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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 31, 2020 is: rife • \RYFE\  • adjective 1 : prevalent especially to an increasing degree 2 : abundant , common 3 : copiously supplied : abounding Examples: “Like most colleges and universities, ad schools have found themselves going virtual … because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. However, students soon graduating from these programs are facing a job market rife with layoffs, hiring freezes and canceled internships….” — Doug Zanger, Adweek , 8 June 2020 “Red-tailed hawks and some other raptors have learned that our highways are rife with rodents, so they perch on light poles, nearby trees or signs and wait to spot a meal.” — Val Cunningham, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 9 June 2020 Did you know? English is rife with words that have Germanic connections, many of which have been handed down to us from Old English. Rife is one of those words. Not a whole lot has changed with rife in its l...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 30, 2020 is: catastrophe • \kuh-TASS-truh-fee\  • noun 1 : a momentous tragic event ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow or ruin 2 : utter failure : fiasco 3 a : a violent and sudden change in a feature of the earth b : a violent usually destructive natural event (such as a supernova ) 4 : the final event of the dramatic action especially of a tragedy Examples: “We are a nation that’s used to catastrophes . We deal with avalanches, earthquakes, eruptions, and so on.” — Alma Möller, quoted in The New Yorker , 1 June 2020 “Be the challenge grave illness, divorce, a natural disaster or an economic meltdown, the rebound represents how we respond, how we stand strong in the face of catastrophe , how we refuse to give up.” — Designers Today , 27 May 2020 Did you know? When English speakers first borrowed the Greek word katastrophē (from katastrephein , meaning “to overturn”) as catastrophe in t...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 29, 2020 is: pejorative • \pih-JOR-uh-tiv\  • adjective : having negative connotations ; especially : tending to disparage or belittle : depreciatory Examples: The captain has come under fire for making pejorative remarks about teammates. “There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it. When I mention manipulation, this is not necessarily pejorative ; it’s a very common and fairly benign tactic.” — Simon Sinek, Start with Why , 2009 Did you know? “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Parents have given that good advice for years, but unfortunately many people haven’t heeded it. The word pejorative makes it clear that both English and Latin speakers have long known that disparaging words can make a bad situation worse. Pejorative derives from the Late Latin adjective pējōrātus , which in turn comes from the Latin verb pējōrāre , meaning “t...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 28, 2020 is: mesmerize • \MEZ-muh-ryze\  • verb 1 : to subject to mesmerism ; also : hypnotize 2 : spellbind Examples: The crowd was mesmerized by the flawlessly synchronous movements of the acrobats. “Control is a coveted possession in  Credulity , Ogden’s illuminating recent study of American mesmerism. The mesmerists and skeptics she studies all seem to want it; at any rate, they want to consider themselves rational and self-possessed enough not to fall under anyone else’s. During this brief, strange moment between 1836 and the late 1850s, mesmerizing another person—or seeing someone get mesmerized , or denouncing mesmerists as charlatans—became a way of stockpiling control for one’s own use.” — Max Nelson, The New York Review of Books , 24 July 2019 Did you know? Experts can’t agree on whether Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was a quack or a genius, but all concede that the late 18th-century physician’s ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 27, 2020 is: anomaly • \uh-NAH-muh-lee\  • noun 1 : something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified : something anomalous 2 : deviation from the common rule : irregularity 3 : the angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun Examples: “Thermal Scanning uses intelligent thermal technology and checks the temperature of everyone entering the premises and triggers necessary alarms in case of an anomaly  in the temperature.” — Business World , 12 June 2020 “[Rich] Wingo is also part of a statistical anomaly  of sorts: He scored one point in his NFL career. He is one of four Packers to have scored a single point….” — Jim Owczarski, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , 15 June 2020 Did you know? You might be familiar with the Greek word homos , which means “same.” It is from this word that we get words like homonym , homogeneous , and homophone , all of which have to do...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 26, 2020 is: epistolary • \ih-PIST-uh-lair-ee\  • adjective 1 : of, relating to, or suitable to a letter 2 : contained in or carried on by letters 3 : written in the form of a series of letters Examples: “Jonathan Franzen, with whom he had struck up an epistolary friendship, offered to get together that April when he was in Boston.” — D. T. Max, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace , 2012 “It is an  epistolary  novel, but spare, as opposed to an 18th-century novel like Clarissa , in which female characters write twice a day. Very few letters are exchanged between the friends; sometimes years pass in between.” — Don Noble, The Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News , 2 May 2020 Did you know? Epistolary was formed from the noun epistle , which refers to a composition written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group. In its original sense, epistle refers to one of the 21 le...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 25, 2020 is: noblesse oblige • \noh-BLESS-uh-BLEEZH\  • noun : the obligation of honorable, generous, and responsible behavior associated with high rank or birth Examples: “Like many independent schools, Shipley cultivates a sense of noblesse oblige  among its students—the notion that part of being educated in a privileged environment requires scholars to give back.” — Alfred Lubrano, The Philadelphia Inquirer , 20 May 2020 “And, unlike the goal of simply becoming fabulously wealthy—which one could also accomplish by winning the lottery or marrying a nonroyal oil magnate—princesshood came with a sense of noblesse oblige . You would be doing it to inspire people. You would be your own act of charity.” — Monica Hesse, The Washington Post , 10 Jan. 2020 Did you know? In French, noblesse oblige means literally “nobility obligates.” French speakers transformed the phrase into a noun, which English speakers picked up ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 24, 2020 is: bowdlerize • \BOHD-ler-ize\  • verb 1 literature : to expurgate (something, such as a book) by omitting or modifying parts considered vulgar 2 : to modify by abridging , simplifying, or distorting in style or content Examples: “Certainly, there’s no risk that all art will be bowdlerized  into nice stories about people saving puppies, but it’s not wrong to note a fading appetite for antiheroes and bad behavior.” — Jonah E. Bromwich, The New York Times , 12 Mar. 2020 “Under his rule, career scientists are barred from speaking at conferences, websites are bowdlerized , and the respected National Climate Assessment is threatened by political appointees who want to soften its most dire conclusions.” — Renée Loth, The Boston Globe , 25 Nov. 2019 Did you know? Few editors have achieved the notoriety of Thomas Bowdler. He was trained as a physician, but when illness prevented him from practicing me...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 23, 2020 is: gyre • \JYRE\  • noun : a circular or spiral motion or form; especially : a giant circular oceanic surface current Examples: Sophia will be focusing her graduate studies on the effects of ocean gyres on North America’s climate. “The exception has been the Weddell Sea … which retains much of its ice from year to year because of cold winds from the south and a circular current, or gyre , that keeps the ice from drifting into warmer waters that would cause it to melt more.” — Henry Fountain, The New York Times , 17 June 2020 Did you know? William Butler Yeats opens his 1920 poem, “The Second Coming,” with the following lines: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world….” Often found in poetic or literary contexts as an alternative to the more familiar circle or spiral , gyre comes v...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 22, 2020 is: requisite • \REK-wuh-zut\  • adjective : needed for a particular purpose : essential , necessary Examples: “Once the application process was formalized, the Institute received nearly two hundred applications from women all across the country; other women interested in applying had been turned away because they didn’t have the requisite qualifications.” — Maggie Doherty, The Equivalents , 2020 “More chile sauce, if you want a vinegary zing, is on the tables, along with the requisite  paper towels. As for that stellar taco, it’s made with the same flavorful carnitas with … a drizzle of avocado crema that sets off taste-tingling fireworks.” — The Texas Monthly , 26 Feb. 2020 Did you know? Acquiring an understanding of where requisite comes from won’t require a formal inquiry. Without question, the quest begins with Latin quaerere , which means “to ask” or “to seek.” That word is ancestor to a numbe...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 21, 2020 is: inculcate • \in-KUL-kayt\  • verb : to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions Examples: “[Edgar Allan Poe] was in general not a didactic writer; in fact, he criticized stories and poems that sought to inculcate virtue and convey the truth.” — Paul Lewis, The Baltimore Sun , 12 May 2020 “Dogs like routine…. They know when it is time for dinner, time for a walk. And if you have not inculcated  these types of routines for them, some dogs will have anxiety when they are alone.” — Dr. Terri Bright, quoted in The Boston Globe , 17 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Inculcate derives from the past participle of the Latin verb inculcare , meaning “to tread on.” In Latin, inculcare possesses both literal and figurative meanings, referring to either the act of walking over something or to that of impressing something upon the mind, often by way of steady repetition. It is the figurative sense that s...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 20, 2020 is: derelict • \DAIR-uh-likt\  • adjective 1 : abandoned especially by the owner or occupant; also : run-down 2 : lacking a sense of duty : negligent Examples: “On Tuesday, crews … were busy using excavators to tear down derelict buildings on the two sites to make way for future construction.” — Bea Lewis, The New Hampshire Union Leader , 27 May 2020 “But the building suffered additional roof damage in late fall, triggering an emergency demolition that rocked the preservation community and prompted anger against derelict landlords. It also prompted renewed efforts by the city to crack down on absentee and neglectful landlords.” — Jonathan D. Epstein, The Buffalo (New York) News , 7 May 2020 Did you know? The Latin verb relinquere , meaning “to leave behind,” left behind a few English derivatives, including derelict . Something derelict has been left behind, or at least appears that way. In another sens...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 19, 2020 is: volte-face • \vawlt-FAHSS\  • noun : a reversal in policy : about-face Examples: “… I should explain that, some years ago, I was dealt a very severe blow when my friend … announced that she wanted no further contact with me. She and I had been extremely close for more than a year, and there had been no warning of this volte-face . I was bewildered.” — Zoë Heller, What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal , 2003 “After declaring optimistically, ‘I think I have a lot to say that might be interesting to people,’ she did an abrupt volte-face , switching to a low, confessional timbre: ‘Who knows? Who knows, right, what I’m doing? I don’t know. Maybe no one will be interested.'” — Caity Weaver, The New York Times , 28 May 2020 Did you know? Volte-face came to English by way of French from Italian voltafaccia , a combination of voltare , meaning “to turn,” and faccia , “face.” It has existed as an English...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 18, 2020 is: jink • \JINK\  • verb : to move quickly or unexpectedly with sudden turns and shifts (as in dodging) Examples: “Two fighters immediately launched missiles, and the American aircraft jinked up, then down to lose them.” — Tom Clancy, Red Storm Rising , 1986 “Indeed there have been enough moments where he has  jinked  away from opponents or worked half a yard with his lightning-quick feet to produce a plethora of YouTube compilations.” — Alex Richards, The Mirror (UK), 2 June 2020 Did you know? Besides the fact that jink first appears in Scottish English, the exact origins of this shifty little word are unknown. What can be said with certainty is that the word has always expressed a quick or unexpected motion. For instance, in two poems from 1785, Robert Burns uses jink as a verb to indicate both the quick motion of a fiddler’s elbow and the sudden disappearance of a cheat around a corner. In t...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 17, 2020 is: mien • \MEEN\  • noun 1 : air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality : demeanor 2 : appearance , aspect Examples: The minister projected a stern and serious mien from the pulpit, but we found him to be friendly and welcoming when we spoke with him in the social hall after the service. “The band’s synthetic sounds, automated rhythms and severe haircuts were a pointed contrast with the prevailing … rock music of the time, just as the group’s rigorously Teutonic mien was a reaction to the hegemony of American culture in postwar Germany. Kraftwerk wanted to create its own culture.” — Michael Azerrad, The New York Times , 8 May 2020 Did you know? Like its synonyms bearing and demeanor , mien means the outward manifestation of personality or attitude. Bearing is the most general, but it often implies characteristic posture, as in “a woman of regal bearing.” Demeanor suggests a...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 16, 2020 is: callous • \KAL-us\  • adjective 1 a : being hardened and thickened b : having calluses 2 a : feeling no emotion b : feeling or showing no sympathy for others : hard-hearted Examples: “[Noël Coward] deliberately made the characters callous  and cynical. ‘You can’t sympathise with any of them,’ he said. ‘If there was heart [in the play] it would have been a sad story.'” — Lloyd Evans, The Spectator , 28 Mar. 2020 “Today we have been appalled by the sight of tens of thousands of irresponsible vacationers flocking to the coast, as if this was just another spring break week, with callous disregard for residents’ health and safety.” —   Bruce Jones, quoted on OregonLive.com, 22 Mar. 2020 Did you know? A callus is a hard, thickened area of skin that develops usually from friction or irritation over time. Such a hardened area often leaves one less sensitive to the touch, so it’s no surprise tha...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 15, 2020 is: indite • \in-DYTE\  • verb 1 : make up , compose 2 : to give literary or formal expression to 3 : to put down in writing Examples: “Meanwhile, the single gentleman, the Notary, and Mr Garland, repaired to a certain coffee-house, and from that place indited and sent a letter to Miss Sally Brass, requesting her … to favour an unknown friend who wished to consult her….” — Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop , 1840 “I could not bear the idea of his amusing himself over my secret thoughts and recollections; though, to be sure, he would find little good of himself therein indited ….” — Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall , 1848 Did you know? Indite looks like a misspelling of its homophone indict , meaning “to charge with a crime,” and that’s no mere coincidence. Although the two verbs are distinct in current use, they are in fact related etymologically. Indite is the older of the two; it has b...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 14, 2020 is: tutelage • \TOO-tuh-lij\  • noun 1 a : instruction especially of an individual b : a guiding influence 2 : the state of being under a guardian or tutor 3 a : an act or process of serving as guardian or protector : guardianship b : hegemony over a foreign territory: trusteeship Examples: Under the tutelage of her high school swim coach, Lynn has greatly improved her times at meets. “[Jarett Stidham] brings mobility to the position, something the Patriots haven’t had with Tom Brady, and could surprise under the tutelage of future Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick.” — C. J. Doon, The Baltimore Sun , 30 May 2020 Did you know? The Latin verb tueri means “to look at” or “to guard.” When tutelage first began appearing in print in the early 1600s, it was used mainly in the protective sense of tueri , as writers described serfs and peasants of earlier eras as being “under the tutelage of their lord.”...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 13, 2020 is: parsimonious • \par-suh-MOH-nee-us\  • adjective 1 : exhibiting or marked by thrift or economy; especially : frugal to the point of stinginess 2 : sparing , restrained Examples: “A Monopoly board sat on a makeshift table in the center of the room, with each player’s signature token poised on the Go square: the racing car (Mark), the cannon (Steve), the top hat (me), and a shiny penny (Rob, appropriately enough, since he was known for his parsimonious ways when haggling over deals).” — John Walsh, The Providence Journal , 14 Sept. 2019 “Enter the men: Edmond Rostand (Jason Butler Harner), one of France’s greatest young dramatists; Alphonse Mucha (Matthew Saldivar), the Art Nouveau  illustrator of Bernhardt’s gorgeous posters; and Louis (Tony Carlin), a critic so parsimonious with praise I suppose it’s only fair that he’s given no surname.” — Jesse Green, The New York Times , 25 Sept. 2018 Did yo...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 12, 2020 is: frisson • \free-SAWN\  • noun : a brief moment of emotional excitement : shudder , thrill Examples: “There’s that frisson  of excitement when we get the text or the ring notifying us when dinner has arrived at our doorstep.” — Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post , 10 Apr. 2020 “Will the Oscars be forced to make peace with Netflix and its ilk? Is moviegoing fated to become a quaint, niche pursuit, or one that involves a grave risk? I don’t think I’m the only cinephile experiencing a frisson  of dread.” — A. O. Scott, The New York Times , 22 May 2020 Did you know? “I feel a shiver that’s not from the cold as the band and the crowd go charging through the final notes…. That frisson, that exultant moment….” That’s how writer Robert W. Stock characterized the culmination of a big piece at a concert in 1982. His use of the word shiver is apt given that frisson comes from the French word for “shiver.”...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 11, 2020 is: confabulate • \kun-FAB-yuh-layt\  • verb 1 : to talk informally : chat 2 : to hold a discussion : confer 3 : to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication Examples: Before accepting my offer to purchase their handmade quilt, Polly and Linda took a moment to confabulate . “The stories all share a common situation—the two couples in each story get together, get drunk, become hungry and confabulate —though the sharp divergence in the specifics of their conversations would leave readers with plenty to say.” — Nicole Lamy, The New York Times , 30 Oct. 2018 Did you know? Confabulate is a fabulous word for making fantastic fabrications. Given the similarities in spelling and sound, you might guess that confabulate and fabulous come from the same root, and they do—the Latin fābula , which refers to a conversation or a story. Another fābula descendant that continues to tell tales in English is fable . All thr...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 10, 2020 is: histrionic • \his-tree-AH-nik\  • adjective 1 : deliberately affected : overly dramatic or emotional : theatrical 2 : of or relating to actors, acting, or the theater Examples: “How many water coolers, cocktail parties, and backyard barbecues have you been to where someone has exclaimed, usually in a flourish of histrionic frustration, that they wish they had their own island?” — Carmella DeCaria, The Westchester Magazine , 18 Jan. 2018 “The city’s most extravagant and histrionic event of the fall, Theatre Bizarre, won’t be taking place this October…. Typically taking over Detroit’s Masonic Temple for two weekends just before Halloween, the indoor event includes hot-ticket masquerade balls, and a multi-floor spectacular that includes live music, burlesque, side show acts, food, drink and mandatory costumes—the more outrageous the better.” — Melody Baetens, The Detroit News , 19 May 2020 Did you know?...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 9, 2020 is: bromide • \BROH-myde\  • noun 1 : a binary compound of bromine with another element or a radical including some (such as potassium bromide ) used as sedatives 2 a : a commonplace or tiresome person : bore b : a commonplace or hackneyed statement or notion Examples: “In many ways, he’s an outlier on the self-help circuit. Thomas isn’t selling shortcuts to success or feel-good bromides . He makes achievement sound grueling. His knack is for transforming those he meets—a CEO, an NBA All-Star, a guy manning the desk at a hotel—into the sort of person who loves digging deep and grinding hard.” — Leslie Pariseau, GQ , 28 May 2020 “Currently, Virginia’s leaders are engaged in a tax debate over standard deductions for the middle class. Studying that problem would be a bromide  that induces inertia. What is needed is action.” — L. Scott Lingamfelter, The Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch , 20 Jan. 2019 ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 8, 2020 is: emulate • \EM-yuh-layt\  • verb 1 a : to strive to equal or excel b : imitate ; especially : to imitate by means of hardware or software that permits programs written for one computer to be run on another computer 2 : to equal or approach equality with Examples: Younger children will often try to emulate the behavior of their older siblings. “As part of its subsequent push to emulate the West, Meiji-era Japan encouraged the production of domestic versions of that same whiskey. Japanese distillers often used sweet potatoes, which were abundant, but they produced a much different spirit than the barley, corn and rye used in Scotland and America.” — Clay Risen, The New York Times , 29 May 2020 Did you know? If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then past speakers of English clearly had a great admiration for the Latin language. The verb emulate joined the ranks of Latin-derived Engl...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 7, 2020 is: sound • \SOWND\  • adjective 1 a : free from injury or disease b : free from flaw, defect, or decay 2 a : solid , firm b : stable ; also : secure , reliable 3 : free from error, fallacy, or misapprehension 4 a : thorough b : deep and undisturbed c : hard , severe 5 : showing good judgment or sense Examples: The doctor’s statement affirmed that the wealthy man was of sound mind when he decided to bequeath all of his money to the charitable foundation. “ Social distancing , where people are advised to stay at least 6 feet apart, was sound advice when the idea was put forth during the pandemic’s early days. It remains sound advice now, and will continue to be sound advice in the days ahead.” — The Times , 7 May 2020 Did you know? English contains several sound homographs, all with distinct histories. For example, the sound that means “something heard” descends from Latin...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 6, 2020 is: legerdemain • \lej-er-duh-MAYN\  • noun 1 : sleight of hand 2 : a display of skill and adroitness Examples: “An example of Mr. Northam’s political legerdemain  is his tax proposal, which avoided the minefields of income or sales tax increases. Instead, he suggested hiking the gas tax while scrapping mandatory annual vehicle inspections and halving vehicle registration fees.” — The Washington Post , editorial, 20 Dec. 2019 “One must find the resonance between ancient and contemporary, blending incongruous elements in a way that seems not only right but inevitable: telling the story of a founding father with hip-hop lyrics, as in ‘Hamilton,’ or presenting the myth of Theseus in the milieu of reality television as in ‘The Hunger Games.’ Kekla Magoon manages a similar feat of legerdemain in ‘Shadows of Sherwood,’ her compelling reboot of the Robin Hood myth.” — Rick Riordan, The New York Times , 23 ...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 5, 2020 is: deracinate • \dee-RASS-uh-nayt\  • verb 1 : uproot 2 : to remove or separate from a native environment or culture; especially : to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from Examples: The old-fashioned gardening book recommended deracinating every other plant in the row to allow the survivors room to grow. “In many ways, the couple’s self-removal befits the deracinated monarchy. Once upon a time, English monarchs were sovereign, supreme. The occasion of democratizing reforms such as the Magna Carta beginning in the late Middle Ages brought the English monarchy down, down, like glistering Phaethon , into ‘ the base court .'” — Grant Addison, The Examiner (Washington, DC), 9 Jan. 2020 Did you know? There is a hint about the roots of deracinate in its first definition. Deracinate was borrowed into English in the late 16th century from Middle French and can be traced back to the L...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 4, 2020 is: aphelion • \af-EEL-yun\  • noun : the point farthest from the sun in the path of an orbiting celestial body (such as a planet) Examples: “Our planet reaches aphelion only once a year, and the event typically falls approximately 14 days after the June solstice, which marks the first day of summer for the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter for the Southern Hemisphere. Similarly,  perihelion  happens two weeks after the December solstice.” — Hanneke Weitering, Space.com , 4 July 2019 “Currently about 34 AU from the Sun, Pluto is still slowly approaching its aphelion , the farthest point in its orbit from the Sun, where it will lie nearly 50 AU from our star.” — Alison Klesman, Astronomy , 3 Apr. 2020 Did you know? Aphelion and perihelion are troublesome terms. Which one means a planet is nearest to the sun and which means it is farthest away? An etymology lesson may help ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 3, 2020 is: stentorian • \sten-TOR-ee-un\  • adjective : extremely loud Examples: “‘Let it Be’ … was uncannily similar to ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water,’ not only in sentiment, but even to its churchy flavor. ‘They’re both very gospely songs,’ [David] Wills says. ‘I think 1968 was a very turbulent year … and in 1969 there was this life-affirming achievement of going to the moon. So I think that was in the zeitgeist , those stentorian , stately gospel piano-based songs.'” — Jim Beckerman, NorthJersey.com , 14 May 2020 “‘Laughing together is as close as you can get without touching,’ I wrote in my first book…. Laughter has always been the best medicine; I wasn’t exactly making any boldly original statement almost three decades ago. I wasn’t expecting a MacArthur grant. But what I expected even less … was that the not-touching part of my line would eventually be part of a stentorian , global prescription to combat COVID-19.”...

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原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 2, 2020 is: obtain • \ub-TAYN\  • verb 1 : to gain or attain usually by planned action or effort 2 : to be generally recognized or established : prevail Examples: The experiment was designed to obtain more accurate data about weather patterns. “By time of competition, [NHL deputy commissioner Bill] Daly said, the league will test players every night and obtain results by the time they report to the rink the next morning.” — Matt Porter, The Boston Globe , 26 May 2020 Did you know? Obtain , which was adopted into English in the 15th century, comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin obtinēre , meaning “to hold on to, possess.” Obtinēre was itself formed by the combination of ob -, meaning “in the way,” and the verb tenēre , meaning “to hold.” In its earliest uses, obtain often implied a conquest or a successful victory in battle, but it is now used for any attainment through planned action or effort. The verb ...

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for July 1, 2020 is: farrago • \fuh-RAH-goh\  • noun : a confused mixture : hodgepodge Examples: “Combining these plots is a terrible idea for multiple reasons. One is simply logistical; the fusion turns two improbable but engaging stories into a ludicrous farrago .” — Laura Miller, Slate , 8 Nov. 2019 “Although it’s hard to know anything for sure about North Korea, the fertilizer-plant photo suggests the reporting about Kim over the past few weeks was a farrago of misinformation, non-information, half speculation and outright guessing.” — Paul Farhi, The Washington Post , 5 May 2020 Did you know? Farrago might seem an unlikely relative of farina (the name for the mealy breakfast cereal), but the two terms have their roots in the same Latin noun. Both derive from far , the Latin name for spelt (a type of grain). In Latin, farrago meant “mixed fodder”—cattle feed, that is. It was also used more generally to mean “mixture....