Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day Podcast

soupçon • \soop-SAWNG (the final NG is not pronounced, but the vowel is nasalized)\  • noun
: a little bit : trace

Example sentence:
The author makes the protagonist seem more human by infusing a bit of vanity, a touch of greed, and a soupçon of self-doubt into his otherwise exceptional character.

Did you know?
Culinary enthusiasts may think "soupçon" originated with a dash of garlic in the coq au vin or a splash of vanilla in the crème anglaise, but the etymology of the word has more to do with inklings and suspicions than with food. Sometime in the 18th century, English speakers borrowed "soupçon" from the French, who were using the word to mean "drop," "touch," or "suspicion." The Old French form of the word was "sospeçon," which in turn comes from the Latin forms "suspection-" and "suspectio." Etymologists have further traced the word's Latin ancestry to the verb "suspicere," meaning "to suspect." "Suspicere," as you might expect, is also the source of the English words "suspect" and "suspicion."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 23, 2008 is:

natatorial • \nay-tuh-TOR-ee-ul\  • adjective
*1 : of or relating to swimming 2 : adapted to or characterized by swimming

Example sentence:
The Olympic swimmer's natatorial prowess was on full display as she won her fifth gold medal.

Did you know?
On a warm spring weekday afternoon, the local swimming hole beckons . . . and boys will be boys. "Mr. Foster [the town truant officer] knew very well where to find us . . . at our vernal and natatorial frolics," confessed John Gould in The Christian Science Monitor (January 10, 1992), some 70 years after that warm spring day of his youth. The Latin verb "natare," meaning "to swim," gave English the word "natatorial" and its variant "natatory." It also gave us "natant" ("swimming or floating in water"); "supernatant" ("floating on the surface"); "natation" ("the action or art of swimming"); and last but not least, "natatorium" ("an indoor swimming pool").

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 22, 2008 is:

caustic • \KAWSS-tik\  • adjective
1 : capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action : corrosive *2 : marked by incisive sarcasm

Example sentence:
She always seemed to have a caustic reply to any silly or unnecessary question.

Did you know?
If you have a burning desire to know the origins of "caustic," you're already well on the way to figuring it out. "Caustic" was borrowed into English in the 14th century from the Latin "causticus," which itself derives from the Greek "kaustikos." "Kaustikos," in turn, comes from the Greek verb "kaiein," meaning "to burn." Other "kaiein" descendants in English include "cautery" and "cauterize," "hypocaust" (an ancient Roman heating system), "causalgia" (a burning pain caused by nerve damage), and "encaustic" (a kind of paint which is heated after it's applied).

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 21, 2008 is:

epigone • \EP-uh-gohn\  • noun
: follower, disciple; also : an inferior imitator

Example sentence:
No one can accuse Lara of being an epigone; her artistic style is uniquely her own!

Did you know?
English borrowed "epigone" from German in the 19th century. The Germans themselves had taken the word from the Latin "epigonus," which means "successor." The Latin term followed the Greek "epigonos," which was often used in plural to designate the sons of seven legendary Greek leaders who were defeated at Thebes. "Epigonos" in turn came from the Greek verb "epigignesthai," meaning "to be born after." "Epi-" can mean "after," and "gignesthai" means "to be born."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 20, 2008 is:

asperse • \uh-SPURSS\  • verb
1 : to sprinkle; especially : to sprinkle with holy water *2 : to attack with evil reports or false or injurious charges

Example sentence:
"Though my opponent's supporters have aspersed my character, I think my record speaks for itself," said the candidate.

Did you know?
You may be more familiar with the idea of "casting aspersions" than with "aspersing," although they mean essentially the same thing; the word "aspersion" can mean "a sprinkling with water" or, more commonly, "a false or misleading charge meant to harm someone's reputation." Both "asperse" and "aspersion" are descendants of the Latin verb "aspergere," meaning "to sprinkle." "Asperse" is the older word, dating to at least 1490; "aspersion" first appeared in print in English in the 1500s.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2008 is:

fire-sale • \FYRE-SAIL\  • adjective
: heavily discounted

Example sentence:
"As holders of mortgage-backed securities and the like revalue their assets at fire-sale prices, they are running short of capital -- which can lead to further sales and more write-downs." (The Economist, March 2008)

Did you know?
The term "fire sale" flared up in the late-19th century as the name for a sale of items damaged by fire. As you can imagine, much of the merchandise at a fire sale was sold at very low prices, which fanned the flames of the use of "fire sale" for any sale with discounted or low price tags. The extended meaning of the term sparked an adjective use that had burst into a full-blown blaze by the mid-20th century. Since then, people have embraced "fire-sale prices" in the marketplace, well aware that they won't get burned.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2008 is:

bogart • \BOH-gart\  • verb
1 : bully, intimidate *2 : to use or consume without sharing

Example sentence:
Three of the older girls bogarted the ice cream, ignoring the other campers' pleas for them to share.

Did you know?
The legendary film actor Humphrey Bogart was known for playing a range of tough characters in a series of films throughout the 1940s and 1950s, including The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The African Queen. The men he portrayed often possessed a cool, hardened exterior that occasionally let forth a suggestion of romantic or idealistic sentimentality. Bogart also had a unique method of smoking cigarettes in these pictures -- letting the butt dangle from his mouth without removing it until it was almost entirely consumed. It is believed that this habit inspired the current meaning of "bogart," which was once limited to the phrase "Don't bogart that joint [marijuana cigarette]," as popularized by a song on the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider, among other things. Today "bogart" can be applied to hogging almost anything.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2008 is:

superannuated • \soo-per-AN-yuh-way-tud\  • adjective
1 : outmoded, old-fashioned 2 a : incapacitated or disqualified for active duty by advanced age*b : older than the typical member of a specified group

Example sentence:
The article focused on senior citizens who retired from the workplace and returned to school to become superannuated graduate students.

Did you know?
"Superannuated" was first put to use in English in the 1600s, having been borrowed from Medieval Latin "superannuatus," the past participle of "superannuari" ("to be too old") -- from Latin "super-" ("over" or "above") and "annus" ("year"). Shortly thereafter, we made our own verb, "superannuate," from the adjective. "Superannuate" meant "to retire and pension because of age or infirmity" as well as "to declare obsolete," meanings that are still in active service. "Superannuated" can mean "outmoded or old-fashioned," as in "superannuated slang" or "superannuated neckties," or it can simply mean "older than usual," as in our example sentence.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2008 is:

belvedere • \BEL-vuh-deer\  • noun
: a structure (as a cupola or a summerhouse) designed to command a view

Example sentence:
On summer evenings, guests at the estate often joined their hosts in the belvedere to watch the sunset.

Did you know?
It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder -- and someone with a belvedere will likely have a great deal of beauty to behold. Given the origins of the word, "belvedere" is the ideal term for a building (or part of a building) with a view; it derives from two Italian words, "bel," which means "beautiful," and "vedere," which means "view." The term has been used in English since at least 1593.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2008 is:

Occam's razor • \AH-kumz-RAY-zer\  • noun
: a scientific and philosophic rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities

Example sentence:
Invoking Occam's razor, Eli concluded that the sill was wet because someone had left the window open during the storm.

Did you know?
William of Occam (also spelled "Ockham") didn't invent the rule associated with his name. Others had espoused the "keep it simple" concept before that 14th-century philosopher and theologian embraced it, but no one wielded the principle (also known as the "law of parsimony") as relentlessly as he did. He used it to counter what he considered the fuzzy logic of his theological contemporaries, and his applications of it inspired 19th-century Scottish philosopher Sir William Hamilton to link "Occam" with the idea of cutting away extraneous material, giving us the modern name for the principle.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2008 is:

indurate • \IN-duh-rut\  • adjective
: physically or morally hardened

Example sentence:
The sculpture was so realistic that it seemed that at any moment the indurate marble form would shift position to stare back at the viewer.

Did you know?
"Indurate" is a hard word -- in more than one way. Not only is it fairly uncommon in modern usage, but it also can be traced back to Latin "durare," meaning "to harden." ("Durare" can mean "to endure" as well, and appropriately "indurate" is a word that has lasted many years -- it has been a part of the English language since the 14th century.) "Durare" is also the root of other durable English words, including "during," "endure," "duration," "durance" (an archaic word meaning "endurance"), and even "durable" itself. In addition, "indurate" can be a verb meaning "to make or grow hard," "to make unfeeling, stubborn, or obdurate," and "to establish firmly."