Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 9, 2018 is:

transmogrify • \transs-MAH-gruh-fye\  • verb

: to change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect

Examples:

"It hadn't been cleaned in more than two years and the captured leaves had transmogrified into a wonderfully fecund compost." — Frank Mulligan, The Leader (Corning, New York), 8 Aug. 2014

"He was present in 1917 when communists shot their way to power and Imperial Russia transmogrified into the Soviet Union." — Colin Nickerson, The Boston Globe , 30 Apr. 2017

Did you know?

We know that the prefix trans- means "across" or "beyond" and appears in many words that evoke change, such as transform and transpire , but we don't know the exact origins of transmogrify . The 17th-century dramatist, novelist, and poet Aphra Behn, who is regarded as England's first female professional writer, was an early adopter of the word. In her 1671 comic play The Amorous Prince , Behn wrote, "I wou'd Love would transmogriphy me to a maid now." A century later, Scottish poet Robert Burns plied the word again in verse, aptly capturing the grotesque and sometimes humorous effect of transmogrification: "See Social life and Glee sit down, All joyous and unthinking, Till, quite transmugrify'd, they're grown Debauchery and Drinking…."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 8, 2018 is:

lucubration • \loo-kyuh-BRAY-shun\  • noun

: laborious or intensive study; also : the product of such study — usually used in plural

Examples:

The book is a collection of lucubrations on the effect advancements in computer science have on economic policy.

"Surely when we talk about our mental lives we're simply thinking of everything that makes human beings special, different—our thoughts, our language-based lucubration ." — Tim Parks, The New York Review of Books , 21 Nov. 2016

Did you know?

Imagine someone studying through the night by the light of a dim candle or lamp. That image demonstrates perfectly the most literal sense of lucubration . Our English word derives from the Latin verb lucubrare , meaning "to work by lamplight." (That Latin root is related to lux , the Latin word for "light.") In its earliest known English uses, lucubration named both nocturnal study itself and a written product thereof. By the 1800s, however, the term had been broadened to refer to any intensive study (day or night), or a composition, especially a weighty one, generated as a result of such study. Nowadays, lucubration is most often used in its plural form and implies pompous or stuffy scholarly writing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 7, 2018 is:

eccentric • \ik-SEN-trik\  • adjective

1 a : deviating from conventional or accepted usage or conduct especially in odd or whimsical ways

b : deviating from an established or usual pattern or style

2 a : deviating from a circular path; especially : elliptical

b : located elsewhere than at the geometric center; also : having the axis or support so located

Examples:

"Nothing is more eccentric in our egocentric world than generosity." — Filip Noterdaeme, quoted in The New York Times , 7 June 2018

"Charlie has the eccentric habit of making a clucking sound that signifies everything and nothing. It's part of the film's unsettling sound design, which composer Colin Stetson ratchets up to full creep mode with a soundtrack that freezes the heart." — Peter Howell, The Toronto Star , 8 June 2018

Did you know?

Eccentric comes to us through Middle English from the Medieval Latin word eccentricus , but it is ultimately derived from a combination of the Greek words ex , meaning "out of," and kentron , meaning "center." The original meaning of eccentric in English was "not having the same center" (as in "eccentric spheres"). In this sense, it contrasts with concentric , meaning "having a common center" (as in "concentric circles," one within another). But since the 17th century, English speakers have also used eccentric to describe those who are figuratively off-center. It can also be used to describe something that doesn't follow a truly circular path, as in "an eccentric orbit."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 6, 2018 is:

sophistry • \SAH-fuh-stree\  • noun

1 : subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation

2 : an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially : such an argument used to deceive

Examples:

The newspaper editorial warned readers to beware politicians who use sophistry to convince voters to support policies not in their own best interests.

"Drama, the art in which perspectives are brought into collision, is a powerful antidote to the sophistry and sensationalism nullifying our capacity for intelligent debate." — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times , 31 Dec. 2017

Did you know?

The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C.E. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus, sophist —which can be traced back, via the Greek sophistēs ("wise man" or "expert") and sophizesthai ("to become wise"), to sophos , meaning "clever" or wise"—earned a negative connotation as "a captious or fallacious reasoner."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 5, 2018 is:

asseverate • \uh-SEV-uh-rayt\  • verb

: to affirm or declare positively or earnestly

Examples:

"One can asseverate that a thesaurus is a treasury of words," Felix said ruefully, "but I presume that my own utilization of such costs me some intelligibility."

"A survey conducted by Pacific Community Resources (2003) asseverates drug use among teens is higher than ever today." — Sheila Cordry & Janell D. Wilson, Education , Fall 2004

Did you know?

In a 2001 essay in The New York Times , novelist Elmore Leonard warned writers against using any verb other than "said" to carry dialogue, describing how an encounter with asseverated once compelled him to stop reading in order to consult a dictionary. We don't think that interruption for dictionary consultation is a bad thing, but we do acknowledge that asseverate is little more than a fancy word meaning "to assert or declare." It was formed in Latin from the prefix ad - ("to, toward") and the verb severare , a relative of the adjective severus , meaning "serious or severe," and has been used in English since the 17th century. Nowadays, asseverate is found mostly in the works of authors long dead. It's also occasionally employed by those who like to show off their vocabularies.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 4, 2018 is:

pyrotechnics • \pye-ruh-TEK-niks\  • noun

1 singular or plural in construction : the art of making or the manufacture and use of fireworks

2 a : a display of fireworks

b : a spectacular display (as of extreme virtuosity)

Examples:

The town's much-anticipated Independence Day pyrotechnics will be launched from the usual place: a tower on a mountain ridge along its eastern border.

"His talent as a writer and caricaturist was evident from the start in his verbal pyrotechnics and perfect mimicry of speech patterns, his meticulous reporting, and his creative use of pop language and explosive punctuation." — Deirdre Carmody and William Grimes, The New York Times , 15 May 2018

Did you know?

The use of military fireworks in elaborate celebrations of war and peace is an ancient Chinese custom, but our term for the making and launching of fireworks is a product of the 17th and 18th centuries. Pyrotechnics and the earlier adjective pyrotechnic derive via French from the Greek nouns pyr ("fire") and techne ("art"). In pyr one can see such fiery relatives as pyromania , the term for an irresistible impulse to start fires, as well as pyrite , the mineral also known as fool's gold . (That word also has an obsolete meaning, in the form pyrites , referring to a stone used for striking fire.) Like fireworks , pyrotechnics also has an extended figurative usage, referring to any kind of dazzling display or performance.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 3, 2018 is:

regardless • \rih-GAHRD-lus\  • adverb

: despite everything

Examples:

Heavy rain is expected this weekend, but the county fair will go on regardless .

"'Don't drown, turn around' is a clever phrase created to warn motorists about traversing flooded roadways. It should be heeded by all motorists, regardless of the height of your vehicle and whether it has all-wheel drive." — Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia), 4 June 2018

Did you know?

Regardless is rather simply derived from the noun regard (meaning "attention" or "concern") plus -less —nothing too shocking about that. But poor regardless became embroiled in a usage scandal through no fault of its own when people began using irregardless as its synonym (probably blending irrespective and regardless ). Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century, and usage commentators have been decrying it since the 1920s, often declaring "there is no such word." Irregardless does exist, of course, but it tends to be used primarily in speech and it is still considered nonstandard. Regardless is preferred.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 2, 2018 is:

canicular • \kuh-NIK-yuh-ler\  • adjective

: of or relating to the period between early July and early September when hot weather occurs in the northern hemisphere

Examples:

On weekend days in the canicular season, the wait at the town's only ice cream shop was often 20 people deep.

"Maggie had from her window, seen her stepmother leave the house—at so unlikely an hour, three o'clock of a canicular August…. It was the hottest day of the season…." — Henry James, The Golden Bowl , 1904

Did you know?

The Latin word canicula , meaning "small dog," is the diminutive form of canis , source of the English word canine . Canicula was also the name for Sirius , the star that represents the hound of the hunter Orion in the constellation named for that Roman mythological figure. Because the first visible rising of Sirius occurs during the summer, the hot sultry days that occur from early July to early September came to be called dies caniculares , or as we know them in English, "the dog days ."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2018 is:

métier • \MET-yay\  • noun

1 : vocation , trade

2 : an area of activity in which one excels : forte

Examples:

"Instinctively, Winnie Mandela found her métier as a born politician, appearing in any troubled area to assure the populace that liberation was nigh." — The Daily Telegraph (London), 3 Apr. 2018

"'We're going to react to them and improvise,' says [Zeena] Parkins, a classically trained pianist from Detroit who found her métier in Manhattan's Lower East Side experimental music scene in the 1980s, when she electrified her harp to be heard amid the din of guitars and drums and other instruments." — Jesse Hamlin, The San Francisco Chronicle , 26 Apr. 2018

Did you know?

The words métier , employment , occupation , and calling all perform similar functions in English, though each word gets the job done in its own way. These hardworking synonyms can all refer to a specific sustained activity, especially an activity engaged in to earn a living, but these words also have slightly different shades of meaning. Employment implies simply that one was hired and is being paid by an employer, whereas occupation usually suggests special training, and calling generally applies to an occupation viewed as a vocation or profession . Métier , a French borrowing acquired by English speakers in the 18th century, typically implies a calling for which one feels especially fitted.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 30, 2018 is:

lambaste • \lam-BAYST\  • verb

1 : to assault violently : beat , whip

2 : to attack verbally : censure

Examples:

The coach loudly lambasted Danny in front of the whole team for showing up late yet again.

"The governor of Latvia's central bank, a pillar of Europe's financial system for years and a zealous champion of austerity, has long been lambasted by his critics as a heartless enforcer of economic dogma ." — Andrew Higgins, The New York Times , 30 Apr. 2018

Did you know?

The origins of lambaste are somewhat uncertain, but the word was most likely formed by combining the verbs lam and baste , both of which mean "to beat severely." (The baste functioning here is unrelated to either the sewing or cooking one.) (Incidentally, lambaste can also be spelled lambast , despite the modern spelling of the verb baste .) Some other synonyms of lambaste include pummel , thrash , and pound . Pummel suggests beating with one's fists ("the boxer ruthlessly pummeled his opponent"). Pound also suggests heavy blows, though perhaps not quite so much as pummel , and may imply a continuous rain of blows ("she pounded on the door"). Thrash means to strike repeatedly and thoroughly as if with a whip and is often used figuratively to mean "to defeat decisively or severely" ("the team thrashed their opponent 44-0").