Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 20, 2013 is:

muliebrity • \myoo-lee-EB-ruh-tee\  • noun
: femininity

Examples:
"She was one of those women who are wanting in—what is the word?—muliebrity." — From H. G. Wells' 1911 novel New Machiavelli

"She is a motherly figure, but altogether unlike his mother, motherly in a way that allows too for muliebrity." — From Michael Griffith's 2012 book Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories

Did you know?
"Muliebrity" has been used in English to suggest the distinguishing character or qualities of a woman or of womankind since the 16th century. (Its masculine counterpart, "virility," entered the language at about the same time.) "Muliebrity" comes from Latin "mulier," meaning "woman," and probably is a cognate of Latin "mollis," meaning "soft." "Mollis" is also the source of the English verb "mollify"—a word that implies a "softening" of hurt feelings or anger.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 19, 2013 is:

atone • \uh-TOHN\  • verb
1 : to supply satisfaction for 2 : to make amends

Examples:
Jamie tried to atone for his teasing of his sister by offering her some of his candy.

"For all the redemption songs in recent weeks, Bank of America Corp. still hasn't fully atoned for its mortgage mishaps." — From an article by Adam O'Daniel in Charlotte Business Journal, March 1, 2013

Did you know?
"Atone" comes to us from the combination in Middle English of "at" and "on," the latter of which is an old variant of "one." Together they meant "in harmony." (In current English, we use "at one" with a similar suggestion of harmony in such phrases as "at one with nature.") When it first entered English, "atone" meant "to reconcile" and suggested the restoration of a peaceful and harmonious state between people or groups. These days the verb specifically implies addressing the damage (or disharmony) caused by one's own behavior.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 18, 2013 is:

alameda • \al-uh-MEE-duh\  • noun
: a public promenade bordered with trees

Examples:
"The evening was soft and warm and in the little alameda grackles were settling in the trees and calling to one another."— From Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel No Country for Old Men

"The use of street trees and public gardens in plans for new towns in the late eighteenth century and the creation of alamedas and paseos in most of the larger existing towns reflect the spread of Enlightenment ideas to the colonies from Europe." — From Henry W. Lawrence's 2008 book City Trees: A Historical Geography from the Renaissance Through the Nineteenth Century

Did you know?
Residents of the American Southwest may remember the "álamo" in "alameda." This "álamo" is not the 18th-century Franciscan mission that was the site of a key battle in the fight for Texas independence, however, but the Spanish name for the poplar tree (the mission, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, was named for the trees that grew near it). Spanish speakers used "álamo" as the basis for their word "alameda," which can name either a grove of poplars or a tree-lined avenue. English speakers found "alameda" so appropriate for a shady public promenade that they borrowed it as a generic term in the 1700s. And yes, the Spanish "alameda" and nearby poplar trees also contributed to the naming of the city of Alameda, California.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 17, 2013 is:

litmus test • \LIT-mus-TEST\  • noun
: a test in which a single factor (as an attitude, event, or fact) is decisive

Examples:
For Curtis, the litmus test of good barbeque ribs is whether or not they have that moist fall-off-the-bone quality.

"The students who are following the discussion often look uncomfortable at this point, and the moment serves as a litmus test to see who really is paying attention." — From an article by Dolores T. Puterbaugh in USA Today, November 2012

Did you know?
It was in the 14th century that scientists discovered that litmus, a mixture of colored organic compounds obtained from lichen, turns red in acid solutions and blue in alkaline solutions and, thus, can be used as an acid-base indicator. Six centuries later, people began using "litmus test" figuratively. It can now refer to any single factor that establishes the true character of something or causes it to be assigned to one category or another. Often it refers to something (such as an opinion about a political or moral issue) that can be used to make a judgment about whether someone or something is acceptable or not.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 16, 2013 is:

caterwaul • \KAT-er-wawl\  • verb
1 : to make a harsh cry 2 : to protest or complain noisily

Examples:
The toddler caterwauled loudly when her toy was taken away.

"Stockton's leaders clearly calculated that at this point they have little to lose by shortchanging bondholders—its credit rating is already so low that it'd have a hard time financing a used Hyundai with $5,000 down—and that while creditors may sue, complain, and caterwaul, they do not get to vote." — From an article by Kevin D. Williamson in National Review, April 3, 2013

Did you know?
An angry (or amorous) cat can make a lot of noise. As long ago as the mid-1300s, English speakers were using "caterwaul" for the act of voicing feline passions. The "cater" part is, of course, connected to the cat, but scholars disagree about whether it traces to Middle Dutch "cāter," meaning "tomcat," or if it is really just "cat" with an "-er" added. The "waul" is probably imitative in origin; it represents the feline howl itself. English's first "caterwaul" was a verb focused on feline vocalizations, but by the 1600s it was also being used for noisy people or things. By the 1700s it had become a noun naming any sound as loud and grating as a tomcat's yowl.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 15, 2013 is:

down • \DOWN\  • noun
1 : an undulating generally treeless upland with sparse soil — usually used in plural b plural and often capitalized : treeless chalk uplands along the south and southeast coast of England 2 often capitalized : a sheep of any breed originating in the downs of southern England

Examples:
She lives in a large estate outside of the village, at the foot of the downs.

"They also said that it is increasingly difficult to walk on the Downs as there are cattle grazing and the ground has been 'churned up' and been made slippery by work carried out by the farm." — From an article by Hannah White in the Salisbury Journal (United Kingdom), March 27, 2013

Did you know?
Today's word has a number of homographs in English, all of which share etymological kinship to the same Sanskrit origins, though they followed different paths into modern English usage. The "down" we are featuring today can be traced back to Old English "dūn," which is related to Old Irish "dūn" ("fortress") and Sanskrit "dhūnoti" ("he shakes"). The noun "down" that is used for a covering of soft fluffy feathers comes from Old Norse "dūnn," which is also related to Sanskrit "dhūnoti." The adverb "down" (and the related preposition, adjective, verb, and noun) used to indicate a lower physical position or direction is from Old English "dūne," a shortening of "adūne," itself a combination of "a-" ("from, of, or off") and "dūne," the dative form of "dūn" (the Old English ancestor of today's word).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2013 is:

requite • \rih-KWYTE\  • verb
1 a : to make return for : repay b : to make retaliation for : avenge 2 : to make suitable return to for a benefit or service or for an injury

Examples:
Beautiful but malevolent, Maude requited Sydney's love with scorn and treachery.

"Odds are that O’Brien's flare-up of romantic love for Amanda won't be requited." — From a movie review by John Wirt in The Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), November 16, 2012

Did you know?
You might be familiar with the phrase "unrequited love." Love that has not been requited is love that has not been returned or paid back in kind, which brings us to the common denominator in the above definitions for "requite"—the idea of repayment, recompense, or retribution. The "quite" in "requite" is a now obsolete English verb meaning "to set free, discharge, or repay." ("Quite" is also related to the English verb "quit," the oldest meanings of which include "to pay up" and "to set free.") "Quiten," the Middle English source of "quite," can be traced back through Anglo-French to Latin "quietus" ("quiet" or "at rest"), a word which is also an ancestor of the English word "quiet."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2013 is:

sui generis • \soo-eye-JEN-uh-ris\  • adjective
: constituting a class alone : unique, peculiar

Examples:
Among history's greats, Leonardo da Vinci is often considered sui generis—a man of such stupendous genius that the world may never see his like again.

"So let us celebrate the glory that was Elaine Stritch in her prime. For among modern entertainers she is sui generis." — From a review by Stephen Holden in the New York Times, April 4, 2013

Did you know?
English contains many terms that ultimately trace back to the Latin forms "gener-" or "genus" (which are variously translated as "birth," "race," "kind," and "class"). Offspring of those roots include "general," "generate," "generous," "generic," "degenerate," and "gender." But "sui generis" is truly a one-of-a-kind "gener-" descendant that English speakers have used for singular things since the late 1600s. Its earliest uses were in scientific contexts, where it identified substances, principles, diseases, and even rocks that were unique or that seemed to be the only representative of their class or group. By the early 1900s, however, "sui generis" had expanded beyond solely scientific contexts, and it is now used more generally for anything that stands alone.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2013 is:

sesquipedalian • \sess-kwuh-puh-DAIL-yun\  • adjective
1 : having many syllables : long 2 : using long words

Examples:
Jacob's editor advised him to do away with much of the sesquipedalian prose he favored and opt for simpler words that would reach readers of all ages and backgrounds.

"'You just don't see that many sesquipedalian writers like William F. Buckley Jr. in the media anymore,' said a colleague to whom I mentioned this topic." — From an article by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune, December 5, 2012

Did you know?
Horace, the Roman poet known for his satire, was merely being gently ironic when he cautioned young poets against using "sesquipedalia verba"—"words a foot and a half long"—in his book Ars poetica, a collection of maxims about writing. But in the 17th century, English literary critics decided the word "sesquipedalian" could be very useful for lambasting writers using unnecessarily long words. Robert Southey used it to make two jibes at once when he wrote "the verses of [16th-century English poet] Stephen Hawes are as full of barbarous sesquipedalian Latinisms, as the prose of [the 18th-century periodical] the Rambler." The Latin prefix "sesqui-" is used in modern English to mean "one and a half times," as in "sesquicentennial" (a 150th anniversary).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2013 is:

usurp • \yoo-SERP\  • verb
: to seize and hold by force or without right

Examples:
In her first managerial position, Hannah was hesitant to delegate critical tasks for fear that a subordinate might usurp her position.

"There's a reason James Madison wrote the Constitution the way he did with a 'Separation of Powers' doctrine. That doctrine ensures the three branches of government cannot usurp one another's powers or responsibilities, thus creating a 'checks and balances' system to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful." — From an opinion piece by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro in The Washington Post, April 18, 2013

Did you know?
"Usurp" was borrowed into English in the 14th century from the Anglo-French word "usorper," which in turn derives from the Latin verb "usurpare," meaning "to take possession of without a legal claim." "Usurpare" itself was formed by combining "usu" (a form of "usus," meaning "use") and "rapere" ("to seize"). Other descendants of "rapere" in English include "rapacious" ("given to seizing or extorting what is coveted"), "rapine" ("the seizing and carrying away of things by force"), "rapt" (the earliest sense of which is "lifted up and carried away"), and "ravish" ("to seize and take away by violence").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2013 is:

fountainhead • \FOUN-tun-hed\  • noun
1 : a spring that is the source of a stream 2 : principal source : origin

Examples:
Rachel considers Aristotle's Poetics to be the fountainhead of modern art criticism.

"Everyone sometimes daydreams like a scientist. Ramped up and disciplined, fantasies are the fountainhead of all creative thinking. Newton dreamed, Darwin dreamed, you dream." — From an article by E. O. Wilson in The Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2013

Did you know?
When it first entered English in the late 1500s, "fountainhead" was used only in a literal sense—to refer to the source of a stream. By the early 1600s, however, it was already beginning to be used figuratively in reference to any original or primary source. In his 1854 work Walden, Henry David Thoreau used the word in its figurative sense, while paying full homage to its literal meaning as well: "Morning air! If men will not drink of this at the fountainhead of the day, why, then, we must even bottle up some and sell it in the shops, for the benefit of those who have lost their subscription ticket to morning time in this world."