Skip to content

The word for today is…

incarcerate (verb):

1 : to put in prison
2 : to subject to confinement

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology :A criminal sentenced to incarceration may wish their debt to society could be canceled; such a wistful felon might be surprised to learn that incarcerate and cancel are related. Incarcerate comes from incarcerare, a Latin verb meaning “to imprison.” That Latin root comes from carcer, meaning “prison.” Etymologists think that cancel probably got its start when the spelling of carcer was modified to cancer, which means “lattice” in Latin—an early meaning of cancel in English was “to mark (a passage) for deletion with lines crossed like a lattice.” Aside from its literal meaning, incarcerate has a figurative application meaning “to subject to confinement,” as in “people incarcerated in their obsessions.”

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

Latest

Imran Khan: Next Minute...

Imran Khan: Next Minute...

A man once celebrated globally for sporting excellence, humanitarian vision, charisma and elite connection now sits confined under punitive conditions. This underscores the stark contrast between global adulation and domestic peril in Pakistan’s political landscape. 

Members Public