Word of the Day

noun

"She's just another pop princess peddling ear candy," John said disdainfully of his tween daughter's favorite singer.

"This year's production is just as good as -- if not better than -- Sierra Rep's smash-hit staging in 2007.... Becky Saunders, another Sierra Rep regular, provides ear candy and comedy as inn manager and former Broadway star Martha Watson." -- From a theater review in The Modesto Bee, October 30, 2010

"Ear candy" made its debut (in print, at least) as the title of a 1977 album by pop singer Helen Reddy. The album has long since faded from the charts, but the term endures and it is now used widely enough to have gained entry into abridged dictionaries. Although "ear candy" is sometimes used critically to describe tunes that are considered "gooey," "sweet," or "saccharine," the people who make the music and their fans find it tasty. As one 90s band member sagely put it, does it really matter if ear candy "isn't about the secret of life"?

Test Your Memory: What is the meaning of "propitiate," our featured word from November 14, 2010? The answer is ...

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