Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2024 is: fathom  \FA-thum\ verb  
To fathom something is to understand the reason for its existence or occurrence. 

// Even those close to him can't always fathom why he repeatedly risks his life to climb the world’s tallest mountains.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fathom)
  
  
Examples:
  
"[Oppenheimer](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oppenheimer-film) provides an opportunity to revisit this charismatic, contradictory man and reconsider how previous attempts to tell his story have succeeded—and failed—at fathoming one of the 20th century’s [most fascinating public figures](https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-Robert-Oppenheimer)." — Andy Kifer, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 July 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Fathom comes from the Old English word fæthm, meaning "outstretched arms." The noun fathom, which now commonly refers to a measure (especially of depth) of six feet, was originally used for the distance, fingertip to fingertip, created by stretching one's arms straight out from the sides of the body. In one of its earliest uses, the verb fathom was a synonym of our modern [embrace](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embrace): to fathom someone was to encircle the person with your arms. By the 1600s fathom had taken to the seas, with the verb being used to mean "to measure by a [sounding line](https://bit.ly/47uZTT1)." At the same time, the verb also developed senses synonymous with [probe](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/probe) and [investigate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/investigate), and it is now frequently used to refer to the act of getting to the bottom of something, figuratively speaking.

fathom

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2024 is: foist  \FOIST\ verb  
Foist, which is almost always used with on or upon, is used when someone forces another person to accept something, usually something that is not good or is not wanted. Foist can also mean “to pass off as genuine or worthy.”

// I don’t want to foist anything on you, but if you like this old quilt you’re welcome to have it.

// Faulty parts have been foisted on unwitting car owners.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foist)  
  
Examples:
  
“Since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act during the New Deal era, employers have had to pay most of their workers for 40 hours of work even when business was slow. That was just the cost of doing business, a risk capitalists bore in exchange for the upside potential of profit. Now, however, employers foist that risk onto their lowest-paid workers: Part-time employees, not shareholders, have to pay the price when sale volumes fluctuate.” — Adelle Waldman, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
That the word foist is commonly used today to mean “to force another to accept by stealth or deceit” makes sense given its original—now obsolete—use in talking about a bit of literal [sleight of hand](https://bit.ly/4b1ost2). When it first rolled into English in the mid-1500s, foist was all about dice, dice, baby, referring to [palming](https://bit.ly/3JHlk9V)—that is, concealing in one’s hand a phony die so as to secretly introduce it into a game at a convenient time. The action involved in this cheating tactic reflects the etymology of foist: the word is believed to have come from the obsolete Dutch verb vuisten, meaning “to take into one’s hand.” Vuisten in turn comes from vuyst, the Middle Dutch word for “fist,” which itself is distantly related to the Old English ancestor of [fist](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fist). By the late 16th century, foist was being used in English to mean “to insert surreptitiously,” and it quickly acquired the “force to accept” meaning that is most familiar today.

foist

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2024 is: dynasty  \DYE-nuh-stee\ noun  
Dynasty refers to a group (such as a team, family, etc.) that is very powerful or successful for a long period of time. It is also often used for a family of rulers who rule over a country for a long period of time, as well as the period of time when a particular dynasty is in power.

// The team’s draft picks reflected the ownership’s strategy of building a long-term football dynasty. 

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dynasty)
  
  
Examples:
  
“The Vanderberg dynasty was in steel, railroads and textiles as well as [munitions](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/munition). Their money was so old that it underlay the United States like geology. Before there had been a United States, in fact, there had been Vanderbergs and they had already been rich.” — Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz: A Novel, 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
Dynasty has had quite the run in English. For over 600 years it’s been used to refer to a ruling family that maintains power generation after generation. At the time dynasty was first used in English, for example, England was in the midst of rule by the [Plantagenet](https://www.britannica.com/topic/house-of-Plantagenet) dynasty, whose line of [succession](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/succession) provided 14 kings, from [Henry II](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-II-king-of-England) to [Richard III](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-III-king-of-England). Around the beginning of the 19th century, the word developed the figurative sense “a group or family that dominates a particular field for generations.” Nowadays, this sense of dynasty is often applied to sports franchises that have prolonged runs of successful seasons, [divine right](https://bit.ly/3vD6az0) not required. Technically, any team is capable of becoming this type of dynasty, including not only [Kings](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sacramento-Kings) and [Royals](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kansas-City-Royals), but also [Ducks](https://www.britannica.com/sports/Anaheim-Ducks).

dynasty

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2024 is: obstreperous  \ub-STREP-uh-rus\ adjective  
Obstreperous is a formal word that describes people or things that stubbornly resist control; in this use it’s a synonym of [unruly](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unruly). A person or thing described as obstreperous may also be defiantly or aggressively noisy. 

// The moment the paper airplane landed, the instructor addressed the unruly class, telling them in the harshest tone that obstreperous conduct would not be tolerated. 

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obstreperous)
  
  
Examples:
  
“In the 1887 essay ‘Silent People as Misjudged by the Noisy,’ an Atlantic contributor proposed an economical approach to talking: ‘As we get on in life past the period of obstreperous youth, we incline to talk less and write less, especially on the topics which we have most at heart,’ the writer noted. ‘We are beginning to realize the uselessness of perpetually talking … If there is a thing to be said, we prefer to wait and say it only when and where it will hit something or somebody.’” — Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
Imagine walking a dog down a sidewalk in a neighborhood full of delicious smells and other temptations—it’s easy to picture your pooch barking and straining at the leash to chase a squirrel, or dragging you toward something enticingly (to them) stinky, right? But can you imagine saying to your [doggo](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doggo) in response, “Quit being so obstreperous!” Probably not. Obstreperous has a much more formal flair than words, such as stubborn or unruly, used to describe similar behavior. As such it’s unlikely to be used in casual speech or contexts like the one above. The word comes from a combination of the handy Latin prefix ob- (meaning “against”) and strepere, a verb meaning “to make a noise”; someone who is obstreperous can be thought of as literally making noise to rebel against something, much like a protesting crowd or an unruly child. Strepere has made little noise in the English lexicon, however; in addition to obstreperous it seems only to have contributed to the rarely encountered [strepitous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strepitous) and its synonym strepitant, which mean “characterized or accompanied by much noise”—that is, “noisy.”

obstreperous

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2024 is: gadfly  \GAD-flye\ noun  
In literal use, gadfly refers to any of various flies (such as a horsefly, [botfly](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/botfly), or [warble fly](https://bit.ly/49NrOi9)) that bite or annoy [livestock](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/livestock). Gadfly is most popular in figurative use, however, where it refers to someone who provokes or annoys other people especially by persistent criticism.

// The journalist was known as a gadfly for exposing hypocrisy in politics.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gadfly)  
  
Examples:
  
"For years, the [L.A. County Board of Supervisors] has regularly had a 'performance evaluation' scheduled for closed session on its agenda. Any reporter or gadfly worth their salt knew this was actually just a time for the board to call a department head onto the carpet and scream at them behind closed doors." — Jaclyn Cosgrove, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
It's easy to guess what puts the fly in gadfly: in its oldest meaning, fly refers to a winged insect. But ([gadzooks](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gadzooks)!) what about the gad? As a standalone English word, [gad](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gad) means "chisel," but it once could be used for a spike, spear, or rod for goading cattle. It was in the 16th century that gad was joined with [fly](https://bit.ly/49Nc4eY) to refer to any of several insects that bother livestock. Before too long, English speakers began applying gadfly to people who annoy or provoke others. One of history's most famous gadflies was the philosopher [Socrates](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Socrates), who was known for his constant questioning of his fellow Athenians' ethics, misconceptions, and assumptions. In his Apology, [Plato](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plato) describes Socrates' characterization of Athens as a large and sluggish horse and of Socrates himself as the fly that bites and rouses it. Many translations use gadfly in this portion of the Apology, and Socrates is sometimes referred to as the "gadfly of Athens."

gadfly

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2024 is: glean  \GLEEN\ verb  
To glean is to gather or collect something bit by bit, or in a gradual way. Glean can also be used to mean “to search (something) carefully” and “to find out.”

// Neil has a collection of antique tools gleaned from flea markets and garage sales.

// They spent days gleaning the files for information.

// The police used old-fashioned detective work to glean his whereabouts.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glean)
  
  
Examples:
  
“Not only did procuring money to maintain her company figure in Graham’s acceptance of the occasional theater job during the 1930s; perhaps, too, she thought that being associated with a successful play could bring new audiences to her dance performances. There can be no doubt that she gleaned something from each experience outside the rigorous and profoundly idiosyncratic works she created for her company, even if she learned that there were some projects she would prefer never to undertake again.” — Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze: The Life and Works of Martha Graham, 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
While it is certainly true that one must reap what one sows (that is, harvest the crops that one plants), what should be done about the grain and other produce left over that the reapers missed? Well, friends, that must be gleaned—[waste not, want not](https://bit.ly/4aRGUV1), after all. It’s a finicky business, too, picking through stalks and under leaves and whatnot. When it was first used in English in the 14th century, glean carried both the sense of “to gather grain or other produce left by reapers” and the more figurative meaning of “to gather information or material bit by bit,” reflecting the slow, gradual, painstaking work of scouring the fields. Over the years, and especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, glean has also come to be used frequently with the meaning “to find out, learn, ascertain.” This sense has been criticized by folks who think glean should always imply the drudgery involved in the literal grain-gathering sense, but it is well established and perfectly valid.

fathom

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