Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 17, 2019 is:

labile • \LAY-byle\  • adjective

1 : readily or continually undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown : unstable

2 : readily open to change

Examples:

"From the outset, we see Queen Anne—portrayed brilliantly by Olivia Colman—as frail, obese and emotionally-labile. One minute, she's calmly speaking to her confidante…. The next, she's accosting a boy servant in a hysterically bizarre scene…. — Lipi Roy, Forbes.com, 24 Feb. 2019

"'A desirable long-term outcome would be to create [contact] lenses from polymers that are fine-tuned to be inert during use but labile and degradable when escaping into the environment.' As for members of the public concerned they are polluting the environment, [Dr. Rolf] Halden said: 'Used plastic lenses ideally should be returned to the manufacturer for recycling….'" — Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, 20 Aug. 2018

Did you know?

We are confident that you won't slip up or err in learning today's word, despite its etymology. Labile was borrowed into English from French and can be traced back (by way of Middle French labile, meaning "prone to err") to the Latin verb labi, meaning "to slip or fall." Indeed, the first sense of labile in English was "prone to slip, err, or lapse," but that usage is now obsolete. Other labi descendants in English include collapse, elapse, and prolapse, as well as lapse itself.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 16, 2019 is:

Yooper • \YOO-per\  • noun

: a native or resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan — used as a nickname

Examples:

"The district has always elected Yoopers to represent them in Congress, rather than someone from the lower peninsula like Morgan." — Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News, 6 Nov. 2018

"Mezydlo and Turnquist live in the Upper Peninsula community of Mohawk, which is about 25 miles south of Copper Harbor, the northernmost tip of the U.P.'s remote Keweenaw Peninsula. The region is known for having notoriously long, snowy winters—but snow lingering through July? Shocking, even for a lifelong Yooper like Turnquist." — Emily Bingham, MLive.com, 26 July 2019

Did you know?

The word Yooper comes from the common nickname of Michigan's Upper Peninsula—the "U.P."—and the etymology requires the same follow-up question that a challenging joke does: "Get it?" If you're not there yet, try saying them both out loud: Yooper, U.P. Yoopers have been saying both out loud now for about 40 years, but it's only in recent years that those beyond the U.P. and its geographical neighbors have begun to encounter Yooper in use. Yoopers refer to people who live in the Lower Peninsula as trolls (they live "under" the Mackinac Bridge, after all), but that nickname is still at this point too much of a regionalism to qualify for entry in our dictionaries.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 15, 2019 is:

continual • \kun-TIN-yoo-ul\  • adjective

1 : continuing indefinitely in time without interruption

2 : recurring in steady usually rapid succession

Examples:

The continual blaring of the car's alarm outside made it very difficult for Jane to focus on her work that morning.

"Cows can drink upwards of 50 gallons of water a day, so making sure the animals have continual access to clean water is a must." — Stephanie Blaszczyk, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 19 July 2019

Did you know?

Since the mid-19th century, many grammarians have drawn a distinction between continual and continuous. Continual should only mean "occurring at regular intervals," they insist, whereas continuous should be used to mean "continuing without interruption." This distinction overlooks the fact that continual is the older word and was used with both meanings for centuries before continuous appeared on the scene. Today, continual is the more likely of the two to mean "recurring," but it also continues to be used, as it has been since the 14th century, with the meaning "continuing without interruption."