Word of the Day Word of the Day

Embracery is a noun that refers to an attempt to threaten or bribe a jury.

Coming from Middle English, our word of the day is commonly used in legal contexts. Here’s an example of embracery in use:

Having lunch with members of the jury is never a good idea from a trial attorney because it can create the impression of embacery. Even if your intentions are pure, it may seem is though you’re trying to influence them in an unethical way.

Hegira is a noun that refers to a trip to a more desirable location.

Coming from an Arabic word for ‘departure,’ hegira came to English in the late 16th century. It was initially used in a spiritual context, referring to a trip to Mecca, but it can now be used to refer to any trip or migration made with the intention of improving one’s life.

After twelve years of living in the frozen climates of Minnesota, our hegira to Florida was wonderful. It felt like summer every day of the year.

Apopemptic is an adjective that means related to departing.

Our word of the day began in Greek as a synonym of dismiss. In time, it came to refer to a song delivered to someone upon departure. After its importation into English, it became an adjective that is roughly a synonym of parting, for example:

When he quit the office, Steve’s apopemptic advice was to make sure I got the desk closest to the copy machine. These parting words were the wisest ones he’d ever spoken.

Paletot is a noun that refers to a loose outer jacket.

Coming from Middle English, our word of the day was later brought into French. Here’s an example of paletot in use:

It looked to me that Janine’s fur coat was way too warm for a late summer day. So I wore a paletot, but found it was too cold for that. Some days make it hard to find the right medium.

Tohubohu is a noun that refers to a state of chaos.

Our word of the day comes directly from Hebrew as a word that means ‘emptiness and desolation.’ Since being imported into English, tohubohu’s definition has shifted slightly to refer to a condition of bedlam and disorder. Here’s an example of it in use:

We made every effort to bring order to all the tohubohu of the day, but it wasn’t easy. With that much chaos, there’s only so much you can do to make things orderly.

Infix is a noun that refer to letters added to a word to change meaning.

The Latin word figere (fig AIR ay) means ‘to fasten.’ From this word we get infix which has a meaning similar to figere. Although it has other uses, It is generally used when referring to language. Here’s an example:

I got a text from Greg that said he didn’t car about the game. This puzzled me until he later infixed the word ‘car’ to change its meaning to ‘care.’