Word - 66

SANGUINE \SANG-gwin\ adjective

1 : bloodred

2 of the complexion : ruddy

*3 : confident, optimistic

Example sentence:
The coach remained sanguine about his team's chances in the playoffs, even though his star player was injured.

Did you know?

"Sanguine" has quite a few relatives in English, including a few that might sound familiar to Word of the Day readers. "Sangfroid" ("self-possession especially under strain") and "sanguineous" ("bloodthirsty") are consanguineous with "sanguine." ("Consanguineous," meaning "descended from the same ancestor," is another former Word of the Day.) The tie that binds these words is "sanguis," the Latin word for blood. "Exsanguination" ("the draining or losing of blood"), "sanguinary" ("murderous" or "bloody"), and the rare "sangsue" ("leech") and "sanguinolent" ("tinged with blood") are also "sanguis" relatives. That's something you can raise a glass of "sangaree" or "sangria" ("a usually iced punch made of red wine, fruit juice, and soda water") to!

Word - 65

WORMHOLE \WERM-hohl\ noun

1 : a hole or passage burrowed by a worm

*2 : a hypothetical structure of space-time envisioned as a long thin tunnel connecting points that are separated in space and time

Example sentence:

Some science fiction writers speculate that wormholes will become the intergalactic highways of the future.

Did you know?

If you associate "wormhole" with quantum physics and sci-fi, you'll probably be surprised to learn that the word has been around since Shakespeare's day -- although, admittedly, he used it more literally than most modern writers. To Shakespeare, a "wormhole" was simply a hole made by a worm, but even the Bard subtly linked "wormholes" to the passage of time; for example, in The Rape of Lucrece, he notes time's destructive power "to fill with worm-holes stately monuments." To modern astrophysicists, a wormhole isn't a tunnel wrought by a slimy invertebrate, but a theoretical tunnel between two black holes or other points in space-time, providing a shortcut between its end points.

Word - 64

APPELLATION \ap-uh-LAY-shun\ noun

*1 : an identifying name or title : designation

2 : archaic : the act of calling by a name

3 : a geographical name used to identify wine

Example sentence:

We used to call him "Danny," but he recently let us know that he prefers the appellation "Daniel."

Did you know?

Ask a Frenchman named "Jacques" his name, and you may very well get the reply, "Je m'appelle Jacques." The French verb "appeller" means "to call (by a name)," so Jacques' answer literally translates to "I call myself Jacques." Knowing the function of "appeller" makes it easy to remember that "appellation" refers to the name or title by which something is called or known. "Appeller" and "appellation" also share a common ancestor -- the Latin "appellare," meaning "to call or summon," formed by combining the prefix "ad-" ("to") with another verb, "pellere" ("to drive"). "Appellare" is also the root of our word "appeal" (by way of Anglo-French and Middle English), as well as "appellate," referring to a kind of court where appeals are heard.

Word - 63

PRECOCIOUS \prih-KOH-shus\ adjective

1 : exceptionally early in development or occurrence

*2 : exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age

Example sentence:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a precocious child who, by the age of five, was already composing his first musical pieces.

Did you know?

"Precocious" got started in Latin when the prefix "prae-," meaning "ahead of," was combined with the verb "coquere," meaning "to cook" or "to ripen," to form the adjective "praecox," which means "early ripening" or "premature." By 1650, English speakers had turned "praecox" into "precocious" and were using it especially of plants that produced blossoms before their leaves came out. By the 1670s, "precocious" was also being used to describe humans who developed skills or talents before others typically did.

Word - 62

NOMENCLATURE \NOH-mun-klay-cher\ noun

1 : name, designation

2 : the act or process or an instance of naming

3 *a : a system or set of terms or symbols especially in a particular science, discipline, or art
b : an international system of standardized New Latin names used in biology for kinds and groups of kinds of animals and plants

Example sentence:
Karin was introduced to a whole range of unfamiliar terms when she started her new job as a laboratory assistant, but she soon became familiar with the nomenclature.

Did you know?

In his 1926 Dictionary of Modern English Usage, grammarian H. W. Fowler asserted that it was wrong to use "nomenclature" as a synonym for "name"; he declared that "nomenclature" could only mean "a system of naming or of names." It is true that "nomenclature" comes from the Latin "nomenclatura," meaning "the assigning of names," but the "name" sense was one of the first to appear in English (it is documented as long ago as 1610), and it has been considered perfectly standard for centuries.

Word - 61

NADIR \NAY-deer\ noun

1 : the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the zenith and vertically downward from the observer
*2 : the lowest point

Example sentence:
Ironically, the high point of the novel occurs when the protagonist reaches her nadir, for only then does she arouse our empathy and emotional involvement.

Did you know?

"Nadir" is part of the galaxy of scientific words that have come to us from Arabic, a language that has made important contributions in the vocabulary of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. "Nadir" derives from an Arabic word meaning "opposite" -- the opposite, that is, of the "zenith," which names the highest point of the celestial sphere, the one vertically above the observer. (The word "zenith" itself is a modification of another Arabic word that means "the way over one's head.") The English poet John Donne is first on record as having used "nadir" in the figurative sense of "lowest point" in a sermon he wrote in 1627.

Word - 60

EXASPERATE \ig-ZAS-puh-rayt\ verb

1 : to excite the anger of : enrage
*2 : to cause irritation or annoyance to

Example sentence:
Our former neighbors' habit of throwing loud parties that lasted late into the night thoroughly exasperated us.

Did you know?

"Exasperate" hangs with a rough crowd. It derives from "exasperatus," the past participle of the Latin verb "exasperare," which in turn was formed by combining "ex-" with "asper," meaning "rough." Another descendant of "asper" in English is "asperity," which can refer to the roughness of a surface or the roughness of someone's temper. Another relative, albeit a distant one, is the English word "spurn," meaning "to reject."

Word - 59

BUMPTIOUS \BUMP-shus\ adjective

: presumptuously, obtusely, and often noisily self-assertive

: obtrusive

Example sentence:

"I wish the DJs on this station weren't so bumptious," said Andrea. "I'd prefer to just listen to the music."

Did you know?

Etymologists believe that "bumptious" was probably coined, perhaps playfully, from the noun "bump" plus "-tious." When "bumptious" was first used around 1800, it meant "self-conceited." Charles Dickens used it that way in David Copperfield: "His hair was very smooth and wavy; but I was informed ... that it was a wig ... and that he needn't be so 'bounceable' -- somebody else said 'bumptious' -- about it, because his own red hair was very plainly to be seen behind."

Word - 58

REFRACTORY \rih-FRAK-tuh-ree\ adjective

*1 : resisting control or authority : stubborn, unmanageable

2 a : resistant to treatment or cure
b : unresponsive to stimulus
c : immune, insusceptible

3 : difficult to fuse, corrode, or draw out; especially : capable of enduring high temperature

Example sentence:
Refractory students may be disciplined, suspended, or expelled, depending on the seriousness of their offense.

Did you know?

"Refractory" is from the Latin word "refractarius." During the 17th century, it was sometimes spelled as "refractary," but that spelling, though more in keeping with its Latin parent, had fallen out of use by the century's end. "Refractarius," like "refractory," is the result of a slight variation in spelling. It stems from the Latin verb "refragari," meaning "to oppose."

Word - 57

PEJORATIVE \pih-JOR-uh-tiv\ adjective

: having negative connotations; especially

: tending to disparage or belittle : depreciatory

Example sentence:
The team's star player has come under fire for making pejorative remarks about women during a magazine interview.

Did you know?

"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Moms have given that good advice for years, but unfortunately many people haven't heeded it. The word "pejorative" makes it clear that both English and Latin speakers have long known that disparaging words can make a bad situation worse. "Pejorative" derives from the Late Latin adjective "pejoratus," which in turn comes from the Latin verb "pejorare," meaning "to make or become worse." Although pejorative words have probably always been part of English, the adjective "pejorative" has only been found in English texts since the late 1880s. Before then, English speakers could rely on older synonyms of "pejorative" such as "derogatory" and "uncomplimentary" to describe disparaging words.

Word - 56

SOPHISTRY \SAH-fuh-stree\ noun

*1 : subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation
2 : an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially : such an argument used to deceive

Example sentence:
The senatorial candidate argued that his opponent was using sophistry in an effort to distort his plan for education reform.

Did you know?

The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus "sophist" (which comes from Greek "sophistes," meaning "wise man" or "expert") earned a negative connotation as "a captious or fallacious reasoner." "Sophistry" is reasoning that seems plausible on a superficial level but is actually unsound, or reasoning that is used to deceive.

Word - 55

DILAPIDATE \dih-LAP-uh-dayt\ verb

*1 : to bring into a condition of decay or partial ruin
2 : to become decayed or partially ruined

Example sentence:
Although years of abandonment had dilapidated the old warehouse, Stuart still thought it could be salvaged and remade into an apartment building.

Did you know?

Something that is dilapidated may not have been literally pummeled with stones, but it might look that way. "Dilapidate" derives from the past participle of the Latin verb "dilapidare," meaning "to squander or destroy." That verb was formed by combining "dis-" with another verb, "lapidare," meaning "to pelt with stones." From there it's just a stone's throw to some other English relatives of "dilapidate." You might, for example, notice a resemblance between "lapidare" and our word for a person who cuts or polishes precious stones, "lapidary." That's because both words share as a root the Latin noun "lapis," meaning "stone." We also find "lapis" in the name "lapis lazuli," a bright blue semiprecious stone.

Word - 54

AGGREGATE \AG-rih-gut\ noun

1 : a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another
*2 : the whole sum or amount : sum total

Example sentence:
"The aggregate of incriminating details unmistakably points towards a conviction," said the prosecuting attorney.

Did you know?

We added "aggregate" to our flock of Latin borrowings in the 15th century. It descends from "aggregare" ("to add to"), a Latin verb made up of the prefix "ad-" (which means "to," and which usually changes to "ag-" before a "g") and "greg-" or "grex" (meaning "flock"). "Greg-" also gave us "congregate," "gregarious," and "segregate." "Aggregate" is commonly employed in the phrase "in the aggregate," which means "considered as a whole" (as in the sentence "In the aggregate, the student's various achievements were sufficiently impressive to merit a scholarship"). "Aggregate" also has some specialized senses. For example, it is used for a mass of minerals formed into a rock and for a material, such as sand or gravel, used to form concrete, mortar, or plaster.

Word - 53

CALLOW \KAL-oh\ adjective

: lacking adult sophistication
: immature

Example sentence:
"Back when I was a callow college student," said Emma, "I paid little attention to the advice given to me by my professors."

Did you know?

You might not expect a relationship between "callow" and baldness, but that connection does in fact exist. "Callow" comes from "calu," a word that meant "bald" in Middle English and Old English. By the 17th century, "callow" had come to mean "without feathers" and was applied to young birds not yet ready for flight. The term was also used for those who hadn't yet spread their wings in a figurative sense. "Callow" continues to mean "inexperienced" or "unsophisticated" today.