To beleaguer a person, business, etc. is to cause them constant or repeated trouble. Beleaguer is also sometimes used as a synonym of besiege.

// The coach, beleaguered by the media and fans for his poor decision-making during games, has been fired.

// The novel is set in a city beleaguered by military forces.

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"... Mono Lake, beleaguered by three years of drought, is expected to rise by several feet, a welcome reprieve as the lake has struggled to reach target levels." — Evan Bush, NBC News, 6 June 2023

There's no getting around it: beleaguer is a "troubling" word. It comes from the Dutch verb belegeren, which in turn combines leger, meaning "camp," and the prefix be- (a relative of the English be- meaning "about" or "around"). While the Dutch word, meaning "to camp around," is neutral, its descendent beleaguer implies a whole heap of fuss and bother. Beleaguer was first used in the late 16th century, and is still used today, as a synonym of besiege; indeed, an army beleaguering or besieging a castle may also be said to be "camping around" it, albeit with nefarious rather than recreational purposes. This sense of beleaguer was almost immediately joined, however, by its now more common—and less martial—meaning of "to cause constant or repeated trouble for."

Tome is a formal word for a book, and especially a very large, thick, often scholarly book.

// We picked up a tome on the Ghana Empire for our history project.

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“‘The way that we’ve approached publishing at Climax is almost having these two very separate worlds that live perfectly together,’ [Isabella] Burley says of her business’s work in both the archival and contemporary worlds. Climax returned with its second title earlier this month, a 550-page tome surveying ten years of images produced between 2014 and 2024 by artist Martine Syms, whose work examines themes of identity, gender and Black culture.” — Sarah Kearns, Hypebeast Magazine, 15 Nov. 2024

When is a book not a book? When it’s a tome—tome being a word that has always suggested something less or more than the word book. When tome was first used in English, it referred to a book that was part of a larger, multi-volume work, which makes sense given that it comes from tomos, a Greek noun meaning “section” or “roll of papyrus” that comes in turn from the verb temnein, meaning “to cut” (in ancient times, long scrolls of papyrus were often divided into sections). While tome retains this meaning today, it usually refers instead to a book that is larger and more scholarly than average, as evidenced by some of the most common adjectives that precede it, including weighty, lengthy, massive, heavy, hefty, and academic.

Cerulean describes things whose blue color resembles the blue of a clear sky.

// The painting depicts leafless trees bordering a cerulean lake.

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“He grins to appease me and reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cerulean fountain pen, marbled and sparkling. It reminds me of the sea on a calm day. ‘It was my grandfather’s,’ he explains. ‘He gave it to me, and now I am giving it to you.’” — Asha Lemmie, The Wildest Sun: A Novel, 2023

There comes a moment in every young crayon user’s life when they graduate from the 8-count (or 16-count, perhaps) box to the treasure trove of 64 glorious sticks of differently colored wax, when they discover that there isn’t just one brown or orange or blue, that when it comes to colors, the sky’s the limit! Such a moment is often the first encounter people have with the word cerulean, a word that slips sibilantly off the tongue like a balmy ocean breeze. Like azure, cerulean describes things whose blue color resembles that of a clear sky; it’s often used in literature (especially travel writing) to paint an enticing image of an even more enticing vista, as in “the cerulean waters of a tropical lagoon.” While azure is thought to hail from the Persian word lāzhuward, with the same meaning, cerulean comes from the Latin adjective caeruleus, meaning “dark blue.” That word most likely comes from caelum, meaning “sky.”

To fulminate is to complain loudly or angrily about something.

// The editorial fulminated against the corruption in the state government that has been recently uncovered.

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“When Reagan fulminated against the Soviet Union, his aides, fearing nuclear war, challenged him.” — Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 9 Sept. 2024

Lightning strikes more than once in the history of fulminate. The word comes from the Late Latin fulmināre, meaning “to strike down or confound (an opponent),” which in turn traces back to the Latin verb (same spelling) meaning “to strike” (used of lightning) or simply “to strike like lightning”; that word's source is the noun fulmen, meaning “lightning.” When fulminate was taken up by English speakers in the 15th century, it lost much of its ancestral thunder and was used largely as a technical term for the issuing of formal denunciations by church authorities. In time, its original lightning spark returned, and it’s now used when someone issues verbal “lightning strikes” in the midst of a brouhaha, tirade, or tweetstorm.

Someone described as addlepated is mixed-up or confused. Addlepated can also be used as synonym of eccentric.

// Some addlepated clerk confused our hotel reservation with that of another, similarly named, party.

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“Overwhelmed and a little at sea (so to speak), this viewer combed these scenes for cinematic clues to whatever the narrative takeaway would be. ... The cinematic stuff was misdirection, and the mission ends with an addlepated navigator getting promoted because of his mistakes.” — Lili Loofbourow, The Washington Post, 26. Jan 2024

In this hectic, often confusing world of ours, it’s probably safe to say that even the sharpest thinkers—the wonks and eggheads among us—get a little addlepated from time to time. In fact, the idea of an addlepated egghead makes some etymological sense. Addlepated combines the words addle and pate. While the meaning of the somewhat rare noun pate (“head”) is straightforward, cracking open the adjective addle is where things get interesting. In Old English, the noun adela referred to filth, or to a filthy or foul-smelling place. In Middle English, adela came to be used as an adjective in the term adel eye, meaning “putrid egg.” For its first few centuries of adjectival use, and with various spellings, addle was used strictly for eggs, but in the 16th century it gained a figurative sense that, when applied disparagingly to people’s heads or brains, suggested the diminished or rotten condition of an addle (or addled) egg. Today, addle is often found in combination with words referring to one’s noggin, addlebrained, and addle-headed, and most common of all, addlepated.

Potpourri is a mixture of dried flower petals, leaves, and spices that is used to make a room smell pleasant. When used figuratively potpourri refers to a collection of various different things.

// Her favorite winter potpourri includes cinnamon sticks, cloves, and orange peel.

// The book is a potpourri of stories about family, community, and food.

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“The windows here are festooned with a potpourri of book jackets, portraits of Ataturk cheek by jowl with Turkey’s great poet of opposition, Nâzım Hikmet, and stars of Yeşilçam, the populist Turkish cinema of days gone by.” — Barry Yourgrau, LitHub.com, 15 Feb. 2023

Some people delight in the scent of potpourri, and others find it cloying. Happily, this word manages to contain elements which will make each of these groups feel that their preferences are linguistically supported. Potpourri is used today to refer literally to a fragrant mixture of flowers, herbs, etc., and figuratively to a miscellaneous collection, or medley, of things. But potpourri first referred to a kind of stew of meat and vegetables, usually including sausage and chickpeas. It was borrowed from French, where pot pourri translates directly as “putrid pot”; the French word was a translation of the Spanish olla podrida, which likewise means “rotten pot.” We don't know why both the Spanish and the French gave their stews such unappetizing names, although it has been suggested that the Spanish method of slowly cooking this dish over a fire may have had something to do with it. Regardless, after referring solely to stew for its first hundred and some-odd years, potpourri began to be used for an aromatic blend of dried flowers in the middle of the 18th century, and within the next hundred years was being applied to mixtures and collections of all kinds of things.

To rejuvenate a person, parts of the body, etc., is to make them feel young, healthy, or energetic again. To rejuvenate something abstract, such as an economy or career, is to give it new strength or energy.

// The hotel package includes a day at the spa to rejuvenate guests.

// Small businesses opening along the main street have rejuvenated the downtown area.

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"Made with shea butter and other hydrating ingredients, these hand creams rejuvenate the hands with each use." — Mia Meltzer, Rolling Stone, 28 Nov. 2024

The word rejuvenate is intended for mature audiences—that is, it applies to people and things that are no longer green to this world. While there is no true Fountain of Youth that can turn back the clock, rejuvenation can at least restore a bit of youthful appearance, health, or vigor. Rejuvenate originated as a combination of the prefix re-, which means "again," and the Latin juvenis, meaning "young." (It will come as no surprise that juvenis is also an ancestor of juvenile and junior). Its first-known use in the mid-18th century was in reference to "certain Potions" rejuvenating "the noble Parts" of those suffering prolonged ailments, but it didn't take long for the word to see life outside of medical contexts. Today one might rejuvenate an old car with a fresh coat of paint, a losing football team with a new quarterback, or depleted soil with some nitrogen-fixing legumes, to name just a few examples.

Zeitgeist refers to the general beliefs, ideas, and spirit of a time and place.

// The artist’s songs perfectly captured the zeitgeist of 1990s America.

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"In appointing Pharrell Williams as creative director in 2023, Louis Vuitton tapped further into the zeitgeist, refreshing the brand's image and broadening both its appeal and its dedication to cultural excellence." — Olivia Morelli, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Oct. 2024

Scholars have long maintained that each era has a unique spirit, a nature or climate that sets it apart from all others. In German, such a spirit is known as Zeitgeist, from the German words Zeit, meaning "time," and Geist, meaning "spirit" or "ghost." (This same Geist, when combined with poltern, meaning "to knock," led to the English word poltergeist referring to a noisy ghost.) It is common nowadays to read about something "tapping into" or "capturing" the zeitgeist, as doing so often entails popularity or profitability in appealing to a great many people, though sometimes the zeitgeist of a particular time and place is only recognized in hindsight, either due to nostalgia or with the benefit of (one hopes) greater wisdom.

Someone described as urbane is notably polite, confident, or polished in manner. Urbane is also used to describe things that are fashionable and somewhat formal.

// "When did my willful, childish cousin turn into this urbane young artist greeting the guests at her opening reception?" wondered Elena.

// We were impressed by the hotel's urbane sophistication.

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"The classical-meets-country-house architecture offers a relaxed lifestyle fused with urbane glamour and a thoroughly modern slate of creature comforts." — Mark David, Robb Report, 18 June 2024

City slickers and country folk have long debated whether life is better in town or in the wide-open spaces, and urbane is a term that springs from the throes of that debate. In its earliest English uses, urbane was synonymous with its close relative urban ("of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a city"). Both words come from the Latin adjective urbanus ("urban, urbane"), which in turn comes from urbs, meaning "city." The modern sense of urbane developed from the belief (no doubt fostered by cosmopolitan city dwellers) that living in the city made one more suave and polished than did leading a rural life.

Linchpin, sometimes spelled lynchpin, literally refers to a locking pin inserted crosswise, as at the end of an axle or shaft. In figurative use, linchpin refers to a person or thing that serves to hold together parts or elements that exist or function as a unit; such a linchpin is often understood as the most important part of a complex situation or system.

// Investors are betting that the new product line will be the linchpin that secures the company's place in the very competitive market in the years and decades to come.

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“When people tell the story of my life, when I tell this story of my life, Trisha doesn’t get much space, but she is a linchpin. For me the linchpin is that tiny bit of aid that holds things together when they might otherwise fall apart that keeps you rolling down the road to where you were already going. It’s not the engine, it’s not the track. It’s invisible but in the moment essential help.” — Alice Randall, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future, 2024

In his 1857 novel, Tom Brown’s School Days, Thomas Hughes describes the “cowardly” custom of “taking the linch-pins out of the farmers’ and bagmens’ gigs at the fairs.” The linchpin in question held the wheel on the carriage, and removing it made it likely that the wheel would come off as the vehicle moved. Such a pin was called a lynis in Old English; Middle English speakers added pin to form lynspin. By the early 20th century, English speakers were using linchpin for anything as critical to a complex situation as a linchpin is to a wagon, as when Winston Churchill, in 1930, wrote of Canada and the role it played in the relationship between Great Britain and the United States, that “no state, no country, no band of men can more truly be described as the linchpin of peace and world progress.”