Commensurate

 WORD OF THE DAY

commensurate / adjective / kuh-MEN-suh-rut

Definition
1a: corresponding in size, extent, amount, or degree
1b: proportionate
2a: equal in measure or extent
2b: coextensive
3: commensurable

Examples
Because the effects of tobacco are slow—and iterative—and produce diseases that have other causes and explanations, often later in life, they seldom arouse fear commensurate with their impact.
— Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century, (2007) 2009

The last of the string family, the double bass, is the largest of all and must be played standing. Because it is seen in jazz bands, it has recently taken on an importance more nearly commensurate with its size.
— Aaron Copland, What to Listen for in Music, (1957) 1988

Did You Know?
Commensurate is a word that really measures up.
And no wonder - it's a descendant of the Latin noun mensura, meaning "measure," from "mensus," past participle of "metiri" ("to measure").
In the first recorded use of "commensurate," which comes from 1641, the adjective was used as a synonym of "coextensive."
It didn't take long for "commensurate" to be used to mean "proportionate" as well.
Henry James used this sense in The American when he wrote, "The stakes were high and the risk was great; the prize therefore must have been commensurate."

Obfuscate

 WORD OF THE DAY

obfuscate / verb / AHB-fuh-skay

Definition
1a: to throw into shadow
1b: darken
c: to make obscure
2: confuse
3: to be evasive, unclear, or confusing

Examples
"Intelligence officials operate in an increasingly difficult environment, in which bad actors are deploying sophisticated technology to obfuscate their activities…."
— Will Hurd, The Dallas Morning News, 8 Sept. 2021

Some critics, including the company’s former head of civic integrity, the division that developed the metrics Facebook shared Tuesday, said on Twitter recently that these numbers can obfuscate the actual story.
— Washington Post, 8 Nov. 2021

Did You Know?
To obfuscate something means to make it so that it isn't clear or transparent, much like dirty water makes it hard to see to the bottom of a pond.
The verb shares its ob- root (meaning "over, completely") with obscure, another word that can refer to the act of concealing something or making it more difficult to see or understand.
The rest of obfuscate comes from Latin fuscus, which means "dark brown" and is distantly related to our word dusk.

Trepidation

 WORD OF THE DAY

trepidation / noun / trep-uh-DAY-shun

Definition

1a: a nervous or fearful feeling of uncertain agitation 

1b: apprehension

2a (archaic): a tremulous motion 

2b: tremor 

Examples

In the first minutes, hours, or even days of fieldwork most researchers feel trepidation about being an outsider, a stranger on the scene …

— Marie D. Price, Geographical Review, January-April 2001

This was an ambitious project, and a number of us felt some trepidation about the possible results.

— Brian Phillips, New Republic, 13 Dec. 1999

Did You Know?

If you've ever trembled with fright, you know something of both the sensation and etymology of trepidation. 

The word comes from the Latin verb trepidare, which means "to tremble." 

When it first appeared in English in the early 1600s, it meant "tremulous motion" or "tremor." 

Around the same time, English speakers also started using the "nervous agitation" sense of trepidation that we use today.

Jovial

 WORD OF THE DAY

jovial / adjective / JOH-vee-ul

Definition

1a: characterized by good-humored cheerfulness and conviviality 

1b: jolly

2 (capitalized): of or relating to Jove

Examples

In response, an infuriating wink: Alsana always likes to appear jovial at the very moment that her interlocutor becomes hot under the collar.

— Zadie Smith, White Teeth, 2001

I felt I was slumming, in my own life. My task was to ward off the drivel … the jovial claptrap of classmates and teachers, the maddening bromides I heard at home.

— Susan Sontag, New Yorker, 21 Dec. 1987

Did You Know

"Jupiter, also called Jove, was the chief Roman god and was considered a majestic, authoritative type—just the kind of god to name a massive planet like Jupiter for. 

Our word jovial comes by way of Middle French from the Late Latin adjective jovialis, meaning "of or relating to Jove." 

When English speakers first picked up jovial in the late 16th century, it was a term of astrology used to describe those born under the influence of Jupiter, which, as a natal planet, was believed to impart joy and happiness. 

They soon began applying jovial to folks who shared the good-natured character of Jupiter, regardless of their birth date.

Feign

 WORD OF THE DAY

feign / verb / FAYN

Definition

1a: to give a false appearance of 

1b: induce as a false impression

1c: to assert as if true 

1d: pretend

2a (archaic): invent, imagine

2b: to give fictional representation to

3 (obsolete): disguise, conceal

4: pretend, dissemble

Examples

"For his part, Hopkins said Collins had surprised him the most this preseason, adding that he's never seen a 6-9 player who can do the things his fellow freshman can on the court. Hopkins … also didn't attempt to feign surprise when told that every single one of his teammates had mentioned him by name when asked the same question." 

— Ben Roberts, The Lexington (Kentucky) Herald Leader, 21 Oct. 2021

I wince, feigning interest in a TV Guide and mumbling a hello.

— Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1991

Success keeps her busy. "Relaxation?" she asks, feigning puzzlement. "What's that?"

— Jennifer Johnston, New Woman, November 1990

Did You Know?

Feign is all about faking it, but that hasn't always been so. 

In one of its earliest senses, feign meant "to fashion, form, or shape." 

That meaning is true to the term's Latin ancestor: the verb fingere, which also means "to shape." 

The current senses of feign still retain the essence of the Latin source, since to feign something, such as surprise or an illness, requires one to fashion an impression or shape an image. 

Several other English words that trace to the same ancestor refer to things that are shaped with either the hands, as in figure and effigy, or the imagination, as in fiction and figment.

Perpetuity

 WORD OF THE DAY

perpetuity / noun / per-puh-TOO-uh-tee

Definition
1: eternity
2: the quality or state of being perpetual
3a: the condition of an estate limited so that it will not take effect or vest within the period fixed by law
3b: an estate so limited
4: an annuity payable forever

Examples
"Nearly 120 acres in Bradford County … will be free from development in perpetuity, thanks to a conservation easement acquisition by the North Florida Land Trust."
— The Florida Times-Union, 18 Sept. 2021

While some artist’s foundations become philanthropic juggernauts (like Warhol’s) or rule-enforcing guardians (Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s) in perpetuity, Holt/Smithson will dissolve in 2038, the year the pair would have turned 100.
— New York Times, 12 Nov. 2021

Did You Know
Continual existence—that elusive concept has made perpetuity a favorite term of philosophers and poets for centuries.
The word derives ultimately from the Latin adjective perpetuus ("continual" or "uninterrupted"), which is also the source of our perpetual and perpetuate.
It frequently occurs in the phrase "in perpetuity," which essentially means "forever" or "for an indefinitely long period of time." Perpetuity also has some specific uses in law.
It can refer to an arrangement in a will rendering land forever inalienable (or at least, for a period longer than is set by rules against such arrangements) or to an annuity that is payable forever.

Roister

 WORD OF THE DAY

roister / verb / ROY-ster

Definition
1a (archaic): one that roisters
1b: roisterer
2a: to engage in noisy revelry
2b: carouse

Examples
The earl's wastrel son had spent the best part of his youth roistering and gambling

One of his sons, Thomas (Dean-Charles Chapman), though hardly old enough to be in long pants, wears shining armor, while the other son, Hal (Timothée Chalamet), is a slouch who wastes his life in roistering.
— Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2019

Did You Know
As British writer Hugo Williams asserted in The Times Literary Supplement (November 15, 1991), roistering tends to be "funnier, sillier and less harmful than standard hooliganism, being based on nonsense rather than violence."
Boisterous roisterers might be chagrined to learn that the word roister derives from a Middle French word that means "lout" or "boor," rustre.
Ultimately, however, it is from the fairly neutral Latin word rusticus, meaning "rural."
In the 16th century, the original English verb was simply roist, and one who roisted was a roister.
Later, we changed the verb to roister and the corresponding noun to roisterer.

Draconian

 WORD OF THE DAY

draconian / adjective / dray-KOH-nee-un

Definition

1:law : of, relating to, or characteristic of Draco or the severe code of laws held to have been framed by him

2: cruel, severe

Examples

Instead, exactly a year ago this week, on June 30, 2020, China imposed a draconian National Security Law on the city.

— Nicholas Goldberg, Star Tribune, 1 July 2021

With plans for draconian greenhouse-gas reductions already announced in the U.K., Centrica would have had little confidence about the capital return such a project would generate.

— Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 3 Oct. 2021

Did you know?

Draconian comes from Draco, the name of a 7th-century B.C. 

Athenian legislator who created a written code of law. Draco's code was intended to clarify preexistent laws, but its severity is what made it really memorable. 

In Draco's code, even minor offenses were punishable by death, and failure to pay one's debts could result in slavery. Draconian, as a result, became associated with things cruel or harsh. 

Something draconian need not always be as cruel as the laws in Draco's code, though - today the word is used in a wide variety of ways and often refers to measures (steep parking fines, for example) that are relatively minor when compared with the death penalty.

Amity

WORD OF THE DAY

amity / noun / AM-uh-tee

Definition:
1: friendship, especially friendly relations between nations

Examples
"He's one of the few people … to have a deep, long-lasting amity with Russell, who guards his privacy and is fiercely dismissive of the social whirl."
— Bruce Jenkins, The San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Sept. 2021

This simple act, motivated by compassion and amity, often leads to disaster and heartache.
— James Berman, Forbes, 3 Sep. 2021

Did You Know?
Amity has been used in English to describe friendship or friendliness for well over 500 years.
It is derived from the Latin word for "friend," amicus, and has come to be used especially for relationships between political leaders and nations in which goodwill is shown despite differences that might exist between the two parties.
Amicus is also the root of the adjectives amiable and amicable.
Amiable implies having qualities that make one liked and easy to deal with—for example, "The owners of the bed-and-breakfast were very amiable."
Amicable is closer in meaning to amity: it implies friendliness and politeness with the desire to avoid disagreement and argument.
A relationship between coworkers might be described as amicable.
Other family members of amicus are the Spanish borrowing amigo ("friend") and the antonymous enemy, which developed from the Latin combination of the prefix in- ("not") with amicus.

Negotiate

 WORD OF THE DAY

negotiate / verb / nih-GOH-shee-ayt

Definition
1a: to deal with (some matter or affair that requires ability for its successful handling)
1b: manage
1c: to arrange for or bring about through conference, discussion, and compromise
2a: to transfer (something, such as a bill of exchange) to another by delivery or endorsement
2b: to convert into cash or the equivalent value
3a: to successfully travel along or over
3b: compete, accomplish

Examples
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced this week Democrats have reached a deal to lower prescription drug pricing, which would include putting a cap on annual out-of-pocket spending for seniors and allow Medicare to negotiate drug costs.
— Kathryn Watson, CBS News, 5 Nov. 2021

In that budget, the President proposed allowing Medicare, the federal health insurance program for elderly and disabled people, to directly negotiate drug prices with manufacturers—which it currently isn’t allowed to do.
— Yasmin Tayag, Fortune, 4 Nov. 2021

Did You Know?
Negotiate comes from Latin negōtiārī, meaning "to carry on business," and the word shares that meaning.
In English, it can also mean "to successfully travel along or over."
For the first 250 years of its life, negotiate had meanings that hewed pretty closely to its Latin root, negotiari, meaning "to carry on business."
Around the middle of the 19th century, though, it developed the meaning "to successfully travel along or over."
Although this sense was criticized in the New York Sun in 1906 as a "barbarism creeping into the language," and Henry Fowler's 1926 A Dictionary of Modern English Usage declared that any writer who used it was "literally a barbarian," it has thrived and is now fully established.

Facetious

 WORD OF THE DAY

facetious / adjective / fuh-SEE-shuss

Definition
1a: joking or jesting often inappropriately
1b: waggish
2a: meant to be humorous or funny
2b: not serious

Examples
"Forget the license to kill. James Bond fanatics carry a license to argue about everything. Who's the best Bond? Well, Connery. Obviously. But Daniel Craig's a close second, many believe. And the other screen Bonds have their admirers, despite the lesser movies' unevenness or facetious gadgetry."
— Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2021

Nor was Liebling seriously asserting that his facetious bit of investigation into Tin Pan Alley history constituted a refutation of Sartre's philosophy.
— Raymond Sokolov, Wayward Reporter, 1980

Did You Know?
Facetious—which puzzle fans know is one of the few English words containing the vowels "a, e, i, o, u" in order—comes from French facetieux, which traces to the Latin word facētia, meaning "cleverness or wit." In English, facetiae refers to "witty or humorous writings or sayings."
It is not inherently insulting to say that someone is being facetious (although it may imply dubious or ill-timed attempts at wit or humor). The word comes from the Latin facetia, meaning "jest."
Facetious may be defined as "joking or jesting often inappropriately" or "not serious." Sarcastic, on the other hand, while still concerned with humor, tends to imply a more caustic or biting quality that is often intended to cause pain.
Facetious is an adjective ("not serious," "waggish"), while facetiousness is a noun ("the state or quality of being facetious"). The adverb form is facetiously.

Wormhole

WORD OF THE DAY

wormhole \ noun \ ˈwərm-ˌhōl

Definition
1: a hole or passage burrowed by a worm
2: a hypothetical structure of space-time envisioned as a tunnel connecting points that are separated in space and time

Examples
While decidedly rooted in science fiction — the film’s plot is propelled by a jet engine falling through some kind of wormhole — Donnie Darko’s political sensibility endures.
— Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2021

Prince would get on the internet and go down a wormhole and be binge-watching a bunch of stuff.
— Justin Curto, Vulture, 4 Aug. 2021

Did you know?
If you associate "wormhole" with quantum physics and sci-fi, you'll probably be surprised to learn that the word has been around since Shakespeare's day - although, admittedly, he used it more literally than most modern writers.
 To Shakespeare, a "wormhole" was simply a hole made by a worm, but even the Bard subtly linked "wormholes" to the passage of time; for example, in The Rape of Lucrece, he notes time's destructive power "to fill with worm-holes stately monuments."
To modern astrophysicists, a wormhole isn't a tunnel wrought by a slimy invertebrate, but a theoretical tunnel between two black holes or other points in space-time, providing a shortcut between its end points.

Steadfast

 WORD OF THE DAY

stead·​fast | / adjective / ˈsted-ˌfast

Definition 

1a: firmly fixed in place 

1b: immovable 

1c: not subject to change

2a: firm in belief, determination, or adherence 

2b: loyal 

Examples

By following these three steadfast rules, certainty can find its way back into the holiday season.

— Jason Miner, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2021

Republican candidates there have remained steadfast supporters of Trump, who remains the party's most popular leader.

— Alex Rogers, Melanie Zanona And Manu Raju, CNN, 28 Oct. 2021

Did you know?

Steadfast has held its ground in English for many centuries. Its Old English predecessor, stedefæst, combined stede (meaning "place" or "stead") and fæst (meaning "firmly fixed"). 

An Old English text of the late 10th century, called The Battle of Maldon, contains our earliest record of the word, which was first used in battle contexts to describe warriors who stood their ground. 

Soon, it was also being used with the broad meaning "immovable," and as early as the 13th century it was applied to those unswerving in loyalty, faith, or friendship. Centuries later, all of these meanings endure.

Edify

WORD OF THE DAY

Edify / transitive verb / ˈe-də-ˌfī

​​Definition

1a: to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge 

1b: uplift

1c: enlighten, inform

2 (archaic) a: build

2b: establish

Examples

When crimes against the innocent are perpetuated by those spiritually entrusted to edify and protect the faithful, the damage is all the more devastating and its reverberation is wide and long.

— Father Edward Beck, CNN, 6 Oct. 2021

Music helps, of course, as do games—but nothing can entertain and edify quite like a good audiobook.

— Vogue, 12 July 2021

Did You Know

The Latin noun aedes, meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of aedificare, a verb meaning "to erect a house." 

Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." 

The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as edify during the 14th century. 

Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic; the only current sense of edify is essentially the same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and improve in moral and religious knowledge." 

Bevy

 WORD OF THE DAY 

bevy / noun /  ˈbe-vē 

Definition

1: a large group or collection

2: a group of animals and especially quail

Examples of bevy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Last weekend’s Fall Fest welcomed large crowds from across Greater Cleveland, thanks to a bevy of entertainment options and ideal autumn weather.

— Chris M. Worrell, cleveland, 4 Oct. 2021

Once their children come into the picture, the pages turn into a bevy of logistical commitments, attempts to relieve each other’s stress and carve out time as a couple and as individuals.

— Rhaina Cohen, The Atlantic, 13 Sep. 2021

Did you know?

What do you call a group of crows? Or swine? Or leopards? 

Well-educated members of the medieval gentry seem to have been expected to know the answers: a murder of crows, a sounder of swine, and a leap of leopards. 

They would also have been expected to know that bevy referred specifically to a group of deer, quail, larks, or young ladies. 

Scholars aren't certain why bevy was chosen for those groups (though they have theories). 

What is known for sure is that bevy first appeared in the 15th century and was used as a highly specific collective for many years. 

Today, however, bevies can include anything from football players to toaster ovens.

Truncate

WORD OF THE DAY

truncate / verb / trəŋ-ˌkāt 

Definition
1: to shorten by or as if by cutting off
2: to replace (an edge or corner of a crystal) by a plane
3: having the end square or even

Examples
Or, lawmakers could choose to delay or truncate such programs to lower the cost.
— Aj Willingham, CNN, 6 Oct. 2021

There are no shortcuts available to Yazidis -- no way to truncate our trauma.
— Nadia Murad, CNN, 16 Aug. 2021

Did you know?
Truncate descends from the Latin verb truncare, meaning "to shorten," which in turn can be traced back to the Latin word for the trunk of a tree, which is truncus.
Incidentally, if you've guessed that truncus is also the ancestor of the English word trunk, you are correct.
Truncus also gave us truncheon, which is the name for a police officer's billy club, and the obscure word obtruncate, meaning "to cut the head or top from."

Demagogue

 WORD OF THE DAY

demagogue / noun / de-mə-ˌgäg  

Definition
1: a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power
2: a leader championing the cause of the common people in ancient times
3: to behave like a demagogue
4: to treat (something, such as an issue) in the manner of a demagogue

Examples
"Like other good Whigs, they had assumed that the people, once free of English influence, would honor and elevate the country's true patriots and natural aristocracy in ways that the English Crown had not. But when in the decades following the Revolution the people seemed to succumb to the deceit and flattery of mushroom demagogues, who were the popular counterparts of courtiers, the Federalists became bewildered and bitter."
— Gordon S. Wood, Revolutionary Characters, 2006

Before the U.S. could begin to help Haiti rebuild its ravaged democracy last week, it first had to remove a raving demagogue.
— Tim Padgett et al., Time, 15 Mar. 2004

Did You Know?
When the ancient Greeks used dēmagōgos (from dēmos, meaning "people," and agein, "to lead") they meant someone good-a leader who used outstanding oratorical skills to further the interests of the common people.
Mid-17th-century writers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Dryden-and, later, Jonathan Swift-employed the English word that way.
But, at the same time, the word took a negative turn, coming to suggest one who uses powers of persuasion to sway and mislead.
"A plausible, insignificant word, in the mouth of an expert demagogue, is a dangerous and a dreadful weapon," declared Robert South, known for his sermons, in 1716.

Camaraderie

 WORD OF THE DAY 

camaraderie / noun / käm-ˈrä-d(ə-)rē

Definition
: a spirit of friendly good-fellowship

Examples
It is about the camaraderie of troops bound for Vietnam who as their leader warns, have one another and nothing but one another when they fall into hell.
— Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic, 25 Mar. 2002

… men on the sunny side of middle age, physical, competitive, used to the quick camaraderie of the team, be it a firefighting squad or a trading desk.
— Robert Lipsyte, New York Times, 3 Feb. 2002

Did You Know?
Camaraderie comes from French camarade, which is also the source of English's comrade, meaning "friend or associate."
Camarade means "roommate," "companion," or "a group sleeping in one room."
It is related to Latin camera, meaning "chamber."

Ad-lib

 WORD OF THE DAY

ad-lib / verb /  ˈad-ˈlib 

Definition
1: to deliver spontaneously
2: to improvise especially lines or a speech
3: spoken, composed, or performed without preparation
4: in accordance with one's wishes
5: without restraint or limit

Examples
Another challenge is that audience members are called up on stage, to be additional spellers in the bee, which requires, per the script, the ability to ad lib.
— Steve Smith, courant.com, 21 Oct. 2021

With his perfect presentation left back home, Knapp is forced to ad lib.
— Michael Chavez, Forbes, 21 Sep. 2021

Did You Know?
Ad-lib is a shortening of Latin ad libitum, which means "in accordance with one's wishes."
In the past, ad libitum was used to refer to any activity where the performer was free to do whatever they liked for as long as desired, whether the activity be drawing, working math problems, talking, playing music, or acting.

Lenient

  WORD OF THE DAY

lenient / adjective / ˈlē-nē-ənt  , -nyənt 

Definition
1a: of mild and tolerant disposition or effect
1b: not harsh, severe, or strict
2a: exerting a soothing or easing influence
2b: relieving pain or stress

Examples
The Justice Department could seek a more lenient prison sentence for Greenberg based on the extent of his cooperation.
— David Shortell, CNN, 18 Oct. 2021

Students are required to be vaccinated, but the school has been lenient with those opposed to getting the shots.
— orlandosentinel.com, 16 Sep. 2021

Did you know?
Lenient is a word with a soothing history. It derives from the Latin verb lenire, meaning "to soothe" or "to soften" (itself from lenis, meaning "soft or mild").
The first, now archaic, sense of lenient referred to something soothing that relieved pain and stress.
That meaning was shared by lenitive, an earlier derivative of lenire that was commonly used with electuary (a "lenitive electuary" being a medicated paste prepared with honey or another sweet and used by veterinarians to alleviate pain in the mouth).
Linguists also borrowed lenis to describe speech sounds that are softened—for instance, the "t" sound in gutter is lenis.
By way of comparison, the "t" sound in toe is fortis.

Passel

 WORD OF THE DAY

passel / noun / pa-səl 

Definition
: a large number or amount

Examples
King Tut was buried with a passel of the seeds, to spice up the afterlife.
— Taras Grescoe, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Oct. 2021

Wednesday’s gala concert featured a passel of beginnings, and Beethoven’s da-da-da-DUH was only the last of them.
— Justin Davidson, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2021

Did you know
The loss of the sound of "r" after a vowel and before another consonant in the middle of a word is common in spoken English.
This linguistic idiosyncrasy has given our language a few new words, such as cuss from curse, bust from burst, and our featured word passel from parcel.
The spelling passel originated in the 15th century, but the word's use as a collective noun for an indefinite number is a 19th-century Americanism.
It was common primarily in local-color writing before getting a boost in the 1940s, when it began appearing in popular weekly magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and Saturday Review.

Inane

 WORD OF THE DAY

inane / adjective/ i-ˈnān  

Definition
1a: lacking significance, meaning, or point
1b: silly
2: empty, insubstantial
3: void or empty space

Examples
All around us swirls the battering of gargantuan films, Styrofoam epics with megatons of special effects, gleefully inane adolescent films, horror films that really are horrible.
— Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic, 15 Mar. 2004

The surfeit of home runs is a sop to all the Philistines who require inane diversions like programmed races between electronic dots on the scoreboard to make it through a two-hit shutout.
— Nicholas Dawidoff, New York Times Magazine, 4 Apr. 1999

Frank repeatedly shouted down the playoff music in an increasingly rude manner, awkwardly overstaying his welcome on stage for an inane speech that had little to say.
— Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 20 Sep. 2021

Ken Jeong mugging his way through some inane prop comedy before announcing the Variety Sketch Series award?
— Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 20 Sep. 2021

Did You Know?
The adjective "inane" is now most commonly encountered as a synonym of "shallow" or "silly."
But when this word first entered the English language in the early 17th century, it was used to mean "empty" or "insubstantial."
It was this older sense that gave rise, in the latter half of the 17th century, to the noun "inane," which often serves as a poetic reference to the void of space ("the illimitable inane," "the limitless inane," "the incomprehensible inane").
This noun usage has not always been viewed in a favorable light.
Samuel Johnson, in his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), says of "inane" that "it is used licentiously for a substantive," which in current English means that it is used as a noun without regard to the rules.