Word of the Day

: July 28, 2017

inhere

verb in-HEER

What It Means

: to be inherent : to be a fixed element or attribute

inhere in Context

"Americans have never shied from a good political fight, disagreement inhering in self-government." — Charles R. Kesler, National Review Online, 7 Dec. 2016

"Rights are not gifts; they do not need to be earned. Rather, they inhere in the human condition."  — The Richmond (Virginia) Times Dispatch, 15 Mar. 2017

Did You Know?

You're probably familiar with inherent, the adjective meaning "part of the constitution or natural character of something," but were you aware of its less common relative inhere? This verb looks like it could be a back-formation of inherent (a back-formation is a word created by removing a prefix or suffix from an existing word), but usage evidence of the two words makes it difficult to tell for sure. Both inhere and inherent date to the late 16th century and are derived from the Latin verb inhaerēre ("to inhere"), which was itself formed by combining in- with haerēre, a verb meaning "to adhere."