Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2022 is:

gloss • \GLAHSS\  • verb

Gloss means "to provide a brief explanation of a difficult or obscure word or expression" or, generally, "to explain or interpret."

// The text of the book is relatively jargon -free and most of the technical vocabulary has been glossed .

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Examples:

"Glossing the process, [Janelle Shane] told me, 'As the algorithm generates text, it predicts the next character based on the previous characters—either the seed text, or the text it has generated already.'"— Jacob Brogan, Slate , 9 May 2017

Did you know?

The verb gloss , referring to a brief explanation, comes from Greek glôssa , meaning "tongue," "language," or "obscure word." There is also the familiar phrase gloss over , meaning "to deal with (something) too lightly or not at all." That gloss is related to Germanic glosen , "to glow or shine," and comes from the noun gloss , which in English can refer to a shine on a surface or to a superficial attractiveness that is easily dismissed.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 13, 2022 is:

meritorious • \mair-uh-TOR-ee-us\  • adjective

Meritorious means "deserving of honor or esteem."

// At the gathering, the company's president expressed his gratitude to employees for their meritorious service.

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Examples:

"It's no secret that these companies have a lot on the line here. They're well resourced, and they're going to marshal every argument that they have, meritorious or meritless." — Lina Khan, quoted in The New York Magazine , 27 Oct. 2021

Did you know?

People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly "earn" our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious comes from the Latin verb merēre , which means "to earn." Nowadays, the rewards earned for meritorious acts are likely to be of an immaterial nature: gratitude, admiration, praise, etc. But that wasn't always so. The history of meritorious recalls a reward more concrete in nature: money. In Latin, meritorious literally means "bringing in money."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 12, 2022 is:

stir-crazy • \STER-KRAY-zee\  • adjective

Stir-crazy means "distraught because of prolonged confinement."

// Guests at the ski lodge began going stir-crazy after Day 3 of being snowed in by the blizzard.

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Examples:

"Trying to decide what to do with stir-crazy Vermont kids in winter? Maybe they are home from school on break … and want easy, indoor winter fun. There are a variety of places and attractions that will let your child's creativity, imagination and energy soar, away from the confines of their regular space." — April Barton, The Burlington (Vermont) Free Press , 10 Dec. 2021

Did you know?

Stir-crazy originated as a word to describe a prisoner who became distraught after prolonged confinement. Stir is a 19th-century slang word for "prison" that some word historians have suspected to be from Romani stariben , of the same meaning. But a convincing argument of that origin has yet been made. Today, stir-crazy describes any person who has become restless, agitated, or anxious from being or feeling entrapped in some place.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 11, 2022 is:

tome • \TOHM\  • noun

A tome is a large or scholarly book.

// The book is a literary tome set during the French Revolution.

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Examples:

"Paul McCartney, the iconic Beatles band member, ... has put out a tome of a memoir. Inside the creator recounts his more than eight decades of songwriting." — Anna Tingley, Reuters , 2 Nov. 2021

Did you know?

Tome comes from Greek tomos , meaning "section" or "roll of papyrus ." The Greek is related to the verb temnein , "to cut"; in ancient times, long scrolls of papyrus were divided into sections. When tome was first used in English, it referred to a book that was a part of a multi-volume work or a major part of a single-volume book.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 10, 2022 is:

affable • \AF-uh-bul\  • adjective

Affable means "being pleasant and at ease in talking to others" or "characterized by ease and friendliness."

// The affable owner of the restaurant can be seen most nights welcoming his guests and making light conversation.

// In the hallways, the principal has an affable demeanor; however, when called to her office, students know she is all about business.

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Examples:

"… Perkatory, the coffee shop founded by her late mother in Devil's Beach's quaint business district, … is located in a building owned by Lana's dad, Peter, an affable hippie and the island's leading purveyor of gossip." — Colette Bancroft, The Tampa Bay Times , 29 Nov. 2021

Did you know?

Affable comes from Latin affārī , meaning "to speak to." Other fārī relatives—the word itself means "to speak"—are infant , fable , and fate , among others.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 9, 2022 is:

finesse • \fuh-NESS\  • verb

Finesse means "to handle, deal with, or do (something) in an indirect and skillful or clever way."

// The forward finessed the ball past two defenders and powered it to the left of the goalie for a score.

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Examples:

"One of the most refreshing parts of the doc is the revelation that even the Beatles at their creative peak started off with some clunkers and finessed them into brilliant, lasting earworms we know and love today. The scrappy first take off 'I Got a Feeling' has nothing on the rollicking, perfect last take." — Brittany Wong, HuffPost , 2 Dec. 2021

Did you know?

Finesse originally referred to refinement or delicacy of workmanship, structure, or texture; that sense is based on French fin , meaning "fine." In time, the noun was applied to the "delicate" handling of a situation. The related verb finesse had its start at gaming tables: if you finesse in a game like bridge or whist, you withhold your highest card or trump in the hope that a lower card will take the trick because the only opposing higher card is in the hand of an opponent who has already played. Similar uses of the verb implying skill and cleverness followed.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2022 is:

layman • \LAY-mun\  • noun

A layman is a person who belongs to a religion but is a not a member of its clergy . Layman is also used for someone who does not belong to a particular profession or is not an expert in some field.

// A banquet was held in honor of the faithful laymen who have volunteered their time and services to the church.

// The author claims the book to be an introduction to physics, but it proves to be quite inaccessible to the layman .

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Examples:

"Elsewhere in the temple, I found the workplace of the trained laymen who had been granted permission to practice their art … despite not being ordained as monks." — Francesco Lastrucci, The New York Times , 25 Nov. 2021

Did you know?

Layman is a closed compound of lay man . Lay is an adjective that means "of or relating to the people of a religious faith (but not of its clergy )." The origins of lay and layman go back to Greek laikos , meaning "of the people." Layman was originally used to distinguish between non-clerical people and the clergy before being used to distinguish non-professionals from professionals in a field (such as law or medicine).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 7, 2022 is:

voluble • \VAHL-yuh-bul\  • adjective

Voluble means "characterized by ready or rapid speech."

// During the public forum, the town's more voluble residents expressed their displeasure with the council's decision to increase property taxes.

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Examples:

"[Erich Jarvis] hypothesized that the most vocal animals are typically the ones that have to worry less about predators. Interestingly, he noticed that especially voluble vocal learners 'tend to be near the top of the food chain—like humans, whales, and dolphins or elephants.'" — Emma Bryce, Live Science , 2 July 2021

Did you know?

Voluble traces back to Latin volvere , meaning "to set in a circular course" or "to cause to roll." English rolled with that meaning, using voluble as an adjective to describe things easily rolling, changing, or turning, and later added the meaning of Latin volūbilis , which implies readily flowing speech. Today, voluble most often describes an individual who speaks easily and often.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2022 is:

cerulean • \suh-ROO-lee-un\  • adjective

Cerulean means "resembling the blue of the sky."

// The painting depicts autumnal trees bordering a cerulean lake.

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Examples:

"To our left, as we made our way along the trail, was an expansive valley enclosed by the cerulean heights of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a 550-mile expanse of the Appalachian Mountains." — Stephanie Hill, The Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, West Virginia), 3 Dec. 2021

Did you know?

Cerulean comes from Latin caeruleus , which means "dark blue" and is most likely from caelum , "sky."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 5, 2022 is:

sully • \SUL-ee\  • verb

Sully means "to soil or tarnish."

// The money-related charges brought against the restaurant's owner have sullied her reputation.

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Examples:

"When she began living next to the beach in Barcelona, New Yorker Elizabeth Sherr was distressed to see all the cigarette butts and litter sullying its golden sand. The 24-year-old began a campaign to pick up the rubbish piece by piece, posting videos on TikTok encouraging others to get involved." — Graham Keeley, i (inews.co.uk), 10 June 2021

Did you know?

The spelling of sully has shifted several times since it was sylian in Old English, but its meaning has remained essentially the same: "to soil." In case you are wondering whether sullen (meaning "gloomy or morose") is a relative, the answer is "no." Sullen comes from Latin solus , meaning "alone."