A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Feb 2 12:02:02 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--trialogue X-Bonus: Jobs are like going to church: it's nice once or twice a year to sing along and eat something and all that, but unless you really believe there's something holy going on, it gets to be a drag going in every single week. -Thomas Michael Disch, science fiction author and poet (2 Feb 1940-2008) A reader wrote: I was sorry to see that you've succumbed to the use of "hopefully" https://wordsmith.org/words/obtrude.html rather than "I hope". I guess the train has left the station on that one. Yes, it has. It left a long time ago. About a century, in fact. Trains leave all the time in language and it's best not to miss them or risk sounding like Dr. Whom. Consider a nun in church who has hope in her soul. Here are two usages: Hopefully, the nun prayed. (We hope she prayed. Instead of scrolling through her Instagram.) The nun prayed hopefully. (She prayed while hoping for something. Salvation, perhaps.) According to purists, only the second usage is valid. To which I say: we all can be hopeful. You can hope. I can hope. The nun can hope. (What she does soapfully has been left as an exercise for the reader. For extra credit, attempt popefully.) But back to the train. We're all aboard it, even when we don't realize it's moving. If we insisted on speaking "original" English, we'd be speaking Old English which, despite its name is indecipherable to modern ears. You'd need subtitles. This week we'll feature five words that were coined in "error". I put _error_ in quotes because language is a glorious mishmash of mishearings, misinterpretations, false assumptions, and bad math. If you want purity, better to look into a nun's soul, not peer into a language. trialogue (TRY-uh-log) noun A discussion in which three parties participate. [Formed in English on the model of dialogue. Earliest documented use: 1532.] NOTES: The word dialogue comes from Greek dia- (across) + -logue (discourse). The prefix has nothing to do with numbers. English speakers mistook dia- for di- (two) and concluded that a dialog involves two participants, so let's do trialogue with three. "A Conversation", 1913-16 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/trialogue_large.jpg Art: Vanessa Bell https://courtauld.ac.uk/highlights/a-conversation/ "I believe that the subtext of this trialogue between the Israelites, Moses, and God is that Moses is now being confronted by a new generation." Shlomo Riskin; A Rebbe and Not a Rav; Jerusalem Post (Israel); Jun 10, 2011. -------- Date: Tue Feb 3 12:02:01 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--marquee X-Bonus: Writers, like teeth, are divided into incisors and grinders. -Walter Bagehot, journalist and businessman (3 Feb 1826-1877) This week's theme: Words formed in error marquee (mar-KEE) noun: 1. A permanent canopy over the entrance of a theater, hotel, etc. 2. An illuminated sign over the entrance of an entertainment venue, displaying the names of attractions, performers, etc. 3. A large tent typically having open sides, used for outdoor parties, exhibitions, etc. adjective: Headlining; star; superlative. [From French marquise (wife of a marquis), taken as a plural in English and made singular as marquee. Earliest documented use: 1690.] NOTES: A marquise is the wife of a marquis, a nobleman who ranks below a duke and above an earl.* English speakers assumed marquise (pronounced mar-KEEZ) was a plural and created a singular: marquee. In the process, a noblewoman lost her “s” and was promoted to a tent. This kind of misunderstanding made sense in an era when most people were illiterate and language was mainly an oral thing. It's not clear why marquise came to mean a canopy, though the association with aristocratic splendor likely helped. The word still carries that whiff of luxury: marquise is also the name of a gemstone cut, and marquee now signals star power. *Why didn't they make the order of those titles alphabetical? Think of the British schoolkids who may have to memorize (or memorise) them! Duke Earl Frince Grand duke Hiking [i, j, k, l, m left as an exercise for the reader] Marquis and so on. Paramount Theater, Seattle https://wordsmith.org/words/images/marquee1_large.jpg Photo: Cindy Shebley https://flickr.com/photos/cindyshebley/32225806032/ "Field of the Cloth of Gold" (detail), c. 1545 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/marquee2_large.jpg Art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_the_Cloth_of_Gold See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/marquee "[Tom] Trbojevic could earn a healthy pay packet as a marquee player." Michael Carayannis and Brent Read; Turbo's UK Shock for Manly; The Daily Telegraph (Surry Hills, Australia); Sep 12, 2025. -------- Date: Wed Feb 4 12:02:02 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--roister X-Bonus: There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience. -Hartley Shawcross, barrister, politician, and prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal (4 Feb 1902-2003) This week's theme: Words formed in error roister (ROY-stuhr) verb intr. 1. To revel noisily and boisterously. 2. To behave in a swaggering manner. [From the verb use of the noun roister, via French from Latin rusticus (rustic). Earliest documented use: 1663.] NOTES: Roister began life as a noun meaning someone who revels noisily. English speakers later mistook it for a verb and obligingly created the noun roisterer. We will update you as soon as roisterer becomes a verb, producing the inevitable noun roistererer. Also see roister-doister https://wordsmith.org/words/roister-doister.html "The Dissolute Household", c. 1663-64 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/roister_large.jpg Art: Jan Steen https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Dissolute_Household_MET_DP146465.jpg See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/roister "They drank and they roistered and laughed." Matthew Engel; The Irreverent Reverend; New Statesman (London, UK); Jun 25, 2021. -------- Date: Thu Feb 5 12:02:01 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--serried X-Bonus: A hungry man is not a free man. -Adlai Stevenson II, lawyer, politician, and diplomat (5 Feb 1900-1965) This week's theme: Words formed in error serried (SER-eed) adjective Arranged close together, often in a line. [Past participle of obsolete serry (to press close together), from French serré (pressed together), past participle of serrer (to press close), from Latin serrare (to lock), from sera (bolt, bar). Earliest documented use: 1667.] NOTES: In French, past participles typically go in this pattern: entrée from entrer (to enter) fiancé from fiancer (to betroth) attaché from attacher (to attach) The French word serré (pressed together) was already a past participle of the verb serrer. English speakers, mistaking it for a base verb, reshaped it into serry, and then dutifully formed a new past participle: serried. Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland https://wordsmith.org/words/images/serried_large.jpg Photo: Tuomo Lindfors https://flickr.com/photos/tlindfors/43398698641/ See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/serried "For less prepared Jubilee-ers, serried ranks of portable toilets lined the Mall’s sidewalk." Rebecca Mead; Platinum Pudding; The New Yorker; Jun 13, 2022. -------- Date: Fri Feb 6 12:02:02 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--runagate X-Bonus: The tragedy in the lives of most of us is that we go through life walking down a high-walled lane with people of our own kind, the same economic situation, the same national background and education and religious outlook. And beyond those walls, all humanity lies, unknown and unseen, and untouched by our restricted and impoverished lives. -Florence Luscomb, architect and suffragist (6 Feb 1887-1985) This week's theme: Words formed in error runagate (RUHN-uh-gayt) noun 1. A person who has run away. 2. A vagabond or wanderer. [Alteration of renegate (renegade), past participle of renegare (to renounce), from re- (back) + negare (to deny). Earliest documented use: 1530.] NOTES: A renegade (from Latin negare, to deny) is someone who abandons a cause or religion. English speakers, hearing the word, confused the first syllable of renegade with run and the second with gate (an old word for road or way) and turned it into runagate. "A Ride for Liberty -- The Fugitive Slaves", 1862 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/runagate_large.jpg Art: Eastman Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Ride_for_Liberty_%E2%80%93_The_Fugitive_Slaves "If Thomas Jefferson's genius matters, then so does his taking of Sally Hemings's body. If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge." Ta-Nehisi Coates; We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy; One World; 2017. -------- Date: Mon Feb 9 12:02:02 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--windbag X-Bonus: The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men. -Alice Walker, poet and novelist (b. 9 Feb 1944) Last month I came across a word in the wild and had the rare feeling of watching a new verb being born. Not proposed, not theoretical, but already walking around, doing work. The verb was "to underbus". https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-white-house-throws-military-under-the-bus-for-lawless-attack Permalink https://web.archive.org/web/20251202163814/https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-white-house-throws-military-under-the-bus-for-lawless-attack "In a social media post, Hegseth similarly underbussed Bradley by wrapping him in a bear hug of blame ..." We already have the phrase "to throw someone under the bus", but the compact "to underbus" does the job with fewer moving parts. It's efficient, vivid, and immediately understandable. Further digging showed that the verb has been around since at least 2008, but it still feels fresh, like a word that hasn't finished unpacking yet. It's not in the dictionaries yet, but many others are. This week we'll feature five that began life as nouns and have since learned to act. windbag (WIND-bag) noun: A person who talks pompously or excessively. verb intr.: To talk pompously or excessively. [From wind, from Old English wind + bag, from Old Norse baggi. Earliest documented use: noun: 1472, verb: 1885.] NOTES: In the beginning, a windbag was literally a bag full of air, especially the bag of a bagpipe. Soon the word was applied to anything inflated by wind, from lungs to the throat sacs of birds to sailing ships. Eventually, it drifted into metaphor. The OED records an early figurative use from 1743: "Most of the bishops were hirelings, actuated and inspired much in the same manner as those wind-bags, a common musical instrument among our country people, which it is necessary to swell up, in order to make them give a sound." The difference between a bagpipe and a windbag? The bagpipe eventually runs out of air. "Bagpipe Player", 1624 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/windbag_large.jpg Art: Hendrick ter Brugghen https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hendrick_ter_Brugghen_-_Bagpipe_Player_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/windbag "Speakers will drone on for too long (there is nothing like the virtual floor to put wind into the windbag)." Back to Abnormal; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 25, 2020. "As it happens, I was windbagging on the weekend about leadership, the theory of it anyway." Jim Coyle; Civic Leadership 101: Deny, Deflect, Denounce; Toronto Star (Canada); Oct 22, 2002. -------- Date: Tue Feb 10 12:02:01 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rizz X-Bonus: I see too plainly custom forms us all. Our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed belief, are consequences of our place of birth. -Aaron Hill, dramatist and writer (10 Feb 1685-1750) This week's theme: Is it a noun or a verb? Both! rizz (riz) noun: The ability to charm or seduce. verb intr.: To charm or seduce. [Probably short for charisma, from Greek charisma (favor, gift), from charizesthai (to favor), charis (favor, grace). Earliest documented use: 2021.] NOTES: The term was popularized by Twitch streamer Kai Cenat. It's most likely a middle clipping of charisma. Some other words formed by clipping the middle are fridge (refrigerator), flu (influenza), and tec (detective). "The Garden of Love", 1630s https://wordsmith.org/words/images/rizz_large.jpg Art: Peter Paul Rubens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Love_(Rubens) See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/rizz "For an allegedly drab bird, this small passerine [a perching bird] has lots of rizz." Ed Douglas; Country Diary; The Guardian (London, UK); May 10, 2025. "By the time we got to the gym, [Jason] Nguyen was already there, performing for the camera by flirting with a woman on a weight bench. 'Is Jason rizzing right now?' Piker asked." Andrew Marantz; You Mad, Bro?; The New Yorker; Mar 24, 2025. -------- Date: Wed Feb 11 12:02:01 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--deadname X-Bonus: The government ought not to be invested with power to control the affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. -Lydia Maria Child, activist, novelist, and journalist (11 Feb 1802-1880) This week's theme: Is it a noun or a verb? Both! deadname (DED-naym) noun: The former name of a person. verb tr.: To call someone using their former name. [From dead + name. Earliest documented use: noun: 2010, verb: 2013.] NOTES: It never fails to surprise me how many people who claim to be for freedom, liberty, autonomy, and keeping government out of personal life are in favor of getting government into the lives of _other_ people, such as people who are trans or gay or pregnant. If your official name is Michael, but you prefer to be called Mike, I'll happily call you Mike. Or maybe you like Mikey, or Mick, or Mickey, or any of the other variants? Why should anyone have a problem? Yet, some folks find it hard to extend the same courtesy to a trans person and insist on using a name that no longer reflects who they are. Calling someone by their chosen name costs nothing and buys dignity. Some choose to couch their bigotry as trying to protect the kids. There is no evidence to support the fear that trans people pose a safety risk in bathrooms. If that's the concern they should ban lawmakers from going to the loo. There have been many instances of lawmakers involving lewd conduct in bathrooms. https://www.complex.com/life/a/amanda-wicks/republican-legislators-arrested-for-bathroom-misconduct https://wordsmith.org/words/images/deadname_large.jpg Photo: Duncan Cumming https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/27413587590/ "'Scooter? ...' 'That's what everybody calls me. I prefer it to my deadname.' David Gerrold; North Station Blues; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (Miami, Florida); Jul/Aug 2025. "'There are people who refuse to use my correct name or pronouns, they've deadnamed me, all those sorts of things. But it's been 16 years since I transitioned; I don't really care,' [Erica] Deuso said." Katie Bernard; Her Mayoral Campaign Focus Is Not on Gender; Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania); Oct 29, 2025. -------- Date: Thu Feb 12 12:02:02 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gundeck X-Bonus: There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties. ... The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, &c., when playing together, like our own children. Even insects play together. -Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (12 Feb 1809-1882) This week's theme: Is it a noun or a verb? Both! gundeck or gun deck (GUHN-dek) noun: The deck carrying guns on a warship. verb tr.: To falsify or fabricate. [From gun + deck. Earliest documented use: noun: 1649, verb: early 20th c.] NOTES: A gun deck is literally the deck on a warship where the guns are mounted. The verb sense, however, has nothing to do with artillery and everything to do with evasion. It probably comes from the practice of some midshipmen to fabricate the numbers. They were expected to calculate a ship's position using real observations, such as star sights at night and sun sights at noon. Some shirkers instead retreated to the gundeck and simply extrapolated the numbers from previous readings. Thus, to gundeck came to mean to fake the work. Gundeck of HMS "Victory" https://wordsmith.org/words/images/gundeck_large.jpg Photo: Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_deck "Just because others might have gundecked their preventive maintenance did not mean he would." David E. Meadows; Echo Class; Berkeley; 2009. "Should that assessment be modified based on the likelihood that he knowingly filed a false report about the Battle of Midway? Or given the circumstances of 13 Jun 1942, was his decision to gundeck the story of the flight to nowhere a reasonable one?" Craig L. Symonds; Mitscher and the Mystery of Midway; Naval History (Annapolis, Maryland); Jun 2012. -------- Date: Fri Feb 13 12:02:02 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sandbag X-Bonus: If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. -Robert H. Jackson, US Supreme Court justice (13 Feb 1892-1954) This week's theme: Is it a noun or a verb? Both! sandbag (SAND-bag) noun: A bag filled with sand. verb tr.: 1. To fortify a position. 2. To thwart. 3. To coerce. 4. To treat unfairly or harshly. 5. To give an unpleasant surprise; to blindside. verb intr.: To conceal one's position in order to gain an advantage. [From sand + bag. Earliest documented use: noun: 1561, verb: 1838.] NOTES: A sandbag is heavy, simple, and reliable, which helps explain its semantic range. Literally, it fortifies positions against floods or gunfire. Figuratively, it can mean to obstruct, bully, or ambush. In competition, to sandbag is to understate one's ability in order to gain an advantage later. Same object, different pressure. For 19th-century street gangs, a sock filled with sand was a favorite weapon. It could knock someone out without leaving a mark (unlike a club), making it a favorite for "coercing" victims or robbing them. Air Raid practice at Knoll School, Hove, UK, 1940 (still from a BFI film) https://wordsmith.org/words/images/sandbag_large.jpg https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-air-raid-practice-at-knoll-school-hove-1940-online Image: Philip Howard https://www.flickr.com/photos/22326055@N06/24068363480/ See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/sandbag "Multiple MPs from across the factions are understood to have met Mr. [Mark] Speakman on Thu afternoon to warn him he had lost their support. A series of scheduled media interviews as he tried to sandbag his position were abruptly cancelled." First-Term MP Tipped to Lead State Libs; The Australian (Canberra); Nov 21, 2025. "The Fiscal Responsibility Act attempted to ensure that no future government would be sandbagged by massive deficits." Luke Malpass; The Reluctant Reformer; The Post (Wellington, New Zealand); Oct 17, 2025. -------- Date: Mon Feb 16 12:02:01 AM EST 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--invaginate X-Bonus: Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. -Henry Adams, historian and teacher (16 Feb 1838-1918) Here's a riddle for you: What's a four-letter word that ends in U-N-T and applies to a woman? It is AUNT, of course. What were you thinking? This week's words are like this riddle: they may cause a momentary blush at first glance, but each is impeccably respectable. Every word this week is 100% safe for work. If the office email filter blocks A.Word.A.Day it's only revealing its limited vocabulary. Welcome to a week of words that sound dirty, but aren't. invaginate (in-VAJ-uh-nayt) verb tr. 1. To enclose or to put into a sheath. 2. To fold inward so an outer surface becomes an inner surface, forming a cavity or pouch. [From Latin invaginare (to sheathe), from vagina (sheath). Earliest documented use: 1656.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/invaginate1_large.jpg Image: https://www.amazon.com/Viking-Sword-Scabbard-37-Inch-Collectors/dp/B0FLYNQG48/ Invagination in a sea urchin https://wordsmith.org/words/images/invaginate2_large.jpg Image: Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sea_urchin_gastrulation.png See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/invaginate "[The stadium lights] loomed like the illuminated spacecraft in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, invaginating me from on high." Wayne C. Cooper; There's No Place to Hide; Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania); Jan 8, 2000. "[Patricia Highsmith] cleverly seduces the reader into identifying with Ripley until by the end our moral responses have been so invaginated, we are actively on the side of the killer." Andrew Wilson; The Beautiful Shadow; The Guardian (London, UK); May 17, 2003.