Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2023 is: gist • \JIST\  • noun Gist, which almost always appears in the phrase “the gist,” refers to the general or basic meaning of something written or said—in other words, its essence. // I didn’t catch every word, but I heard enough to get the gist of the conversation. See the entry > Examples: “Thanks to a student project at a Kirkland high school, Washington lawmakers are considering the impact of a ‘pink tax.’ The gist: Products for women often cost more than similar products designed for men. Senate Bill 5171 would allow the office of the state attorney general to review complaints and hand out fines to companies that demonstrate gender bias in their pricing.” — The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), 21 Jan. 2023 Did you know? The main point, overarching theme, essence—that’s gist in a nutshell. The gist of gist, if you will. The gist of a conversation, argument, story, or what-have-you is what we rely on when the actual words and details are only imperfectly recalled, inessential, or too voluminous to recount in their entirety. Gist was borrowed from the Anglo-French legal phrase laccion gist (“the action lies/is based [on]”) in the 17th century, and it was originally used in law as a term referring to the foundation or grounds for a legal action without which the action would not be legally sustainable.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2023 is: enthrall • \in-THRAWL\  • verb Enthrall means “to hold the attention of someone by being very exciting, interesting, or beautiful,” or in other words, “to charm.” It is often used in its past participle form, as in “I was enthralled by the beauty of the landscape.” // A captivating take on the human experience, the movie has enthralled audiences across the country. See the entry > Examples: “Judy Blume's books have captivated generations of readers. Anyone who has held one of her countless paperbacks will immediately recall her name. Blume's startling honesty has comforted and enthralled readers for decades ...” — Casey Abline, TAPinto (Elizabeth, New Jersey), 23 Apr. 2023 Did you know? The history of enthrall appeals far less than the word as we use it today might suggest. In Middle English, enthrallen meant “to deprive of privileges; to put in bondage.” Thrall then, as now, referred to bondage or slavery. An early figurative use of enthrall appeared in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape.” But we rarely use even this sense of mental or moral control anymore. More often, the word simply suggests a state of being generally captivated or delighted by some particular thing. Enthrall is commonly found in its past participle form enthralled, which can mean “spellbound,” as in “we listened, enthralled, to the elder's oral history.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2023 is: nemesis • \NEM-uh-siss\  • noun A nemesis is a formidable foe—an opponent or enemy who is very difficult to defeat. As a proper noun, Nemesis refers to the Greek goddess of vengeance. // She will be playing against her old nemesis for the championship. See the entry > Examples: "2020’s original Enola Holmes proved to be a surprisingly enjoyable twist on the world’s most famous detective [Sherlock Holmes], focusing instead on his overlooked sister, Enola. No surprise, then, that this follow-up is just as exciting a romp through Victorian London. Despite proving her skills in the first film, Enola struggles to establish her own detective credentials until a missing-person report leads her to a case that’s stumped even Sherlock, and sees her crossing paths with his arch nemesis, Moriarty." — Matt Kamen, WIRED, 10 Feb. 2023 Did you know? Nemesis was the Greek goddess of vengeance, a deity who doled out rewards for noble acts and punishment for evil ones. The Greeks believed that Nemesis didn't always punish an offender immediately but might wait generations to avenge a crime. In English, nemesis originally referred to someone who brought a just retribution, but nowadays people are more likely to see simple animosity rather than justice in the actions of a nemesis (consider the motivations of Batman’s perennial foe the Joker, for example).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2023 is: sacrosanct • \SAK-roh-sankt\  • adjective Sacrosanct is a formal word that describes things too important and respected to be changed or criticized. It can also mean “most sacred or holy.” // While the family's new matriarch aimed to maintain the familiar traditions of the holidays, she did not consider the details of their celebration to be sacrosanct. See the entry > Examples: “It might not have reached the needlessly high bar of Sony’s marketing push … but Evil Dead checked all the boxes for a successful remake. The critical reception, however, was decidedly mixed, perhaps because Raimi’s trilogy was regarded as sacrosanct by horror obsessives.” — Miles Surrey, The Ringer, 5 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Contrary to the beliefs of some, language is not sacrosanct; rather, it is subject to constant modification based on the needs, experiences, and even whims of those who use it. Take the word sacrosanct itself, which likely comes from the Latin phrase sacro sanctus meaning “made holy by a sacred rite.” There’s a definite semantic softening from that to the “too important and respected to be changed or criticized” meaning of sacrosanct. But holy moly, has sanctus led to a whole bunch of other English words with truly pious flavor, from saint and sanctimony to sanctify and sanctuary. Sacrum (“a sacred rite”), whence came the sacro in sacro sanctus, is no slouch either, living on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which literally means “holy bone.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2023 is: flavedo • \fluh-VEE-doh\  • noun Flavedo refers to the colored outer layer of the rind of a citrus fruit. // The lime's flavedo is full of essential oils that add a distinctive, earthy tang to desserts, drinks, and plenty of savory dishes, too. See the entry > Examples: “Cut citrus should always be refrigerated to prevent microbial overgrowth that could make you sick. One study that investigated the risk of foodborne illness from lemon and lime wedges commonly served with beverages at restaurants found that salmonella can survive on the flavedo (i.e., the zesty part of the peel) of lemons and limes for 24 hours at room temperature. Conversely, storing the wedges on ice or in the fridge decreased bacterial growth.” — Matthew Zuras, Epicurious.com, 7 Apr. 2023 Did you know? Based on its definition, you’d be forgiven for thinking flavedo is a combination of flavor and bravado—if any category of food can be said to embody “blustering swaggering conduct,” it’s sharp, assertive citrus. But flavedo instead comes from the New Latin word flāvēdō, meaning “yellow color,” the word’s etymology pointing to the shiny yellow rinds of the lemons you see in the grocery store. A citrus fruit’s flavedo (that is, its peel or rind) clings to its albedo, albedo referring to the pith—the whitish, spongy inner part of the rind of a citrus fruit. (Latin albēdō means “whiteness, white color.”) While flavor may seem like a likely relation of flavedo, the two have distinct Latin sources: flavor traces back not to flāvēdō but to Latin flatus meaning “breath,” or “the act of blowing,” a word which we are obliged to inform you also gave us another (indirectly) food-related word: flatulent.