Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day Podcast

invigilate • \in-VIJ-uh-layt\  • verb
: to keep watch : supervise, monitor

Example sentence:
Theodore sat in his favorite chair on the back deck, sipped his coffee, and invigilated the activities of his grandchildren as they played in the yard.

Did you know?
Keep your eyes open and you're sure to spot a few relatives of today's word. "Invigilate" is a descendant of the Latin verb "vigilare," meaning "to stay awake." As you may have guessed, "vigilare" is the ancestor of our adjective "vigilant" ("alertly watchful"), and it also gives us "reveille" ("a signal to wake up in the morning," via French "reveiller") and "surveillance" ("close watch, supervision," via French "survéiller"). "Invigilate" has been a part of the English language since the mid-16th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 03, 2009 is:

zeugma • \ZOOG-muh\  • noun
: the use of a word to modify two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one

Example sentence:
"Torpedoes hit their mark! Ship and many hopes sink!" said the headline, employing vivid zeugma.

Did you know?
"Zeugma, like the pun, is economical: it contracts two sentences into one . . . it links unrelated terms -- mental with moral, abstract with physical, high with low -- and thus generates surprise." (Walter Redfern, Puns) "Zeugma," which has been a part of the English language since the 15th century, comes from Greek, where it literally means "joining." The Greek word has another connection to English as well. In the early 1970s, a chemistry professor named Paul Lauterbur developed a technique for producing images of internal organs. He called it "zeugmatography," because it involved the joining of magnetic fields. Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize, but the name he chose didn’t stick. The technique is known today as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 02, 2009 is:

abject • \AB-jekt\  • adjective
1 : sunk to or existing in a low state or condition *2 : very low in spirit or hope : wretched 3 : expressing or offered in a humble and often ingratiating spirit

Example sentence:
Morris was in an abject and lonely state after Olivia left him -- but then he met Penny and his world brightened again.

Did you know?
"Abject" comes from "abjectus," the past participle of the Latin verb "abicere," meaning "to cast off." Its original meaning in English was "cast off" or "rejected," but it is now used to refer more broadly to things in a low state or condition. "Abject" shares with "mean," "ignoble," and "sordid" the sense of being below the normal standards of human decency and dignity. "Abject" may imply degradation, debasement, or servility ("abject poverty"). "Mean" suggests having such repellent characteristics as small-mindedness, ill temper, or cupidity ("mean and petty satire"). "Ignoble" suggests a loss or lack of some essential high quality of mind or spirit ("an ignoble scramble after material possessions"). "Sordid" is stronger than all of these in stressing physical or spiritual degradation and lowness ("a sordid story of murder and revenge").

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 01, 2009 is:

periphrasis • \puh-RIFF-ruh-sis\  • noun
1 : use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter form of expression *2 : an instance of periphrasis

Example sentence:
The college English teacher warned her students against padding their essays with periphrases solely to reach the required length.

Did you know?
It's easy enough to point out the origins of "periphrasis": the word was borrowed into English in the early 16th century via Latin from Greek "periphrazein," which in turn comes from the prefix "peri-," meaning "all around," and the verb "phrazein," "to point out." Two common descendants of "phrazein" in English are "phrase" and "paraphrase," the latter of which combines "phrazein" with the prefix "para-," meaning "closely resembling." Another "phrazein" descendant is the less familiar word "holophrasis," meaning "the expression of a complex of ideas in a single word or in a fixed phrase." (The prefix "holo-" can mean "completely.")

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 30, 2009 is:

oenophile • \EE-nuh-fyle\  • noun
: a lover or connoisseur of wine

Example sentence:
Only an astute oenophile like Simon would know that 2002 was not the best year for that particular Barolo.

Did you know?
"It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth," wrote the 1st-century A.D. Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder. The truth about the word "wine" is that it goes back to Latin "vinum," but it is also a distant relative of the Greek word for wine, which is "oinos." Indeed, Latin borrowed from the Greek to create a combining form that means "wine," "oeno-." Modern French speakers combined "oeno-" with "-phile" (Greek for "lover of") to create "oenophile" before we adopted it from them around 1930. Etymologically-inclined oenophiles are sure to know that "oenology," for the science of wine making, and "oenologist," for one versed in oenology (more often spelled "enology" and "enologist") also trace back to the Greek root.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 29, 2009 is:

skimble-skamble • \skim-bul-SKAM-bul\  • adjective
: rambling and confused : senseless

Example sentence:
"What a lark it is to tag along after constantly astonished Alice as she meets up with all those skimble-skamble Lewis Carroll creations," raved one theater critic of an adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Did you know?
One of the best examples of "skimble-skamble" used in context is also its first known use. It occurs in Shakespeare's Henry IV when Hotspur speaks of Mortimer's father: "Sometimes he angers me / With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant, / Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, / And of a dragon and a finless fish… / And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff…." After reading Hotspur's rambling, we can clearly understand the word's meaning, but from whence did the Bard come up with the word? More than likely, he coined the word as a reduplication of "scamble," a word meaning "to stumble along" that was widely used during his time but is now only heard in some English dialects.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2009 is:

founder • \FOUN-der\  • verb
1 : to make or become disabled or lame 2 : to give way : collapse *3 : to become submerged : sink 4 : to come to grief : fail

Example sentence:
As the vessel began to founder, the captain ordered everyone on board to prepare to abandon ship.

Did you know?
"Founder" comes from Middle English "foundren," meaning "to send to the bottom" or "collapse." That word came from the Middle French verb "fondrer," and ultimately from the Latin noun "fundus," meaning "bottom." When something "founders," it usually hits the bottom in one sense or another. A foundering horse -- that is, a disabled one -- is likely to collapse to the ground. When a ship founders, it sinks to the bottom of the sea. "Founder" has a broader, figurative sense, too -- if your marriage or your career is foundering it isn't doing well and is therefore headed downward.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 27, 2009 is:

roman à clef • \roh-mahn-ah-KLAY\  • noun
: a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise

Example sentence:
Critics quickly identified the ex-press secretary’s new novel as a roman a clef with characters closely resembling figures from the current presidential administration.

Did you know?
"Unlock the fiction, open the door and see the very real people behind it," wrote Jeff Simon in The Buffalo News (March 19, 1998). That can be easily done when a roman à clef uses fictitious names to present thinly veiled depictions of well-known people or events. But what if only a few insiders know the real people or incidents? In the 1800s, such romans a clef sometimes included a key, a list matching fictional characters with their real-life counterparts, that helped readers recognize the players. Such keys made "roman a clef" (from a French phrase meaning "a novel with a key") an apt term for such works. Nowadays, there are no published keys in a roman à clef -- merely veiled (or sometimes blatant) references that connect fact with fiction.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2009 is:

crescent • \KRESS-unt\  • adjective
: marked by an increase : increasing

Example sentence:
"The people love me, and the sea is mine; / My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope / Says it will come to th' full." (William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra)

Did you know?
You probably know "crescent" as the shape of a moon that is less than half-illuminated. These days, "crescent" is generally used of either a waxing or waning moon, but that wasn't always the case. Originally, it referred only to the increasing illumination phase that immediately follows the new moon. That original meaning nicely reflects the meaning of the word's Latin ancestor "crescere," which means "to grow." The meaning of "crescere" also shines through when we use "crescent" as an adjective meaning "increasing" or "growing." English speakers have been using "crescent" in this way since the 16th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2009 is:

desolate • \DESS-uh-lut\  • adjective
1 : devoid of inhabitants and visitors : deserted 2 : joyless, disconsolate, and sorrowful through or as if through separation from a loved one 3 a : showing the effects of abandonment and neglect : dilapidated* b : barren, lifeless c : devoid of warmth, comfort, or hope : gloomy

Example sentence:
The landscape looks truly desolate in the winter, but when it blossoms in the spring, it can be surprisingly beautiful.

Did you know?
Something that is desolate is literally or figuratively "abandoned," so you probably won't be surprised to learn that "desolate" has its roots in the Latin verb "desolare," meaning "to abandon." The Middle English word "desolat" comes from the past participle of "desolare," which in turn combines the prefix "de-" and the adjective "solus," meaning "alone." "Desolate" is not at all alone in this family of words. Some other familiar descendants of "solus" include "solitary," "sole," "solo," "solitude," and "soliloquy."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2009 is:

cavalcade • \kav-ul-KAYD\  • noun
1 a : a procession of riders or carriages* b : a procession of vehicles or ships 2 : a dramatic sequence or procession : series

Example sentence:
The crowds cheered and waved as the cavalcade of fire trucks rolled through the streets along the parade route.

Did you know?
When "cavalcade" was first used in English, it meant "a horseback ride" or "a march or raid made on horseback." Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, used it this way in his 1647 History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England : "He had with some Troops, made a Cavalcade or two into the West." From there came the "procession of riders" meaning and eventual applications to processions in a broader sense. "Cavalcade" came to English via French from the Old Italian noun "cavalcata," which in turn came from an Old Italian verb, "cavalcare," meaning "to go on horseback." Ultimately, these words came from the Latin word "caballus," meaning "horse."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.