Proselytize

 WORD OF THE DAY

proselytize / verb / PRAH-suh-luh-tyze

Definition
1: to induce someone to convert to one's faith
2: to recruit someone to join one's party, institution, or cause
3: to recruit or convert especially to a new faith, institution, or cause

Examples
“... [Television mogul Shonda] Rhimes also stresses that, when it comes to her work and the shows she’s creating, she’s not trying to proselytize or push agendas, outside of simply expressing herself. ‘I don’t like to be preached at,’ Rhimes says, ‘and I’m not interested in preaching.’”
— Zach Seemayer, ET Online (etonline.com), 5 Jan. 2022

They are a sport-shirted, discomforted lot, pacing, puffing feverishly on cigarettes, perspiring freely and proselytizing furiously.
— Nicholas Dawidoff, Sports Illustrated, 19 Aug. 1991

Did You Know?
Proselytize comes from the noun proselyte, meaning “a new convert,” which in turn ultimately comes from the Greek prosēlytos, meaning “stranger” or “newcomer.”
When proselytize entered English in the 17th century, it had a distinctly religious connotation and meant simply “to recruit religious converts.”
This meaning is still common, but today one can also proselytize in a broader sense—recruiting converts to one’s political party or pet cause, for example.

Kerfuffle

 WORD OF THE DAY

kerfuffle / noun / ker-FUFF-ul

Definition
: a disturbance or commotion typically caused by a dispute or conflict

Examples
“I wasn’t the only one given a seat that had already been claimed. ... Thankfully the flight was half-empty. Once the seating kerfuffle subsided, I noticed something remarkable. I had an incredible amount of legroom ...”
— Christopher Muther, The Boston Globe, 8 June 2022

Recently, there has also been a separate kerfuffle about lengthy headnotes—the introductions that precede most recipes on a blog or in a cookbook—as some people just want to skip the story and get cooking.
— Wired, 1 Aug. 2022

Did You Know?
Fuffle is an old Scottish verb that means “to muss” or “to throw into disarray”—in other words, to (literally) ruffle someone’s (figurative) feathers.
The addition of car-, possibly from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning “wrong” or “awkward,” didn’t change its meaning much. In the 19th century carfuffle, with its variant curfuffle, became a noun, which in the 20th century was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to kerfuffle, referring to a more figurative feather-ruffling.
There is some kerfuffle among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by onomatopoeic words like kerplunk that imitate the sound of a falling object hitting a surface.

Ritzy

 WORD OF THE DAY

ritzy / adjective / RIT-see

Definition
1: snobbish
2a: impressively or ostentatiously fancy or stylish
2b: fashionable, posh

Examples
“Situated on nearly two acres of land in the ritzy neighborhood of Bel Air, the sprawling manor is surrounded by a stone wall and gates and now boasts an impressive six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and two half-baths.”
— Gabrielle Chung, People, 13 Aug. 2021

Thompson Madrid is set within two historic buildings in the Spanish capital’s ritzy Golden Mile district.
— Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 22 Aug. 2022

 Did You Know?
César Ritz (1850-1918) earned worldwide renown for the luxurious hotels bearing his name in London and Paris. (The Ritz-Carlton hotel company is a contemporary descendant of these enterprises.)
Although they were by no means the first to cater to high-end clients, Ritz’s hotels quickly earned reputations as symbols of opulence. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a writer who often focused on the fashionably wealthy, titled one of his short stories “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” and the phrase “to put on the ritz” means “to indulge in ostentatious display.”
The adjective ritzy, describing either something fancy or stylish, or the haughty attitudes of the wealthy elite, first checked into the English language in 1920.

Fructify

 WORD OF THE DAY

fructify / verb / FRUK-tuh-fye

Definition

1: to bear fruit

2: to make fruitful or productive

Examples

“After two seasons.... [Pamela] Adlon stepped up, hiring a writers’ room. And ‘Better Things’ kept going, fructifying into a closely observed and deeply felt portrait of one woman’s over-full life.” 

— Alexis Soloski, The New York Times, 26 Apr. 2022

Reliance has been in talks with Saudi Aramco for a stake sale in its refinery unit, although the transaction is yet to fructify.

— Matthew Martin, Bloomberg.com, 5 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?

Fructify comes from Latin fructus, meaning “fruit.” 

When the word was first used in English, it literally referred to the actions of fruit-bearing plants. Later it was used to refer to the action of making something literally or figuratively fruitful, such as soil or labor, respectively. 

These days fructify is more frequently used to refer to the giving forth of something in profit from something else (such as dividends from an investment). 

Fructus also gave us the name of the sugar fructose, as well as usufruct, which refers to the legal right to enjoy the fruits or profits of something that belongs to someone else.

Sporadic

 WORD OF THE DAY

sporadic / adjective / spuh-RAD-ik

Definition
: occurring occasionally, singly, or in irregular or random instances

Examples
“Over the decades, what began as sporadic nods to Black campus experiences has grown into more: portrayals that are both authentic and that challenge stereotypes about H.B.C.U. college life.”
— Audra D.S. Burch, The New York Times, 26 May 2022

The law was indeed tightened, prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens on the valid assumption that removing the magnet of jobs is necessary to stem illegal immigration. But enforcement was sporadic at best, and has now virtually ceased.
— Mark Krikorian, National Review, 26 Jan. 2004

Did You Know?
You never know where or when the occasion to use sporadic will pop up, but when it does, sporadic is the perfect choice to describe something that happens randomly or irregularly, often in scattered instances or isolated outbursts.
Sporadic describes the distribution of something across space or time that is not frequent enough to fill an area or period, often in scattered instances or isolated outbursts (as in "sporadic applause").
The word comes from Medieval Latin sporadicus, which is itself derived from Greek sporadēn, meaning “here and there.”
It is also related to the Greek verb speirein (“to sow”), the ancestor from which we get our word spore (the reproductive cell of a fungus, microorganism, or some plants), hinting at the seemingly scattered nature by which such cells spread and germinate.

Misnomer

 WORD OF THE DAY

misnomer / noun / miss-NOH-mer

Definition
1: the misnaming of a person in a legal instrument
2a: a use of a wrong or inappropriate name
2b: a wrong name or inappropriate designation

Examples
“The librarian of the Oregon Grotto, which is a bit of a misnomer because it’s focused on southern Washington, is the official keeper of approximately 600 tightly protected cave maps that reveal the secret locations of every documented cave in the region.”
 — Kate Robertson, The Guardian (London), 29 Mar. 2022

Spring/Summer 2023 collection was sunny, optimistic, and breezy—no doubt lead by its hero piece, the signature nightgown, a misnomer for the flowy, bohemian housedress that put the brand on the map.
— Lauren Caruso, Harper's BAZAAR, 12 Aug. 2022

Did You Know?
What’s in a name? Well, in some cases, a name will contain an error, a misunderstanding, or a mislabeling.
Historians have long noted that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire.
The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed’s Hill.
And the Pennsylvania Dutch are in fact of German ancestry.
For such cases, we have the term misnomer, which can refer both to the use of an incorrect or inappropriate designation (as in “it’s a misnomer to call an orca a ‘killer whale’”) or to the designation itself.
Regardless, there’s no mistaking the source of misnomer: it comes from the Anglo-French verb mesnomer (“to misname”) and ultimately has its roots in nomen, the Latin word for “name.”

Defer

WORD OF THE DAY

defer / verb / dih-FER

Definition
1: put off, delay
2: to postpone induction of (a person) into military service
3: to delegate to another
4: to submit to another's wishes, opinion, or governance usually through deference or respect

Examples
“... lack of access to regular mortgage lending forces our clients to turn to predatory alternative lending and rent-to-own schemes or defer making needed repairs to their aging homes.”
— Rachel Labush and Michael Froehlich, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 Aug. 2022

Backers say the arrangement will make patients more cost-conscious and judicious in their use of medical service, thus restraining health-cost increases; critics say it will cause patients to defer needed treatment and will be attractive only to younger, healthier workers.
— Wall Street Journal, 9 Jan. 2006

Did You Know?
There are two distinct words spelled defer in English, each with its own history and meaning. The defer having to do with allowing someone else to decide or choose something, or with agreeing to follow someone else’s decision, tradition, etc., (as in “He deferred to his parents’ wishes”) comes from the Latin verb dēferre, meaning “to bring down, convey, transfer, submit.”
The defer synonymous with delay comes from Latin differre, which itself has several meanings, including two that resound in its English descendant: “to postpone” and “to delay.”
Another meaning of differre is “to be unlike or distinct,” which makes apparent another of its descendants: differ, meaning “to be different.”

Perspicacious

 WORD OF THE DAY

perspicacious / adjective / per-spuh-KAY-shus

Definition
1a: of acute mental vision or discernment
1b: keen

Examples
“Some of the film’s performances are merely peculiar and others merely apt, but [actor Don] Cheadle is thrilling, with coiled strength and a perspicacious gaze that seems to realize ideas in motion.”
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 1 July 2021

As some of the nation’s most perspicacious observers have noted, self-regulation is a crucial component of fixing what’s wrong with social media.
—  Gilad Edelman, Wired, 30 Sep. 2021

Did You Know?
Some perspective on perspicacious: the word combines the Latin perspicac- (from perspicax meaning “clear-sighted,” which in turn comes from perspicere, “to see through”) with the common English adjective suffix -ious.
The result is a somewhat uncommon word used to describe someone (such as a reader or observer) or something (such as an essay or analysis) displaying the perception and understanding of subtleties others tend to miss, such as the distinctions between the words perspicacious, shrewd, sagacious, and astute—something our synonym chooser can help with.

Verdigris

WORD OF THE DAY

verdigris / noun / VER-duh-greess

Definition
1a: a green or greenish-blue poisonous pigment resulting from the action of acetic acid on copper and consisting of one or more basic copper acetates
1b: normal copper acetate Cu(C2H3O2)2·H2O
2: a green or bluish deposit especially of copper carbonates formed on copper, brass, or bronze surfaces

Examples
“There’s a standard shower room, but also—drum roll—an outside bath, which is private thanks to a wooden fence, so you can concentrate on the canopy of tree branches shimmering and rustling overhead. This tub is made of copper, all dappled with verdigris and it rumbles loudly as it slowly fills up.”
— Gaby Soutar, The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), 13 July 2022

In Pessin’s home office, tucked into a nook under his staircase, there’s a verdigris Jean Prouvé-esque desk beneath a wall-hugging facsimile of a geometric Frank Stella painting.
— New York Times, 25 Nov. 2021

Did You Know?
“Green of Greece”—that is the literal translation of vert de Grece, the Anglo-French phrase from which we get the modern word verdigris.
 A coating of verdigris forms naturally on copper and copper alloys such as brass and bronze when those metals are exposed to air. (It can also be produced artificially.)
Like cinnabar, fuchsia, and amaranth before it, however, verdigris is also seeing increased use as a color name that can be applied to anything suggestive of its particular hue.
For more colorful history you might enjoy this article before testing your knowledge with a quiz.

Haywire

 WORD OF THE DAY

haywire / adverb or adjective / HAY-wyre

Definition
1: being out of order or having gone wrong
2a: emotionally or mentally upset or out of control
2b: crazy

Examples
“Something, I suspect, is going haywire in the frying process, an interaction that leads to those off-putting aromas. Is the oil not hot enough, thereby clinging to the [French toast] sticks and leaving behind the flavors of whatever was fried in it previously? Were they fried too long?”
— Tim Carman, The Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2022

The beat, though played on a physical drum kit, feels like one of later Kraftwerk’s methodical midtempo pulses — until things go psychedelically haywire.
— Jon Pareles, New York Times, 7 May 2020

Did You Know?
The noun haywire refers to a type of wire once used in baling hay and sometimes for makeshift repairs. This hurried and temporary use of haywire gave rise to the adjective (and sometimes adverb) haywire.
When the adjective was first used in the early 20th century, it was primarily found in the phrase “haywire outfit,” which originally denoted a poorly equipped group of loggers, and then anything that was flimsy or patched together.
This led to a “hastily patched-up” sense, which in turn gave us the now-common meaning, “being out of order or having gone wrong.”
The “crazy” sense of haywire may have been suggested by the tendency of the relatively weak and rust-prone wire to fail at inopportune times, or to get tangled around legs, or possibly to the disorderly appearance of the temporary repair jobs for which it was used.

Broadside

 WORD OF THE DAY

broadside / noun / BRAWD-syde

Definition
1a: a sizable sheet of paper printed on one side
1b: a sheet printed on one or both sides and folded
1c: something (such as a ballad) printed on a broadside
2 (archaic): the side of a ship above the waterline
3a: all the guns on one side of a ship
3b: a volley of abuse or denunciation
4: a broad or unbroken surface
5a: with the side forward or toward a given point
5b: sideways
5c: directly from the side
6: in one volley
7: at random

Examples
“Mr. Taruskin had a no-holds-barred approach to intellectual combat. ... Following a 1991 broadside by Mr. Taruskin contending that Sergei Prokofiev had composed Stalinist propaganda, one biographer complained of his ‘sneering antipathy.’”
— William Robin, The New York Times, 1 July 2022

In his broadside, Mr. Biden is maligning half the country and the 70 million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump.
— The Editorial Board, WSJ, 2 Sep. 2022

Did You Know?
Nautical language is both fascinating and fun, what with its jibbooms and spirketing, its scuppers and poop decks.
 As these four terms demonstrate, not all ship-related words sail over to landlubber vocabulary, but broadside is one that has. It originally referred to the side of a ship above the water, then later to the guns arrayed along that side.
The further use of broadside to refer to the firing of all those guns at once eventually led to the figurative “volley of abuse” sense—a strongly worded attack intended to shiver one’s timbers.
The printing-related uses of broadside, referring originally to sheets of paper, and then to matter printed on such paper, arose independently.

Rancid

 WORD OF THE DAY

rancid / adjective / RAN-sid

Definition
1: having an unpleasant smell or taste usually from chemical change or decomposition
2a: distinctly unpleasant or distasteful
2b: offensive

Examples
“At a basic level, ghee is a type of clarified butter believed to have originated in India as a way to preserve butter from going rancid in the hot climate. Churned cream or butter is simmered slowly until the moisture evaporates and any browned milk solids are removed, resulting in a sumptuously rich, fragrant and nutty fat.”
— Aysha Imtiaz, BBC, 27 July 2022

The laborers at Chattahoochee Brick were subject to inhumane conditions including being beaten and fed rancid food, and some died there, Blackmon reported.
— J.d. Capelouto, ajc, 25 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Rancid and putrid and fetid—oh my! While all three words are used to describe unpleasant smells and tastes, each also traces its roots to a “stinky”
Latin word: rancid can be traced back to the Latin rancēre; the root of putrid shares an ancestor with putēre; and fetid comes from foetēre—all verbs meaning “to stink.”
Not long after entering the language in the early 17th century, rancid also developed a second, figurative sense which is used for non-gustatory and non-olfactory offenses, as in “rancid hypocrisy.”

Coalesce

 WORD OF THE DAY

coalesce / verb / koh-uh-LESS

Definition
1: to grow together
2a: to unite into a whole
2b: fuse
2c: to unite for a common end
2d: join forces
3: to arise from the combination of distinct elements
4: to cause to unite

Examples
“This is European soccer—or, at least, an idealized version of it: clubs that represent something greater than themselves, offering communities narratives to coalesce around.”
— Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 28 May 2022

And once roasted, let the gratin rest a beat to coalesce—then grab some bread to run through the drippings.
— WSJ, 26 July 2022

Did You Know?
The meaning of many English words equals the sum of their parts, and coalesce is a fitting example. The word unites the prefix co- (“together”) and the Latin verb alescere, meaning “to grow.”
Coalesce is one of a number of English verbs (along with mix, commingle, merge, and amalgamate) that refer to the act of combining parts into a whole.
In particular, coalesce usually implies the merging of similar parts to form a cohesive unit, such as a political ideology, a fan-following, or (perish the thought) a Portuguese man-of-war, the body of which includes three types of zooids.

Laconic

 WORD OF THE DAY

laconic / adjective / luh-KAH-nik

Definition
: using or involving the use of a minimum of words : concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious

Examples
“The genius of ‘Wall-E’ lies in its ability to inspire empathy with a pair of robots that can speak only a few words. It helps that Wall-E and Eve are both extremely cute, as robots go; if the trash cube robot didn’t have those giant, sad basset hound eyes, we wouldn’t have cared if he found love. But the cutest and most laconic robot of ‘Wall-E’ is the Axiom’s custodian, M-O.”
— Michael Baumann, The Ringer, 13 June 2022

… towards the father—laconic, authoritarian, remote, an immigrant who'd trained in Galicia to be a rabbi but worked in America in a hat factory—their feelings were more confused.
— Philip Roth, Granta 24, Summer 1988

Did You Know?
We’ll keep it brief. Laconia was an ancient country in southern Greece.
Its capital city was Sparta, and the Spartans were famous for their terseness of speech.
Laconic comes to us by way of Latin from Greek Lakōnikos, meaning “native of Laconia.”
In current use, laconic means “terse” or “concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious,” and thus recalls the Spartans’ taciturnity.

Exponent

 WORD OF THE DAY

exponent / noun / ik-SPOH-nunt

Definition
1: a symbol written above and to the right of a mathematical expression to indicate the operation of raising to a power
2a: one that expounds or interprets
2b: one that champions, practices, or exemplifies

Examples
“Onscreen, [Tom] Cruise is unmistakably our biggest movie star, as the New York Times reporter Nicole Sperling recently explained—the last true exponent of a century-old studio system that has been steadily eroded by the rising forces of franchise filmmaking and streaming.”
— Calum Marsh, The New York Times, 5 July 2022

Born in Jammu, Northern India, Sharma became a exponent of the classical instrument santoor.
— Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 10 May 2022

Did You Know?
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that exponent and proponent have a lot in common.
While the two share visual similarities and closely related definitions, they also have a common ancestor: the Latin ponere, meaning “to put.”
Exponent comes from exponere, meaning “to explain, expound, or set forth,” while proponent comes from proponere, meaning “to expose to view, bring to one’s attention, propose.”
Today, proponent usually refers to someone who argues in favor of something. Exponent can also refer to someone who is an advocate, but it tends to refer especially to someone who stands out as a shining representative of something.
In addition, it has kept its earlier meaning of “one who expounds,” as well as its mathematical symbol meaning.

Facsimile

WORD OF THE DAY

facsimile / noun / fak-SIM-uh-lee

Definition
1: an exact copy
2: a system of transmitting and reproducing graphic matter (such as printing or still pictures) by means of signals sent over telephone lines

Examples
“Walls are now decorated with posters and murals of facsimiles of old newspapers that tell the tales of the team's big moments.”
— Carlos Monarrez, The Detroit Free Press, 29 July 2022

The space has a sparse, futuristic feel; there’s a 3D print facsimile of a boulder from the Alps that is supposed to symbolize the synthesis of technological innovation, appreciation for the natural world, and Swiss charisma.
— Martin Fritz Huber, Outside Online, 6 Oct. 2021

Did You Know?
The facsimile machine (or fax machine) has long been an office staple, but its name is much, much older. Fac simile is a Latin phrase meaning “make alike.”
English speakers began using facsimile to mean “an exact copy” in the late 1600s. In this sense, a facsimile might be a handwritten or hand-drawn copy, or even a copy of a painting or statue. (Today, we also use the phrase “a reasonable facsimile” for a copy that is fairly close but not exact.)
In the 1800s, people developed facsimile technology that could reproduce printed material via telegraph. Now, of course, we use telephone lines or wireless technology, and we usually call the resulting facsimile a fax.

Mawkish

 WORD OF THE DAY

mawkish / adjective / MAW-kish

Definition
1: lacking flavor or having an unpleasant taste
2: exaggeratedly or childishly emotional

Examples
“It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) matter that ‘This Is Us’ is a network show in a sea of cable and streaming contenders or that [Mandy] Moore has a pop music and schmaltzy YA movie past. ... One of this season’s most poignant moments avoided a mawkish mood because of Moore’s ability to hold our teary gaze through song.”
— Emma Fraser, The Daily Beast, 23 May 2022

And the inevitable reaffirmation of the family’s bonds, strengthened by the spirit of the girls’ mother, is touching without being too mawkish.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Aug. 2022

Did You Know?
Mawkish really opens up a can of worms—or maggots, as it were: the word wriggled out from Middle English mawke, meaning “maggot.”
Its earliest sense, used in the late 17th century but now obsolete, was synonymous with squeamish (understandable!) but not long after that mawkish was used to describe an unpleasant, nauseating, often sickeningly sweet flavor.
It’s no surprise that a figurative sense of mawkish, used to describe things that are full of “sickly sweet” sentimentality, arose almost concurrently, one of several food texture- and taste-related words favored by critics to show disdain for art they deem overly emotive, including gooey, saccharine, mushy, and schmaltzy.

Conciliate

 WORD OF THE DAY

conciliate / verb / kun-SILL-ee-ayt

Definition
1: appease
2: to gain (something, such as goodwill) by pleasing acts
3a: to make compatible
3b: reconcile
4: to become friendly or agreeable

Examples
"Oklahoma City established a human rights commission Tuesday for the first time in more than a quarter century. The new nine-member commission ... will be charged with investigating and addressing employment, housing and public accommodations discrimination complaints. ... An investigation can either lead to dismissal of the complaint or an attempt by the commission to conciliate between the complainant and the accused party."
— Jana Hayes, The Oklahoman, 19 July 2022

Refusing either to conciliate or coerce Southern states rushing headlong into secession, Lincoln maintained...
— Harold Holzer, WSJ, 15 May 2020

Did You Know?
Now here’s a people pleaser. The immediate source of conciliate is a form of the Latin verb conciliare, meaning "to assemble, unite, win over," and when conciliate was first used in the 16th century, the idea of winning over was key; it was used to mean "to gain something, such as goodwill or favor, by pleasing acts."
Today, conciliate is mostly used in contexts where appease or reconcile is a more common choice, as in "a refusal to conciliate the dictator," and "efforts to conciliate the views of those on opposing sides."
Like the word council, conciliate ultimately traces back to the Latin word concilium, meaning "assembly, council."

Panache

 WORD OF THE DAY

panache / noun / puh-NAHSH

Definition
1: an ornamental tuft (as of feathers) especially on a helmet
2a: dash or flamboyance in style and action
2b: verve

Examples
“Down home and upbeat, the Bloomfield Bluegrass Band is an all-Sonoma County ensemble of veteran performers whose primary musical obsession is the traditional bluegrass repertoire played with verve, panache, polish and pluck.”
— The Argus-Courier (Petaluma, California), 28 July 2022

Leonard Bernstein’s crowd-pleasing Symphonic Dances from West Side Story closes the program with Broadway panache.
— San Francisco Chronicle, 14 July 2022

Did You Know?
Few literary characters can match the panache of French poet and soldier Cyrano de Bergerac, from Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play of the same name.
In his dying moments, Cyrano declares that the one thing left to him is his panache, and that assertion at once demonstrates the meaning of the word and draws upon its history.
In both French and English, panache (which traces back to Late Latin pinnaculum, “small wing”) originally referred to a showy, feathery plume on a hat or helmet; our familiar figurative sense debuted in the first English translation of Rostand’s play, which made the literal plume a metaphor for Cyrano’s unflagging verve even in death.
In a 1903 speech Rostand himself described panache: “A little frivolous perhaps, most certainly a little theatrical, panache is nothing but a grace which is so difficult to retain in the face of death, a grace which demands so much strength that, all the same, it is a grace … which I wish for all of us.”

Assiduous

 WORD OF THE DAY

assiduous / adjective / uh-SIJ-uh-wus

Definition
: showing great care, attention, and effort : marked by careful unremitting attention or persistent application

Examples
“No entombed Egyptian pharaoh has had the stunning and star-studded afterlife of King Tut…. It’s all due to a stroke of good luck. Which would include an amazing dearth of tomb-pillaging, an intrepid archeologist and his team, plus meticulous documentation from National Geographic. Also, an assiduous PR campaign for various touring exhibits celebrating the life and possessions of the ‘boy king.’”
— Jim Sullivan, WBUR.org (Boston, Massachusetts), 13 July 2022

This moniker implied moral imperatives, ethical perfection and assiduous attention to putting patients first.
— Shakeel Ahmed, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2021

Did You Know?
While assiduous means “showing great care, attention, and effort,” and in some situations may be an appropriate substitute for careful, it’s got a bit more oomph than careful in that it suggests a dogged or tireless persistence.
If you are assiduous in your efforts (or work, research, analysis, training, preparations, etc.) for example, it’s implied that you’re in it for the long haul, or that you have the ability to “sit with” a task or challenge for a considerable amount of time.
This makes sense given that assiduous comes from the Latin verb assidēre, meaning “to sit beside.”

Grandiose

 WORD OF THE DAY

grandiose / adjective / gran-dee-OHSS

Definition
1: characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration
2: impressive because of uncommon largeness, scope, effect, or grandeur

Examples
“Dave says their engineer had ‘grandiose ideas about wanting to make songs sound like Phil Spector,’ but the group steered the sound in a more austere direction, inspired by the first two Strokes albums, along with grungier records by Sheer Mag and fellow Aussies Royal Headache.”
— Evan Minsker, Pitchfork, 7 Apr. 2022

When real estate mogul Howard Ruby sold his grandiose Bel Air mansion for $35 million last month, many wondered what would become of the antique furniture and artwork within.
— Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 15 Aug. 2022

Did You Know?
When it comes to bigness, there’s grand and then there’s grandiose.
Both words can be used to describe something impressive in size, scope, or effect, but while grand may lend its noun a bit of dignity (i.e., “we had a grand time”), grandiose often implies a whiff of pretension.
The difference between a grand plan for the city park and a grandiose one, for example, might be the difference between a tasteful fountain and a garden full of topiaries cut in the shapes of 19th century literary figures.
So if you’re choosing between the two, a helpful mnemonic might be that the extra letters in grandiose suggest that one’s ideas, claims, promises, schemes, dreams—you get the idea—are a bit extra.

Umbrage

 WORD OF THE DAY

umbrage / noun / UM-brij

Definition
1: a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult
2a: shady branches
2b: foliage
3: shade, shadow
4a: an indistinct indication
4b: vague suggestion
4c: hint
4d: a reason for doubt 
4e: suspicion

Examples
“The last time the Hawkeyes played on a Nov. 16 was 2002. The opponent was Minnesota. You of the Hawkeye ilk may recall it. It clinched an unbeaten Big Ten season and share of the league championship for Iowa. It was kind of a big deal. So big, in fact, that Hawkeye fans ripped down the goal posts of the now-gone Metrodome, and actually tried to get them through a revolving door.... The next time an Iowa fan takes umbrage at a Gopher fan about anything, remember that afternoon in Minneapolis.”
— Mike Hlas, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), 9 Aug. 2022

Back in the courtroom, Barany took immediate umbrage at the lawyers’ requests.
— Bryce Covert, The New Republic, 5 July 2022

Did You Know?

Umbrage is a word born in the shadows. Its ultimate source (and that of umbrella) is Latin umbra, meaning “shade, shadow,” (umbella, the diminutive form of umbra, means "a sunshade or parasol") and when it was first used in the 15th century it referred to exactly that, as in "Deare amber lockes gave umbrage to her face." This line from a poem by William Drummond.
But figurative use followed relatively quickly. Shakespeare wrote of Hamlet that "his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more,” and by the 17th century this meaning of “vague suggestion; hint,” had been joined by other uses, including the “feeling of resentment or offense” heard today in such sentences as “many took umbrage at the speaker’s tasteless jokes.”
The word’s early literal use is not often encountered, though it does live on in literature: for example, in her 1849 novel, Charlotte Brontë describes how the titular Shirley would relax “at the foot of some tree of friendly umbrage.”