Merriam-Webster words of the day
As an internet junkie, the three things I look forward to most are getting email, reading your LJ posts, and checking out the Merriam-Webster words of the day. These are some of my favorite recent M-W words du jour! I like reading the word history best of all, and sometimes their word selections make me chuckle.
Typhoid Mary • \TYE-foid-MAIR-ee\ • noun
: one that is by force of circumstances a center from which something undesirable spreads
Example sentence:
"We don't want any Typhoid Marys here," the supervisor told employees, "so if you have a bad cold, do your coworkers a favor and stay home."
Did you know?
The original Typhoid Mary was a New York City cook in the early 1900s who loved her job. Unfortunately, she had been exposed to typhoid, and although she was immune to the disease herself, she was able to pass the disease to others by way of the food she prepared. Health officials identified her as Mary Mallon, an Irish-born immigrant, and they quarantined her to stop the spread of the disease. Three years later, Mary was released with a warning not to cook professionally again. But in 1915, she was discovered working as a cook at a maternity hospital identified as the source of a new typhoid outbreak, and she was forcibly returned to quarantine, where she remained until her death in 1938.
brummagem • \BRUM-ih-jum\ • adjective
: not genuine : spurious; also : cheaply showy : tawdry
Example sentence:
The jewelry box in Penelope's grandmother's closet was filled with brummagem costume jewelry.
Did you know?
"Brummagem" first appeared in the 17th century as an alteration of "Birmingham," the name of a city in England. At that time Birmingham was notorious for the counterfeit coins made there, and the word "brummagem" quickly became associated with things forged or inauthentic. By the 19th century, Birmingham had become a chief manufacturer of cheap trinkets and gilt jewelry, and again the word "brummagem" followed suit-it came to describe that which is showy on the outside but essentially of low quality. Perhaps the term was something of an annoyance to the people of Birmingham way back when, but nowadays "brummagem" is usually used without any conscious reference to the British city.
earwig • \EER-wig\ • verb
: to annoy or attempt to influence by private talk
Example sentence:
"[He] earwigged the big man at the Labour conference, asking him to take the lead in banning tobacco advertising from newspapers." (Stephen Cook, The Guardian [London], October 1986)
Did you know?
Earwigs are small insects that were once thought to crawl into the ears of sleeping people. This isn't true-earwigs prefer moist, dark places under leaves and rocks to human ears-but the superstition led people to name the insect "ēarwicga," Old English for "ear insect." Over time, people connected the idea of having an insect in one's ear to situations that involve whispering or speaking privately into someone's ear. The noun "earwig" came to also mean "a whispering busybody" (though this sense is now considered archaic), and the verb "earwig" evolved to refer to the acts of such meddlers.
The word for Feb. 12 was one of Tennessee Williams's favorite words -- you'll find it in just about each of his short stories (and I like this word a lot, too):
desultory • \DEH-sul-tor-ee\ • adjective
1 : marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose
2 : not connected with the main subject
3 : disappointing in progress, performance, or quality
Example sentence:
"His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge which would astonish his professors." (Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Study in Scarlet")
Did you know?
The Latin adjective "desultorius," the parent of "desultory," was used by the ancients to refer to a circus performer (called a "desultor") whose trick was to leap from horse to horse without stopping. It makes sense, therefore, that someone or something "desultory" jumps from one thing to another. ("Desultor" and "desultorius" are derived from the Latin verb "salire," which means "to leap.") A desultory conversation leaps from one topic to another, and doesn't have a distinct point or direction. A desultory student skips from one subject to another without applying serious effort to any one. A desultory comment is a digressive one that jumps away from the topic at hand. And a desultory performance is one resulting from an implied lack of steady, focused effort.
And finally, the word of the day:
fey • \FAY\ • adjective
1 a chiefly Scottish : fated to die : doomed b : marked by a foreboding of death or calamity
2 a : able to see into the future : visionary b : marked by an otherworldly air or attitude c : crazy, touched
3 a : excessively refined : precious *b : quaintly unconventional : campy
Example sentence:
"Smocked silver jersey skirts came with frills and had a fey allure, as did the silver tennis dress and ruffled black chiffon dress trimmed with satin." (WWD, October 8, 2004)
Did you know?
"Fey" is a word that defies its own meaning, since it has yet to even come close to the brink of death after being in our language for well over 800 years. In Old and Middle English it meant "feeble" or "sickly." Those meanings turned out to be fey themselves, but the word lived on in senses related to death, and because a wild or elated state of mind was once believed to portend death, other senses arose from these. The word "fay," meaning "fairy" or "elf" may also have had an influence on some senses of "fey." Not until the late 20th century did the word's most recent meanings, "precious" and "campy," find their way onto the pages of the dictionary.
Hooray for word etymology, so exciting!
Typhoid Mary • \TYE-foid-MAIR-ee\ • noun
: one that is by force of circumstances a center from which something undesirable spreads
Example sentence:
"We don't want any Typhoid Marys here," the supervisor told employees, "so if you have a bad cold, do your coworkers a favor and stay home."
Did you know?
The original Typhoid Mary was a New York City cook in the early 1900s who loved her job. Unfortunately, she had been exposed to typhoid, and although she was immune to the disease herself, she was able to pass the disease to others by way of the food she prepared. Health officials identified her as Mary Mallon, an Irish-born immigrant, and they quarantined her to stop the spread of the disease. Three years later, Mary was released with a warning not to cook professionally again. But in 1915, she was discovered working as a cook at a maternity hospital identified as the source of a new typhoid outbreak, and she was forcibly returned to quarantine, where she remained until her death in 1938.
brummagem • \BRUM-ih-jum\ • adjective
: not genuine : spurious; also : cheaply showy : tawdry
Example sentence:
The jewelry box in Penelope's grandmother's closet was filled with brummagem costume jewelry.
Did you know?
"Brummagem" first appeared in the 17th century as an alteration of "Birmingham," the name of a city in England. At that time Birmingham was notorious for the counterfeit coins made there, and the word "brummagem" quickly became associated with things forged or inauthentic. By the 19th century, Birmingham had become a chief manufacturer of cheap trinkets and gilt jewelry, and again the word "brummagem" followed suit-it came to describe that which is showy on the outside but essentially of low quality. Perhaps the term was something of an annoyance to the people of Birmingham way back when, but nowadays "brummagem" is usually used without any conscious reference to the British city.
earwig • \EER-wig\ • verb
: to annoy or attempt to influence by private talk
Example sentence:
"[He] earwigged the big man at the Labour conference, asking him to take the lead in banning tobacco advertising from newspapers." (Stephen Cook, The Guardian [London], October 1986)
Did you know?
Earwigs are small insects that were once thought to crawl into the ears of sleeping people. This isn't true-earwigs prefer moist, dark places under leaves and rocks to human ears-but the superstition led people to name the insect "ēarwicga," Old English for "ear insect." Over time, people connected the idea of having an insect in one's ear to situations that involve whispering or speaking privately into someone's ear. The noun "earwig" came to also mean "a whispering busybody" (though this sense is now considered archaic), and the verb "earwig" evolved to refer to the acts of such meddlers.
The word for Feb. 12 was one of Tennessee Williams's favorite words -- you'll find it in just about each of his short stories (and I like this word a lot, too):
desultory • \DEH-sul-tor-ee\ • adjective
1 : marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose
2 : not connected with the main subject
3 : disappointing in progress, performance, or quality
Example sentence:
"His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge which would astonish his professors." (Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Study in Scarlet")
Did you know?
The Latin adjective "desultorius," the parent of "desultory," was used by the ancients to refer to a circus performer (called a "desultor") whose trick was to leap from horse to horse without stopping. It makes sense, therefore, that someone or something "desultory" jumps from one thing to another. ("Desultor" and "desultorius" are derived from the Latin verb "salire," which means "to leap.") A desultory conversation leaps from one topic to another, and doesn't have a distinct point or direction. A desultory student skips from one subject to another without applying serious effort to any one. A desultory comment is a digressive one that jumps away from the topic at hand. And a desultory performance is one resulting from an implied lack of steady, focused effort.
And finally, the word of the day:
fey • \FAY\ • adjective
1 a chiefly Scottish : fated to die : doomed b : marked by a foreboding of death or calamity
2 a : able to see into the future : visionary b : marked by an otherworldly air or attitude c : crazy, touched
3 a : excessively refined : precious *b : quaintly unconventional : campy
Example sentence:
"Smocked silver jersey skirts came with frills and had a fey allure, as did the silver tennis dress and ruffled black chiffon dress trimmed with satin." (WWD, October 8, 2004)
Did you know?
"Fey" is a word that defies its own meaning, since it has yet to even come close to the brink of death after being in our language for well over 800 years. In Old and Middle English it meant "feeble" or "sickly." Those meanings turned out to be fey themselves, but the word lived on in senses related to death, and because a wild or elated state of mind was once believed to portend death, other senses arose from these. The word "fay," meaning "fairy" or "elf" may also have had an influence on some senses of "fey." Not until the late 20th century did the word's most recent meanings, "precious" and "campy," find their way onto the pages of the dictionary.
Hooray for word etymology, so exciting!