Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 26, 2018 is:

quirk • \KWERK\  • verb

: curve , twist

Examples:

"If you quirked your eyebrow at The Shape of Water 's merman, your jaw probably dropped clean off when you realized that some viewers were, well, thirsty for the marine man." — Melissa Broder and Samantha Hunt, Elle , 14 Sept. 2018

"The video was of a laughing baby, and I felt the corners of my mouth quirking up. After, the computer asked me how I'd felt while watching. 'Happy,' I clicked." — Elizabeth Svoboda, MIT Technology Review , 16 Aug. 2018

Did you know?

Did you expect quirk to be a noun meaning "a peculiarity of action or behavior"? If so, you're probably not alone; the "peculiarity" sense of the noun quirk is commonly known and has been a part of our language since the 17th century. But quirk has long worn other hats in English, too. The sense meaning "a curve, turn, or twist" has named everything from curving pen marks on paper (i.e., flourishes) to witty turns of phrase to the vagaries or twists of fate. In contemporary English, the verb quirk can be used in referring to facial expressions, especially those that involve crooked smiles or furrowed eyebrows.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2018 is:

occlusion • \uh-KLOO-zhun\  • noun

1 : the act of occluding : the state of being occluded: such as

a : the complete obstruction of the breath passage in the articulation of a speech sound

b : the bringing of the opposing surfaces of the teeth of the two jaws into contact; also : the relation between the surfaces when in contact

c : the inclusion or sorption of gas trapped during solidification of a material

2 : the front formed by a cold front overtaking a warm front and lifting the warm air above the earth's surface

Examples:

The meteorologist said that the weakening occlusion heading up the coast would lead to off-and-on rain showers throughout the night.

"The company's facial recognition technology can identify a particular person even in complex situations and accounts for variables like facial changes, age-gender handling, as well as facial occlusion ." — Abhishek Baxi, Forbes , 28 Sept. 2018

Did you know?

Occlusion is a descendant of the Latin verb occludere , meaning "to close up." Occludere in turn comes from the prefix ob- , here meaning "in the way," and the verb claudere , meaning "to close or shut." Occlusion is one of many English terms derived from claudere . Some others are recluse , seclusion , and exclude . An occlusion occurs when something has been closed up or blocked off. Almost all heart attacks are the result of the occlusion of a coronary (heart) artery by a blood clot. When a person's upper and lower teeth form a malocclusion , they close incorrectly or badly. An occlusion, or occluded front, happens when a fast-moving cold front overtakes a slow-moving warm front and slides underneath it, lifting the warm air and blocking its movement.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 24, 2018 is:

audacious • \aw-DAY-shus\  • adjective

1 a : intrepidly daring : adventurous

b : recklessly bold : rash

2 : contemptuous of law, religion, or decorum : insolent

3 : marked by originality and verve

Examples:

The band has been making original and creative music for well over ten years, but their latest album is by far their most audacious to date.

"[Patrick Mahomes] has already thrown 14 touchdown passes without an interception, and his ability to make plays when everything breaks down—like that audacious left-handed pass against the Broncos—has turned him into an early MVP front-runner." — Dave Skretta, The Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer , 7 Oct. 2018

Did you know?

Audacious first appeared in English in the mid-1500s. It was borrowed from the Middle French adjective audacieux , which was derived from the noun audace ("boldness, audacity"). Audace came from the Latin audacia , a derivative of the Latin root audac- ("bold"). Audac- is also the source of audacity , which appeared in Middle English (as audacite ) in the 1400s. Audac- can be traced, by way of the Latin verb audēre ("to dare"), to the Latin adjective avidus ("eager" or "greedy"), which was also borrowed by English, either directly from Latin or via the French avide , to give us our adjective avid . Among the early adopters of audacious was William Shakespeare, who used the word seven times in his plays, as in Henry VI, Part 2 , where Somerset addresses York with the lines, "I arrest thee, York, / Of capital treason 'gainst the King and crown. / Obey, audacious traitor, kneel for grace."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 23, 2018 is:

impromptu • \im-PROMP-too\  • adjective

1 : made, done, or formed on or as if on the spur of the moment : improvised

2 : composed or uttered without previous preparation : extemporaneous

Examples:

When we got word of Caitlin's good news, we threw an impromptu party to celebrate.

"West capped off his curious musical guest gig, where he subbed for Ariana Grande, with a rambling rant after NBC's broadcast ended. The impromptu speech was captured by Chris Rock, who posted it to his Instagram Story." — Kim Willis, USA Today , 30 Sept. 2018

Did you know?

If you think that impromptu looks like a relative of the adjective prompt , you're right; both are ultimately derived from the Latin promere, meaning "to bring forth, take out." Impromptu was borrowed from French, where it meant "extemporaneously," but French speakers picked it up from the Latin phrase in promptu, a promere descendant meaning "in readiness" or "at hand." Something that is impromptu is generally "prompted " (that English verb is from Latin promptus , of the same meaning) by an occasion that generates a response in the form of, for example, a party or a speech that has not been planned. There is also another, much rarer descendant of promere in English: the noun promptuary , meaning "a book of ready reference."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2018 is:

cornucopia • \kor-nuh-KOH-pee-uh\  • noun

1 : a curved, hollow goat's horn or similarly shaped receptacle (such as a horn-shaped basket) that is overflowing especially with fruit and vegetables (such as gourds, ears of corn, apples, and grapes) and that is used as a decorative motif emblematic of abundance

2 : an inexhaustible store : abundance

3 : a receptacle shaped like a horn or cone

Examples:

"While the auction will offer a cornucopia of decorative and fine art spanning many centuries and continents, its crown jewels are the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern paintings." — James Reginato, Vanity Fair , Holiday 2017

"With the veritable cornucopia of fitness gurus, fad diets, weight-loss programmes, and food boot-camps present today, it's not shocking that there is an information overload on nutrition everywhere." — Pooja Sachin Duggal, Business World , 14 Apr. 2018

Did you know?

Cornucopia comes from Latin cornu copiae , which translates literally as "horn of plenty." A traditional staple of feasts, the cornucopia is believed to represent the horn of a goat from Greek mythology. According to legend, it was from this horn that the god Zeus was fed as an infant. Later, the horn was filled with flowers and fruits, and given as a present to Zeus. The filled horn (or a receptacle resembling it) has long served as a traditional symbol in art and decoration to suggest a store of abundance. The word first appeared in English in the early 16th century; a century later, it developed the figurative sense of an overflowing supply.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 21, 2018 is:

noisome • \NOY-sum\  • adjective

1 : noxious , harmful

2 a : offensive to the senses and especially to the sense of smell

b : highly obnoxious or objectionable

Examples:

"The streets were narrow and very dirty, the air smoky and noisome , the people mostly wretched." — Ken Follett, The Man From St. Petersburg , 1982

"The last two newspaper offices where I worked were based in not-so-safe or particularly pretty areas of a city, and most nights when I left work I had to breathe in the noisome aromas of swamp gas, paper mill, deteriorating sewer lines and a dog food processing plant…." — Jackie Torok, The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, North Carolina), 27 May 2014

Did you know?

Noisome sounds like it might be a synonym of noisy , but it's not. Something noisome is disgusting, offensive, or harmful, often in its smell. Noisome does not come from noise , but from the Middle English word noysome , which has the same meaning as noisome . Noysome was formed by combining the noun noy , which means "annoyance," with the adjectival suffix -some ("characterized by a (specified) thing, quality, state, or action"). Noy comes from Anglo-French anui , which also means "annoyance." As you may have already guessed, the English words annoy and annoyance are also related to noisome .

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 20, 2018 is:

perforce • \per-FORSS\  • adverb

: by force of circumstances

Examples:

"All that frantic traveling was in lieu of any compelling reason to stay home, and those many, many friendships were perforce conducted at long distance." — Blake Bailey, The New York Times Book Review , 28 Dec. 2012

"But by making an opera about television—a source of entertainment for the Everyman—they are, perforce , creating a marriage of high and low." — Hilton Als, The New Yorker , 12 Mar. 2018

Did you know?

English speakers borrowed par force from Anglo-French in the 14th century. Par meant "by" (from Latin per ) and the Anglo-French word force had the same meaning as its English equivalent, which was already in use by then. At first, perforce meant quite literally "by physical coercion." That meaning is no longer used today, but it was still prevalent in William Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616). "He rush'd into my house and took perforce my ring away," wrote the Bard in The Comedy of Errors . The "by force of circumstances" sense of perforce had also come into use by Shakespeare's day. In Henry IV, Part 2 , we find "... your health; the which, if you give o'er to stormy passion, must perforce decay."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 19, 2018 is:

henchman • \HENCH-mun\  • noun

1 : a trusted follower : right-hand man

2 : a political follower whose support is chiefly for personal advantage

3 : a member of a gang

Examples:

"The story follows the lives to two very different characters—Frank Guidry, a henchman for one of New Orleans' most powerful and vicious gangsters, and Charlotte, a woman struggling to raise her two daughters while dealing with a feckless, drunken husband." — James D. Watts Jr., The Tulsa (Oklahoma) World , 11 Oct. 2018

"Since Mr. Mugabe's ouster, Mr. Mnangagwa has tried to remake Zimbabwe's image by portraying the government as business-friendly. He has appeared often at investors' conferences, wearing warm, colorful scarves to offset his fearsome reputation as Mr. Mugabe's former henchman ." — Norimitsu Onishi, The New York Times , 30 July 2018

Did you know?

The earliest known examples of today's word in written English show it being used as a term for a squire or a page , but the word may have seen earlier use with the meaning "groom ." It first appeared in Middle English in the 14th century and is a combination of Old English hengest ("a male horse") and man . In the mid-1700s, henchman began to be used for the personal attendant of a Scottish Highland chief. This sense, made familiar to many English readers by Sir Walter Scott, led to the word's use in the broader sense of "right-hand man," which in turn evolved into the other meanings.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 18, 2018 is:

chapel • \CHAP-ul\  • noun

1 : a subordinate or private place of worship

2 : a place of worship used by a Christian group other than an established church

3 : a choir of singers belonging to a chapel

4 : a chapel service or assembly at a school or college

Examples:

The school required all of its students to attend chapel daily.

"The monastery contains a chapel , 26 bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, meeting rooms, offices, a library and a gift shop." — Thomas Saccente, The Times Record (Fort Smith, Arkansas), 8 Oct. 2018

Did you know?

Chapel is ultimately derived from the Late Latin word cappa , meaning "cloak." How did we get from a garment to a building? The answer to this question has to do with a shrine created to hold the sacred cloak of St. Martin of Tours. In Medieval Latin, this shrine was called cappella (from a diminutive of cappa , meaning "short cloak or cape") in reference to the relic it contained. Later, the meaning of cappella broadened to include any building that housed a sacred relic, and eventually to a place of worship. Anglo-French picked up the term as chapele , which in turn passed into English as chapel in the 13th century. In case you are wondering, the term a cappella , meaning "without instrumental accompaniment," entered English from Italian, where it literally means "in chapel style."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2018 is:

susurrous • \soo-SUR-us\  • adjective

: full of whispering sounds

Examples:

As the vacationers slept, the only sound was the susurrous breeze blowing through the curtains of the open window.

"Silence, more anticipatory than uncomfortable, replaced the susurrous swirl of conversation, that tentative tête-à-tête among those who may or may not be acquainted but have a certain thing in common." — Sam McManis, SFGate.com , 9 Mar. 2015

Did you know?

Susurrous derives from the Latin noun susurrus , meaning "a hum" or "a whisper," and may be a distant relative of swarm (think of the collective hum of a beehive). Susurrus is itself an English noun with the meaning "a whispering or rustling sound" (Stephen King provides us with the example of "a violent susurrus of air"). Both the noun and the adjective (note that the two are spelled differently) are products of the 19th century, but they were preceded by the noun susurration , which in the 15th century originally meant "malicious whispering or rumor." Today susurrous is used to describe any kind of sound that resembles a whisper: a light breeze through a tree, perhaps, or the murmurs of intrigued theatergoers.