Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 6, 2024 is: ambigram • \AM-buh-gram\ • noun An ambigram is an image of a written word or phrase that is intended or able to be oriented in either of two ways for viewing or reading. // Angel started taking calligraphy classes to learn how to create ambigrams and other fun designs that can be read both upside down and right side up. See the entry > Examples: “... when spelled out in the sand, SOS is conveniently readable as an ambigram—readable both right-side-up and upside-down.” — Wendee Wendt, Parade Magazine, 8 June 2024 Did you know? There is little ambiguity about the origins of the word ambigram—it was introduced by cognitive scientist Douglas R. Hofstadter in his 1985 book Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern, in which he wrote of the “pleasing activity of doing ambigrams, where shapes must be concocted that are poised exactly at the midpoint between two interpretations.” Since then, ambigram has been used primarily to refer to an image of a written word or phrase that either forms the same word or a different word when reflected or turned upside down. For instance, when reflected, bud turns into dub, while Malayalam reads the same both ways. And when turned upside down, swims reads the same, while wow turns into mom. Some ambigrams are natural (such as dollop), while others can be designed or created with calligraphy. Calligraphic ambigrams are quite popular and are often used as logos or tattoo designs.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 5, 2024 is: drub • \DRUB\ • verb To drub an individual or team, as in a game or contest, is to defeat them decisively. // Morale after the game was low: the hometown team had been drubbed by the worst team in the league. See the entry > Examples: “Dallas looked like one of the best teams in the NFL through two weeks, drubbing the Giants 40-0 in Week 1 and beating the Jets 30-10 in Week 2.” — David Brandt, The Associated Press, 24 Sept. 2023 Did you know? Sportswriters often use the word drub when a team they are covering is drubbed—that is, routed—but the term’s history reveals that it wasn’t always a sporting word. When drub was first used in English, it referred to a method of punishment that involved beating the soles of the accused’s feet with a stick or cudgel. The term was apparently brought to England in the 17th century by travelers who reported observing the punitive practice abroad. The ultimate origin of drub is uncertain, but the etymological culprit may be the Arabic word ḍaraba, meaning “to beat.” Over the centuries, drub developed the additional milder, and now more common, meanings of “to berate critically” and “to defeat decisively.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2024 is: hoity-toity • \hoy-tee-TOY-tee\ • adjective Someone or something described as hoity-toity may also be called snooty or pretentious; hoity-toity people appear to think that they are better, smarter, or more important than other people, and hoity-toity places and things seem to be made for those same people. An informal word, hoity-toity is a synonym of pompous, fancy, and highfalutin. // The guidance counselor emphasized that students do not need to go to a hoity-toity college to achieve success.    See the entry > Examples: "Most Summer Olympics show beach volleyball on a beach. This year's spikers will play in front of the Eiffel Tower because they can. And just in case equestrian events aren't hoity-toity enough, the 2024 dressage and jumping will unfold at the Palace of Versailles." — Jen Chaney, Vulture, 24 May 2024 Did you know? In modern use, hoity-toity is used almost exclusively to describe someone who's got their nose stuck up in the air, or something suited for such a person. But for over a hundred years, hoity-toity was used solely as a noun referring to thoughtless and silly behavior. The noun originated as a rhyming reduplication of the dialectical verb hoit, meaning "to play the fool." Accordingly, as an adjective hoity-toity was originally used to describe someone as thoughtless or silly—as when English writer W. Somerset Maugham wrote in his 1944 novel The Razor’s Edge "very hoity-toity of me not to know that royal personage"—but today it is more likely to describe the royal personage, or someone who puts on airs as if they were a royal personage.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 3, 2024 is: eschew • \ess-CHOO\ • verb To eschew something is to avoid it, especially because you do not think it is right, proper, or practical. // Their teacher was known as a Luddite because he eschewed the use of smartphones and tablets in the classroom. See the entry > Examples: “Scheduled work shifts [at Burning Man] were delayed and continually rearranged, causing confusion among campers as to how and when to contribute.... While some of us found ways to help, others took it as an opportunity to eschew their responsibilities. However, those of us who showed up united, and handled business, did so with aplomb...” — Morena Duwe, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Sept. 2024 Did you know? Something to chew on: there’s no etymological relationship between the verbs chew and eschew. While the former comes from the Old English word cēowan, eschew comes instead from the Anglo-French verb eschiver and shares roots with the Old High German verb sciuhen, meaning “to frighten off.” In his famous dictionary of 1755, Samuel Johnson characterized eschew as “almost obsolete.” History has proven that the great lexicographer was wrong on that call, however. Today, following a boom in the word’s usage during the 19th and 20th centuries, English speakers and writers use eschew when something is avoided less for temperamental reasons than for moral or practical ones, even if misguidedly so, as when Barry Lopez wrote in his 2019 book Horizon of ill-fated Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, “with an attitude of cultural superiority, eschewing sled dogs for Manchurian ponies....”