Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2019 is:

sodden • \SAH-dun\  • adjective

1 a : dull or expressionless especially from continued indulgence in alcoholic beverages

b : torpid, sluggish

2 a : heavy with or as if with moisture or water

b : heavy or doughy because of imperfect cooking

Examples:

"… with these apt closing words Mr. Slyme fell forward with his head upon the table, and so declined into a sodden sleep." — Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844

"I'll never forget [football quarterback Eli] Manning repeatedly rising up from the sodden San Francisco turf, literally pulling pieces of the field from his facemask." — Tara Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 7 Oct. 2019

Did you know?

Nowadays, seethed is the past tense and past participle form of the verb seethe (which originally meant "to boil or stew"). Originally, however, seethe could also be conjugated in the past tense as sod and in the past participle as sodden. By the 14th century, sodden had become an independent adjective synonymous with boiled. And, by the 16th century, it had taken on the figurative sense used to describe someone who appears dull, expressionless, or stupid, particularly as a result of heavy drinking. Today, sodden is commonly used as a synonym of soaked or saturated. Seethe followed a different figurative path: while one who is sodden may appear dull, torpid, or sluggish, one who is seething is highly agitated, like a pot of boiling water.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2019 is:

reiterate • \ree-IT-uh-rayt\  • verb

: to state or do over again or repeatedly sometimes with wearying effect

Examples:

"Flanery reiterated that the new hotel, HRM facility and expanded seating will not require Churchill Downs to expand outside of its current property. Churchill Downs will continue to have a 'constant dialogue' with neighbors, Flanery said." — Sarah Ladd, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), 31 Oct. 2019

"In addition to addressing the situation with Green, Durant reiterated that he won't be playing this season. He tore his Achilles tendon during Game 5 of the NBA Finals." — Connor Letourneau, The San Francisco Chronicle, 31 Oct. 2019

Did you know?

Can you guess the meaning of iterate, a less common relative of reiterate? It must mean simply "to state or do," right? Nope. Actually, iterate also means "to state or do again." It's no surprise, then, that some usage commentators have insisted that reiterate must always mean "to say or do again AND AGAIN." No such nice distinction exists in actual usage, however. Both reiterate and iterate can convey the idea of a single repetition or of many repetitions. Reiterate is the older of the two words—it first appeared in the 15th century, whereas iterate turned up in the 16th century. Both stem from the Latin verb iterare, which is itself from iterum ("again"), but reiterate took an extra step, through Latin reiterare ("to repeat").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 9, 2019 is:

oxymoron • \ahk-sih-MOR-ahn\  • noun

: a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel kindness); broadly : something (such as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements

Examples:

"Truly antisocial celebrity-level pop is probably an oxymoron, but part of the thrill of one new arrival, Billie Eilish, is that she gets close to achieving it." — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 10 May 2019

"'Liquid crystal' ought to be an oxymoron, but technology has rendered it sensible instead. A crystal is by definition a solid with a repeating, orderly, three-dimensional lattice. Liquid crystals are electrically activated to become quasi-crystals that act as polarizing filters. The wave nature of light manifests as oscillating electric and magnetic fields that wave like a rope tied to a post as it is shaken." — Richard Brill, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 20 Oct. 2019

Did you know?

The Greeks exhaustively classified the elements of rhetoric, or effective speech and writing, and gave the name oxymoron—literally "pointed foolishness"—to the deliberate juxtaposing of seemingly contradictory words. The roots of oxymoron, oxys meaning "sharp" or "keen," and mōros meaning "foolish," are nearly antonyms themselves, making oxymoron nicely self-descriptive. Oxymoron originally applied to a meaningful paradox condensed into a couple of words, as in "precious bane," "lonely crowd," or "sweet sorrow." Today, however, what is commonly cited as an oxymoron is often simply a curiosity of language, where one or both elements have multiple meanings (shrimp in "jumbo shrimp" doesn't mean "small"; it refers to a sea creature), or a phrase whose elements seem antithetical in spirit, such as "classic rock."