Wheedle

Word of the Day

wheedle \ WEE-dul \ verb

 

1: to influence or entice by soft words or flattery

 

2: to gain or get by coaxing or flattering

 

3: to use soft words or flattery

EXAMPLES

Suzie wheedled the babysitter into letting her stay up an hour past her bedtime.

"I still make fruitcake, using a recipe that is mostly fruit and nuts and not much cake. My dad owned a locker plant and butcher shop, and wheedled the recipe out of a customer in the 1950s."

— Joan Daniels, Kansas City Star, August 12, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Wheedle has been a part of the English lexicon since the mid-17th century, though no one is quite sure how the word made its way into English. (It has been suggested that the term may have derived from an Old English word that meant "to beg," but this is far from certain.) Once established in the language, however, wheedle became a favorite of some of the language's most illustrious writers. Wheedle and related forms appear in the writings of Wordsworth, Dickens, Kipling, Dryden, Swift, Scott, Tennyson, and Pope, among others.

Rapier

Word of the Day

rapier \ RAY-pee-er \ adjective

: extremely sharp or keen

EXAMPLES

The wit and keen insight found in her blog are a testament to her rapier mind.

"Mr. Brady was a veteran Republican aide and a popular figure among Washington journalists. He was equipped with a rapier wit and a buoyant charm that tended to defuse controversy even before he began working for the White House in January 1981."

— Jon Thurber, The Washington Post, August 5, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

A rapier is a straight, two-edged sword with a narrow pointed blade, designed especially for thrusting. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "the long rapier was beautifully balanced, excellent in attack, and superb for keeping an opponent at a distance." The word itself, which we borrowed in the 16th century, is from Middle French rapiere.

The first time that rapier was used as an adjective in its figurative "cutting" sense, it described a smile: "Who can bear a rapier smile? A kiss that dooms the soul to death?" ("The Lover's Lament" by Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, 1824). The adjective these days most commonly describes wit—an association that dates to the 1850s.

Götterdämmerung

Word of the Day

Götterdämmerung \ gher-ter-DEM-uh-roong \ noun

1a: a collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder; broadly

1b: downfall

EXAMPLES

There were those who worried that the latest civil war and attempted regime change would end in Götterdämmerung for the small country.

"One wishes, of course, for some sort of Götterdämmerung … in which the former victims rise up to give the monsters a taste of their terrible medicine. That's what the movies are for."

— James Taub, Stars and Stripes, August 23, 2014

DID YOU KNOW?

Norse mythology specified that the destruction of the world would be preceded by a cataclysmic final battle between the good and evil gods, resulting in the heroic deaths of all the "good guys." The German word for this earth-shattering last battle was Götterdämmerung. Literally, Götterdämmerung means "twilight of the gods." (Götter is the plural of Gott, meaning "god," and Dämmerung means "twilight.") Figuratively, the term is extended to situations of world-altering destruction marked by extreme chaos and violence. In the 19th century, the German composer Richard Wagner brought attention to the word Götterdämmerung when he chose it as the title of the last opera of his cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, and by the early 20th century, the word had entered English.