Word of the Day

adjective

Neil was such an incorrigible slob that his parents eventually gave up nagging him about cleaning his room and simply told him to keep the door closed.

"We first meet Moe, Larry and Curly as babies dropped off on the doorstep of an orphanage run by nuns…. The kids immediately prove themselves to be violent, incorrigible and stupid, traits they will not outgrow as they get older." — From a movie review by Bill Goodykoontz in The Arizona Republic, April 13, 2012

"Incorrigible" has been part of English since the 14th century. Back then, it was used to describe people who were morally depraved, but now it is most often applied to people who merely have bad habits. Is there a "corrigible?" Yes, indeed, we've used "corrigible" in the sense of "capable of being set right; reparable" (as in "a corrigible defect" and "a corrigible sinner") since the 15th century. Both words are from Latin "corrigere," which means "to correct" and which is also the source of our word "correct."

Word Family Quiz: What relative of "incorrigible" refers to an error in a printed work discovered after printing and shown with its correction on a separate sheet? The answer is ...

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