Did You Know?
Bump, thump, thud. There’s no doubt about it—when someone or something galumphs onto the scene, ears take notice. Galumph first lumbered onto the English scene in 1872 when Lewis Carroll used the word to describe the actions of the vanquisher of the Jabberwock in Through the Looking Glass: “He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back.” Carroll likely constructed the word by splicing gallop and triumphant, as galumph did in its earliest uses convey a sense of exultant bounding. Other 19th-century writers must have liked the sound of galumph, because they began plying it in their own prose, and it has been clumping around our language ever since.
@Adragayle Now you are just making words up!
She isn't really ... probably ... 😄
Out of curiosity, how are you choosing the words? Is it coming from a calendar type thing?
@GuyverGordon 😂😂😂 Not me, it was Lewis Carroll who made that one up!
The words come from Merriam-Webster's word of the day. I don't choose the words they do.
If you go to their website, you will see the word of the day, audio pronunciation and more examples.
desultory (adjective | DEH-sul-tor-ee)
Desultory is a formal word used to describe something that lacks a plan or purpose, or that occurs without regularity. It can also describe something unconnected to a main subject, or something that is disappointing in progress, performance, or quality.
// After graduation, I moved from job to job in a more or less desultory manner before finding work I liked.
// The team failed to cohere over the course of the season, stumbling to a desultory fifth place finish.
The Latin adjective desultorius was used by the ancient Romans to describe a circus performer (called a desultor) whose trick was to leap from horse to horse without stopping. English speakers took the idea of the desultorius performer and coined the word desultory to describe that which figuratively “jumps” from one thing to another, without regularity, and showing no sign of a plan or purpose. (Both desultor and desultorius, by the way, come from the Latin verb salire, meaning “to leap.”) A desultory conversation leaps from one topic to another, and a desultory comment is one that jumps away from the topic at hand. Meanwhile a desultory performance is one resulting from an implied lack of steady, focused effort.
Yankee (noun | YANG-kee)
Yankee can refer broadly to anyone born or living in the U.S., more narrowly to only those in the northern U.S., or even more narrowly to only those in the states of New England. The broadest use is especially common outside the U.S.
// It took the children some time to adjust to being the only Southerners in a classroom full of Yankees.
// After years of international travel, he'd grown accustomed to living as a Yankee abroad.
We don't know the origin of Yankee but we do know that it began as an insult. British General James Wolfe used the term in a 1758 letter to express his low opinion of the New England troops assigned to him, and from around the same time period there is a report of British troops using Yankee as a term of abuse for the citizens of Boston. In 1775, however, after the battles of Lexington and Concord showed that colonials could stand up to British regulars, Yankee was proudly adopted by colonials as a self-descriptor in defiance of the pejorative use. Both derisive and respectable uses have existed ever since.
cantankerous (adjective | kan-TANK-uh-rus)
A cantankerous person is often angry and annoyed, and a cantankerous animal or thing is difficult or irritating to deal with.
// Although the former postman was regarded by some townspeople as a scowling, cantankerous old coot, he was beloved by neighborhood children, to whom he would regularly hand out butterscotch candies from his front stoop with a twinkle in his eye.
A person described as cantankerous may find it more difficult than most to turn that frown upside down, while a cantankerous mule/jalopy/etc. is difficult to deal with—it may not turn in your desired direction. It’s been speculated that cantankerous is a product of the obsolete word contack, meaning “contention,” under the influence of a pair of “difficult” words still in use: rancorous and cankerous. Rancorous brings the anger and “bitter deep-seated ill will” (as rancor can be understood to mean), and cankerous brings the perhaps understandable foul mood: a cankerous person suffers from painful sores—that is, cankers.
antic (noun | AN-tik)
Antic refers to an attention-drawing, often wildly playful or funny act or action. It is usually used in its plural form, and is often used disapprovingly.
// It wasn't clear which students were ultimately responsible for the antics that unfolded in the cafeteria that day.
When referring to one of the grotesques—the fanciful, often fantastical mural paintings found in the ruins of ancient Roman buildings—the Italian descendants of the ancient Romans used the word antico, meaning “ancient thing.” In 16th-century English, antico (itself a descendant of the Latin word for “ancient,” antiquus) became antic, and got applied as both a noun and an adjective in contexts related to decorative art—sculptures, painting, architecture, etc.—inspired by the original grotesques. Antic shifted in meaning over time, eventually gaining the senses we use more often today: antic as an adjective describes the absurd or whimsical, and antic as a usually plural noun refers to attention-grabbing, playful or funny acts and actions.
procrastinate (verb | pruh-KRASS-tuh-nayt)
To procrastinate is to be slow or late about doing something that should be done, or about doing or attending to things in general.
// Tickets to the event are selling swiftly, so don't procrastinate—buy yours today.
// Not one to procrastinate, Harry set to work on the project immediately.
We won't put off telling you about out the origins of procrastinate: it comes from the Latin prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and crastinus, meaning "of tomorrow." To procrastinate is to work or move slowly so as to fall behind; it implies blameworthy delay especially through laziness or apathy. English has other words with similar meanings, such as defer and postpone, but none places the blame so directly on the person responsible for choosing a later time to do something. Procrastinate is also a malleable word: English speakers have wasted no time creating clever variations, most of them delightfully self-explanatory. Don't let coinages like procrastibake, procrastinetflix, and procrasticlean pass you by; they may not meet our criteria for entry into the dictionary, but their potentials for use are undeniable.
exemplary (adjective | ig-ZEM-pluh-ree)
Something described as exemplary is extremely good and deserves to be admired and copied.
// Our research team was awarded for our exemplary work on the project.
It’s usually not a good thing if someone wants to make an example of you, unless, of course, it’s because you happen to be exemplary. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, someone or something may be deemed exemplary if they, by their example, are worthy of imitation. Like a few other English words beginning with ex—such as exceptional and extraordinary—exemplary describes that which is a cut above the rest. But though exemplary, which comes from the Latin noun exemplum (“example”), describes something “excellent,” it almost always carries the further suggestion that the thing described is an excellent model to follow.
simulacrum (noun | sim-yuh-LAK-rum)
A simulacrum is a superficial likeness of something, usually as an imitation, copy, or representation. The plural of simulacrum is either simulacrums or simulacra.
// The surprise still succeeded, thanks to the simulacrum of confusion expressed by two guests when they were spotted before the big moment.
There is more than a crumb of similarity between simulacrum and simulate: both words come from simulāre, a Latin verb meaning "to pretend, produce a fraudulent imitation of, imitate." At the root of simulāre is the Latin adjective similis, which means "having characteristics in common." Many "similar" words trace back to similis, hence the resemblance between simulacrum and familiar terms like simultaneous, simile, and of course similarity.
boffo (adjective | BAH-foh)
Boffo is an informal word that describes things that are extremely good or successful.
// The most recent film in the long-running franchise has done boffo business at the box office, a testament to the series’ enduring popularity.
Boffo made its print debut as a noun referring to something great: a solid joke or a good punch line. It did so right around the same time—the 1930s, at the dawn of Hollywood’s golden age—as boff, a noun with an identical meaning thought to perhaps come from “box office.” Within a few years, boffo began to be applied adjectivally to things that, like a good joke, were a big hit: performances, all-star casts, movies. To this day it is used mostly in the context of performing arts, spectator sports, and other entertainments.
@Adragayle That is a boffo job on word of the day.
rescind (verb | rih-SIND)
To rescind something, such as a law, contract, agreement, etc., is to end it officially. Rescind can also mean “to take back; to cancel.”
// Given the appeal court’s recent decision, it is likely that the law will be rescinded.
// The company later rescinded its offer.
Rescind and the lesser-known words exscind and prescind all come from the Latin verb scindere, which means “to split, cleave, separate.” Rescind was adapted from its Latin predecessor rescindere in the 16th century, and prescind (from praescindere) and exscind (from exscindere) followed in the next century. Exscind means “to cut off” or “to excise,” and prescind means “to withdraw one’s attention,” but of the three borrowings, only rescind established itself as a common English term. Today, rescind is most often heard in contexts having to do with the withdrawal of an offer, award, or privilege, or with invalidation of a law or policy.
The word "science" is also related to the root scindere. It may carry the sense of dividing truth from non-truth.
impunity (noun | im-PYOO-nuh-tee)
Impunity, usually used in the phrase "with impunity," refers to exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss.
// They mistakenly believe that they can break the camp's rules with impunity.
Impunity, like the words pain, penal, and punish, traces to the Latin noun poena, meaning "punishment." Poena, in turn, came from the Greek poinē, meaning "payment" or "penalty." Impunity has been around since the 1500s; in 1660, Englishman Roger Coke wrote "This unlimited power of doing anything with impunity, will only beget a confidence in kings of doing what they [desire]." While royals may act with impunity more easily than others, the word impunity can be applied to beings great and small. Take, for example, this 2023 quote from the Sidmouth Herald in England: "The [yew tree] fruits are readily eaten by birds but they do not digest the seeds as they are poisonous. Only one bird, the rare and shy Hawfinch, is able to eat the seeds with impunity."
contrite (adjective | kun-TRYTE)
Contrite is a formal adjective used to describe someone who feels regret for their bad behavior, or something, such as an apology, that shows such regret.
// Although the mayor appeared contrite about the most recent scandal plaguing city hall, many constituents remained unpersuaded.
Props to Elton John: sorry really does seem to be the hardest word. But saying it (in something other than a nonapology, of course) is an important part of being contrite—that is, feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for one’s bad behavior. Contrite traces back to the Latin verb conterere, meaning “to pound to pieces,” “to crush, “to wear out or down,” or “to exhaust mentally or physically.” In Medieval Latin—the Latin used in Medieval times especially for religious or literary purposes—conterere came to mean “to crush in spirit with a sense of one’s sin,” or “to render contrite.” Anglo-French speakers borrowed a form of the verb conterere and made it the adjective contrit, which was in turn adopted into English in the 1300s.
nuance (noun | NOO-ahnss) A nuance is a very small difference in something, such as color, tone, meaning, etc.
// Amy’s musical ear makes it easy for her to detect the subtle nuances in sampled music.
The history of nuance starts in Latin with the noun nūbēs, meaning “cloud.” Nūbēs floated into Middle French as nu, also meaning “cloud,” which eventually gave rise to nuer, meaning “to make shades of color.” (The association of a word for “cloud” with gradation of color apparently comes from the perception that an object’s color is weakened when mist passes over it.) Nuer in turn produced nuance, which in Middle French meant “shade of color.” English borrowed nuance from French, with the meaning “a subtle distinction or variation,” in the late 18th century. That meaning persists today, but the word has also picked up a few nuances of its own. For example, nuance is sometimes used in a specific musical sense, designating a subtle, expressive variation in a musical performance (such as in tempo, dynamic intensity, or timbre) that is not indicated in the score.
tantalize (verb | TAN-tuh-lyze)
To tantalize someone is to cause them to feel interest or excitement about something that is very attractive, appealing, etc.
// She was tantalized by the prospect of a big promotion.