Skip to content
word of the day

The word for today is…

commodious (adjective):

1 : comfortably or conveniently spacious
2 archaic : handy, serviceable

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : Although it’s now used to mean “roomy,” in the 18th century “commodious” was regularly used to mean “handy” or “serviceable,” a meaning that is true to the word’s Latin ancestor, commodum, meaning “convenience.” Poet William Cowper used the word in that original sense in a letter referring to a vessel that served double duty, carrying mackerel and herring from a seaside town to London, then making the return trip carrying passengers. As Cowper observed, “The cheapness of the conveyance made it equally commodious for dead fish and lively company.” (No doubt the arriving passengers had a lively smell, which may be one reason why Cowper also noted that some visitors to the seaside town were company whom “people who were nice in the choice of their company, were rather fearful of keeping company with.”)

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

Latest