Emblem

WORD OF THE DAY

emblem / noun / EM-blum 

Definition

1: a picture with a motto or set of verses intended as a moral lesson

2: an object or the figure of an object symbolizing and suggesting another object or an idea

3a: a symbolic object used as a heraldic device

3b: a device, symbol, or figure adopted and used as an identifying mark

Examples

"The picture, changed or unchanged, would be to him the visible emblem of conscience." 

— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

"The 1870 home was built by the city's first Presbyterian minister, Rev. Thomas Smith, who modeled it after his ancestral home in Scotland. A symbolic thistle—Scotland's national emblem—is sculpted onto the marble fireplace." 

— Sharon Roznik, The Reporter (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin), 18 Mar. 2020

Did You Know?

Both emblem and its synonym symbol trace back to the Greek verb bállein, meaning "to throw." 

Emblem arose from embállein, meaning "to insert," while symbol comes from symbállein, Greek for "to throw together." 

Bállein is also an ancestor of the words parable (from parabállein, "to compare"), metabolism (from metabállein, "to change"), and problem (from probállein, "to throw forward"). 

Another, somewhat surprising, bállein descendant is devil, which comes from Greek diabolos, literally meaning "slanderer." 

Diabolos in turn comes from diabállein, meaning "to throw across" or "to slander."

Disingenuous

WORD OF THE DAY

disingenuous / adjective / dis-in-JEN-yuh-wuss

Definition

1a: lacking in candor

1b: giving a false appearance of simple frankness 

1c: calculating

Examples

"There are plenty of ways to be passive aggressive toward someone on their birthday, including … making a disingenuous comment about whatever he is doing for his special day when you know you aren't invited…." 

— Sylvan Lane, Mashable, 27 June 2014

"We talked to some behavioural experts to understand why a colleague may be acting 'fake,' and how to work with it…. If someone seems disingenuous, it tends to come from a sense of inadequacy, and understanding that is the first step on the road to acceptance." 

— Isabella Krebet, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 10 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

A disingenuous remark might contain some superficial truth, but it is delivered with the intent to deceive or to serve some hidden purpose. 

Its base word ingenuous (derived from a Latin adjective meaning "native" or "freeborn") can describe someone who, like a child, is innocent or lacking guile or craftiness. 

English speakers began frequently joining the negative prefix dis- with ingenuous to create disingenuous during the 17th century.

Garnish

WORD OF THE DAY

garnish /verb / GAHR-nish 

Definition

1a: decorate, embellish

1b: to add decorative or savory touches to (food or drink)

2a: to equip with accessories 

2b: furnish

3: garnishee

Examples

"[Mariah] Carey pioneered featuring rappers on pop hits, and to date she has garnished 56 of her tracks with guest verses." 

— Billboard.com, 25 Apr. 2019

"Every day, problems that have fundamentally legal solutions—like a debt collector wrongfully garnishing hard-earned wages—derail the lives of people who are already struggling to make ends meet." 

— David Zapolsky, Fortune, 18 June 2019

Did You Know?

Although we now mostly garnish food, the general application of the "decorate" meaning is older. 

The link between embellishing an object or space and adding a little parsley to a plate isn't too hard to see, but how does the verb's sense of "garnishee," which refers to the taking of debtors' wages, fit in? 

The answer lies in the word's Anglo-French root, garnir, which means "to give notice, warning, or legal summons" in addition to "to equip or decorate." 

Before wages were garnished, the debtor would be served with a legal summons or warning. The legal sense of garnish now chiefly implies the taking of the wages, but it is rooted in the action of furnishing the warning.