Word of the Day: Flamboyant
Associate the word flamboyant with bananas flambé and the word’s fiery etymology will be seared in your mind. Flamboyant, which was borrowed into English from French in the 19th century, can be traced
Word of the Day: Augur
In ancient Rome, augurs were official diviners whose function it was to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them
Word of the Day: Scrupulous
People described as scrupulous might feel discomfort if their work is not executed with a sharp attention to detail. Such discomfort might present itself as a nagging feeling, much as a sharp pebble
Word of the Day: Exasperate
Exasperate is frequently confused with exacerbate, and with good reason. Not only do these words resemble one another in spelling and pronunciation, they also at one time held exceedingly similar
Word of the Day: Beltane
To the ancient Celts, May Day marked the start of summer, and a critical time when the boundaries between the human and supernatural worlds were removed, requiring that people take special measures to
Word of the Day: Interlocutor
It may not necessarily be grandiloquence to use the word interlocutor in casual speech, but if your interlocutors—that is, the people with whom you are speaking—are using it, your conversation is
Word of the Day: Speculate
It might be said that what separates our species from others is our tendency 'to meditate on or ponder a subject.' That's the original 16th century meaning of speculate. It's a use not too distant
Word of the Day: Evanescent
Evanescent didn't appear in the English language out of thin air; it comes from a form of the Latin verb evanescere, which means 'to fade away' or 'to disappear.' (Evanescere is also the ultimate
Word of the Day: Boondoggle
When boondoggle popped up in the early 1900s, lots of people tried to explain where the word came from. One theory traced it to an Ozarkian word for 'gadget,' while another related it to the Tagalog
Word of the Day: Onerous
The story behind onerous is at once straightforward and, dare we say, poetic. But perhaps that's putting the cart before the horse. Onerous rolled into the English language during the 14th century,
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