Word of the Day

preposition

Pace everyone with a smartphone, I think e-mail is best written and read—and the wilds of the Internet best explored—in the privacy of one's own domicile.

"Pace Mr. Jiang, I submit that this kind of political idealism is wishful thinking. It simply does not accord with human nature, especially the nature of human groups, nor is it supported by the lessons of history." — From the 2011 book The Renaissance of Confucianism in Contemporary China, edited by Ruiping Fan

Though used in English for nearly 150 years, the preposition "pace" has yet to shed its Latin mantle, and for that reason it's most at home in formal writing or in contexts in which one is playing at formality. The Latin word "pace" is a form of "pax," meaning "peace" or "permission," and when used sincerely the word does indeed suggest a desire for both. This Latin borrowing is unrelated to the more common noun "pace" (as in "keeping pace") and its related verb ("pacing the room"); these also come from Latin, but from the word "pandere," meaning "to spread."

Test Your Memory: What word completes this sentence from a recent Word of the Day piece: "The children were _________ on the car ride back from the zoo, chattering endlessly about all the animals they saw"? The answer is ...

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