Author: Paul Schleifer
Word of the Day: Apocrypha
Today’s word of the day, partly thanks to the Grandiloquent Word of the Day (https://www.grandiloquentwordoftheday.com/), is apocrypha. In English, historically, the word is initially a proper noun, Apocrypha, but the […]
Word of the Day: Robot
Today’s word of the day is robot. A noun, robot means “a machine that resembles a human and does mechanical, routine tasks on command” or “a person who acts and […]
Word of the Day: Myopic
Today’s word of the day is myopic. The Dictionary Project’s email this morning defines the adjective in two ways: 1. “nearsighted; unable to see distant objects clearly”; and 2. “shortsighted; […]
Word of the Day: Buttonhole
Today’s word of the day, courtesy of Dictionary.com, is buttonhole. Buttonhole can be either a noun or a verb. As a noun, it refers to the hole through which a […]
Word of the Day: Gratuitous
Today’s word of the day, thanks to the Dictionary Project, is gratuitous. The email gives four definitions for this adjective: 1. “given freely, without recompense; given or received without requiring […]
Word of the Day: Conflate
Today’s word of the day, courtesy of Merriam-Webster, is conflate. The history of this word is quite interesting. Merriam-Webster gives two definitions: “Two closely related meanings of the verb conflate […]
Word of the Day: Flay
Today’s word of the day, thanks to WordReference.com, is flay, a verb that means “‘to strip the skin off an animal or a person’ or ‘to strip the outer covering […]
Word of the Day: Meliorism
Today’s word of the day, courtesy of the Word Gurus, is meliorism. Interestingly, the email I received from the Word Gurus spelled the word with two ls (melliorism), but I […]
Word of the Day: Mnemonic
Today’s word of the day, courtesy of vocabulary.com, is mnemonic. “A mnemonic is a memory aid for something, often taking the form of a rhyme or an acronym. I before […]
Word of the Day: Malapropism
Today’s word of the day is malapropism. A malapropism is “an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/malapropism). […]
Word of the Day: Bunkum
Today’s word of the day, courtesy of Merriam-Webster, is bunkum. The dictionary’s website says this about this noun: “Bunkum is an old-fashioned and informal word that refers to foolish or […]
Word of the Day: Peccant
Today’s word of the day, thanks to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Gard, is peccant (https://wordsmith.org/words/today.html). Peccant is an adjective that means “sinning; guilty of a moral offense” or “violating a rule, […]