Cordial

WORD OF THE DAY

cordial / adjective / KOR-jul

Definition

1a: showing or marked by warm and often hearty friendliness, favor, or approval 

1b: politely pleasant and friendly

1c: sincerely or deeply felt

2: tending to revive, cheer, or invigorate

Examples

Even though we disagree with one another on many points, we have long maintained a cordial relationship.

"Last Wednesday, three members of the Taste Test team had lunch at All City Grille…. The experience was wholly pleasant. The dining room is modern and clean, the student servers were cordial and efficient, and the food was well-prepared and well-priced." 

— Dan Kane, The Repository (Canton, Ohio), 12 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

Cordial shares the Latin root cor with concord (meaning "harmony") and discord (meaning "conflict"). 

Cor means "heart," and each of these cor descendants has something to do with the heart, at least figuratively. 

Concord, which comes from con- (meaning "together" or "with") plus cor, suggests that one heart is with another. 

Discord combines the prefix dis- (meaning "apart") with cor, and it implies that hearts are apart. When cordial was first used in the 14th century, it literally meant "of or relating to the heart," but this sense has not been in use since the 17th century. 

Today anything that is cordial, be it a friendly welcome, a compliment, or an agreement, comes from the heart in a figurative sense.