Phantasm

WORD OF THE DAY

phantasm / noun / FAN-taz-um

Definition
1: a product of fantasy, such as:
a: delusive appearance
b: illusion
c: ghost, specter
d: a figment of the imagination

2 : a mental representation of a real object

Examples
"In each maze, you will follow in the footsteps of the Ghostbusters—Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston—as they venture through recreated scenes from the film, including the firehouse, New York Public Library and the Temple of Gozer, as an army of ghoulish spirits, specters and phantasms attack."
— Devoun Cetoute, The Miami Herald, 17 July 2019

"Finally I had to admit defeat: I was never going to turn around my faltering musical career. So at 31 I gave up, abandoning my musical aspirations entirely, to pursue a doctorate in public policy. … After finishing my studies, I became a university professor, a job I enjoyed. But I still thought every day about my beloved first vocation. Even now, I regularly dream that I am onstage, and wake to remember that my childhood aspirations are now only phantasms."
— Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, July 2019

Did You Know?
Phantasm is from Middle English fantasme, a borrowing from Anglo-French fantasme, which itself is a derivative of Latin and Greek words—and ultimately the Greek verb phantazein, meaning "to present to the mind."
The Greek verb took shape from phainein, meaning "to show," and this root appears in several English words that have to do with the way things seem or appear rather than the way they really are.
Phantasmagoria and diaphanous are examples. Also from this root are words such as fanciful and fantasy, in which the imagination plays an important part.

Respite

WORD OF THE DAY

respite / noun / ESS-pit

Definition
1: a period of temporary delay
2: an interval of rest or relief

Examples
The station's meteorologist had predicted that the bad weather would continue throughout the week without respite.

"Such small, shady public spaces provide a welcome respite from busy street life and enhance the livability of the city."
— David Ross Scheer, The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 Sept. 2019.

Did You Know?
Respite is first known to have been used at the turn of the 14th century to refer to a delay or extension asked for or granted for a specific reason—to give someone time to deliberate on a proposal, for example. Such a respite offered an opportunity for the kind of consideration inherent in the word's etymology.
Respite traces from the Latin term respectus (also the source of English's respect), which comes from respicere, a verb with both concrete and abstract meanings: "to turn around to look at" or "to regard."
Within a few decades of its earliest known use, English speakers had granted respite the sense we use most often today—"a welcome break."

Lackadaisical

WORD OF THE DAY

lackadaisical / adjective / ak-uh-DAY-zih-kul

Definition
1: lacking life, spirit, or zest
2: languid

Examples
"What used to be a bar with barely passable food, boring décor and lackadaisical service has a new incarnation. Everything has been improved, starting with its transformation into a lively tavern with a menu of popular comfort foods, as well as choices for more adventurous eaters."
— Marc Bona, Cleveland.com, 6 Apr. 2017

"But it was not that they lost— … but how they lost, mired in lackadaisical play. Jose Iglesias was thrown out at third base trying to advance in a ball on the dirt for an easy out. Blaine Hardy forgot to cover first base. And then … J.D. Martinez caught a fly ball in rightfield and assumed Jason Kipnis would hold at third base."
— Anthony French, The Detroit Free Press, 8 July 2017

Did You Know?
Alas, alack, there are times when life seems to be one unfortunate occurrence after another. We've all had days when nothing seemed to go right. When folks had one of those days back in the 17th century, they'd cry "Lackaday" to express their sorrow and disappointment.
Lackaday was a shortened form of the expression "alack the day." By the mid-1700s, lackadaisical was being used (coined through the addition of the suffix -ical).
The word lackadaisy also was used around that time as an interjection similar to lackaday, and this word, though never as prevalent as lackaday, might have influenced the coinage of lackadaisical.

Undulate

WORD OF THE DAY

undulate / verb / UN-juh-layt

Definition
1a: to form or move in waves
1b: fluctuate
2: to rise and fall in volume, pitch, or cadence
3: to present a wavy appearance

Examples
"He could hear the muffled fart of a tuba from the German oompah band warming up in Feltman's beer garden. Beyond the garden was the Ziz coaster, hissing and undulating through the trees with the peculiar sound that gave it its name."
— Kevin Baker, Dreamland, 1999

"Mats of bright green duckweed undulated in the slow current of the La Crosse River, reminding an observer of the shape shifting in a lava lamp."
— Dave Skoloda, The La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, 4 Sept. 2019

Did You Know?
Undulate and inundate are word cousins that branch from unda, the Latin word for "wave." No surprise there. But would you have guessed that abound, surround, and redound are also unda offspring?
The connection between unda and these words is easier to see when you learn that at some point in their early histories each of them essentially had the meaning of "to overflow"—a meaning that inundate still carries, along with its "overwhelm" sense.

Coruscate

WORD OF THE DAY

coruscate / verb / KOR-uh-skayt

Definition
1a: to give off or reflect light in bright beams or flashes
1b: sparkle
2: to be brilliant or showy in technique or style

Examples
"You can sense [Mickaline] Thomas's affection for these ostentatiously fabulous women. They sport towering Afros, floral-print shifts, gold lamé belts…. Lips and eyelids coruscate enough to light the way at night."
— Ariella Budick, The Financial Times, 7 Nov. 2012

"Think of the Amalfi Coast and visions come to mind of verdant hillsides brimming with pastel-color buildings reflected in the coruscating Tyrrhenian Sea."
— Sahar Khan, Vogue, 10 Nov. 2017

Did You Know?
To help you gain a flash of recognition next time you see coruscate (or to prompt you when you need a brilliant synonym for sparkle), remember this bit of bright imagery by George Bernard Shaw, describing a centuries-old abbey:

O'er this north door a trace still lingers
Of how a Gothic craftsman's fingers
Could make stones creep like ivy stems
And tilings coruscate like gems.

Or you could just remember that coruscate developed from Latin coruscare, which means "to flash." That word also gave us the noun coruscation ("glitter" or "sparkle") and the adjective coruscant ("shining" or "glittering").

Noachian

WORD OF THE DAY

Noachian / adjective / noh-AY-kee-un

Definition
1: of or relating to the patriarch Noah or his time
2: ancient, antiquated

Examples
"So you thought the weather of 2009 was a bit on the insane side, with a spring that seemed to last until fall and Noachian levels of rainfall? Not really, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center in Ithaca, N.Y."
— Thomas J. Morgan, The Providence Journal, 21 Nov. 2009

"Elendil, a Noachian figure, who has held off from the rebellion, and kept ships manned and furnished off the east coast of Númenor, flees before the overwhelming storm of the wrath of the West…."
— J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, (1977, posthumously)

Did You Know?
Students of the Bible know that Noah survived the Great Flood by stowing himself, his family, and male and female specimens of every kind of creature on his Ark.
Noachian is derived from the Hebrew name for Noah. Modern contexts find Noachian used in reference to the Great Flood or, more humorously, to describe torrential rainstorms and flooding reminiscent of the Biblical event.
It could be said that usage of Noachian spans even beyond planet Earth. Astronomers studying the surface of the planet Mars use Noachian to refer to the epoch between 4.6 and 3.5 billion years ago when that planet's oldest craters were believed to be formed.
This usage is based on Noachis Terra, the name of one of the landmasses of Mars, which translates as "Land of Noah" and was chosen in the 19th century by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli.

Divulge

WORD OF THE DAY

divulge / verb / dih-VULJ

Definition
: to make known (something, such as a secret)

Examples
"Mita Shah, a former marketing statistician, was once a devoted customer of this strip-mall parlor—so devoted that, one day in 2000, she divulged her much-finessed recipe for mango ice cream to the owner. It was such a hit, he offered her a job."
— Ligaya Mishan, The New York Times, 2 July 2019

"Danielle was already up and watching the Discovery Channel, pretending to know more about sharks than the voice-over was willing to divulge, improvising facts as she went along, to make the ocean more interesting."
— Camille Bordas, The New Yorker, 20 May 2019

Did You Know?
It isn't vulgar to make known the roots of divulge. The preceding sentence contains two hints about the origins of the word.
Divulge was borrowed into Middle English in the 15th century from Latin divulgare, a word that combines the prefix dis-, meaning "apart" or "in different directions," with vulgare, meaning "to make known." Vulgare, in turn, derives from the Latin noun vulgus, meaning "mob" or "common people."
As you have no doubt guessed, English vulgar is another word that can be traced back to vulgus.

Fiduciary

WORD OF THE DAY

fiduciary / adjective / fuh-DOO-shee-air-ee

Definition
1: of, relating to, or involving a confidence or trust, such as
a : held or founded in trust or confidence
b : holding in trust
c : depending on public confidence for value or currency

Examples
"A pet trust can be part of an existing trust or it can be drawn up separately. In a trust, you name the caretaker and you establish a fiduciary obligation for them to care for the pets in the manner and style you choose."
— Charlie Powell, The Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Idaho & Washington), 24 Aug. 2019

"This is an essential piece of insider trading that many people get wrong. The key element of insider trading is not the information. It is the fiduciary relationship breached when an insider uses that information."
— Eric Reed, TheStreet.com, 5 Feb. 2019

Did You Know?
Fiduciary relationships often concern money, but the word fiduciary does not, in and of itself, suggest financial matters.
Rather, fiduciary applies to any situation in which one person justifiably places confidence and trust in someone else and seeks that person's help or advice in some matter.
The attorney-client relationship is a fiduciary one, for example, because the client trusts the attorney to act in the best interest of the client at all times.
Fiduciary can also be used as a noun for the person who acts in a fiduciary capacity, and fiduciarily or fiducially can be called upon if you are in need of an adverb.
The words are all faithful to their origin: Latin fīdere, which means "to trust."

Comprise

WORD OF THE DAY

comprise / verb / kum-PRYZE

Definition

1: to be made up of

2: compose, constitute

3: to include especially within a particular scope

Examples

The city developers' plans include a massive recreational complex that comprises a concert hall, four restaurants, two hotels, and a theater.

"He said the city's commission, currently comprised of three members but set up for five, is supposed to meet monthly but usually convenes only in times of need, which is rare." 

— Kevin Duffy, The Morning Call, 29 Aug. 2019

Did You Know?

Comprise has undergone a substantial shift in usage since first appearing in English in the 15th century. 

For many years, grammarians insisted that the usage of comprise meaning "to be made up of," as in phrases like "a team comprising nine players," was correct, and that comprise meaning "to make up," as in phrases like "the nine players who comprise the team," was not. This disputed use is most common in the passive construction "to be comprised of," as in "a team comprised of nine players." 

Until relatively recently, this less-favored sense appeared mostly in scientific writing, but current evidence shows that it is now somewhat more common in general use than the word's other meanings.

Genial

WORD OF THE DAY

genial / adjective / JEE-nee-ul

Definition

1a: favorable to growth or comfort 

1b: mild

2: marked by or freely expressing sympathy or friendliness

3: displaying or marked by genius

Examples

"What country seems more sensible? The even discourse, the reflexive politeness, the brilliant yet genial wit, that easy embrace of hellish cold: Canada is a rock. Canada is the neighbor who helps clean out your garage.… Canada is always so … solid." 

— S. L. Price, Sports Illustrated, 12 Mar. 2019

"… Sony Pictures confirmed that its upcoming Fred Rogers film will be called 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.' The announcement came by way of Twitter…, with the studio again sharing a picture of its star Tom Hanks seated on a trailer stoop in character as the genial children's programming pioneer—cardigan and all." 

— Nardine Saad, The Los Angeles Times, 28 December 2018

Did You Know?

Genial derives from the Latin adjective genialis, meaning "connected with marriage." When genial was first adopted into English in the mid-16th century, it meant "of or relating to marriage," a sense that is now obsolete. 

Genialis was formed in Latin by combining the -alis suffix (meaning "of, relating to, or characterized by") with genius, meaning "a person's disposition or inclination." 

As you may have guessed, Latin genius is the ancestor of the English word genius, meaning "extraordinary intellectual power"—so it's logical enough that genial eventually developed a sense (possibly influenced by the German word genial) of "marked by very high intelligence."

Maunder

WORD OF THE DAY

maunder / verb / MAWN-der

Definition

1 (chiefly British) : grumble

2 : to wander slowly and idly

3 : to speak indistinctly or disconnectedly

Examples

The bed-and-breakfast was delightful but we felt a bit captive in the morning as our host maundered on while we hovered at the door, hoping to escape before the morning had passed.

"Listening to [Kenneth Branagh playing Hercule Poirot] feels like chatting with your neighbor over the garden hedge, and it's all too easy to be distracted by the foliage, I'm afraid, as he maunders on about knife wounds and sleeping potions and missing kimonos." 

— Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2017

Did You Know?

Maunder looks a lot like meander, and that's not all the two words have in common—both mean "to wander aimlessly," either physically or in speech. 

Some critics have suggested that while meander can describe a person's verbal and physical rambling, in addition to the wanderings of things like paths and streams, maunder should be limited to wandering words. 

The problem with that reasoning is that maunder has been used of the physical movements of people since the 18th century, whereas meander didn't acquire that use until the 19th. 

These days, meander tends to be the more common choice, although maunder does continue to turn up in both applications.

Wheedle

WORD OF THE DAY

wheedle / verb / WEE-dul

Definition

1: to influence or entice by soft words or flattery

2: to gain or get by coaxing or flattering

3: to use soft words or flattery

Examples

Suzie and Timmy wheedled the babysitter into letting them stay up an hour past their bedtime.

"As we were saying, if you've noticed an increase recently in robocalls—those automated calls to your cellphone or landline with come-ons to lower your credit card debt or ploys to wheedle your Social Security number and other information from you—you're hardly alone." 

— editorial, The Daily Herald (Everett, Washington), 2 July 2019

Did You Know?

Wheedle has been a part of the English lexicon since the mid-17th century, though no one is quite sure how the word made its way into English. (It has been suggested that the term may have derived from an Old English word that meant "to beg," but this is far from certain.) 

Once established in the language, however, wheedle became a favorite of some of the language's most illustrious writers. 

Wheedle and its related forms appear in the writings of Wordsworth, Dickens, Kipling, Dryden, Swift, Scott, Tennyson, and Pope, among others.

Belfry

Word of the Day : October 15, 2019

belfry / noun / BEL-free

Definition

1: a bell tower,  one surmounting or attached to another structure

2: a room or framework for enclosing a bell

3a: the seat of the intellect 

3b: head

Examples

"The mission stands a little back of the town, and is a large building, or rather collection of buildings, in the centre of which is a high tower, with a belfry of five bells…." 

— Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 1840

"In 1963, a stone steeple over the belfry was removed after settling of the foundation compromised its integrity." 

— Stephen Mills, The Times Argus (Barre-Montpelier, Vermont), 12 July 2019

Did You Know?

Surprisingly, belfry does not come from bell, and early belfries did not contain bells at all. Belfry comes from the Middle English berfrey, a term for a wooden tower used in medieval sieges. The structure could be rolled up to a fortification wall so that warriors hidden inside could storm the battlements. 

Over time, the term was applied to other types of shelters and towers, many of which had bells in them. 

This association of berfrey with bell towers, seems to have influenced the dissimilation of the first r in berfrey to an l, and people began representing this pronunciation in writing with variants such as bellfray, belfrey, and belfry (the last of which has become the standard spelling). 

On a metaphorical note, someone who has "bats in the belfry" is insane or eccentric. This phrase is responsible for the use of bats for "insane" (as in "Are you completely bats?") and the occasional use of belfry for "head" ("He's not quite right in the belfry").

triskaidekaphobia

WORS OF THE DAY

triskaidekaphobia / noun / triss-kye-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh

Definition

1: fear of the number thirteen 

Examples

„We've gathered a list of 13 local theater productions to help you get into that eerie Halloween feeling. Just don't let triskaidekaphobia—fear of the number 13—stop you from seeing one of these theater productions opening across the state this month." 

— Whitney Butters Wilde The Desert News, 1 OKT, 2018

„If you've got triskaidekaphobia, this event is not for you.... On Friday, April 13, some fans of the horror movie 'Friday the 13th' will get a chance to stay overnight at the New Jersey camp where the original film in the slasher series was shot."

— Amy Lieu, The New York Post, 21 Feb 2018

Did You Know?

It's impossible to say just how or when the number thirteen got its bad reputation. There are a number of theories, of course. 

Some say it comes from the Last Supper because Jesus was betrayed afterwards by one among the thirteen present. 

Others trace the source of the superstition back to Hindu beliefs or Norse mythology. But if written references are any indication, the phenomenon isn't all that old (at least, not among English speakers). 

Known mention of fear of thirteen in print dates back only to the late 1800s.  By circa 1911, however, it was prevalent enough to merit a name, which was formed by attaching the Greek word for "thirteen"—treiskaideka (dropping that first "e")—to phobia ("fear of").

Amaranthine

WORD OF THE DAY

amaranthine / adjective / am-uh-RANTH-un

Definition
1a: of or relating to an amaranth
1b: undying
2: of a pinkish or rosy red color

Examples
"At 37-years-old, most players accept they have reached their twilight years, yet goalkeepers can lead an almost amaranthine existence…."
— Chris Tait, The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), 2 Apr. 2012

"Locals call it the 'pink moment'—this phenomenon where the sky takes on a soft, amaranthine glow at dusk. Unlike most sunsets, this one comes from the east, where the Topatopa Mountains act like a mirror to reflect and diffuse the orb's light over Ojai Valley in Ventura County."
— Ginny Prior, The Mercury News (California), 9 Oct. 2013

Did You Know?
Long ago poets conceived of a flower that did not fade and christened it amaranth. The appellation is rooted in the Greek word amarantos, meaning "immortal" or "unfading," and amarantus, the Latin name of a flower (probably Celosia cristata).
The word amaranthine emerged as an adjective of the imaginary flower and subsequently of anything possessing its undying quality.
Amaranth also names a real plant (genus Amaranthus), an herb that some consider a weed and others grow for its colorful leaves and spikes of flowers.

Blandish

Word of the Day : October 10, 2019

blandish / verb / BLAN-dish

Definition

1a: to coax with flattery 

1b: cajole

2: to act or speak in a flattering or coaxing manner

Examples

"… and all that was left of Pym, it seemed to me, as I wove my lies and blandished, and perjured myself before one kangaroo court after another, was a failing con man tottering on the last legs of his credibility." 

— John Le Carré, A Perfect Spy, 1986

"What happened, and what few expected, was the birth of open-access journals that will take just about any paper, for a fee.... They send blandishing emails to scientists, inviting them to publish with them." 

— Gina Kolata, The New York Times, 30 Oct. 2017

Did You Know?

The word blandish has been a part of the English language since at least the 14th century with virtually no change in its meaning. It ultimately derives from blandus, a Latin word meaning "mild" or "flattering." 

One of the earliest known uses of blandish can be found in the sacred writings of Richard Rolle de Hampole, an English hermit and mystic, who cautioned against "the dragon that blandishes with the head and smites with the tail." 

Although blandish might not exactly be suggestive of dullness, it was the "mild" sense of blandus that gave us our adjective bland, which has a lesser-known sense meaning "smooth and soothing in manner or quality."

Scapegoat

WORD OF THE DAY

scapegoat / noun / SKAYP-goat

Definition

1: a male goat upon whose head are symbolically placed the sins of the people after which he is sent into the wilderness in the biblical ceremony for Yom Kippur

2a: one that bears the blame for others

2b: one that is the object of irrational hostility

Examples

The financial advisor was a convenient scapegoat for some of the ill-fated business ventures that the company had undertaken over the years.

"The French framed [Mata Hari] for espionage, making her the scapegoat for their losses on the Western Front, but it's also clear that some of her inquisitors really believed she was guilty…." 

— Mick LaSalle, The San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Aug. 2019

Did You Know?

On Yom Kippur, the ancient Hebrews would sacrifice one goat for the Lord and lead another one into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people. 

The ceremony is described in Leviticus, where it is said that one lot shall be cast for the Lord and one for "Azazel." 

Modern scholars usually interpret Azazel as being the name of a demon living in the desert, but ancient biblical translators thought Azazel referred to the goat itself, apparently confusing it with the Hebrew phrase ez ozel, meaning "goat that departs." 

The mistranslation was carried through Greek and Latin into a 16th-century English translation, where the word for the goat was rendered as scapegoote; that is, "goat that escapes." The extended senses of scapegoat we use today evolved from this biblical use.

Caustic

WORD OF THE DAY

caustic / adjective / KAWSS-tik

Definition
1a: capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action
1b: corrosive
2: marked by incisive sarcasm
3: relating to or being the surface or curve of a caustic

Examples
A caustic substance had eaten away at the metal of the plaque, and the inscription was now impossible to read.

"The lauded satirist's caustic send-up centers on a cabal of hucksters … working to turn a phony self-help guru into a moneymaking messiah."
— Michelle Hart and Hamilton Cain, O, The Oprah Magazine, 14 Jan. 2019

Did You Know?
If you have a burning desire to know the origins of caustic, you're already well on the way to figuring it out.
Caustic was borrowed into English in the 14th century from the Latin causticus, which itself derives from the Greek kaustikos. Kaustikos, in turn, comes from the Greek verb kaiein, meaning "to burn."
Other kaiein descendants in English include cautery and cauterize, causalgia (a burning pain caused by nerve damage), and encaustic (a kind of paint that is heated after it's applied).

Redound

WORD OF THE DAY

redound / verb / rih-DOWND

Definition
1: to have an effect for good or ill
2a: to become transferred or added
2b: accrue
3: rebound, reflect

Examples
"When no one is an expert, everyone becomes an expert, and authority thus redounds to the person who is least troubled by that paradox."
— Justin Peters, Slate, 10 Sept. 2018

"General George B. McClellan … was an admirer principally of George B. McClellan; and although he was an excellent organizer and motivator of troops, he was reluctant to send his men into engagements where he could not be certain that the outcome would redound to the glory of their commander."
— Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club, 2001

Did You Know?
Although it looks and sounds like a number of similar words (including rebound, resound, abound, and redundant), redound is a distinct term. It developed from Middle French redunder, which in turn came from Latin redundare, meaning "to overflow."
In its earliest known English uses in the late 1300s, redound meant "to overflow" or "to abound," but those senses are now considered archaic.
In current use, redound is often followed by "to," and the effect can be positive or negative: "[It] probably would have redounded strongly to my disadvantage if I had pursued to completion my resolution…," writes Joseph Heller in his 1984 tragicomic novel God Knows.

Futhark

WORD OF THE DAY

futhark / noun / FOO-thahrk

Definition
1: the runic alphabet
2: any of several alphabets used by the Germanic peoples from about the 3rd to the 13th centuries

Examples
"The oldest inscriptions in the futhark were found in Denmark and northern Germany, dating from the first century AD; at that time the inventory consisted of twenty-four signs. Later, by the eighth century, the range used in Denmark was reduced to sixteen…."
— George L. Campbell & Christopher Moseley, The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets, 2012

"Conveniently, one of the Americans … is an anthropology student studying Scandinavian rituals. His in-depth questions provide context for viewers not steeped in Nordic lore, but it's still not always clear what he's talking about. For instance, looking over a rune carving …, he guesses 'Younger Futhark?' only to be told no, 'Elder.'"
— Danielle Burgos, Bustle, 3 July 2019

Did You Know?
The word futhark refers to a writing system used by Germanic peoples, and especially by the Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons, from about the third to the 13th centuries.
Its origin is unclear, but a likely theory is that it was developed by the Goths from the Etruscan alphabet of northern Italy, with perhaps some aspects being influenced by the Latin alphabet of the first and second centuries.
The word futhark itself comes from the sounds of the first six letters used in the earliest of the main runic script varieties: f (fehu), u (uruz), th (thurisaz), a (anuz), r (raido), k (kanu).
While eventually fully displaced by the Latin alphabet, futhark was still used occasionally for charms and memorial inscriptions in Scandinavia into the 16th and 17th centuries.

Pursy

WORD OF THE DAY

pursy / adjective / PER-see

Definition
1: having a puckered appearance
2a: proud because of one's wealth especially in the absence of other distinctions
2b: purse-proud

Examples
"There was a picture of a pale gent with a narrow face and a woman with dark eyes and a pursy mouth."
— Stephen King, Misery, 1987

"Some guys get all pursy around the mouth when you suggest this, but figure skating is infinitely harder than ice hockey. Every four years at the Winter Olympics, figure skating fans have to listen to a lot of nonsense about how their sport lacks legitimacy."
— Sally Jenkins, The Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2014

Did You Know?
There are two adjectives spelled pursy, each with its own etymology. The one describing a puckered appearance goes back to the mid-16th century and has its source in the noun purse ("a receptacle for carrying money and other small objects"); a drawstring purse's puckered appearance is the inspiration.
The other pursy (pronounced PUH-see or PER-see) dates from the 15th century and can mean "short-winded especially because of corpulence" or simply "fat."
This pursy comes from the Old French word pousser, meaning "to exert pressure" or "to breathe heavily"—the same word, etymologists believe, behind the word push.

Elysian

WORD OF THE DAY

Elysian / adjective / ih-LIZH-un

Definition

1: of or relating to Elysium

2: blissful, delightful

Examples

"On such a balmy summer day, on this Elysian isle, anything seemed possible." 

— Dorothy West, The Wedding, 1995

"No matter what one's childhood is, a seeming Elysian remembrance or a parental vendetta, the understanding of the afflatus of a poet lies elsewhere." 

— Edward Dahlberg, "Hart Crane" (1966), reprinted in The Company They Kept (2006)

Did You Know?

In classical mythology, Elysium, also known as the Elysian Fields, was the paradise reserved for the heroes immortalized by the gods. Ancient Greek poets imagined it as the abode of the blessed after death. 

In English, the concept has more often been applied figuratively. In his history play Henry V, William Shakespeare used the place-name as a word for a peaceful state of sleep enjoyed by a mere mortal, and 18th-century English lexicographer and author Samuel Johnson wrote in The Rambler that in reading pastoral poetry we allow ourselves "to be transported to elysian regions, where we are met with nothing but joy, and plenty, and contentment…" 

In Walden a century later Henry David Thoreau wrote that "The summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian life."

Mitigate

WORD OF THE DA Y

mitigate / verb / MIT-uh-gayt

Definition
1a: to cause to become less harsh or hostile
1b: mollify
2a: to make less severe or painful
2b: alleviate
2c: to lessen the seriousness of
2d: extenuate

Examples
"Although Apple Hill receives the bulk of their visitors in October, most of its ranches and wineries are open from mid-August through December.… Last year, October traffic was mitigated by a grant-funded pilot program that brought a shuttle to Apple Hill."
— Dylan Svoboda, The Mountain Democrat (Placerville, California), 14 Aug. 2019

"More important than treating migraines once they come on is avoiding episodes to begin with, says Diamond. That means taking steps to adjust your work routine and office environment as much as possible in order to mitigate the specific factors that prompt episodes."
— Alejandro de la Garza, Time, 27 June 2019

Did You Know?
The meaning of mitigate is straightforward enough: it is most often used to talk about making something, such as a problem, symptom, or punishment, less harsh or severe. Sometimes, however, it appears where the similar-looking militate is expected.
That word, which is often followed by against, means "to have weight or effect," as in "your unexcused absences might militate against your getting a promotion."
The two words are not closely related etymologically (mitigate descends from the Latin verb mitigare, meaning "to soften," whereas militate traces to militare, another Latin verb that means "to engage in warfare"), but the confusion between the two has existed for long enough that some usage commentators have accepted "mitigate against" as an idiomatic alternative to militate.
If you want to avoid criticism, you should keep mitigate and militate distinct.