Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

word | 1 Feb 2005 06:59

campestral

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The Word of the Day for February 1 is:

campestral   \kam-PESS-trul\   adjective
      : of or relating to fields or open country : rural

Example sentence:
      The campestral scenery surrounding Reginald's new home 
inspired him to take up landscape painting.

Did you know?
      Scamper across an open field, then, while catching your 
breath, ponder this: "scamper" and "campestral" both ultimately 
derive from the Latin noun "campus," meaning "field" 
or "plain." Latin "campester" is the adjective that 
means "pertaining to a campus." In ancient Rome, a campus was a 
place for games, athletic practice, and military 
drills. "Scamper" probably started with a military association, 
as well (it is assumed to have evolved from the Latin 
verb "excampare," meaning "to decamp"). In 
English, "campestral" took on an exclusively rural aspect upon 
its introduction in the 18th century, while "campus," you might 
say, became strictly academic.

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word | 2 Feb 2005 06:59

sinecure

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The Word of the Day for February 2 is:

sinecure   \SYE-nih-kyoor\   noun
     : an office or position that requires little or no work 
and that usually provides an income

Example sentence:
     The organization recently restructured its workforce, 
eliminating several positions that had become mere sinecures.

Did you know?
     "Sinecure" comes from the Medieval Latin phrase "sine 
cura," which literally means "without cure." Not surprisingly, 
the earliest known use of "sinecure" referred to an 
ecclesiastical benefice without cure of souls -- that is, a 
clerical office in which the job-holder did not have to tend to 
the spiritual care and instruction of church members. Such 
sinecures were virtually done away with by the end of the 19th 
century, but by then the word had acquired a broader sense 
referring to any paid position with few or no responsibilities.

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word | 3 Feb 2005 06:59

jingoism

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The Word of the Day for February 3 is:

jingoism   \JING-goh-iz-um\   noun
     : extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a 
belligerent foreign policy

Example sentence:
     Albert Einstein found German jingoism in the 1930s so 
objectionable that he left his homeland never to return.

Did you know?
     "Jingoism" originated during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-
1878, when many British citizens were hostile toward Russia and 
felt Britain should intervene in the conflict. Supporters of 
the cause expressed their sentiments in a music-hall ditty with 
this refrain:
          "We don't want to fight, yet by jingo if we do, 
          We've got the ships, we've got the men, 
          We've got the money, too!"
Someone holding the attitude implied in the song became known 
as a "jingo" or "jingoist," and the attitude itself was 
dubbed "jingoism." The "jingo" in the tune is probably a 
euphemism for "Jesus."

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word | 4 Feb 2005 06:59

fusty

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The Word of the Day for February 4 is: 

fusty   \FUSS-tee\   adj
     1 British : impaired by age or dampness : moldy
     2 : saturated with dust and stale odors : musty 
    *3 : rigidly old-fashioned or reactionary 

Example sentence:
     Tweed jackets and horn-rimmed glasses give Professor 
Mitchell a fusty air, but he's actually much hipper than he 
looks.

Did you know?
     "Fusty" probably derives from the Middle English 
word "foist," meaning "wine cask," which in turn traces to the 
Medieval Latin word "fustis," meaning "tree trunk" or "wood." 
So how did "fusty" end up meaning "old-fashioned"? Originally, 
it described wine that had gotten stale from sitting in the 
cask for too long; "fusty" literally meant that the wine had 
the "taste of the cask." Eventually any stale food, especially 
damp or moldy food, was called "fusty." Those damp and moldy 
connotations were later applied to musty places, and later 
still to anything that had lost its freshness and interest -- 
that is, to anything old-fashioned.

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word | 5 Feb 2005 06:59

gamut

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The Word of the Day for February 5 is:

gamut   \GAM-ut\   noun
     1 : the whole series of recognized musical notes
    *2 : an entire range or series

Example sentence:
     Jenny's musical tastes run the gamut from Bach to Janis 
Joplin to Usher.

Did you know?
     To get the lowdown on "gamut," we have to dive to the 
bottom of a musical scale developed by 11th-century musician 
and monk Guido of Arezzo. Guido called the first line of his 
bass staff "gamma" and the first note in his scale "ut," which 
meant that "gamma ut" was the term for a note written on the 
first staff line. In time, "gamma ut" underwent a shortening 
to "gamut" but climbed the scale of meaning. It expanded to 
cover all the notes of Guido's scale, then all the notes in the 
range of an instrument, and, eventually, an entire range of any 
sort.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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word | 6 Feb 2005 06:59

placate

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The Word of the Day for February 6 is:

placate   \PLAY-kayt\   verb 
     : to soothe or mollify especially by concessions : appease 

Example sentence:
     After his baseball crashed through his neighbor's window, 
Jared tried to placate the angry man by offering to replace the 
window with his own money.

Did you know?
     The earliest documented uses of "placate" in English date 
from the late 17th century. The word is derived from the 
Latin "placatus," the past participle of "placare," and even 
after more than 300 years in English it still carries the basic 
meaning of its Latin ancestor: "to soothe" or "to appease." 
Other "placare" descendants in English are "implacable" 
(meaning "not easily soothed or satisfied") and "placation" 
("the act of soothing or appeasing"). Even "please" itself, 
derived from the Latin "placere" ("to please"), is a distant 
relative of "placate."

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word | 7 Feb 2005 06:59

cadre

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The Word of the Day for February 7 is: 

cadre   \KAD-ray\   noun
     1 : framework 
     2 : a central unit especially of trained personnel able to 
assume control and train others
    *3 : a group of people with a unifying relationship 

Example sentence:
     NASA's cadre of courageous astronauts offered America the 
modern-day heroes it needed.

Did you know?
     To understand "cadre," we must first square our 
understanding of the word's Latin roots. "Cadre" traces to the 
Latin "quadrum," meaning "square." Squares can make good 
frameworks -- a fact that makes it easier to understand why 
first French speakers and later English speakers used "cadre" 
as a word meaning "framework." If you think of a core group of 
officers in a regiment as the framework that holds things 
together for the unit, you'll understand how the "central unit" 
sense of "cadre" developed. Military leaders and their troops 
are well-trained and work together as a unified team, which may 
explain why "cadre" is now sometimes used more generally to

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word | 8 Feb 2005 06:59

rathskeller

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The Word of the Day for February 8 is:

rathskeller   \RAHT-skell-er\   noun
     : a usually basement tavern or restaurant

Example sentence: 
     Many workers from the town's mills and factories liked to 
gather after hours at the rathskeller located underneath the 
banquet hall.

Did you know?
     "Rathskeller" is a product of Germany, deriving from two 
German nouns: "Rat" (also spelled "Rath" in early Modern 
German), which means "council," and "Keller," which 
means "cellar." The etymology reflects the fact that many early 
rathskellers were located in the basements of "council houses," 
which were equivalent to town halls. (The oldest rathskeller 
found in Germany today is said to date from the first half of 
the 13th century.) The earliest known use of "rathskeller" in 
English dates from 1766, but the word wasn't commonly used until the 1900s. Although the German word is now 
spelled "Ratskeller," English writers have always preferred the 
spelling with the "h" -- most likely to avoid any association 
with the word "rat."

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word | 9 Feb 2005 06:59

promulgate

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The Word of the Day for February 9 is: 

promulgate   \PRAHM-ul-gayt\   verb
    *1 : to make (as a doctrine) known by open declaration : 
proclaim
     2 a : to make known or public the terms of (a proposed 
law)  b : to put (a law) into action or force 

Example sentence:
     In a recent speech, the governor promulgated his plans to 
revamp the state's educational system.

Did you know?
     The origin of "promulgate" is a bit murky, or perhaps we 
should say "milky." It comes from the Latin "promulgatus," 
which in turn derives from "pro-," meaning "forward," and "-
mulgare," a form that is probably related to the
verb "mulgere," meaning "to milk" or "to extract." "Mulgere" is 
an ancestor of the English word "emulsion" ("mixture of 
mutually insoluble liquids"), and is also related to the Old 
English word that became "milk" itself. Like its 
synonyms "declare," "announce," and "proclaim," "promulgate" 
means to make known publicly. It particularly implies the 
proclaiming of a dogma, doctrine, or law.

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word | 10 Feb 2005 06:59

tutelage

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The Word of the Day for February 10 is:

tutelage   \TOO-tuh-lij\   noun
     1 : an act of guarding or protecting
     2 : the state of being under a guardian or tutor
    *3 : instruction especially of an individual

Example sentence:
     Under the tutelage of her high school swim coach, Lynn has 
greatly improved her times.

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." Over time, however, 
the word's meaning shifted away from guardianship and toward 
instruction. This pattern of meaning can also be seen in the 
related nouns "tutor" (a person who instructs or guides 
another) and "tuition" (the act or profession of teaching or 
the cost of instruction). Nowadays "tutelage" can be used for 
any guiding influence in one's life.

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