Word of the Day
serendipity
noun
accidental discovery.
Why Claire Rausser from Dictionary.com chose serendipity
Claire Rausser, User Researcher, chose serendipity as a gift for you. Find out why!
More about serendipity
- Serendipity was coined in English by Horace Walpole in 1754 in a translation from Italian of the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip.
- Serendipity comes from the word Serendip, which is the Classical Persian name for the country of Sri Lanka.
- Serendipity was used by Walpole to refer to an ability possessed by the heroes of the fairy tale to use both accidental discovery and wisdom to figure out the nature of a lost camel.
EXAMPLES OF SERENDIPITY
- During my travels through Europe, it was sheer serendipity to meet an old friend from college in a bustling café in Paris.
- Exploring the antique store turned into pure serendipity when he stumbled upon a hidden compartment in an old desk that contained a stack of rare coins.
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zeitgeist
noun
the spirit of the time.
Why Noël Spurgeon from Dictionary.com chose zeitgeist
Noël Spurgeon, UX Researcher, chose zeitgeist as a gift for you. Find out why!
More about zeitgeist
- Zeitgeist was first recorded in English in 1840–50.
- Zeitgeist comes from the German word Zeitgeist.
- Zeit means “time, age, epoch” and Geist means “spirit, mind, intellect.”
EXAMPLES OF ZEITGEIST
- The music of that era perfectly embodied the zeitgeist, expressing the collective emotions and aspirations of a generation.
- The zeitgeist of excess and extravagance was reflected in the fashion trends of the 1980s.
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mountweazel
noun
a decoy entry in a dictionary or encyclopedia, secretly planted among the genuine entries to catch other publishers in the act of copying content.
Why Kory Stamper from Dictionary.com chose mountweazel
Kory Stamper, Senior Editor of Lexicography, chose mountweazel as a gift for you. Find out why!
More about mountweazel
- Mountweazel was first recorded in 1975–80.
- Mountweazel comes from a fictitious entry in the fourth edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia for Lillian Virginia Mountweazel.
- Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who supposedly died on assignment while covering an explosion for the fictitious Combustibles magazine, never existed.
EXAMPLES OF MOUNTWEAZEL
- Readers of the new dictionary were stunned by the inclusion of the word “esquivalience,” which was certainly a mountweazel.
- They spend many hours searching for mountweazels in Dictionary.com to no avail.
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