Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 20, 2008 is:

rapporteur • \ra-por-TER\  • noun
: a person who gives reports (as at a meeting of a learned society)

Example sentence:
The rapporteur compiled the available evidence into a report and presented it to the full committee.

Did you know?
"Rapporteur" was adopted into English in the early 16th century and is a descendant of the Middle French verb "rapporter," meaning "to bring back, report, or refer." Other descendants of "rapporter" in English include "rapportage" (a rare synonym of "reportage," in the sense of "writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events") and "rapport" ("harmonious relationship"). The words "report," "reporter," "reportage," etc., are also distant relatives of "rappouteur"; all can ultimately be traced back to the Latin prefix "re-," meaning "back, again, against," and the Latin word "portare," meaning "to carry."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 19, 2008 is:

beleaguer • \bih-LEE-gur\  • verb
1 : besiege *2 : trouble, harass

Example sentence:
The new programming chief was hired to revamp the schedule for the network, which was consistently beleaguered by low ratings.

Did you know?
English speakers created "beleaguer" from the Dutch word "belegeren" in the 16th century. "[Military men] will not vouchsafe . . . to use our ancient terms belonging to matters of war, but do call a camp by the Dutch name," commented the English soldier and diplomat Sir John Smyth in 1590. The word for "camp" that he was referring to is "leaguer." That term in turn comes from Dutch "leger," which is one of the building blocks of "belegeren" (literally, "to camp around"). But neither "leaguer" nor "beleaguer" were in fact utterly foreign. Old English "leger," the source of our modern "lair," is related to the Dutch word. And the Old English "be-" ("about, around"), as seen in "besiege" and "beset," is related to the Dutch prefix "be-" in "belegeren."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 18, 2008 is:

metronome • \MET-ruh-nohm\  • noun
: an instrument designed to mark exact time by a regularly repeated tick

Example sentence:
After practicing the drums with a metronome, Lars had a better feel for tempo and kept time better.

Did you know?
The patent for the metronome was entered in 1816: "John Malzl [sic], of Poland-street, Middlesex, Machinist; for an instrument . . . which he denominates a Metronome, or musical time-keeper." The courts, however, later proved that the aforementioned Johann Maelzel copied a pendulum design of Dietrich Winkel, making Winkel the actual inventor. Nonetheless, Maelzel was the more successful marketer of the metronome and even has a notation named after him. The "M.M." in notations like "M.M. = 60" stands for "Maelzel's metronome" and indicates a tempo of 60 beats per minute or a beat per tick of the metronome as it ticks 60 times, in the case of our example. The name of the invention itself is based on the Greek words "metron," meaning "measure," and "nomos," meaning "law."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 17, 2008 is:

spavined • \SPAV-ind\  • adjective
1 : affected with spavin *2 : old and decrepit : over-the-hill

Example sentence:
There is no point in expecting the spavined Arts Council to do more than sponsor the same stale events and shopworn fund-raisers.

Did you know?
"His horse [is] . . . troubled with the lampas, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins. . . ." Petruchio's poor, decrepit horse in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is beset by just about every known equine malady, including a kind of swelling in the mouth (lampas), skin lesions (fashions), tumors on his fetlocks (windgalls), and bony enlargements on his hocks (spavins). The spavins alone can be enough to render a horse lame and useless. In the 17th century, "spavined" horses brought to mind other things that are obsolete, out-of-date, or long past their prime, and we began using the adjective figuratively. "Spavined" still serves a purpose, despite its age. It originated in Middle English as "spaveyned" and can be traced to the Middle French word for "spavin," which was "espavain."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 16, 2008 is:

farce • \FAHRSS\  • noun
1 : a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot 2 : the broad humor characteristic of farce or pretense 3 a : ridiculous or empty show*b : mockery

Example sentence:
"No wonder we're late -- the management of traffic in this city is a farce!" Lyle complained.

Did you know?
When "farce" first appeared in English, it had to do with cookery, not comedy. In the 14th century, English adopted "farce" from Middle French, retaining its original meaning of "forcemeat" or "stuffing." The comedic sense of "farce" in English dates from the 16th century, when England imported a kind of knockabout comedy already popular in France. This dramatic genre had its origins in the 13th-century practice of augmenting, or "stuffing," Latin church texts with explanatory phrases. By the 15th century, a similar practice had arisen of inserting unscripted buffoonery into religious plays. Such farces -- which included clowning, acrobatics, reversal of social roles, and indecency -- soon developed into a distinct dramatic genre and spread rapidly in various forms throughout Europe.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 15, 2008 is:

innocuous • \ih-NAH-kyuh-wus\  • adjective
1 : producing no injury : harmless *2 : not likely to give offense or to arouse strong feelings or hostility : inoffensive, insipid

Example sentence:
Bella was surprised when her seemingly innocuous remark enraged her classmates.

Did you know?
"Innocuous" has harmful roots -- it comes to us from the Latin adjective "innocuus," which was formed by combining the negative prefix "in-" with a form of the verb "nocēre," meaning "to harm" or "to hurt." In addition, "nocēre" is related to the truly "harmful" words "noxious," "nocent," and even "nocuous." "Innocent" is from "nocēre" as well, although like "innocuous" it has the "in-" prefix negating the hurtful possibilities. "Innocuous" first appeared in print in 1598 with the clearly Latin-derived meaning "harmless or causing no injury" (as in "an innocuous gas"). The second sense is a metaphorical extension of the idea of injury, used to indicate that someone or something does not cause hurt feelings, or even strong feelings ("an innocuous book" or "innocuous issues," for example).

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 14, 2008 is:

redoubt • \rih-DOUT\  • noun
1 a : a small usually temporary enclosed defensive workb : a defended position : protective barrier *2 : a secure retreat : stronghold

Example sentence:
From his redoubt on the ninth floor, the fugitive could see the line of police cars that had surrounded the building.

Did you know?
Based on its spelling, you might think that "redoubt" shares its origin with words such as "doubt" and "redoubtable," both of which derive from a Latin verb, "dubitare." But that's not the case. "Redoubt" actually derives via French and Italian from a different Latin verb -- "reducere," meaning "to lead back," the same root that gives us "reduce." How that "b" ended up in "redoubt" is a lingering question, but some etymologists have posited that the word might have been conflated with another "redoubt" -- a now-archaic transitive verb meaning "to regard with awe, dismay, or dread." Unlike its homographic twin, that "redoubt" does derive from the same root as "doubt" and "redoubtable."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 13, 2008 is:

bevy • \BEV-ee\  • noun
*1 : a large group or collection 2 : a group of animals and especially quail

Example sentence:
The band's latest album offers up a bevy of new songs, as well as some remixes of old favorites.

Did you know?
What do you call a group of crows? Or swine? Or leopards? Well-educated members of the medieval gentry seem to have been expected to know the answers: a murder of crows, a sounder of swine, and a leap of leopards. They would also have been expected to know that "bevy" referred specifically to a group of deer, quail, larks, or young ladies. Scholars aren't certain why "bevy" was chosen for those groups (though they have theories). What is known for sure is that "bevy" first appeared in the 15th century and was used as a highly specific collective for many years. Today, however, bevies can include anything from football players to toaster ovens.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 12, 2008 is:

homily • \HAH-muh-lee\  • noun
1 : a usually short sermon *2 : a lecture or discourse on or of a moral theme 3 : an inspirational catchphrase; also : platitude

Example sentence:
"I don't mind eating tofu burgers," said Darnell, "as long as I don't have to hear a homily on the virtues of vegetarianism."

Did you know?
Gather around for the history of "homily." The story starts with ancient Greek "homilos," meaning "crowd" or "assembly." Greeks used "homilos" to create the verb "homilein" ("to consort with" or "to address"), as well as the noun "homilia" ("conversation"). Latin speakers borrowed "homilia," then passed it on to Anglo-French. By the time it crossed into Middle English, the spelling had shifted to "omelie," but by the mid-16th century the term had regained its "h" and added the "y" of the modern spelling.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 11, 2008 is:

anathema • \uh-NATH-uh-muh\  • noun
1 a : one that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority*b : someone or something intensely disliked or loathed 2 a : a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied by excommunicationb : a vigorous denunciation : curse

Example sentence:
Maryam's radical political views are anathema to her more conservative sister.

Did you know?
Historically, "anathema" can be considered a one-word oxymoron. When it first appeared in English in 1526, it was used to refer to something accursed. Shortly thereafter, however, people also began to use it to refer to something consecrated to divine use -- generally a good thing. Why the contradiction? "Anathema" comes from Greek, where it initially meant "anything devoted" and later "anything devoted to evil." The "consecrated to divine use" sense of "anathema" comes from that earlier Greek use but is not widely used today.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 10, 2008 is:

Grub Street • \GRUB-STREET\  • noun
: the world or category of needy literary hacks

Example sentence:
Writer Paul Theroux once characterized the world of literary quarterlies and poetry magazines as "that respectable little cul-de-sac off Grub Street."

Did you know?
The original Grub Street was an address in London (it was renamed Milton Street in 1830) described by Dr. Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary of the English Language as "much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems." The term was applied figuratively to the dog-eat-dog world of pens-for-hire as early as 1630, and not surprisingly it became the subject of several novels. Writer Tobias Smollett, all too familiar with hackwork himself, described a Grub Street dinner party in his novel The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771). And the allusion to Grub Street still packed a punch in 1891 when George Gissing chose New Grub Street as the title of his realistic novel about intrigues of the Victorian literary world.