Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2008 is:

fire-sale • \FYRE-SAIL\  • adjective
: heavily discounted

Example sentence:
"As holders of mortgage-backed securities and the like revalue their assets at fire-sale prices, they are running short of capital -- which can lead to further sales and more write-downs." (The Economist, March 2008)

Did you know?
The term "fire sale" flared up in the late-19th century as the name for a sale of items damaged by fire. As you can imagine, much of the merchandise at a fire sale was sold at very low prices, which fanned the flames of the use of "fire sale" for any sale with discounted or low price tags. The extended meaning of the term sparked an adjective use that had burst into a full-blown blaze by the mid-20th century. Since then, people have embraced "fire-sale prices" in the marketplace, well aware that they won't get burned.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2008 is:

bogart • \BOH-gart\  • verb
1 : bully, intimidate *2 : to use or consume without sharing

Example sentence:
Three of the older girls bogarted the ice cream, ignoring the other campers' pleas for them to share.

Did you know?
The legendary film actor Humphrey Bogart was known for playing a range of tough characters in a series of films throughout the 1940s and 1950s, including The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The African Queen. The men he portrayed often possessed a cool, hardened exterior that occasionally let forth a suggestion of romantic or idealistic sentimentality. Bogart also had a unique method of smoking cigarettes in these pictures -- letting the butt dangle from his mouth without removing it until it was almost entirely consumed. It is believed that this habit inspired the current meaning of "bogart," which was once limited to the phrase "Don't bogart that joint [marijuana cigarette]," as popularized by a song on the soundtrack to the film Easy Rider, among other things. Today "bogart" can be applied to hogging almost anything.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2008 is:

superannuated • \soo-per-AN-yuh-way-tud\  • adjective
1 : outmoded, old-fashioned 2 a : incapacitated or disqualified for active duty by advanced age*b : older than the typical member of a specified group

Example sentence:
The article focused on senior citizens who retired from the workplace and returned to school to become superannuated graduate students.

Did you know?
"Superannuated" was first put to use in English in the 1600s, having been borrowed from Medieval Latin "superannuatus," the past participle of "superannuari" ("to be too old") -- from Latin "super-" ("over" or "above") and "annus" ("year"). Shortly thereafter, we made our own verb, "superannuate," from the adjective. "Superannuate" meant "to retire and pension because of age or infirmity" as well as "to declare obsolete," meanings that are still in active service. "Superannuated" can mean "outmoded or old-fashioned," as in "superannuated slang" or "superannuated neckties," or it can simply mean "older than usual," as in our example sentence.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2008 is:

belvedere • \BEL-vuh-deer\  • noun
: a structure (as a cupola or a summerhouse) designed to command a view

Example sentence:
On summer evenings, guests at the estate often joined their hosts in the belvedere to watch the sunset.

Did you know?
It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder -- and someone with a belvedere will likely have a great deal of beauty to behold. Given the origins of the word, "belvedere" is the ideal term for a building (or part of a building) with a view; it derives from two Italian words, "bel," which means "beautiful," and "vedere," which means "view." The term has been used in English since at least 1593.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2008 is:

Occam's razor • \AH-kumz-RAY-zer\  • noun
: a scientific and philosophic rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities

Example sentence:
Invoking Occam's razor, Eli concluded that the sill was wet because someone had left the window open during the storm.

Did you know?
William of Occam (also spelled "Ockham") didn't invent the rule associated with his name. Others had espoused the "keep it simple" concept before that 14th-century philosopher and theologian embraced it, but no one wielded the principle (also known as the "law of parsimony") as relentlessly as he did. He used it to counter what he considered the fuzzy logic of his theological contemporaries, and his applications of it inspired 19th-century Scottish philosopher Sir William Hamilton to link "Occam" with the idea of cutting away extraneous material, giving us the modern name for the principle.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2008 is:

indurate • \IN-duh-rut\  • adjective
: physically or morally hardened

Example sentence:
The sculpture was so realistic that it seemed that at any moment the indurate marble form would shift position to stare back at the viewer.

Did you know?
"Indurate" is a hard word -- in more than one way. Not only is it fairly uncommon in modern usage, but it also can be traced back to Latin "durare," meaning "to harden." ("Durare" can mean "to endure" as well, and appropriately "indurate" is a word that has lasted many years -- it has been a part of the English language since the 14th century.) "Durare" is also the root of other durable English words, including "during," "endure," "duration," "durance" (an archaic word meaning "endurance"), and even "durable" itself. In addition, "indurate" can be a verb meaning "to make or grow hard," "to make unfeeling, stubborn, or obdurate," and "to establish firmly."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 13, 2008 is:

lionize • \LYE-uh-nyze\  • verb
*1 : to treat as an object of great interest or importance 2 Brit : to show the sights of a place to

Example sentence:
After his successful first novel, critics lionized the young writer as a literary virtuoso, though he has yet to replicate the feat.

Did you know?
The lion is traditionally regarded as the king of beasts, and perhaps rightly so -- the lion is brave, stately, and quite often ferocious. Those qualities that earn the lion respect from other creatures were probably in people's minds when, in the 18th century, "lion" came to be used for a person who is similarly well-regarded, especially after a long and distinguished career in a particular field. A veteran lawmaker might be considered one of the lions of the Senate; a literary lion has enjoyed a long career as a successful writer. This sense of "lion" forms the basis of "lionize," which first appeared in English in the early 19th century.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 12, 2008 is:

triptych • \TRIP-tik\  • noun
1 : an ancient Roman writing tablet with three waxed leaves hinged together 2 *a : a picture (as an altarpiece) or carving in three panels side by sideb : something composed or presented in three parts or sections; especially : trilogy

Example sentence:
The artist unveiled an elaborate triptych in which the three panels represented the past, present, and future.

Did you know?
A painted or carved triptych typically has three hinged panels, and the two outer panels can be folded in towards the central one. A literary or musical triptych generally consists of three closely related or contrasting themes or parts. "Triptych" derives from the Greek "triptychos" ("having three folds"), formed by combining "tri-" ("three") and "ptyche" ("fold" or "layer"). Although "triptych" originally described a specific type of Roman writing tablet that had three hinged sections, it is not surprising that the idea was generalized first to a type of painting, and then to anything composed of three parts.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 11, 2008 is:

ignominious • \ig-nuh-MIN-ee-us\  • adjective
1 : marked with or characterized by disgrace or shame : dishonorable 2 : deserving of shame or infamy : despicable *3 : humiliating, degrading

Example sentence:
The director's first film was an ignominious failure, panned by critics and ignored by moviegoers.

Did you know?
The "-nom-" of "ignominious" comes from "nomen," the Latin word for "name" or "repute." (It's also the root of "misnomer," "nomenclature," and "nominal," among others.) The "ig-" part of the word is akin to the negative prefix "in-"; when joined to the root "-nom-," it indicates the namelessness that goes with shame or dishonor. To suffer an ignominious fate is to lose the opportunity to make a name for oneself or to lose one's good name. When "ignominious" was first borrowed from a French form of the word in the 15th century, it meant "disgraced" or "dishonorable." "Ignominious" continues to have such meanings, but it also has somewhat milder meanings -- "embarrassing" and "humiliating."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 10, 2008 is:

alembic • \uh-LEM-bik\  • noun
1 : an apparatus used in distillation *2 : something that refines or transmutes as if by distillation

Example sentence:
In the alembic of the child's mind, the ratty old blanket became a magnificent cape.

Did you know?
The alembic is a kind of still that has been used since ancient times and continues to be used even today in the production of cognac, a distinctive brandy distilled from white wine in western France. In ancient times, this apparatus was called "al-anbīq," a word that means "the still" in Arabic and can be traced to "ambix," meaning "still" in Greek. When the apparatus found its way into Medieval European laboratories, scientific texts first transformed the Arabic word into Medieval Latin as "alembicum." English speakers shortened it to "alembic," and some also dropped the initial "a." That change led to "limbeck," a standard variant still in use today. "Alembic" acquired its figurative use in the 17th century.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 09, 2008 is:

career • \kuh-REER\  • verb
: to go at top speed especially in a headlong manner

Example sentence:
The nervous passengers gripped their seats and exchanged anxious looks as the bus careered down the icy road.

Did you know?
Chances are you're very familiar with the noun "career" meaning "a profession followed as a permanent occupation." What you may not know is that the word "career" got its start in the world of medieval tournaments. Jousting required knights to ride at full speed in short bursts, and 16th-century English speakers used the noun "career" (from Middle French "carriere") to refer to such gallops as well as to the courses knights rode. By the mid-17th century, the verb had acquired its general "go fast" meaning, and by the 19th century the noun had developed the workaday use that is common today. (In case you're wondering, "career" is not related to "careen," which also means "to move at high speed"; "careen" has nautical origins, tracing to the Latin word for "hull.")