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."