Longanimity

 WORD OF THE DAY

longanimity / noun / long-guh-NIM-uh-tee

Definition
1: a disposition to bear injuries patiently
2: forbearance

Examples
The fans continue to show their longanimity by coming back year after year to cheer on the perpetually losing team.

"Most of the conspirators were gentlemen in their early thirties and the majority had wild pasts. They were frustrated men of action, 'swordsmen' the priests called them, and 'they had not the patience and longanimity to expect the Providence of God.'"
— Jessie Childs, God's Traitors: Terror & Faith in Elizabethan England, 2014

Did You Know?
Longanimity is a word with a long history. It came to English in the 15th century from the Late Latin adjective longanimis, meaning "patient" or "long-suffering." 
Longanimis, in turn, derives from the Latin combination of longus ("long") and animus ("soul"). Longus is related to English's long and is itself an ancestor to several other English words, including longevity ("long life"), elongate ("to make longer"), and prolong ("to lengthen in time").
Now used somewhat infrequently in English, longanimity stresses the character of one who, like the figure of Job in the Bible, endures prolonged suffering with extreme patience.

Undertaker

 WORD OF THE DAY

undertaker / noun / UN-der-tay-ker

Definition

1: one who undertakes 

1b: one who takes the risk and management of business 

1c: entrepreneur

2: one whose business is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals

3: an Englishman taking over forfeited lands in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries

Examples

The undertaker offered the family several choices of coffins for the burial service.

"The movement towards home-thrown funerals is being spearheaded by Heidi Boucher, a self-proclaimed home death-care guide. Boucher is what could best be described as half holistic hippie, and half 19th century undertaker." 

— Rob Hoffman, The Times Union (Albany, New York), 24 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

You may wonder how the word undertaker made the transition from "one who undertakes" to "one who makes a living in the funeral business." 

The latter meaning descends from the use of the word to mean "one who takes on business responsibilities." In the 18th century, a funeral-undertaker was someone who undertook, or managed, a funeral business. There were many undertakers in those days, undertaking all sorts of businesses, but as time went on undertaker became specifically identified with the profession of arranging burial. 

Today, funeral director is more commonly used, but undertaker still appears.

Kindred

 WORD OF THE DAY

kindred / adjective / KIN-drud

Definition
1a: of a similar nature or character
1b: like
2: of the same ancestry

Examples
"Osterholm over the last few decades has been part of expert panels addressing … infectious zoonotic viruses kindred to Covid-19 such as Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)."
— Todd Wilkinson, The Mountain Journal (Bozeman, Montana), 12 Apr. 2020

"This study also highlights how identifying with the personality traits of a musician who feels like a kindred spirit can have positive psychological benefits for the listener.…"
— Christopher Bergland, Psychology Today, 5 July 2020

Did You Know?
If you believe that advice and relatives are inseparable, the etymology of kindred will prove you right. Kindred comes from a combination of kin and the Old English word ræden ("condition"), which itself comes from the verb rædan, meaning "to advise."
Kindred entered English as a noun first during the Middle Ages. That noun, which can refer to a group of related individuals or to one's own relatives, gave rise to the adjective kindred in the 14th century.