The word for today is… lambent (adjective): 1: playing lightly on or over a surface : flickering 2: softly bright or radiant 3: marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : In his short story “The Word,” Vladimir Nabokov limned a dream-like landscape where “a wind, like
The word for today is… ameliorate (verb): : to make better or more tolerable Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Ameliorate traces back to melior, the Latin adjective meaning “better,” and is a synonym of the verbs better and improve. When is it better to use ameliorate? If a situation is bad, ameliorate
The word for today is… jaundiced (adjective): 1: affected with or as if with jaundice 2: exhibiting or influenced by envy, distaste, or hostility Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Cast not a jaundiced eye on the word jaundiced—and by that we mean this: don’t dislike or distrust jaundiced because
The word for today is… assuage (verb): 1: to lessen the intensity of (something that pains or distresses) : ease 2: pacify, quiet 3: to put an end to by satisfying : appease, quench Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Assuage comes from the Latin adjective suavis, meaning“sweet.” (Sweet itself is also a
The word for today is… indomitable (adjective): : incapable of being subdued : unconquerable Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : The prefix in- (spelled im- before b, m, and p) means “not” in an innumerable collection of English words. The common suffix -able means “capable of, fit for, or worthy of.” Combine those two
The word for today is… arbiter (noun): 1: a person with power to decide a dispute : judge 2: a person or agency whose judgment or opinion is considered authoritative Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : A large portion of the words we use today come from Latin roots. Many of these words
The word for today is… microcosm (noun): 1: a little world 2: a community or other unity that is an epitome of a larger unity Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Small wonder that the oldest meaning of microcosm in our dictionary is “little world”: the word comes ultimately from the Greek
The word for today is… celebrate (verb): transitive verb 1: to perform (a sacrament or solemn ceremony) publicly and with appropriate rites 2a: to honor (an occasion, such as a holiday) especially by solemn ceremonies or by refraining from ordinary business b: to mark (something, such as an anniversary) by
The word for today is… reconcile (verb): 1a: to restore to friendship or harmony b: settle, resolve 2: to make consistent or congruous 3: to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant 4a: to check (a financial account) against another for accuracy b: to account for Source : Merriam -Webster
The word for today is… nidifugous (adjective): : leaving the nest soon after hatching Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Nidifugous hatched from the Latin words nidus, meaning “nest,” and fugere, meaning “to flee.” Its contrasting word nidicolous, meaning “reared for a time in a nest,” combines nidus with the English combining form
The word for today is… perennial (adjective): 1: present at all seasons of the year 2: persisting for several years usually with new herbaceous growth from a perennating part 3a: persistent, enduring b: continuing without interruption : constant, perpetual c: regularly repeated or renewed : recurrent Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : When you
The word for today is… vox populi (noun): : popular sentiment or opinion : the voice of the people Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : In a letter to his wife in June of 1863, in the midst of the American Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman wrote about General Ulysses S. Grant’s
The word for today is… dissemble (verb): 1: to hide under a false appearance 2: to put on the appearance of : simulate Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Dissemble (from the Latin verb dissimulare, meaning “to disguise the identity of”) stresses the intent to deceive others, especially about facts, feelings, or intentions.
The word for today is… fruition (noun): 1: pleasurable use or possession : enjoyment 2a: the state of bearing fruit b: realization Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Fruition must come from the word fruit, right? Not exactly—the apple falls a little further from the tree than one might think. Fruition and
The word for today is… inchmeal (adverb): : little by little, gradually Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : I really enjoy inserting the occasional adverb into this series. “All the infections that the sun sucks up / From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him / By inch-meal a disease!” So goes one
The word for today is… redux (adjective): : brought back – used postpositively Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : In English, redux describes things that have been brought back—metaphorically, that is. For example, if the relationship between two nations resembles that of the United States and the Soviet Union in the late 20th
