Word of the Day

: June 15, 2010

edify

verb ED-uh-fye

What It Means

: to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge : uplift; also : enlighten, inform

edify in Context

"There's nothing like a film festival for renewing your faith in the medium, in the possibilities of movies to surprise, delight and edify us." (Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 1, 2010)

Did You Know?

The Latin noun "aedes," meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of "aedificare," a verb meaning "to erect a house." Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as "edify" during the 14th century. Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic; the only current sense of "edify" is essentially the same as that figurative meaning in Late Latin, "to instruct and improve in moral and religious matters."