Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2021 is:

preeminent • \pree-EM-uh-nunt\  • adjective

1 : exhibiting eminence especially in standing above others in some quality or position : prominent

2 : standing out so as to be readily perceived or noted : conspicuous

3 : jutting out : projecting

Examples:

"Over the course of 80 years, Chuck Norris has done it all. He served in the military before becoming one of the most universally recognized martial artists of all time, and his skills led to a successful career in films, beginning with a legendary battle against the great Bruce Lee in the iconic action movie, Way of the Dragon, before becoming one of the preeminent action heroes of the 1980s." — Zak Wojnar, Screen Rant, 4 Dec. 2020

"[Georgia] ranked 10th in tech employment nationally, is a hub of Black tech entrepreneurship, and is home to a cluster of a major academic centers, including Georgia Tech and Emory University, as well as Morehouse and Spelman, two preeminent HBCUs who have made significant contributions to educating underrepresented communities." — Bhaskar Chakravorti, Harvard Business Review, 4 Dec. 2020

Did you know?

What is noteworthy about the following sentence? "Denali Mountain is a prominent eminence on the Alaskan landscape." You very likely recognized two words that are closely related to preeminent: prominent and eminence. All three words are rooted in the Latin verb stem -minēre, meaning "to stand out." Mount is also a related word: it comes from Latin mont- or mons, meaning "mountain," which shares a common ancestor with -minēre. Mount leads us in turn to paramount, a word closely related in meaning to preeminent.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2021 is:

modicum • \MAH-dih-kum\  • noun

: a small portion : a limited quantity

Examples:

"While his narrative on the politics of the place is interesting and edifying it's the passages about his adventures by land, air and sea that really capture the wild beauty and remoteness of a region he grew to love. And he exhibits more than a modicum of derring-do. 'I have always flown pretty close to the sun,' [Aaron] Smith says." — Phil Brown, The Courier Mail (Australia), 5 Dec. 2020

"When the Guardian ran my article on the Visual Perception and Attention Lab at Brunel University London and how it planned to investigate why some gamers invert their controls, I expected a modicum of interest among seasoned readers of the Games section." — Keith Stuart, The Guardian (London), 8 Dec. 2020

Did you know?

What does modicum have to do with a toilet? It just so happens that modicum shares the same Latin parent as commode, which is a synonym of toilet. Modicum and commode ultimately derive from the Latin noun modus, which means "measure." (We borrowed the noun commode from the French, who also used the word as an adjective meaning "suitable, convenient.") Modicum, which, logically enough, refers to a small "measure" of something, has been a part of the English language since the 15th century. It descends from the Latin modicus ("moderate"), which is itself a descendant of modus. Modus really measures up as a Latin root—it also gave us mode (originally a kind of musical "measure"), modal, model, modern, modify, and modulate. More distant relatives include mete, moderate, and modest.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2021 is:

effusive • \ih-FYOO-siv\  • adjective

1 : marked by the expression of great or excessive emotion or enthusiasm

2 : characterized or formed by a nonexplosive outpouring of lava

Examples:

Lila's history teacher wrote an effusive letter of recommendation.

"Lyrics like that are desolate, a little tragic; they necessitate a singing style that's not overly effusive." — Jon Caramanica, The New York Times, 8 Dec. 2020

Did you know?

We've used effusive in English to describe excessive outpourings since the 17th century. In the 1800s, geologists adopted the specific sense related to flowing lava—or to hardened rock formed from flowing lava. Effusive can be traced, via the Medieval Latin adjective effūsīvus ("generating profusely, lavish"), to the Latin verb effundere ("to pour out"), which itself comes from fundere ("to pour") plus a modification of the prefix ex- ("out"). Our verb effuse has the same Latin ancestors. A person effuses when speaking effusively. Liquids can effuse as well, as in "water effusing from a pipe."