Erudite

 WORD OF THE DAY

erudite / adjective / AIR-uh-dyte

Definition
: having or showing knowledge that is gained by studying

Examples
"And so the arguments about animal minds went on, often technical, sometimes absurd, at times brilliant, in many guises and versions. They were catalogued and analyzed at length by Pierre Bayle…. (Bayle was a Protestant also living in exile in Holland, an erudite scholar and original thinker, and one of the great skeptics of the seventeenth century.)"
— Noga Arikha, Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours, 2007

"[Marilynne Robinson] narrates the ecology of the area and some of its human history, pointing out the generations of headstones hidden among a tiny sea of hills. She is formidably erudite but punctuates her speech with the surprisingly sweet refrain 'you know?'"
— Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 25 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
Erudite derives from Latin eruditus, the past participle of the verb erudire, meaning "to instruct."
A closer look at that verb shows that it is formed by combining the prefix e-, meaning "missing" or "absent," with the adjective rudis, which means "rude" or "ignorant." (Rudis is also the source of the English word rude.)
We typically use rude to mean "discourteous" or "uncouth" but it can also mean "lacking refinement" or "uncivilized."
Taking these meanings into account, erudite stays true to its etymology: someone who is erudite has been transformed from a roughened or uninformed state to a polished and knowledgeable one through a devotion to learning.

 

Candidate

 WORD OF THE DAY

candidate / noun / KAN-duh-dayt

Definition
1a: one that aspires to or is nominated or qualified for an office, membership, or award
1b: one likely or suited to undergo or be chosen for something specified
2: a student in the process of meeting final requirements for a degree

Examples
"But there are nine vaccine candidates around the world that have reached phase III trials, the large, final stage of testing that usually comes before regulatory approval. It is likely that not all of them will reach the clinic."
— Clare Wilson, The New Scientist, 19 Sept. 2020

"No modern presidential election has been decided by campaign spending. That is because both candidates always have enough cash to achieve the single main point of it: near-universal name recognition among voters in the dozen or fewer swing states that determine the outcome."
— The Economist, 19 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
When a man running for public office in ancient Rome greeted voters in the Forum, the center of judicial and public business, he wore a toga that had been whitened with chalk.
As a result, the Latin word for someone seeking office came to be candidatus, meaning literally "clothed in white."
Candidatus, in turn, comes from the adjective candidus, meaning "white."
Candidatus was adopted into English as candidate, and since the 17th century that word has had an uncontested seat in the language.

Hallowed

 WORD OF THE DAY

hallowed / adjective / HAL-oad

Definition
1: holy, consecrated
2: sacred, revered

Examples
"The first thing one learns in attending concerts of classical music is never to applaud between movements. Doing so, we are told, shows disrespect for the composer's intentions and the performers' interpretation. In Saturday night's concert by the Spokane Symphony..., that hallowed rule was enthusiastically, even raucously, broken."
— Larry Lapidus, The Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), 26 Mar. 2017

"First as a litigator who fought tenaciously for the courts to recognize equal rights for women, one case at a time, and later as the second woman to sit on the hallowed bench of the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg left a legacy of achievement in gender equality that had women of varied ages and backgrounds grasping for words this weekend to describe what she meant to them."
— Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press, 20 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
The adjective hallowed probably doesn't give you the shivers—or does it?
Hallowed is the past participle of the verb hallow, a term that descends from the Middle English halowen. That word can be traced back to the Old English adjective hālig, meaning "holy."
During the Middle Ages, All Hallows' Day was the name for what Christians now call All Saints' Day, and the evening that preceded All Hallows' Day was All Hallows' Eve or All Hallow Even—or, as we know it today, Halloween.