Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 30, 2023 is:
adapt • \uh-DAPT\ • verb To adapt is to make or become fit (as for a new use) often by modification. // When people move to a new country, it can take them a while to adapt. // The teachers adapted the curriculum so that students of all abilities will benefit from it.
Examples: "Isaac Asimov's [Foundation] novels are collections of short stories and novellas spanning thousands of years, which makes them hard to adapt as a continuous story." — Belen Edwards, Mashable.com, 22 Dec. 2021
Did you know? "Nothing in this world is as reliable as change" is a common aphorism and one we can certainly attest to as lexicographers. English speakers adapted adapt, for example, in the 15th century from the Middle French adapter, which was itself an adaptation of Latin adaptāre. That source traces back to Latin aptus, meaning "fit" or "apt." Other adaptations of aptus in English include aptitude, inept, and of course apt itself, as well as unapt and inapt.
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 29, 2023 is:
rubric • \ROO-brik\ • noun Rubric is a somewhat formal word that is most often used to mean “an established rule, tradition, or custom” or “something under which a thing is classed.” In the latter use it is a synonym of category. // Despite their widely divergent tones and levels of age appropriateness, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, and Frankenweenie all fall under the general rubric of horror movies.
Examples: “Contrary to all the messages urging parents to do more for their kids, a growing number of research studies point to the advantages of doing less. Much of that research comes under the rubric of autonomy-supportive parenting, which essentially means allowing and encouraging kids to take greater charge of their own lives and do more for themselves.” — Peter Gray, Psychology Today, 30 May 2022
Did you know? Centuries ago, whenever manuscript writers inserted special instructions or explanations into a book, they put them in red ink to set them off from the black used in the main text. (They used the same practice to highlight saints’ names and holy days in calendars, a practice which gave us the term red-letter day.) Ultimately, such special headings or comments came to be called rubrics, a term that traces back to ruber, the Latin word for “red.” While the printing sense remains in use today, rubric has developed other meanings over the years, and is most often encountered in its extended sense referring to a class or category under which something is organized.
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 28, 2023 is:
doctrinaire • \dahk-truh-NAIR\ • adjective Doctrinaire is a formal word that means “stubbornly or excessively devoted to a doctrine or theory without regard to practical considerations.” It is often used disapprovingly to describe a person who has very strong beliefs about what should be done and who will not change those beliefs or accept other people's opinions. // They were pleased by the shift in leadership, as their old mayor was extremely doctrinaire.
Examples: “[The art exhibition,] In the Black Fantastic is a magnificent experience, spectacular from first to last.... The premise is succinct: to unite artists from the African diaspora who use fantasy, myth and fiction to address racism and injustice. Apposite literary quotations appear on the walls, from Frantz Fanon and others. But there is nothing theoretical or doctrinaire about the work.” — Laura Cumming, The Guardian (London), 3 July 2022
Did you know? The noun doctrine refers to a set of ideas or beliefs that are taught or believed to be true, and is often used specifically for the principles on which a government or religion may be based. Its adjectival form, doctrinal (“of, relating, or preoccupied with doctrine”), as in “doctrinal teachings,” is straightforward and not particularly judgmental. Doctrinaire, however, describes someone who is rigidly and impractically devoted to a doctrine. This critical connotation comes from the word’s history in post-revolutionary France as a name for members of a group of constitutional monarchists led by statesman and philosopher Pierre Paul Royer-Collard. Royer-Collard’s doctrine was opposed by both ultraroyalists and revolutionists, and he was given the nickname “doctrinaire,” which was later capitalized and extended to his colleagues, thereafter known as the Doctrinaires.
