Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2019 is: putsch  \PUTCH\ noun  
: a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government  
  
Examples:
  
The graduate-level seminar focuses on the events surrounding the August 1991 putsch against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

"[Christian Petzold's] thriller Transit twists modern concerns about national identity, immigration, and fascism into a personal, artsy mystery. Petzold starts with Georg …, an emotionally wounded German living in France, during a spookily contemporary, unspecified putsch, who seeks refuge in the Americas." — Armond White, National Review, 13 Mar. 2019  
  
Did you know?  
   
In its native Swiss German, putsch originally meant "knock" or "thrust," but these days both German and English speakers use it to refer to the kind of government overthrow also known as a [coup d'état](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coup%20d'etat) or [coup](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coup). Putsch debuted in English shortly before the tumultuous Kapp Putsch of 1920, in which Wolfgang Kapp and his right-wing supporters attempted to overthrow the German [Weimar](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Weimar%20Republic) government. Putsch attempts were common in Weimar Germany, so the word appeared often in the stories of the English journalists who described the insurrections. Adolf Hitler also attempted a putsch (known as the Beer Hall Putsch), but he ultimately gained control of the German government via other means.

putsch

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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.

inalienable

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2024 is: purloin  \per-LOYN\ verb  
To purloin is to take something that belongs to someone else—that is, to steal it. Purloin is much more formal-sounding than [steal](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steal), but is often—though not always—encountered in humorous contexts, suggesting that the theft is not serious.

// The puppy managed to purloin a few cookies from the plate when no one was looking.

// The studio stepped up security, fearing that someone might attempt to purloin a copy of the script for the show’s season finale.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/purloin)
  
  
Examples:
  
“The pitch for every tax scam is the same: ‘We will help you avoid paying the IRS.’ While there are hundreds of legitimate ways to reduce your federal income tax bill, fraud merchants purloin millions through what the IRS calls its ‘Dirty Dozen.’ Most of the swindles involve bogus tax breaks.” — John F. Wasik, Forbes, 5 May 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Picture a pie cooling on a windowsill. Peach, possibly, or perhaps plum—with perfect perfumed plumes puffing out from the holes poked in its crust. And then, suddenly, the pie is gone (as is our [alliteration](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alliteration), at least for now). Those familiar with the classic pie-windowsill thievery of cartoons and comics know that the dessert has not been merely stolen, or even swiped, but purloined! Purloin comes from the Anglo-French verb purluigner, meaning “to prolong, postpone, or set aside.” English speakers of the 15th century borrowed purloin to use it in much the same way, applying it when someone sets something aside, concealing it so that it cannot be used by someone else. The sense meaning “to steal” developed not long after in the same century. The whiff of unseriousness often carried by purloin is not a constant; even today, it is common to read reports of people purloining large sums of money, not just delicious plum pies. But purloin does tend to carry the same particular piquancy as [pinch](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pinch) and [pilfer](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pilfer).

purloin

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2024 is: furlong  \FER-lawng\ noun  
A furlong is a unit of distance equal to 220 yards (about 201 meters), and is used chiefly in horse racing.

// To win the [Kentucky Derby](https://www.britannica.com/sports/Kentucky-Derby), a [Thoroughbred](https://bit.ly/3wks5uF) must run 10 furlongs, or one and 1/4 miles.  

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furlong)
  
  
Examples:
  
“My battle with this monster began a decade ago when a wayward seedling popped up in my perennial bed. It subsequently flowered so gloriously that, like a common dolt, I left it there. What I didn’t realize is that every bloom drops lots of seeds. Even worse, after the plant’s foliage withers in summer, spreading roots grow by the furlong in every direction. A pink primrose tsunami swept over my garden the following spring, choking the phlox and drowning the daylilies.” — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 26 Sept. 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Furlong is an English original that can be traced back to Old English furlang, a combination of the noun furh (“[furrow](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furrow)”) and the adjective lang (“long”). Though now standardized as a length of 220 yards (or 1/8th of a mile), the furlong was originally defined less precisely as the length of a furrow—a trench in the earth made by a plow—in a cultivated field. This length was equal to the long side of an [acre](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acre)—an area originally defined as the amount of arable land that could be plowed by a yoke of oxen in a day, but later standardized as an area measuring 220 yards (one furlong) by 22 yards, and now defined as any area measuring 4,840 square yards. In contemporary usage, furlong is often encountered in references to horse racing.

furlong

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2024 is: brusque  \BRUSK\ adjective  
A person may be described as brusque when they are talking or behaving in a very direct, brief, and unfriendly way. Brusque can also describe speech that is noticeably short and abrupt.

// We knew something was wrong when our normally easygoing professor was brusque and impatient with our class.

// She asked for a cup of coffee and received a brusque reply: “We don't have any.”

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brusque)  
  
Examples:
  
“Archaeologists look down on him because of his working-class background, and his brusque manner hasn't won him many friends. He doesn't argue with those he disagrees with; he just walks away.” — Dan Lybarger, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 19 Feb. 2021
  
  
Did you know?  
   
If you’ve ever felt [swept aside](https://bit.ly/3v2UeX8) by someone with a brusque manner, that makes a certain amount of etymological sense. Brusque, you see, comes ultimately from bruscus, the Medieval Latin name for [butcher’s broom](https://www.britannica.com/plant/butchers-broom), a shrub whose bristly, leaf-like twigs have long been used for making brooms. Bruscus was modified to the adjective brusco in Italian, where it meant “sour” or “tart.” French, in turn, changed brusco to brusque, and the word in that form entered English in the 1600s. English speakers initially applied brusque to tartness in wine, but the word soon came to describe a harsh and stiff manner, which is just what you might expect of a word bristling with associations to stiff, scratchy brooms.

putsch

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