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Free daily dose of word power from Merriam-Webster's experts

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clitic

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 03, 2010 is: clitic • KLIT-ik • noun
: a word that is treated in pronunciation as forming a part of a neighboring word and that is often unaccented or contracted
Example sentence:
In 'what's happening?' the 's' in 'what's' is a clitic.
Did you know?
We hear clitics every day in sentences like 'This'll be fine' and 'C'mon over here.' There are two kinds of clitics: 'enclitics' and 'proclitics.' An enclitic is a clitic that is associated with the word that comes before it. Contractions, such as the 've' in 'would've' and the 'll' in 'it'll,' are enclitics. A proclitic is associated with the word that follows it. Proclitics are transcribed into print far less often than enclitics are, but we hear them frequently in speech. For example, the sentence 'They love to dance' is typically pronounced with the 'to' truncated to a 't' that gets tacked onto the front of 'dance.'

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vulpine

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 02, 2010 is: vulpine • VUL-pine • adjective
1 : of, relating to, or resembling a fox *2 : foxy, crafty
Example sentence:
'There is something Gatsby-esque about the whole story. [Bernie] Madoff is a clear proxy for Meyer Wolfsheim, the vulpine, self-satisfied criminal seducer.' (Daniel Gross, Newsweek , January 12, 2009)
Did you know?
In Walden (1854), Henry David Thoreau described foxes crying out 'raggedly and demoniacally' as they hunted through the winter forest, and he wrote, 'Sometimes one came near to my window, attracted by my light, barked a vulpine curse at me, and then retreated.' Thoreau's was far from the first use of 'vulpine'; English writers have been applying that adjective to the foxlike or crafty since at least the 15th century, and the Latin parent of our term, 'vulpinus' (from the noun 'vulpes,' meaning 'fox'), was around long before that.

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hector

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 01, 2010 is: hector • HEK-ter • verb
1 : to play the bully : swagger *2 : to intimidate or harass by bluster or personal pressure
Example sentence:
The judge sternly ordered the attorney to stop hectoring the witness.
Did you know?
In Homer's Iliad , Hector, the eldest son of King Priam of Troy, was a model soldier, son, father, and friend, the champion of the Trojan army until he was killed by the Greek hero Achilles. How did the name of a Trojan paragon become a verb meaning 'to bully or harrass'? That use was likely influenced by gangs of rowdy street toughs who roamed London in the 17th century and called themselves 'Hectors.' They may have thought themselves gallant young blades, but to the general populace they were swaggering bullies who intimidated passersby and vandalized property. By 1660, 'hector' was being used both as a verb and as a noun meaning 'bully.'

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dram

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 31, 2010 is: dram • DRAM • noun
1 : a unit of avoirdupois weight equal to 1/16 ounce 2 : a unit of apothecaries' weight equal to 1/8 ounce 3 : a unit of liquid capacity equal to 1/8 fluid ounce 4 a : a small portion of something to drink* b : a small amount
Example sentence:
The two of them don't have a dram of sense between them, so I'm not surprised that they got into so much trouble.
Did you know?
In avoirdupois weight -- that is, the system of weights commonly used by English speakers in North America and the United Kingdom -- a dram is equal to 1/16 ounce (1.772 grams). The word 'dram' was borrowed from the Anglo-French and Late Latin word 'dragme,' which was originally used for a silver coin used by the ancient Greeks (now known in English as the 'drachma') and for the coin's approximate weight. In the 16th century, English speakers also began using 'dram' for a weight of fluid measure (also called a 'fluid dram') equal to 1/8 fluid ounce, and more loosely for any small portion of something to drink. 'Dram' is also used figuratively for any small amount, in much the same way as 'grain' and 'ounce.'

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flat-hat

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 30, 2010 is: flat-hat • FLAT-hat • verb
: to fly low in an airplane in a reckless manner : hedgehop
Example sentence:
Unable to resist the temptation to show off, the young pilot decreased altitude and flat-hatted over the county fairground.
Did you know?
Legend has it that the term 'flat-hat' originated with an incident back in the days of barnstormers in which a pedestrian’s hat was crushed by a low-flying airplane. According to one version of the tale, the reckless pilot was subsequently required to purchase a new hat for the hapless pedestrian. It seems unlikely that such an event actually took place, but we can well imagine how fear of having one’s hat smashed flat by a passing airplane might have given rise to such a vivid verb. 'Flat-hat' first appeared in English in 1940; another word for flying low to the ground, 'hedgehop,' debuted 14 years earlier.

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quorum

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 29, 2010 is: quorum • KWOR-um • noun
1 : a select group *2 : the number (as a majority) of officers or members of a body that when duly assembled is legally competent to transact business
Example sentence:
The town’s charter states that a quorum of at least nine members must be present before any voting by the town council can take place.
Did you know?
In Latin, 'quorum' means 'of whom,' which is itself the genitive plural of 'qui,' meaning 'who.' At one time, Latin 'quorum' was used in the wording of the commission issued to justices of the peace in England. In English, 'quorum' initially referred to the number of justices of the peace who had to be present to constitute a legally sufficient bench. That sense is now rare, but it's not surprising that 'quorum' has come to mean both 'a select group' and 'the minimum people required in order to conduct business.'

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veridical

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 28, 2010 is: veridical • vuh-RID-ih-kul • adjective
*1 : truthful, veracious 2 : not illusory : genuine
Example sentence:
'All psychotherapies are based on the fact that memory is not veridical, that unconscious desires and fantasies exert their force on us all.…' (Henry Kaminer, Weekly Standard , July 31, 2000)
Did you know?
We'll tell only the truth here: 'veridical' comes from the Latin word 'veridicus,' which itself is from two other Latin words: 'verus,' meaning 'true,' and 'dicere,' meaning 'to say.' 'Verus' is an ancestor of several English words, among them 'verity,' 'verify,' and 'very' (which originally meant 'true'). The word 'verdict' is related to 'veridical' on both sides of the family: it also traces back to 'verus' and 'dicere.' 'Veridical' itself is the least common of the 'verus' words. You're most likely to encounter it in contexts dealing with psychology and philosophy. ]>

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regale

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 27, 2010 is: regale • rih-GAIL • verb
1 : to entertain sumptuously : to feast with delicacies *2 : to give pleasure or amusement to
Example sentence:
'Mrs. O[bama] was, no surprise, also incredibly down-to-earth; she regaled our crew with tales of First Dog Bo, whose birthday was coming up.' ( Glamour , December 2009)
Did you know?
'Regale' has been an English verb since at least 1656; it was adapted from French 'régaler,' which has the same meaning as 'regale.' The French verb goes back to Middle French 'galer,' which means 'to have a good time,' and to Old French 'gale,' meaning 'pleasure.' ('Gala,' meaning 'a festive celebration,' is from the same source.) 'Regale' also has a history as a noun meaning 'a sumptuous feast.' That use dates back to at least 1670, when someone penned the following notice for posterity: 'My Lord Duke will not be able to get away yet…, all the regales that are intended for him not being yet at an end.' (The lord referred to is the Duke of Buccleuch, whose regales ended once and for all 15 years later when he was beheaded.)

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milquetoast

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 26, 2010 is: milquetoast • MILK-tohst • noun
: a timid, meek, or unassertive person
Example sentence:
Brian was such a milquetoast that he agreed to work extra hours on Sunday even though he had already told his boss that he needed that day off.
Did you know?
Caspar Milquetoast was a comic strip character created in 1924 by the American cartoonist Harold T. Webster. The strip, called 'The Timid Soul,' ran every Sunday in the New York Herald Tribune for many years. Webster, who claimed that Milquetoast was a self-portrait, summed up the character as 'the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick.' The earliest examples of 'Milquetoast' being used as a generic synonym for 'timid person' date from the mid-1930s. Caspar's last name might remind you of 'milk toast,' a bland concoction of buttered toast served in a dish of warm milk.

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carceral

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 25, 2010 is: carceral • KAHR-suh-rul • adjective
: of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison
Example sentence:
Every time John walked by the old hospital he was haunted by the abandoned building’s imposing carceral towers and tiny windows.
Did you know?
Describing a painting of John Howard visiting a prison in 1787, Robert Hughes wrote that Howard was 'the pioneer of English carceral reform' ( Time Magazine , November 11, 1985). 'Prison reform' might be the more common phrase, but the use of 'carceral' was by no means unprecedented. Vladimir Nabokov, in his inimitable prose, described a prison scene in Invitation to a Beheading thusly: 'The door opened, whining, rattling and groaning in keeping with all the rules of carceral counterpoint.' An adjective borrowed directly from Late Latin, 'carceral' appeared shortly after 'incarcerate' ('to imprison'), which first showed up in English around the mid-1500s; they're both ultimately from 'carcer,' Latin for 'prison.'

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jeremiad

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 24, 2010 is: jeremiad • jair-uh-MYE-ud • noun
: a prolonged lamentation or complaint; also : a cautionary or angry harangue
Example sentence:
'Siegel's book is a jeremiad against the ills the Internet has visited upon our lives.' (Ellen Ullman, The Washington Post , February 10, 2008)
Did you know?
Jeremiah was a naysayer. That Jewish prophet, who lived from about 650 to 570 BC, spent his days lambasting the Hebrews for their false worship and social injustice and denouncing the king for his selfishness, materialism, and inequities. When not calling on his people to quit their wicked ways, he was lamenting his own lot; a portion of the Old Testament's Book of Jeremiah is devoted to his 'confessions,' a series of lamentations on the hardships endured by a prophet with an unpopular message. Nowadays, English speakers use 'Jeremiah' for a pessimistic person and 'jeremiad' for the way these Jeremiahs carry on. The word 'jeremiad' was actually borrowed from the French, who coined it as 'jérémiade.'

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