Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2023 is: bower  \BOW-er\ noun  
Bower is a literary word that usually refers to a garden shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together.

// Resting in the shade of the bower was the perfect way to cool off during the hot summer afternoon.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bower)
  
  
Examples:
  
“Today, a café occupies part of the ground floor, its tables and chairs distributed under a leafy bower on the veranda.” — Samanth Subramanian, The New York Times, 9 June 2022  
  
Did you know?  
   
If you visited someone’s bower a millennium ago, you’d likely have found yourself at an attractive rustic cottage. A few centuries later, a visit to a bower could have involved a peek into a lady’s personal hideaway within a medieval castle or hall—that is, her private apartment. Both meanings hark back to the word’s ancient roots: it comes from Old English būr, meaning “dwelling.” Today, bower is more familiar as a word for a garden shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together, a meaning that overlaps with that of [arbor](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arbor). (The adjective bowery, meaning “like a bower” or “full of bowers” is used to describe areas that resemble or are filled with these leafy pergola-like structures). Bower also features in the name of [bowerbirds](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bowerbird), any of approximately 20 different [bird species](https://www.britannica.com/animal/bowerbird) native to Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, the males of which build more-or-less elaborate structures using twigs, moss, and other plant materials to woo potential mates during courtship.

bower

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2024 is: gingerly  \JIN-jer-lee\ adjective  
An act or manner described as gingerly is very cautious or careful.

// It’s a delicate subject, and we need to approach it with gingerly care and [tact](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tact).

// The antelope moved with a gingerly gait that suggested it was hurt. 

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gingerly)
  
  
Examples:
  
“Note: bears do not in a gingerly manner put their paws against each stem of a lovely ripe pear and gently pull upward against the branch, the proper harvesting method. ‘Picked’ in bear-lingo means tearing down carefully constructed tree cages and knocking as many branches to the ground as needed; then taking several bites out of each luscious pear, leaving scattered remnants all over the ground ...” — Cate Gable, The Chinook Observer (Long Beach, Washington), 14 Oct. 2020  
  
Did you know?  
   
Though more common as [an adverb](https://bit.ly/3IIE1JT) meaning “very cautiously and carefully,” as in “moving gingerly across the icy pond,” gingerly has for more than four centuries functioned both as an adverb and as an adjective. Etymologists take a gingerly approach to assigning any particular origins to gingerly. While it might have come from the name of the [spice](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ginger), there’s nothing concrete to back up that idea. Another theory is that it’s related to an Old French word, gençor, meaning “prettier” or “more beautiful,” with evidence being that in 16th century English an earlier sense of gingerly often described dancing or walking done with dainty steps. It wasn’t until the 17th century that gingerly was applied to movements done with caution in order to avoid being noisy or causing injury, and to a wary manner in handling or presenting ideas.

gingerly

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2024 is: underwhelm  \un-der-WELM\ verb  
To underwhelm someone is to fail to impress or excite them.

// Despite the hype, the movie underwhelmed most reviewers, who criticized its slow pace and poor special effects.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/underwhelm)  
  
Examples:
  
"Wake me up when NBA All-Star Weekend ends. Let’s start with the Dunk Contest, which is supposed to be the most exciting event. It wasn’t. Most of the dunks, and the judging of said dunks, underwhelmed." — Zachary Pereles, CBS Sports, 19 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
[Overwhelm](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overwhelm) and its rare synonym [whelm](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whelm) have both been around since the Middle Ages, but underwhelm is a 20th-century coinage. Both overwhelm and whelm come from the Middle English whelmen, meaning "to turn over" or "to cover up." Underwhelm is a playful overturning of overwhelm that is well suited for contexts in which something fails to excite. As is often the case with younger words, there is a certain amount of misinformation regarding where underwhelm came from. We have seen reports that the playwright [George S. Kaufman](https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-S-Kaufman) coined it, and also that the famed sportswriter [Red Smith](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Red-Smith) claimed to have used it first. Neither of these is likely to be accurate, for the simple fact that there is evidence that underwhelming was used, albeit as an adjective, before either of these men was born.

underwhelm

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2024 is: qua  \KWAH\ preposition  
Qua is a preposition used in formal speech or writing that means “in the capacity or character of (someone or something).” It is used synonymously with [as](https://bit.ly/3uUyo87) to indicate that someone or something is being referred to or thought about in a particular way.

// The artist qua artist is less interesting to me than the artist as a human being.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/qua)
  
  
Examples:
  
“He [Charlie Chaplin] financed his own films; he wrote them; he took music credit; he even choreographed. Most of the cast and crew were on his payroll. He even co-owned his distribution company. The box-office take went straight into his pocket. He was not beholden to anyone, but he was not indispensable, either. Losing the Chaplin studio had a negligible impact on the movie business qua business.” — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
A preposition is a word—and almost always a very small, very common word—that shows direction (to in “a letter to you”), location (at in “at the door”), or time (by in “by noon”), or that introduces an object (of in “a basket of apples”) or a capacity or role (as in “works as an editor”). As such, prepositions tend not to attract as much attention as other parts of speech (unless there is some [foofaraw](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foofaraw) about whether or not it’s [okay to end a sentence with one](https://bit.ly/432mvJS)). Qua, however, though very small is not very common—at least in everyday speech or writing. As one 20th-century usage writer commented, “Qua is sometimes thought affected or [pretentious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pretentious), but it does convey meaning economically.” Qua’s meaning is quite specific—it can substitute for the phrase “in the capacity or character of” or the preposition [as](https://bit.ly/3uUyo87) in the right context, as in “they wanted to enjoy the wine qua wine, not as a status symbol.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2024 is: circumlocution  \ser-kum-loh-KYOO-shun\ noun  
Circumlocution refers to the use of many words to say something that could be said more clearly and directly with fewer words. Usually encountered in formal speech and writing, circumlocution can also refer to speech that is intentionally [evasive](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evasive).

// The judge coughed and pointed to her watch, clearly impatient with the attorney's tiresome circumlocutions in defense of his client. 

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circumlocution) 
  
  
Examples:
  
“The slight stiltedness of her … English merges with the circumlocution of business-school [lingo](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lingo) to produce phrases like ‘the most important aspect is to embrace a learning mind-set’ and ‘I believe we’re going to move forward in a positive way.’” — Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, 1 Oct. 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
In The King’s English (1906), lexicographers [H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler](https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-W-Fowler) advised, “Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.” It’s good advice: using more words than necessary to convey a point can confuse and annoy one’s audience. Circumlocution itself combines two Latin elements: the prefix circum-, meaning “around,” and locutio, meaning “speech.” In essence, circumlocution may be thought of as “roundabout speech.” Since at least the early 16th century, English writers have used circumlocution with disdain, naming a thing to stop, or better yet, to avoid altogether. Charles Dickens used the word to satirize political runarounds in the 1857 novel [Little Dorrit](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Little-Dorrit-novel-by-Dickens) with the creation of the fictional Circumlocution Office, a government department that delayed the dissemination of information and just about everything else.

circumlocution

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 16, 2024 is: inalienable  \in-AY-lee-uh-nuh-bul\ adjective  
Something considered inalienable is impossible to take away or give up.

// The American ethos is built on the belief that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inalienable)  
  
Examples:
  
"Despite the hurdles, comedians continue to negotiate their inalienable need to do stand-up to the point that money comes as a secondary concern." — Jake Kroeger, The Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Alien, alienable, inalienable—it's easy enough to see the Latin word alius, meaning "other," at the root of these three words. [Alien](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alien) joined our language in the 14th century, and one of its earliest meanings was "belonging to another." By the early 1600s that sense of alien had led to [alienable](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alienable), an adjective describing something you can give away or transfer to another owner. The word [unalienable](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unalienable) came about as its opposite, but so did inalienable, a word most likely borrowed into English on its own from French. Inalienable is the more common form today, and although we often see both forms used to modify "rights," it was unalienable that was used in the [Declaration of Independence](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Declaration-of-Independence) to describe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

bower

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