Word of the Day

: August 20, 2023

balmy

adjective BAH-mee

What It Means

Balmy is an adjective that is often used to describe weather that is warm, calm, and pleasant. It can also be used to describe someone or something (such as an idea) that is foolish or irrational.

// After a long, eight-hour drive, we were rewarded with a mild, balmy evening at our vacation spot on the shores of Lake Erie.

// Despite being a devout Green Bay fan, she finds the idea of attending games in head-to-toe yellow and green body paint to be a bit balmy.

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balmy in Context

“While our warmer winters have caused some of these dinosaur-like birds to remain in southern Michigan all year long, most are just now returning from balmier winter locales like Mexico and Cuba. You’re most likely to find sandhill cranes this time of year in wet meadows, marshy areas and agricultural fields, though if you learn their distinctive, prehistoric-sounding call, you can also hear them as they flock overhead this season.” — Emily Bingham, MLive.com (Grand Rapids, Michigan), 14 Mar. 2023

Did You Know?

Aromatic ointments and fragrances are the bomb. They are also, literally, balms: healing substances and soothing scents with the power to ease both mind and body. The original balm, what Latin-speakers referred to as balsamum, was the oleoresin of a species of balsam tree. In Anglo-French, balsamum became basme and baume, spellings which entered Middle English and later became balm. Balm eventually begat the adjective balmy, used to describe things with a balm’s comforting, calming qualities, as when Shakespeare’s Othello speaks of “balmy slumbers.” Today balmy is typically used to describe the weather—balmy breezes, balmy temperatures, balmy spring afternoons, et al—conditions that are neither too hot nor too cold, but just right—Goldilocks conditions, even.