Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 29, 2024 is: braggadocio  \brag-uh-DOH-see-oh\ noun  
Braggadocio refers to brash and self-confident boasting—that is, the annoying or exaggerated talk of someone who is trying to sound very proud or brave. 

// His braggadocio hid the fact that he felt personally inadequate.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braggadocio)
  
  
Examples:
  
“In total, Lil Wayne has sold more than 120 million albums, making him one of the world's top-selling artists, and, his braggadocio aside, he's widely considered one of most influential hip-hop artists of his generation and one of the greatest rappers of all time.” — L. Kent Wolgamott, The Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star, 1 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
Though Braggadocio is not as well-known as other fictional characters like Pollyanna, the Grinch, or Scrooge, in lexicography he holds a special place next to them as one of the many characters whose name has become an established word in English. The English poet [Edmund Spenser](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edmund-Spenser) originally created Braggadocio as a personification of boasting in his epic poem [The Faerie Queene](https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Faerie-Queene). As early as 1594, about four years after the poem was published, English speakers began using the name as a general term for any blustering blowhard. The now more common use of braggadocio, referring to the talk or behavior of such [windy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/windy) [cockalorums](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cockalorums), developed in the early 18th century.

braggadocio

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2024 is: grudging  \GRUH-jing\ adjective  
Grudging is an adjective used to describe something that is said, done, or given unwillingly or reluctantly. It can also describe someone who is unwilling or reluctant to do something.

// Her theories have begun to win grudging acceptance in the scientific community.

// A number of his former critics have become grudging admirers.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grudging)
  
  
Examples:
  
“‘I’m impressed,’ said Mati, grudging admiration in her tone. ‘It isn’t just a pretty name and expensive ingredients. I can never make something this tasty.’” — Ken Liu, The Veiled Throne, 2022  
  
Did you know?  
   
The English language has been carrying a [grudge](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grudge) for a long time—since the 13th century to be exact, when it took the Anglo-French verb grucher/grucer and made it grucchen/grudgen. Both words meant “to grumble and complain” (and if their shared definition, combined with their spelling and pronunciation, reminds you of a certain furry green [Muppet](https://www.britannica.com/art/Muppet) who lives in a trash can, you’re onto something: [grouch](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grouch) is thought to be a grucchen descendant). Over time grucchen/grudgen became grudge, which picked up the additional, closely related meanings of “to be unwilling to give or allow” and “to allow with reluctance or resentment,” as when [Virginia Woolf](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Virginia-Woolf) wrote “if you come to grudge even the sun for shining … fruit does not ripen.” Grudging, which developed from grudge, made its English debut in the 1530s, and has been used ever since to describe someone who is unwilling or reluctant (“a grudging supporter”) or something done or given reluctantly or sparingly (“grudging respect”).

grudging

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2024 is: reputation  \rep-yuh-TAY-shun\ noun  
A reputation is the common opinion that people have about someone or something. Reputation can also refer to a positive position that someone or something has in public esteem or regard.

// She's earned a reputation as a first-class playwright.

// Investors feared that the scandal had damaged the company's reputation  beyond repair.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reputation)  
  
Examples:
  
"[Menton](https://www.britannica.com/place/Menton) [France] was once a leading lemon-growing region in Europe, with a global reputation and exports as far as the United States and Russia in the 18th century." — Barbara Surk and Daniel Cole, Quartz, 2 Apr. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
An esteemed word in English, reputation rose to fame during the 14th century and ultimately traces back to the Latin verb reputare, meaning "to take into consideration" or "to think over." Reputare is itself a coupling of the well-known "again" prefix [re-](https://bit.ly/3vQ4fal) and the verb putare, "to reckon." Renowned celebrities of the putare family are the verb [repute](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repute) ("to believe or consider"), the identical [noun](https://bit.ly/49w4Qfi) (synonymous with reputation), the adjectives [reputable](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reputable) and [reputed](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reputed), and the adverb [reputedly](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reputedly). Other putare cousins of notoriety include [dispute](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dispute), [disreputable](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disreputable), [imputation](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imputation), and [putative](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/putative), along with their kin.

reputation

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2024 is: extemporize  \ik-STEM-puh-ryze\ verb  
To extemporize means to do something [extemporaneously](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporaneously)—in other words, to improvise.
 
// A good talk show host must be able to extemporize when interviews don’t go as planned.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporize)
  
  
Examples:
  
“The president was fast on his feet. Sensing an opportunity to extemporize, he looked around the chamber, pleased.” — Robin Abcarian, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Let’s dive into the essence of extemporize by exploring its origins. (We’ll try not to bore you with too many [extraneous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extraneous) details.) To extemporize is to say or do something [off-the-cuff](https://bit.ly/4ax9nPs); extemporize was coined by adding the suffix -ize to the Latin phrase ex tempore, meaning “on impulse” or “on the spur of the moment.” (Incidentally, ex tempore was also borrowed wholesale into English with the meaning “in an extemporaneous manner.”) Other descendants of ex tempore include the now rare [extemporal](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporal) and [extemporary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporary)—both synonyms of [extemporaneous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporaneous)—and as you have no doubt guessed by now, extemporaneous itself.

extemporize

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2024 is: plangent  \PLAN-junt\ adjective  
Something, such as a sound, that is described as plangent is loud, deep, and often expressive of sadness or suffering. The word is a synonym of [plaintive](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plaintive).

// The campers were awoken by the plangent howl of a coyote off in the distance.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plangent)  
  
Examples:
  
“Adjuah sings in a keening, plangent tone, but at one point he pauses to offer a spoken invitation: ‘Listen to the wind,’ he says. ‘The voices calling to you from yesterday.’” — Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times, 30 June 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Plangent adds power to our poetry and prose: the pounding of waves, the beat of wings, the tolling of a bell, the throbbing of the human heart, a lover’s knocking at the door—all have been described as plangent. The word plangent traces back to the Latin verb plangere, which has two meanings. The first of those meanings, “to strike or beat,” was sometimes used by Latin speakers in reference to striking one’s breast in grief. This led to the verb’s second meaning, “to lament.” The sense division carried over to the Latin adjective plangens and then into English, giving us two distinct meanings of plangent: “pounding” (as in “the plangent roar of waves”) and “expressive of woe, grief, or melancholy.” Like its synonym plaintive, plangent is often used to describe sounds, from bittersweet melodies to the wails of mourners, evoking deep and heartfelt sadness.

plangent

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2024 is: proliferate  \pruh-LIF-uh-rayt\ verb  
To proliferate is to increase quickly in number or amount.

// Problems have proliferated in recent months; every day seems to present a new challenge that needs sorting out.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proliferate)
  
  
Examples:
  
“Patches of scrub continue to emerge and then fall away as the canopy of young self-sown trees begins to shade them out. The beavers have created hectares of new open water and channel complexes. Deadwood is ubiquitous. Topsoil continues to grow, and fungi proliferate.” — Isabella Tree, The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small, 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Proliferate is a [back-formation](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/back-formation) of proliferation. That means that proliferation came first (we borrowed it from French in the 1700s), and was later shortened to form the verb. Proliferation originally referred to the botanical phenomenon of some plants having buds, flowers, or other parts that are [adventitious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adventitious)—that is, that arise or occur sporadically or in other than the usual location (e.g. [pitch pines’](https://bit.ly/4afWl9o) ability to sprout new trees directly from their stumps after a fire). With advances in the study of biology in the 1800s, proliferation came to be used to refer to the rapid and repeated production of [cells](https://www.britannica.com/science/cell-biology) by division. That sense in turn [begat](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beget) the verb proliferate, which eventually came to be used when anything—whether living (such as yeast) or nonliving (such as data)—quickly increases or multiplies.

braggadocio

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