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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-808/
- Published: 2026-11-04T17:15:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-04T17:15:21.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

perseverate (verb) -

1a: to recur or repeat continually  
b: to intently focus one's attention on a thought or thoughts : fixate  
2 *psychology* : to have or display an involuntary repetitive behavior or thought : to exhibit perseveration

Source : [Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perseverate?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : Looking at perseverate and perseveration, you may guess that the latter was formed by adding a suffix to the former, but that is not the case. Perseveration is actually the older term by a few years. In the early 1900s, psychologists adopted perseveration from German for the act of repeating a behavior over and over again—for instance, continually repeating the same syllable or word might be called "verbal perseveration." Shortly afterward, those scientists wanted a verb for such acts of repetition, so they changed the -ation of perseveration to -ate and perseverate was born. Perseverate continued to evolve and persevere in the English language, which led to its broad

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