The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is…

stultify (verb):

1a: to have a dulling or inhibiting effect on
b: to impair, invalidate, or make ineffective : negate
2: to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical
3 archaic : to allege or prove to be of unsound mind and hence not responsible

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : In one sense stultify means, “to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical.” But there is nothing especially funny about the now-archaic original usage of the word. In mid-1700s legal contexts, if you stultified yourself, you claimed to be of unsound mind and thus not responsible for your actions. Nor is there humor in the most common current meaning of stultify, which refers to rendering someone or something dull or ineffective.

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