Rife

WORD OF THE DAY

rife / adjective / RYFE

Definition

1: prevalent especially to an increasing degree

2: abundant, common

3a: copiously supplied 

3b: abounding

Examples

"Like most colleges and universities, ad schools have found themselves going virtual … because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. However, students soon graduating from these programs are facing a job market rife with layoffs, hiring freezes and canceled internships…." 

— Doug Zanger, Adweek, 8 June 2020

"Red-tailed hawks and some other raptors have learned that our highways are rife with rodents, so they perch on light poles, nearby trees or signs and wait to spot a meal." 

— Val Cunningham, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 9 June 2020

Did You Know?

English is rife with words that have Germanic connections, many of which have been handed down to us from Old English. 

Rife is one of those words. Not a whole lot has changed with rife in its long history. We continue to use the word for negative things, especially those that are widespread or prevalent. 

Examples are "shoplifting was rife" or "the city was rife with greed and corruption." Rumors and speculation are also frequently described as "rife." But rife can also be appropriately used for good or neutral things. For example, you might speak of the summer garden being "rife" with scents.

Catastrophe

WORD OF THE DAY

catastrophe / noun / kuh-TASS-truh-fee

Definition

1: a momentous tragic event ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow or ruin

2a: utter failure 

2b: fiasco

3a: a violent and sudden change in a feature of the earth

3b: a violent usually destructive natural event (such as a supernova)

4: the final event of the dramatic action especially of a tragedy

Examples

"We are a nation that's used to catastrophes. We deal with avalanches, earthquakes, eruptions, and so on." 

— Alma Möller, quoted in The New Yorker, 1 June 2020

"Be the challenge grave illness, divorce, a natural disaster or an economic meltdown, the rebound represents how we respond, how we stand strong in the face of catastrophe, how we refuse to give up." 

— Designers Today, 27 May 2020

Did You Know?

When English speakers first borrowed the Greek word katastrophē (from katastrephein, meaning "to overturn") as catastrophe in the 1500s, they used it for the conclusion or final event of a dramatic work, especially of a tragedy. 

In time, catastrophe came to be used more generally of any unhappy conclusion, or disastrous or ruinous end. By the mid-18th century, it was being used to denote truly devastating events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. 

Finally, it came to be applied to things that are only figuratively catastrophic—burnt dinners, lost luggage, really bad movies, etc.

Perjorative

WORD OF THE DAY

pejorative / adjective / pih-JOR-uh-tiv

Definition
1: having negative connotations
2: tending to disparage or belittle
3: depreciatory

Examples
The captain has come under fire for making pejorative remarks about teammates.

"There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it. When I mention manipulation, this is not necessarily pejorative; it's a very common and fairly benign tactic."
— Simon Sinek, Start with Why, 2009

Did You Know?
"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Parents have given that good advice for years, but unfortunately many people haven't heeded it. 

The word pejorative makes it clear that both English and Latin speakers have long known that disparaging words can make a bad situation worse. 

Pejorative derives from the Late Latin adjective pējōrātus, which in turn comes from the Latin verb pējōrāre, meaning "to make or become worse." 

Although pejorative words have probably always been part of English, the adjective pejorative has only been found in English texts since the late 1880s. 

Before then, English speakers could rely on older synonyms of pejorative such as derogatory and uncomplimentary to describe disparaging words.

Mesmerize

WORD OF THE DAY

mesmerize / verb / MEZ-muh-ryze 

Definition

1a: to subject to mesmerism

1b: hypnotize

2: spellbind

Examples

The crowd was mesmerized by the flawlessly synchronous movements of the acrobats.

"Control is a coveted possession in Credulity, Ogden's illuminating recent study of American mesmerism. The mesmerists and skeptics she studies all seem to want it; at any rate, they want to consider themselves rational and self-possessed enough not to fall under anyone else’s. During this brief, strange moment between 1836 and the late 1850s, mesmerizing another person—or seeing someone get mesmerized, or denouncing mesmerists as charlatans—became a way of stockpiling control for one's own use." 

— Max Nelson, The New York Review of Books, 24 July 2019

Did You Know?

Experts can't agree on whether Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was a quack or a genius, but all concede that the late 18th-century physician's name is the source of the word mesmerize. 

In his day, Mesmer was the toast of Paris, where he enjoyed the support of notables including Queen Marie Antoinette. He treated patients with a force he termed animal magnetism. 

Many believe that what he actually used was what we now call hypnotism. 

Mesmer's name was first applied to a technique for inducing hypnosis in 1784.

Anomaly

WORD OF THE DAY

anomaly / noun / uh-NAH-muh-lee 

Definition

1a: something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified 

1b: something anomalous

2a: deviation from the common rule 

2b: irregularity

3: the angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun

Examples

"Thermal Scanning uses intelligent thermal technology and checks the temperature of everyone entering the premises and triggers necessary alarms in case of an anomaly in the temperature." 

— Business World, 12 June 2020

"[Rich] Wingo is also part of a statistical anomaly of sorts: He scored one point in his NFL career. He is one of four Packers to have scored a single point…." 

— Jim Owczarski, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 June 2020

Did You Know?

You might be familiar with the Greek word homos, which means "same." 

It is from this word that we get words like homonym, homogeneous, and homophone, all of which have to do with sameness or similarity. 

What does this have to do with anomaly? Although it's not obvious, homos is a part of the etymology of anomaly, too. 

Anomaly is a descendant of the Greek word anōmalos, which means "uneven" or "irregular." 

Anōmalos comes from the prefix a- (meaning "not") and the word homalos (meaning "even")—and homalos comes from homos.

Bowdlerize

WORD OF THE DAY

bowdlerize / verb / BOHD-ler-ize 

Definition

1 (literature): to expurgate (something, such as a book) by omitting or modifying parts considered vulgar

2: to modify by abridging, simplifying, or distorting in style or content

Examples

"Certainly, there's no risk that all art will be bowdlerized into nice stories about people saving puppies, but it's not wrong to note a fading appetite for antiheroes and bad behavior." 

— Jonah E. Bromwich, The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2020

"Under his rule, career scientists are barred from speaking at conferences, websites are bowdlerized, and the respected National Climate Assessment is threatened by political appointees who want to soften its most dire conclusions." 

— Renée Loth, The Boston Globe, 25 Nov. 2019

Did You Know?

Few editors have achieved the notoriety of Thomas Bowdler. He was trained as a physician, but when illness prevented him from practicing medicine, he turned to warning Europeans about unsanitary conditions at French watering places. 

Bowdler then carried his quest for purification to literature, and in 1818 he published his Family Shakspeare [sic], a work in which he promised that "those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." 

The sanitized volume was popular with the public of the day, but literary critics denounced his modifications of the words of the Bard. 

Bowdler applied his literary eraser broadly, and within 11 years of his death in 1825 the word bowdlerize was being used to refer to expurgating books or other texts.

Gyre

WORD OF THE DA Y

gyre / noun / JYRE 

Definition

1: a circular or spiral motion or form 

2: a giant circular oceanic surface current

Examples

Sophia will be focusing her graduate studies on the effects of ocean gyres on North America's climate.

"The exception has been the Weddell Sea … which retains much of its ice from year to year because of cold winds from the south and a circular current, or gyre, that keeps the ice from drifting into warmer waters that would cause it to melt more." 

— Henry Fountain, The New York Times, 17 June 2020

Did You Know?

William Butler Yeats opens his 1920 poem, "The Second Coming," with the following lines: 

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre 

The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;  

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…." 

Often found in poetic or literary contexts as an alternative to the more familiar circle or spiral, gyre comes via the Latin gyrus from the Greek gyros, meaning "ring" or "circle." 

Gyre is also frequently encountered as an oceanographic term that refers to vast circular systems of ocean currents, such as the North Atlantic Gyre, a system of currents circling clockwise between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. 

Gyre is also sometimes used of more localized vortices, such as those produced by whirlpools or tornadoes.

Requisite

WORD OF THE DAY

requisite / adjective / REK-wuh-zut 

Definition

1: needed for a particular purpose 

2: essential, necessary

Examples

"Once the application process was formalized, the Institute received nearly two hundred applications from women all across the country; other women interested in applying had been turned away because they didn't have the requisite qualifications." 

— Maggie Doherty, The Equivalents, 2020

"More chile sauce, if you want a vinegary zing, is on the tables, along with the requisite paper towels. As for that stellar taco, it's made with the same flavorful carnitas with … a drizzle of avocado crema that sets off taste-tingling fireworks." 

— The Texas Monthly, 26 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

Acquiring an understanding of where requisite comes from won't require a formal inquiry. Without question, the quest begins with Latin quaerere, which means "to ask" or "to seek." 

That word is ancestor to a number of English words, including acquire, require, inquiry, question, quest, and, of course, requisite. From quaerere came requirere, meaning "to ask again." 

Repeated requests can express a need, and the past participle of Latin requirere, which is requisitus, came to mean "needed" or "necessary." English acquired requisite when it was adopted into Middle English back in the 1400s.

Inculate

WORD OF THE DAY

inculcate / verb / n-KUL-kayt 

Definition

: to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

Examples

"[Edgar Allan Poe] was in general not a didactic writer; in fact, he criticized stories and poems that sought to inculcate virtue and convey the truth." 

— Paul Lewis, The Baltimore Sun, 12 May 2020

"Dogs like routine.... They know when it is time for dinner, time for a walk. And if you have not inculcated these types of routines for them, some dogs will have anxiety when they are alone." 

— Dr. Terri Bright, quoted in The Boston Globe, 17 Apr. 2020

Did You Know?

Inculcate derives from the past participle of the Latin verb inculcare, meaning "to tread on." 

In Latin, inculcare possesses both literal and figurative meanings, referring to either the act of walking over something or to that of impressing something upon the mind, often by way of steady repetition. 

It is the figurative sense that survives with inculcate, which was first used in English in the 16th century. Inculcare was formed in Latin by combining the prefix in- with calcare, meaning "to trample," and ultimately derives from the noun calx, "heel."

Derelict

WORD OF THE DAY

derelict / adjective / DAIR-uh-likt 

Definition

1a: abandoned especially by the owner or occupant

1b: run-down

2a: lacking a sense of duty 

2b: negligent

Examples

"On Tuesday, crews … were busy using excavators to tear down derelict buildings on the two sites to make way for future construction." 

— Bea Lewis, The New Hampshire Union Leader, 27 May 2020

"But the building suffered additional roof damage in late fall, triggering an emergency demolition that rocked the preservation community and prompted anger against derelict landlords. It also prompted renewed efforts by the city to crack down on absentee and neglectful landlords." 

— Jonathan D. Epstein, The Buffalo (New York) News, 7 May 2020

Did You Know?

The Latin verb relinquere, meaning "to leave behind," left behind a few English derivatives, including derelict. 

Something derelict has been left behind, or at least appears that way. In another sense, someone who is derelict leaves behind or neglects their duties or obligations. Another descendant of relinquere is relinquish, meaning "to leave behind," "to give up," or "to release." 

Relic is another example of a word that ultimately comes from relinquere. Relics, in the original sense of the term, referred to things treasured for their association with a saint or martyr—that is, objects saints and martyrs had left behind. 

Relinquere also gives English its name for the containers or shrines which hold relics, reliquary.

Callous

WORD OF THE DAY

callous / adjective / KAL-us

Definition

1a: being hardened and thickened

1b: having calluses

2a: feeling no emotion

2b: feeling or showing no sympathy for others 

2c: hard-hearted

Examples

"[Noël Coward] deliberately made the characters callous and cynical. 'You can't sympathise with any of them,' he said. 'If there was heart [in the play] it would have been a sad story.'" 

— Lloyd Evans, The Spectator, 28 Mar. 2020

"Today we have been appalled by the sight of tens of thousands of irresponsible vacationers flocking to the coast, as if this was just another spring break week, with callous disregard for residents' health and safety." 

—  Bruce Jones, quoted on OregonLive.com, 22 Mar. 2020

Did You Know?

A callus is a hard, thickened area of skin that develops usually from friction or irritation over time. 

Such a hardened area often leaves one less sensitive to the touch, so it's no surprise that the adjective callous, in addition to describing skin that is hard and thick, can also be used as a synonym for harsh or insensitive. Both callus and callous derive via Middle English from Latin. 

The figurative sense of callous entered English almost 300 years after the literal sense, and Robert Louis Stevenson used it aptly when he wrote, in Treasure Island, "But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on."

Mien

WORD OF THE DAY

mien / noun / MEEN

Definition

1a: air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality 

1b: demeanor

2: appearance, aspect

Examples

The minister projected a stern and serious mien from the pulpit, but we found him to be friendly and welcoming when we spoke with him in the social hall after the service.

"The band's synthetic sounds, automated rhythms and severe haircuts were a pointed contrast with the prevailing … rock music of the time, just as the group's rigorously Teutonic mien was a reaction to the hegemony of American culture in postwar Germany. Kraftwerk wanted to create its own culture." 

— Michael Azerrad, The New York Times, 8 May 2020

Did You Know?

Like its synonyms bearing and demeanor, mien means the outward manifestation of personality or attitude. 

Bearing is the most general, but it often implies characteristic posture, as in "a woman of regal bearing." 

Demeanor suggests attitude expressed through outward behavior in the presence of others—for example, "the manager's professional demeanor." 

Mien is a somewhat literary term referring to both bearing and demeanor. "A mien of supreme self-satisfaction" is a typical use. 

Mien and demeanor are also linked through etymology. Mien arose through the shortening and alteration of the verb demean, which comes from the Anglo-French demener ("to conduct"), a combination of the de- prefix with mener ("to lead") that is also the root of demeanor. 

In this case, demean means "to conduct or behave (oneself) usually in a proper manner," not "to degrade." That other demean is a distinct word with a different etymology.

Indite

WORD OF THE DAY

indite / verb / in-DYTE

Definition

1: make up, compose

2: to give literary or formal expression to

3: to put down in writing

Examples

"Meanwhile, the single gentleman, the Notary, and Mr Garland, repaired to a certain coffee-house, and from that place indited and sent a letter to Miss Sally Brass, requesting her … to favour an unknown friend who wished to consult her…." 

— Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840

"I could not bear the idea of his amusing himself over my secret thoughts and recollections; though, to be sure, he would find little good of himself therein indited…." 

— Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 1848

Did You Know?

Indite looks like a misspelling of its homophone indict, meaning "to charge with a crime," and that's no mere coincidence. Although the two verbs are distinct in current use, they are in fact related etymologically. 

Indite is the older of the two; it has been in the English language since the 1300s. Indict, which came about as an alteration of indite, appeared in the 16th century. Ultimately, both terms come from Latin indicere, meaning "to make known formally" or "to proclaim," which in turn comes from in- plus dīcere, meaning "to talk, speak, or say."

Tutelage

WORD OF THE DAY

tutelage / noun / TOO-tuh-lij

Definition

1a: instruction especially of an individual

1b: a guiding influence

2: the state of being under a guardian or tutor

3a: an act or process of serving as guardian or protector 

3b: guardianship

3c: hegemony over a foreign territory

3d: trusteeship

Examples

Under the tutelage of her high school swim coach, Lynn has greatly improved her times at meets.

"[Jarett Stidham] brings mobility to the position, something the Patriots haven't had with Tom Brady, and could surprise under the tutelage of future Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick." 

— C. J. Doon, The Baltimore Sun, 30 May 2020

Did You Know?

The Latin verb tueri means "to look at" or "to guard." When tutelage first began appearing in print in the early 1600s, it was used mainly in the protective sense of tueri, as writers described serfs and peasants of earlier eras as being "under the tutelage of their lord." 

Over time, however, the word's meaning shifted away from guardianship and toward instruction. This pattern of meaning can also be seen in the related nouns tutor, which shifted from "a guardian" to "a private teacher," and tuition, which now typically refers to the cost of instruction but which originally referred to the protection, care, or custody by a parent or guardian over a child or ward.

Parsimonious

WORD OF THE DAY

parsimonious / adjective / par-suh-MOH-nee-us

Definition

1a: exhibiting or marked by thrift or economy

1b: frugal to the point of stinginess

2: sparing, restrained

Examples

"A Monopoly board sat on a makeshift table in the center of the room, with each player's signature token poised on the Go square: the racing car (Mark), the cannon (Steve), the top hat (me), and a shiny penny (Rob, appropriately enough, since he was known for his parsimonious ways when haggling over deals)." 

— John Walsh, The Providence Journal, 14 Sept. 2019

"Enter the men: Edmond Rostand (Jason Butler Harner), one of France's greatest young dramatists; Alphonse Mucha (Matthew Saldivar), the Art Nouveau illustrator of Bernhardt's gorgeous posters; and Louis (Tony Carlin), a critic so parsimonious with praise I suppose it's only fair that he's given no surname." 

— Jesse Green, The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2018

Did You Know?

English isn't stingy when it comes to synonyms of parsimonious. 

Stingy, close, penurious, and miserly are a few terms that, like parsimonious, suggest an unwillingness to share with others. Stingy implies a marked lack of generosity, whereas close suggests keeping a tight grip on one's money and possessions. 

Penurious implies frugality that gives an appearance of actual poverty, and miserly suggests avariciousness and a morbid pleasure in hoarding. 

Parsimonious usually suggests an extreme frugality that borders on stinginess.

Histrionic

WORD OF THE DAY

histrionic / adjective / his-tree-AH-nik 

Definition

1a: deliberately affected 

1b: overly dramatic or emotional 

1c: theatrical

2: of or relating to actors, acting, or the theater

Examples

"How many water coolers, cocktail parties, and backyard barbecues have you been to where someone has exclaimed, usually in a flourish of histrionic frustration, that they wish they had their own island?" 

— Carmella DeCaria, The Westchester Magazine, 18 Jan. 2018

"The city's most extravagant and histrionic event of the fall, Theatre Bizarre, won't be taking place this October…. Typically taking over Detroit's Masonic Temple for two weekends just before Halloween, the indoor event includes hot-ticket masquerade balls, and a multi-floor spectacular that includes live music, burlesque, side show acts, food, drink and mandatory costumes—the more outrageous the better." 

— Melody Baetens, The Detroit News, 19 May 2020

Did You Know?

The term histrionic developed from histrio, Latin for "actor." 

Something that is histrionic tends to remind one of the high drama of stage and screen and is often stagy and over-the-top. 

It especially calls to mind the theatrical form known as the melodrama, where plot and physical action, not characterization, are emphasized. 

But something that is histrionic isn't always overdone; the word can also simply refer to an actor or describe something related to the theater. 

In that sense, it becomes a synonym of thespian.

Bromide

WORD OF THE DAY

bromide / noun / BROH-myde 

Definition

1: a binary compound of bromine with another element or a radical including some (such as potassium bromide) used as sedatives

2a: a commonplace or tiresome person 

2b: bore

2c: a commonplace or hackneyed statement or notion

Examples

"In many ways, he's an outlier on the self-help circuit. Thomas isn't selling shortcuts to success or feel-good bromides. He makes achievement sound grueling. His knack is for transforming those he meets—a CEO, an NBA All-Star, a guy manning the desk at a hotel—into the sort of person who loves digging deep and grinding hard." 

— Leslie Pariseau, GQ, 28 May 2020

"Currently, Virginia's leaders are engaged in a tax debate over standard deductions for the middle class. Studying that problem would be a bromide that induces inertia. What is needed is action." 

— L. Scott Lingamfelter, The Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch, 20 Jan. 2019

Did You Know?

After bromine was discovered in the 1820s, chemists could not resist experimenting with the new element. It didn't take long before they found uses for its compounds, in particular potassium bromide. 

Potassium bromide started being used as a sedative to treat everything from epilepsy to sleeplessness, and by the 20th century, the word bromide was being used figuratively for anything or anyone that might put one to sleep because of commonness or just plain dullness. 

Today, bromides are no longer an ingredient in sedative preparations, but we can still feel the effects of figurative bromides as we encounter them in our daily routines.

Emulate

WORD OF THE DAY

emulate / verb /  EM-yuh-layt

Definition

1a: to strive to equal or excel

1b: imitate; especially by means of hardware or software that permits programs written for one computer to be run on another computer

2: to equal or approach equality with

Examples

Younger children will often try to emulate the behavior of their older siblings.

"As part of its subsequent push to emulate the West, Meiji-era Japan encouraged the production of domestic versions of that same whiskey. Japanese distillers often used sweet potatoes, which were abundant, but they produced a much different spirit than the barley, corn and rye used in Scotland and America." 

— Clay Risen, The New York Times, 29 May 2020

Did You Know?

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then past speakers of English clearly had a great admiration for the Latin language. The verb emulate joined the ranks of Latin-derived English terms in the 16th century. It comes from aemulus, a Latin term for "rivaling" or "envious." 

Two related adjectives—emulate and emulous—appeared within a half-century of the verb emulate. Both mean "striving to emulate; marked by a desire to imitate or rival" or sometimes "jealous," but emulous is rare these days and the adjective emulate is obsolete. 

The latter did have a brief moment of glory, however, when William Shakespeare used it in Hamlet:

 "Our last king,

 Whose image even but now appear'd to us,

 Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

 Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,

 Dar'd to the combat...."

Sound

WORD OF THE DAY

sound / adjective / SOWND 

Definition

1a: free from injury or disease

1b: free from flaw, defect, or decay

2a: solid, firm

2b: stable; 

2c: secure, reliable

3: free from error, fallacy, or misapprehension

4a: thorough

4b: deep and undisturbed

4c: hard, severe

5: showing good judgment or sense

Examples

The doctor's statement affirmed that the wealthy man was of sound mind when he decided to bequeath all of his money to the charitable foundation.

"Social distancing, where people are advised to stay at least 6 feet apart, was sound advice when the idea was put forth during the pandemic's early days. It remains sound advice now, and will continue to be sound advice in the days ahead." 

— The Times, 7 May 2020

Did You Know?

English contains several sound homographs, all with distinct histories. For example, the sound that means "something heard" descends from Latin sonus ("sound"), whereas the sound that means "to measure the depth of water" traces to Middle French sonde ("sounding line"). 

Another sound, as in "of sound mind and body," is the contemporary form of Old English's gesund

Gesund is related to several words in other languages, such as Old Saxon gisund ("sound"), Old Frisian sund ("fresh, unharmed, healthy"), and Gothic swinths ("sound" or "healthy"). 

Another relative is Old High German's gisunt ("healthy"), which led to modern German's gesund, the root of gesundheit.

Legerdemain

WORD OF THE DAY

legerdemain / noun / lej-er-duh-MAYN 

Definition

1: sleight of hand

2: a display of skill and adroitness

Examples

"An example of Mr. Northam's political legerdemain is his tax proposal, which avoided the minefields of income or sales tax increases. Instead, he suggested hiking the gas tax while scrapping mandatory annual vehicle inspections and halving vehicle registration fees." 

— The Washington Post, editorial, 20 Dec. 2019

"One must find the resonance between ancient and contemporary, blending incongruous elements in a way that seems not only right but inevitable: telling the story of a founding father with hip-hop lyrics, as in 'Hamilton,' or presenting the myth of Theseus in the milieu of reality television as in 'The Hunger Games.' Kekla Magoon manages a similar feat of legerdemain in 'Shadows of Sherwood,' her compelling reboot of the Robin Hood myth." 

— Rick Riordan, The New York Times, 23 Aug. 2015

Did You Know?

In Middle French, folks who were clever enough to fool others with fast-fingered illusions were described as leger de main, literally "light of hand." 

English speakers condensed that phrase into a noun when they borrowed it in the 15th century and began using it as an alternative to the older sleight of hand. (That term for dexterity or skill in using one's hands makes use of sleight, an old word from Middle English that derives from an Old Norse word meaning "sly.") 

In modern times, a feat of legerdemain can even be accomplished without using your hands, as in, for example, "an impressive bit of financial legerdemain."

Stentorian

WORD OF THE DAY

stentorian / adjective / sten-TOR-ee-un

Definition

: extremely loud

Examples

"'Let it Be' … was uncannily similar to 'Bridge Over Troubled Water,' not only in sentiment, but even to its churchy flavor. 'They're both very gospely songs,' [David] Wills says. 'I think 1968 was a very turbulent year … and in 1969 there was this life-affirming achievement of going to the moon. So I think that was in the zeitgeist, those stentorian, stately gospel piano-based songs.'" 

— Jim Beckerman, NorthJersey.com, 14 May 2020

"'Laughing together is as close as you can get without touching,' I wrote in my first book…. Laughter has always been the best medicine; I wasn't exactly making any boldly original statement almost three decades ago. I wasn't expecting a MacArthur grant. But what I expected even less … was that the not-touching part of my line would eventually be part of a stentorian, global prescription to combat COVID-19." 

— Gina Barreca, The Bedford (Pennsylvania) Gazette, 23 Mar 2020

Did You Know?

The Greek herald Stentor was known for having a voice that came through loud and clear. In fact, in the Iliad, Homer described Stentor as a man whose voice was as loud as that of fifty men together. 

Stentor's powerful voice made him a natural choice for delivering announcements and proclamations to the assembled Greek army during the Trojan War, and it also made his name a byword for any person with a loud, strong voice. 

Both the noun stentor and the related adjective stentorian pay homage to the big-voiced warrior, and both have been making noise in English since the early 17th century.

Obtain

WORD OF THE DAY

obtain / verb / ub-TAYN 

Definition

1: to gain or attain usually by planned action or effort

2a: to be generally recognized or established 

2b: prevail

Examples

The experiment was designed to obtain more accurate data about weather patterns.

"By time of competition, [NHL deputy commissioner Bill] Daly said, the league will test players every night and obtain results by the time they report to the rink the next morning." 

— Matt Porter, The Boston Globe, 26 May 2020

Did You Know?

Obtain, which was adopted into English in the 15th century, comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin obtinēre, meaning "to hold on to, possess." 

Obtinēre was itself formed by the combination of ob-, meaning "in the way," and the verb tenēre, meaning "to hold." In its earliest uses, obtain often implied a conquest or a successful victory in battle, but it is now used for any attainment through planned action or effort. 

The verb tenēre has incontestably prevailed in the English language, providing us with such common words as abstain, contain, detain, sustain, and, perhaps less obviously, the adjectives tenable and tenacious.

Farrago

WORD OF THE DAY

farrago / noun / fuh-RAH-goh 

Definition

1: a confused mixture 

2: hodgepodge

Examples

"Combining these plots is a terrible idea for multiple reasons. One is simply logistical; the fusion turns two improbable but engaging stories into a ludicrous farrago." 

— Laura Miller, Slate, 8 Nov. 2019

"Although it's hard to know anything for sure about North Korea, the fertilizer-plant photo suggests the reporting about Kim over the past few weeks was a farrago of misinformation, non-information, half speculation and outright guessing." 

— Paul Farhi, The Washington Post, 5 May 2020

Did You Know?

Farrago might seem an unlikely relative of farina (the name for the mealy breakfast cereal), but the two terms have their roots in the same Latin noun. 

Both derive from far, the Latin name for spelt (a type of grain). In Latin, farrago meant "mixed fodder"—cattle feed, that is. 

It was also used more generally to mean "mixture." When it was adopted into English in the early 1600s, farrago retained the "mixture" sense of its ancestor. 

Today, we often use it for a jumble or medley of disorganized, haphazard, or even nonsensical ideas or elements.