Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2017 is: plagiary \PLAY-jee-air-ee\ noun

1 : (archaic) one that [plagiarizes](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize)

2 : [plagiarism](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism)

Examples:

"When Amy Heckerling updated and reworked Emma into her 1995 film Clueless, she was not plagiarising Jane Austen, she was creating an imaginary conversation with a classic novel. If I'd opened this piece by writing, 'To steal or not to steal, that is the question,' the only literary misconduct of which I would be guilty is [cliché](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cliche), not 'plagiary,' to use the word's older form." — Sarah Churchwell, The Guardian, 30 May 2013

"… he's a natural essayist, parodist, satirist, punster, commentator and memoirist—the one literary field he fails at is fiction. His initial story ideas are unintentional plagiaries of renowned novels—of Don Quixote, The Giver, The Shining." — Sherie Posesorski, The Vancouver Sun, 8 Nov. 2014

Did you know?

Plagiarius, the Latin source of plagiary, literally means "kidnapper." Plagiarius has its roots in the noun plagium, meaning both "kidnapping" and "the netting of game," and ultimately in the noun plaga, meaning "net." The literal sense of plagiarius was adopted into English; in the 17th and early 18th century, a kidnapper might be referred to as a plagiary, and, in the legalese of the time, kidnapping as plagium. Plagiarius also referred to a literary thief—and that sense was lifted into the English language in the word plagiary, which can be used for one who commits literary theft (now usually referred to as a plagiarist) or the act or product of such theft (now, more commonly, plagiarism).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2017 is: valedictory \val-uh-DIK-tuh-ree\ adjective

: of or relating to an act of bidding farewell : expressing or containing a farewell

Examples:

"During one of two valedictory addresses, Fredrick challenged her classmates to make a difference after graduation and took the time to thank all teachers." — Nathan Thompson, The Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Examiner-Enterprise, 14 May 2017

"When Julian Wachner arrived in Washington to head the Washington Chorus, he was seething with unfocused energy: a man with a lot to prove. On Sunday, nearly 10 years later, he led his valedictory performance as the chorus's music director." — Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, 16 May 2017

Did you know?

Valedictory addresses delivered by earnest young [valedictorians](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/valedictorian) at high school and college graduations are as much a sign of spring in the United States as baseball games and cookouts. Though we don’t know where the first valedictory address was given, we do know that the word was an institution at some colleges in the U.S. by the mid-1700s. English speakers and writers have also used valedictory in non-academic settings since the mid-1600s. Since a valedictory speech is given at the end of an academic career, it is perfectly in keeping with the meaning of its Latin ancestor, valedicere, which means "to say farewell."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2017 is: whirligig \WER-lih-gig\ noun

1 : a child's toy having a whirling motion

2 a : one that continuously [whirls](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whirl) or changes

b : a whirling or circling course (as of events)

Examples:

"As 2016 draws mercifully to a close, just what, exactly, are we to make of this bewildering whirligig of a year?" — Brian Chasnoff, The San Antonio News-Express, 30 Dec. 2016

"The whirligig, an object that spins or whirls, may have started as a farmer's weathervane, but it evolved into a recognized piece of American folk art." — Michelle Galler, RappNews.com (Rappahannock County, VA), 8 Dec. 2016

Did you know?

English speakers, and particularly children, began spinning whirligigs as early as the 15th century. Since then, whirligig has acquired several meanings beyond its initial toy sense. It even has a place in the common name of the [whirligig beetle](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whirligig%20beetle), a member of the family Gyrinidae that swiftly swims in circles on the surface of still water. The word whirligig comes to us from Middle English whirlegigg ("whirling top"), which is itself from whirlen, meaning "to whirl," and gigg, meaning "(toy) top."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2017 is: abdicate \AB-dih-kayt\ verb

1 : to [renounce](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/renounce) a throne, high office, dignity, or function

2 : to [relinquish](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/relinquish) (something, such as sovereign power) formally

3 : to cast off : [discard](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discard)

Examples:

"[The Duke of Windsor] abdicated the throne of the British Empire but remained king of men's style all his life. One of his great tricks was to elevate humble or casual trends and fabrics." — Nicholas Foulkes, Newsweek, 2 Sept. 2016

"… while dining at the restaurant Daniel in New York City, I asked Raj Vaidya, the head sommelier, to pick a red wine for my main course…. I don't abdicate this sacramental responsibility lightly, but Vaidya knows my taste, and he almost invariably comes up with something special." — Jay McInerney, Town & Country, 1 June 2015

Did you know?

Give it up. English includes many words for the process of throwing in the towel, especially for relinquishing a job or elected office. Abdicate, a derivative of the prefix ab- (meaning "from," "away," or "off") and the Latin verb dicare (meaning to "proclaim"), has been used primarily for those who give up sovereign power or who evade a very serious responsibility (such as parental responsibility). [Renounce](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/renounce) is often used as a synonym of abdicate, but it adds to that term the suggestion that an individual is giving up something as a sacrifice to achieve a far greater end. [Resign](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resign) is another option when you are describing a more matter-of-fact departure from a job, office, or trust.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2017 is: skosh \SKOHSH\ noun

: a small amount : [bit](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bit#h3), [smidgen](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/smidgen)

Examples:

The barista sprinkled a skosh of fresh ginger onto the milky surface of the latte.

"… I learned that the Turbo S is livable as an everyday car, with a ride quality a skosh firmer than a standard 911." — Tom Voelk, The New York Times, 16 Sept. 2016

Did you know?

The word skosh comes from the Japanese word sukoshi, which is pronounced "skoh shee" and means "a tiny bit" or "a small amount." The Japanese word was shortened by U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan after World War II. Later, in the Korean War, a small soldier was often nicknamed Skosh. In civilian-speak, skosh can be used by itself as a noun (as in our first example sentence) or in the adverbial phrase "a skosh" (as in our second example).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2017 is: unabashed \un-uh-BASHT\ adjective

: not embarrassed or ashamed by something that has happened or been done or said : [undisguised](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/undisguised), [unapologetic](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unapologetic)

Examples:

Franklin is an unabashed defender of cyclists' rights, and he isn't afraid to confront drivers in traffic who don't adhere to the rules of the road.

"But, there is one San Antonian who is unabashed about his preference for In-N-Out over Whataburger, and some people have labeled him a 'traitor' because of it." — Madalyn Mendoza, The San Antonio News-Express, 16 Apr. 2017

Did you know?

To [abash](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abash) is to shake up someone's self-confidence or [self-possession](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-possession), as illustrated by Charlotte Brontë in her 1849 novel Shirley: "He had never blushed in his life; no humiliation could abash him." When you are unabashed you make no apologies for your behavior, but when you are abashed your confidence has been shaken and you may feel rather inferior or ashamed of yourself. English speakers have been using [abashed](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abashed) to describe feelings of embarrassment since the 14th century, but they have only used unabashed (brazenly or otherwise) since the late 1500s. Both words can be traced back to the Anglo-French word abair, meaning "to astonish."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2017 is: concatenate \kahn-KAT-uh-nayt\ verb

: to link together in a series or chain

Examples:

"While the stories are separate, they're concatenated in that characters recur from story to story, so while one might be a major player in one tale, he might be only alluded to in a subsequent narrative." — Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2013

"To test cockatoos' planning and mechanical capacities, Auersperg designed a box housing a visible cashew nut blocked by five interlocking devices. The locks were concatenated so that the bird would have to solve the lock puzzle farthest from the reward before gaining access to the next, and so on." — Jenny Jennings Foerst, American Scientist, November 2013

Did you know?

Concatenate comes directly from Latin concatenare, which in turn is formed from con-, meaning "with" or "together," and catena, meaning "chain." (The word [chain](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chain) itself also evolved from catena.) Concatenate has a somewhat longer history as an adjective, meaning "linked together," than as a verb. The adjective first appeared in English in the 15th century and the verb wasn't in use until more than a century later. [Catenate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catenate), a verb in its own right meaning "to link in a series," had also arrived on the scene by the early 17th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2017 is: torpedo \tor-PEE-doh\ noun

1 : [electric ray](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electric%20ray)

2 : a weapon (such as a thin cylindrical self-propelled underwater projectile) for destroying ships by rupturing their hulls below the waterline

3 : a large sandwich on a long split roll with any of a variety of fillings : [submarine](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/submarine#h2)

Examples:

Among the undersea wreckage, the divers found an unexploded torpedo.

"An interactive exhibit also takes 'sailors' aboard the USS Tang, a submarine simulation, where you can relive the boat's final, heroic patrol before it sank—torpedo launches, sirens, and chaos ensue." — Meaghan O'Neill, The Boston Globe, 19 Mar. 2017

Did you know?

Like the adjective [torpid](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/torpid), torpedo can be traced back to the Latin verb torpēre, meaning "to be sluggish or numb." In Latin torpedo literally meant "stiffness" or "numbness." Torpedo was also the name given in Latin to the fish known as the [electric ray](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electric%20ray), and it was as a name for the fish that torpedo first entered English. During the Napoleonic Wars, the American inventor Robert Fulton experimented with an explosive charge for use against warships which he called a "torpedo" (and which we would now refer to as a [mine](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mine#h3)) after the electric ray's ability to incapacitate creatures with an electrical discharge. Fulton was also the inventor of the Nautilus, an early hand-powered submarine which was one of the precursors of the vessels that would deliver the more familiar cigar-shaped torpedoes with such devastating effects during the 20th century's two World Wars.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2017 is: inanition \in-uh-NISH-un\ noun

1 : the exhausted condition that results from lack of food and water

2 : the absence or loss of social, moral, or intellectual vitality or [vigor](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vigor)

Examples:

"My friend had no breakfast himself, for it was one of his peculiarities that in his more intense moments he would permit himself no food, and I have known him presume upon his iron strength until he has fainted from pure inanition." — Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder," 1903

"Although she remains largely in the background, Mama is the character apparently most energized by the revolution of 2011, the person who has found purpose and focus, eschewing nostalgia even as the men who surround her have lapsed into [rueful](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rueful) inanition." — Claire Messud, The New York Review of Books, 18 Aug. 2016

Did you know?

Inanition describes a state of suffering from either a literal emptiness (of [sustenance](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sustenance)) or a metaphorical emptiness (of interest or energy), so it should come as no surprise that the word ultimately derives from the same idea in Latin. Inanition, which first appeared in Middle English in the 14th century as in-anisioun, can be traced back to the Latin verb inanire, meaning "to make empty," which in turn comes from inanis (meaning "empty"). Another far more common descendant of inanis is [inane](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inane). The family resemblance is clear: inane is used describe things lacking significance or substance.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2017 is: malleable \MAL-ee-uh-bul\ adjective

1 : capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer or by the pressure of rollers

2 a : capable of being altered or controlled by outside forces or influences

b : having a capacity for adaptive change

Examples:

"Lead is [insidiously](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insidious) useful. It's hard but malleable, is relatively common, melts at a low enough temperature to be workable, and doesn't rust." — Ben Paynter, Wired, June 2016

"[T]he role of First Lady is … a role that is surprisingly malleable, shaped by the personality, style, and interests (or lack thereof) of the person occupying it." — Jonathan Van Meter, Vogue, 11 Nov. 2016

Did you know?

There is a hint about the origins of malleable in its first definition. The earliest uses of the word, which first appeared in English in the 14th century, referred primarily to metals that could be reshaped by beating with a hammer. The Middle English word malliable comes to us from Medieval Latin malleabilis, which in turn derives from the Latin verb malleare, meaning "to hammer." Malleare itself was created from the Latin word for "hammer": malleus. If you have guessed that [maul](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maul) and [mallet](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mallet), other English words for specific types of hammers, can also be traced back to malleus, you have hit the nail on the head.