correct the wrongdoer"), and discipline is a punishment intended to bring a wrongdoer under control ("parents disciplining their children").

Indigence

WORD OF THE DAY
indigence / noun / IN-dih-junss 
 
Definition
: a level of poverty in which real hardship and deprivation are suffered and comforts of life are wholly lacking


Examples
"But how do the poor minority fare? Perhaps it will be found that just in proportion as some have been placed in outward circumstances above the savage, others have been degraded below him. The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another."
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854


"Indigence isn't rare in Rochester and in Monroe County's towns, given the area's systemic poverty. And for the public defenders' clients, Donaher says, 'any amount of cash bail is an enormous obstacle, because they don't have cash.'"
— Tianna Mañón, The Rochester (New York) City Newspaper, 11 Apr. 2018


Did You Know?
Is your vocabulary impoverished by a lack of synonyms for indigence? We can help. Poverty, penury, want, and destitution all describe the state of someone who is lacking in key resources.
Poverty covers the range from severe lack of basic necessities to an absence of material comforts ("the refugees lived in extreme poverty").
Penury suggests a cramping or oppressive lack of money ("illness condemned him to years of penury").
Want and destitution imply extreme, even life-threatening, poverty ("lived in a perpetual state of want"; "the widespread destitution in countries beset by famine").
Indigence, which descends from a Latin verb meaning "to need," implies seriously straitened circumstances and usually connotes the endurance of many hardships and the lack of comforts.

Sacrosanct

WORD OF THE DAY
sacrosanct / adjective / SAK-roh-sankt 
 
Definition
1a: most sacred or holy
1b: inviolable
2a: treated as if holy
2b: immune from criticism or violation


Examples
"Cowperwood's private office … was a solid cherry-wood box in which he could shut himself completely—sight-proof, sound-proof. When the door was closed it was sacrosanct."
— Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, 1914


"The launch of Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center … was the latest in a series of milestones reviving interest in space. It happened on the sacrosanct stretch of sand along the Florida coast that has witnessed so many epic flights out of the atmosphere."
— Christian Davenport, The Washington Post, 11 Feb. 2018


Did You Know?
That which is sacrosanct is doubly sacred. Sacrosanct is derived from the Latin sacrosanctus, which is probably from the phrase sacro sanctus ("hallowed by a sacred rite").
The first element of this phrase, sacro, is the ablative case of sacrum ("a sacred rite") and means "by a sacred rite" (sacrum lives on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which literally means "holy bone").
The second element, sanctus, is the past participle of the Latin sancire, which means "to make sacred." Sanctus has also given English the words saint, sanctimony, sanctify, and sanctuary.

Flummox

WORD OF THE DAY
flummox / verb / FLUM-uks 
 
Definition
: confuse


Examples
"A computer glitch at the IRS knocked offline the agency's ability to process many tax returns filed electronically, a stunning breakdown that left agency officials flummoxed and millions of Americans bewildered."
— Jeff Stein, Damian Paletta, and Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, 17 Apr. 2018


"The reason for math's bad rap is that the very same teachers and parents who have psychic scars from their own inability to correctly memorize their multiplication tables in the fourth grade are today completely flummoxed by elementary school kids' homework."
— Esther J. Cepeda, The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey), 26 Apr. 2018


Did You Know?
No one is completely sure where the word flummox comes from, but we do know that early use can be found in Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers and that it had become quite common in both British and American English by the end of the 19th century.
One theory expressed by some etymologists is that it was influenced by flummock, a word of English dialectical origin used to refer to a clumsy person. This flummock may also be the source of the word lummox, which also means "a clumsy person."

Homogeneous

WORD OF THE DAY

homogeneous / adjective / hoh-muh-JEEN-yus

Definition

1: of the same or a similar kind or nature

2: of uniform structure or composition throughout

Examples

Stir in the flour, water, eggs, and sugar until it all blends together into one homogeneous mixture.

"The new makeovers also are being tailored to a store's community. That's a shift from the former homogeneous approach that stocked the company's 175 stores with the same inventory." 

— Shandra Martinez, The Grand Rapids (Michigan) Press, 4 Mar. 2018

Did You Know?

Homogeneous, which derives from the Greek roots homos, meaning "same," and genos, meaning "kind," has been used in English since the early 1600s. 

The similar word homogenous (originally created for the science of genetics and used with the meaning "of, relating to, or derived from another individual of the same species") can also be a synonym of homogeneous. 

The words need not be used exclusively in scientific contexts—one can speak of, for example, "a homogenous/homogeneous community."

Cajole

WORD OF THE DAY

cajole / verb / kuh-JOHL

Definition

1a: to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance 

1b: coax

1c: to obtain from someone by gentle persuasion

2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises

Examples

"Wertheim and the 60 Minutes crew were only permitted into the building's circular library, despite an attempt to cajole former Lampoon president Alice Ju to grant them further access." 

— Brit McCandless Farmer, CBSNews.com, 8 Apr. 2018

"Designers call the ways marketers and developers cajole and mislead us into giving up our data 'dark patterns,' tactics that exploit flaws and limits in our cognition." 

— Christopher Mims, The Wall Street Journal, 22 Apr. 2018

Did You Know?

Cajole comes from a French verb, cajoler, which has the same meaning as the English word. You might not think to associate cajole with cage, but some etymologists theorize that cajoler is connected to not one but two words for "cage." 

One of them is the Anglo-French word cage, from which we borrowed our own cage. It comes from Latin cavea, meaning "cage." 

The other is the Anglo-French word for "birdcage," which is gaiole. 

It's an ancestor of our word jail, and it derives from Late Latin caveola, which means "little cage." Anglo-French speakers had a related verb, gaioler, which meant "to chatter like a jay in a cage." It's possible that cajoler is a combination of gaioler and cage.

Petard

WORD OF THE DAY

petard / noun / puh-TAHRD

Definition

1: a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall

2: a firework that explodes with a loud report

Examples

"The metal walls of the narrow corridor would scatter ricochets and shrapnel in every direction, and any intact panels of reflex armor would ignite grenades and petards in counterfire…." 

— John C. Wright, The Judge of Ages, 2014

"I ran back and seized a tin box which had been filled with candles. It was about the size of my busby —large enough to hold several pounds of powder. Duroc filled it while I cut off the end of a candle. When we had finished, it would have puzzled a colonel of engineers to make a better petard." 

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, 1896

Did You Know?

Aside from historical references to siege warfare, and occasional contemporary references to fireworks, petard is almost always encountered in variations of the phrase "hoist with one's own petard," meaning "victimized or hurt by one's own scheme." 

The phrase comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet: "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petar." Hoist in this case is the past participle of the verb hoise, meaning "to lift or raise," and petar(d) refers to an explosive device used in siege warfare. 

Hamlet uses the example of the engineer (the person who sets the explosive device) being blown into the air by his own device as a metaphor for those who schemed against him being undone by their own schemes. 

The phrase has endured, even if its literal meaning has largely been forgotten.

Garrulous

WORD OF THE DAY

garrulous / adjective / GAIR-uh-lus

Definition

1a: given to prosy, rambling, or tedious loquacity 

1b: pointlessly or annoyingly talkative

2a: using or containing many and usually too many words 

2b: wordy

Examples

Bob's garrulous and outgoing nature is a stark contrast to his brother's more retiring demeanor.

"Travel impresses on the memory a kaleidoscope of disparate images…. Men in long gray shirts and trousers play cards. In a dusty, narrow street, an old woman sells vegetables. Garrulousgray and black crows look for food along the sewage canal." 

— Krista Kafer, The Denver Post, 1 Dec. 2017

Did You Know?

English has many adjectives that share the meaning "given to talk" or "talking." 

Talkative may imply a readiness to talk or a disposition to enjoy conversation, while loquacious suggests the power of expressing oneself articulately, fluently, or glibly. 

Voluble suggests a free, easy, and unending talkativeness, and garrulous implies talkativeness that is dull, rambling, or tedious. 

Garrulous, by the way, derives from the Latin verb garrīre, which means "to chatter" or "to talk rapidly."

Raillery

Word of the Day : May 21, 2018 
raillery / noun / RAIL-uh-ree 


Definition
1a: good-natured ridicule
1b: banter
2a: an instance of joking or ridicule
2b: jest


Examples
"Hardin rarely got angry at anyone. Fuzz was always trying to get his goat with some unprovoked raillery, but Hardin understood that was the point and couldn't even force himself to be riled."
— Michael MacLeod, The Antioch Review, Fall 2009


"Indeed, the sense of camaraderie between cast members is striking. Charlotte Ritchie and Simon Bird in particular have a steady repartee that makes the interview feel more like a cosy chat, and it is clear that the wit and raillery that distinguish the play are equally prevalent off stage."
— Katie Sayer and Emily Lawford, Cherwell (Oxford University), 5 June 2017


Did You Know?
Raillery is the anglicized form of the French word raillerie, which stems from the Middle French verb railler, meaning "to mock."
Railler, which probably comes from Old French reillier ("to growl" or "to mutter") and ultimately from Late Latin ragere ("to neigh"), also gave us our verb rail.
But rail and raillery are quite different in tone. Rail means "to revile or scold in harsh, insolent, or abusive language," whereas raillery usually suggests cutting wit that pokes fun good-naturedly.

Muliebrity

WORD OF THE DAY

muliebrity / noun / myoo-lee-EB-ruh-tee

Definition

1: the quality of being a woman 

2: femininity

Examples

Helene tried to convey to her daughter that muliebrity was best expressed not by dressing a certain way or conforming to others' expectations, but by being her own true, confident self.

"Wonder Woman has flaws.… It succeeds in spite of them, and that is to be admired, but we cannot start viewing this as the epitome of the female superhero motion picture. We will accomplish more, and faster if we view this film as the starting point for muliebrity in the comic-book blockbuster." 

— Thomas Burns Scully, PopDust, 5 June 2017

Did You Know?

Muliebrity has been used in English to suggest the distinguishing character or qualities of a woman or of womankind since the 16th century. (Its masculine counterpart, virility, entered the language at about the same time.) 

Muliebrity comes from Latin mulier, meaning "woman," and probably is a cognate of Latin mollis, meaning "soft." Mollis is also the source of the English verb mollify—a word that implies a "softening" of hurt feelings or anger.

Winsome

WORD OF THE DAY
winsome / adjective / WIN-sum 
 
Definition
1: generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence
2: cheerful, lighthearted


Examples
"… the song's giddy piano licks and bass groove are so winsome and familiar, the whole thing's tough to place in any particular setting. Simply put, it's a pop song, in a very classic sense."
— Chris Payne, Billboard, 17 May 2017


"The winsome Canadian comedy 'Don't Talk to Irene' combines a high school misfit movie with a backstage musical and adds a few fantastical flourishes for an uplifting tale about an outsider finding her place in the world. It's so sweet it just might give you a cavity."
— Katie Walsh, The Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2018


Did You Know?
Winsome began as wynsum many centuries ago. It was formed from wynn, the Old English word for "joy" or "pleasure," and the suffix -sum, an older form of the -some we see today in many adjectives, such as awesome, irksome, and lonesome.
Wynn later became win, meaning "pleasure," but that noun is now obsolete. We do, however, use another word that has a "pleasing" connection and is related, albeit distantly, to winsome. Winning ("tending to please or delight," as in "a winning smile" or "winning ways"), the present participle of the familiar verb win, is from Old English winnan, meaning "to struggle."
Both winnan and wynn are thought to be related to Latin venus, which means, among other things, "charm."

Aggress

WORD OF THE DAY

aggress / verb / uh-GRESS

Definition

1: to make an attack 

2: to act aggressively

Examples

Certain indicators, such as irritability, can signify an animal's likelihood to aggress.

"Under-socialized dogs are risks to their owners and to others because they can become frightened by everyday things, making them more likely to aggress or bite." 

— Dottie Nelson, The Addison County (Vermont) Independent, 17 July 2017

Did You Know?

Aggress and its more familiar relatives aggression and aggressive derive from the Latin verb aggredī, meaning "to approach, attack, or undertake." 

Although the modern word aggress carries only the second of these three meanings, the word could when it was first used in English in the 16th century also mean "to approach." That use is now obsolete. 

There also exists a noun aggress, which is too rare to qualify for entry in even our unabridged dictionary.  It typically means "an attack," but also has an obsolete meaning of "an approach."

Layman

WORD OF THE DAY

layman / noun / LAY-mun

Definition

1: a person who is not a member of the clergy

2: a person who does not belong to a particular profession or who is not expert in some field

Examples

The Nobel laureate's book is an introduction to astrophysics that, despite its depth and detail, remains accessible to the layman.

"One of my favorite genres of Catholic literature is the book-length interview: the Pope or some other high-ranking churchman sits down with a reporter or other layman, both operating on the assumption that conversation tends toward truth." 

— Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 16 Apr. 2018

Did You Know?

Layman began its run in English as the open compound lay man. In this context, lay is an adjective that can mean "belonging or relating to those not in holy orders," "not of the clergy," and "not ecclesiastical." 

The origins of lay and layman can be traced back through French and Late Latin to Greek laikos, meaning "of the people." Layman was originally used to distinguish between non-clerical people and the clergy, but it was soon also being used to distinguish non-professionals from professionals in a field (such as law or medicine). 

The phrase layman’s terms is used to refer to simple language about a topic that even non-experts in the field can understand.

Transpire

WORD OF THE DAY
transpire / verb / tran-SPYRE 
 
Definition
1a: to take place
1b: go on, occur
2a: to become known or apparent
2b: develop
2c: to be revealed
2d: come to light
3a: to give off vaporous material; specifically
3b: to give off or exude watery vapor especially from the surfaces of leaves
4: to pass in the form of a vapor from a living body
5: to pass off or give passage to (a fluid) through pores or interstices


Examples
Plants transpire more profusely under dry, hot weather conditions.


"The single best way to improve the vibe of a room is with candles. And for that you're going to want a good-looking set of candlesticks. They are … the easy upgrade, the little hint that something really fun is about to transpire."
— Bon Appétit, December 2017


Did You Know?
Transpire came to life in the late 16th century and was originally used in technical contexts to describe the passage of vapor through the pores of a membrane. From this technical use developed a figurative sense: "to escape from secrecy," or "to become known."
That sense was often used in ambiguous contexts and could be taken to mean "to happen." (For example, Emily Dickinson wrote in a letter, "I long to see you once more ... to tell you of many things which have transpired since we parted.") Thus, the "to take place" sense developed.
Around 1870, usage critics began to attack this sense as a misuse, and modern critics occasionally echo that sentiment. But the sense is commonly found today in serious and polished prose without concern.

Remuneration

WORD OF THE DAY

remuneration / noun / rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun

Definition

1: the act or fact of paying an equivalent to for a service, loss, or expense 

2: recompense, pay

Examples

The actor was offered a modest speaking fee by the host as remuneration for giving her speech at the awards ceremony.

"Travelers who are bumped from an overbooked flight can seek remuneration—as can people who were delayed more than three hours by a 'technical difficulty.'" 

— Melanie Lieberman, Travel + Leisure, 6 Mar. 2018

Did You Know?

Our evidence shows remuneration to be most at home in writing that concerns financial matters, especially when large amounts of money—or other forms of compensation—are involved. 

Whether it's because money is often expressed in numerals, or simply because the "n" and "m" are adjacent to each other on our keyboards, "reMUNeration" often appears misspelled as "reNUMeration." (Renumeration, a very rare word, means "the act of enumerating [counting or listing] again.") 

It pays to know that the -mun- in remuneration is from Latin munus, meaning "gift," a root it shares with munificent, an adjective which means "very liberal in giving."

Otiose

WORD OF THE DAY

otiose / adjective / OH-shee-ohss

Definition

1a: producing no useful result 

1b: futile

2a: being at leisure 

2b: idle

3a: lacking use or effect 

3b: functionless

Examples

"Ever since I was seven years old, I have been collecting books and articles on the Great Flood, hoping to write the full account myself. David McCullough's The Johnstown Flood(1968) was so brilliant that it rendered my own ambition otiose." 

— Michael Novak, National Review, 4 June 2014

"He did not have the patience for otiose people like Gibson, whom he put in the same category as those rude reporters who continued to pester him daily with inane queries and ridiculous suggestions." 

— Godfrey Wray, Beyond Revenge, 2008

Did You Know?

Otiose was first used in English in the late-18th century to describe things producing no useful result. By mid-19th century, it was being used in keeping with its Latin source otiosus, meaning "at leisure." 

There is also the noun form otiosity, which predates otiose by approximately three centuries. 

That noun is rarely found in writing today, but it makes an appearance on the occasional spelling bee word list.

Agonistic

WORD OF THE DAY
agonistic / adjective / ag-uh-NISS-tik 
 
Definition
1: of or relating to the athletic contests of ancient Greece
2: argumentative
3: striving for effect : strained
4: of, relating to, or being aggressive or defensive social interaction (such as fighting, fleeing, or submitting) between individuals usually of the same species


Examples
Artie Kopelman … has also noticed non-hunting uses of bubbles in his humpback-whale encounters. In one instance last summer, he and a small group were drifting in a boat when suddenly a ring of bubbles surrounded them. 'This might have been an agonistic display, or an attempt to build a wall around us,' says Kopelman…."
— Erica Cirino, The Atlantic, 28 June 2017


"In agonistic discourse, a political rival is seen and talked about as an adversary—an adversary to be beaten, for sure—but still an adversary, with the same right to be in the political arena as one's self."
— Eddie Glenn, The Tulsa (Oklahoma) World, 19 Oct. 2016


Did You Know?
Agonistic has its roots in ancient Greece—specifically in the agonistic (to use the oldest sense of the word) athletic contests called agons featured at public festivals. From physical conflict to verbal jousting, agonistic came to be used as a synonym for argumentative and later to mean "striving for effect" or "strained."
Common current use, however, is biological, relating to confrontational interaction among animals of the same species and the responsive behaviors—such as aggression, flight, or submission—they exhibit.
Agonistic is also sometimes used to describe an agonist muscle, a muscle that on contracting is automatically checked and controlled by an opposing muscle, that other muscle being an antagonist. For example, during a bicep curl in weight lifting, the (contracted) bicep is the agonistic muscle and the (relaxed) triceps muscle is the antagonist.

Menagerie

WORD OF THE DAY

menagerie / noun / muh-NAJ-uh-ree

Definition

1a: a place where animals are kept and trained especially for exhibition

1b: a collection of wild or foreign animals kept especially for exhibition

2: a varied mixture

Examples

"Joe proved a quick country convert, taking ownership of the grounds and the growing menagerie, which now includes eight Icelandic sheep, eight Bantam chickens, and two collies." 

— Caroline Collins McKenzie, Country Living, December 2017

"I can never find my keys in the four pockets in my pants. So the typical golf bag, with its menagerie of zippers and storage, presents a particular nightmare of lost essentials." 

— Tom Chiarella, Popular Mechanics, June 2017

Did You Know?

Back in the days of Middle French, ménagerie meant "the management of a household or farm" or "a place where animals are tended." 

By the late 1600s, English speakers had adopted the word but dropped its housekeeping aspects, applying it specifically to the places where circuses and other exhibitions kept show animals. 

Later, menagerie was generalized to refer to any varied mixture, especially one that includes things that are strange or foreign to one's experience.

Decimate

WORD OF THE DAY
decimate / verb / DESS-uh-mayt 
 
Definition
1: to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2: to exact a tax of 10 percent from
3a: to reduce drastically especially in number
3b: to cause great destruction or harm to


Examples
Budget cuts have decimated public services in many towns and cities throughout the state.


"We must do everything we can to eliminate the diseases that have potential to decimate our population if we do not take action."
— Kacie L. Pauls, The Kansas City (Missouri) Star, 22 Mar. 2018


Did You Know?
The connection between decimate and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome.
A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by the selection and execution of one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. It's no surprise that the word for this practice came from Latin decem, meaning "ten."
From this root we also get our words decimal and decade, as well as December, so named because it was originally the tenth month of the calendar before the addition of January and February.
In its extended uses, decimate strayed from its "tenth" meaning and nowadays refers to the act of destroying or damaging a great quantity or large part of something.

Flocculate

WORD OF THE DAY

flocculate / verb / FLAH-kyuh-layt 
 
Definition
: to aggregate or coalesce into small lumps or loose clusters


Examples
During fermentation, yeast cells flocculate and either rise to the top or sink to the bottom of the vat.


"The polymer causes organics and dirt in the water to flocculate or collect together out of suspension."
 — Jill Pickett, The News-Enterprise (Elizabethtown, Kentucky), 2 May 2013


Did You Know?
In the late 16th century, scientists noticed that the loose masses separated from a solution or suspension through precipitation often resembled tufts of wool, and they began to refer to them as flocks, using a word for "tufts" that comes ultimately from the synonymous Latin word floccus. (This flock is not related to the flock that refers to a group of animals, which comes from Old English flocc, meaning "crowd" or "band.")
About two centuries later, the Late Latin term flocculus found its way into English and was also used with the meaning "a small loosely aggregated mass." By the end of the 19th century, a whole word family had been formed, including the adjective flocculent, the noun floccule, and the verb flocculate.

Beaucoup

WORD OF THE DAY

beaucoup / adjective / BOH-koo

Definition

1a: slang, great in quantity or amount 

1b: many, much

Examples

"Atlanta has beaucoup amenities for visitors, from one of the world's largest aquariums to headier destinations such as the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library." 

— Michael Kahn, Curbed Atlanta, 12 July 2017

"Two estranged sisters with beaucoup unresolved issues meet for a European holiday in Swedish writer-director Lisa Langseth's inauspicious English-language feature 'Euphoria.'" 

— Alissa Simon, Variety, 8 Sept. 2017

Did You Know?

In French, as you may know, beaucoup is an adverb meaning "a lot" or "much" (as in merci beaucoup, meaning "thanks a lot"). Beaucoup isn't used on its own as an adjective in French; if you want to say "many" in French, you use the phrase beaucoup de. I

n other words, you would say beaucoup de livres ("a lot of books"), not beaucoup livres. But French grammar was thrown to the wind when English speakers borrowed this word. Beaucoup has been used as a playful slang adjective in English since at least the 19th century.

Palindrome

WORD OF THE DAY

palindrome / noun / PAL-un-drohm

Definition

: a word, verse, or sentence (such as "Able was I ere I saw Elba") or a number (such as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward

Examples

The teacher asked the class if anyone could think of a single word palindrome with 7 letters. After a couple minutes, Mia raised her hand and said "repaper."

"He went on to create Noxon Tools, named for a small Montana town.… Noxon is a palindrome—spelled the same way forward or backward." — Cindy Hval, The Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), 13 Mar. 2018

Did You Know?

Palindromic wordplay is nothing new. Palindromes have been around since at least the days of ancient Greece, and our name for them comes from two Greek words, palin, meaning "back" or "again," and dramein, meaning "to run." 

Nowadays, we can all appreciate a clever palindrome (such as "Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard" or "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama"), or even a simple one like "race car," but in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Until well into the 19th century some folks thought palindromes were actually magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets to protect people or property from harm.

Eventuate

WORD OF THE DAY
eventuate / verb / ih-VEN-chuh-wayt 
 
Definition
1: to come out finally
2: result, come about


Examples
The accident eventuated from a cascade of mistakes that could easily have been prevented with better operator training.


"Charles Dickens is at his best when he compares events in London and Paris during a period of revolution. While the historian may help us to understand the social context that eventuates in a revolution, it is a novel that shows the personal tragedies that come from the breakdown of social order."
— Allan Powell, The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland), 7 Apr. 2016


Did You Know?
Eventuate started life as an Americanism in the late 18th century, and was stigmatized in the 19th century. One British commentator called it "another horrible word, which is fast getting into our language through the provincial press."
Other British grammarians, and even some Americans, agreed that it was horrible. Eventuate is less controversial these days, though its use is still regarded by the occasional critic as pompous, ponderous, and unnecessary. In any case, eventuate has a perfectly respectable history.
It is derived from the Latin noun eventus ("event"), which in turn traces to the verb evenire, meaning "to happen."