Word of the Day
pulchritudinous
adjective
physically beautiful; comely.
Why Dictionary.com chose pulchritudinous
More about pulchritudinous
- Pulchritudinous comes from the Latin word pulchritūdō, meaning “beauty.”
- Pulchritūdō also gives us pulchritude, meaning “physical beauty,” which was first recorded in the 1400s.
- Pulchritudinous began to appear in the early 1700s and gained popularity in the 1800s with American authors who started using the word because it was humorously long and overly complicated.
- Washington Irving employed it in The Crayon Miscellany (1835) alongside other unnecessarily complex words to make fun of an advertisement for ginger ale.
EXAMPLES OF PULCHRITUDINOUS
- The sunset painted the sky with pulchritudinous hues of pink and gold.
- The ballerina’s graceful movements were enhanced by her pulchritudinous form.
Why Dictionary.com chose bedevil
More about bedevil
- Bedevil, in the featured sense, was first recorded in 1760-70.
- It was formed from be- (an older prefix for forming verbs) and devil, which was first recorded before 900 and came from Late Latin diabolus.
- Diabolus itself came from Greek diábolos, “slanderer,” which came from diabállein, “to assault someone’s character,” or literally “to throw across.”
EXAMPLES OF BEDEVIL
- The complex math problem bedeviled the students, leaving them puzzled and uncertain about the correct solution.
- The persistent technical glitches in the computer program bedeviled the developers, making it difficult for them to meet their deadline.
brouhaha
noun
excited public interest, discussion, or the like, as the clamor attending some sensational event.
Why Dictionary.com chose brouhaha
More about brouhaha
- Brouhaha was first recorded in English around 1885-90.
- It comes from the French phrase brou, ha, ha!, which was an exclamation used by characters representing the devil in 16th-century French drama.
- Brouhaha perhaps originally comes from a distortion of the Hebrew recited phrase bārūkh habbā (beshēm ădōnai), which means “blessed is he who comes (in the name of the Lord)” from Psalms 118:26.
EXAMPLES OF BROUHAHA
- The brouhaha surrounding the controversial film reached its peak with protesters gathering outside the theater.
- Social media erupted in a brouhaha when a celebrity made an offhand comment, sparking a heated online argument.
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