Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day! The Dictionary.com team of language experts carefully selects each Word of the Day to add some panache to your vocabulary.
a time of youthful inexperience
Salad days refers to a period of youthful inexperience typically viewed with fondness — but perhaps with a bit of cringe mixed in too. The phrase originates in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, where Cleopatra looks back on her younger self as "green with inexperience." We eventually outgrow our salad days, but they usually leave us with a few good stories.
Looking back at her salad days, she laughed at the naive mistakes she made.
a fine point or detail
A punctilio is a detail or subtle distinction that may seem minor but still merits attention. The word is often associated with etiquette and other protocols where precision matters — or at least, it's seen as mattering by an in-group. Whether a punctilio deserves attention can depend on who's doing the noticing.
He observed every punctilio of royal court etiquette during his meeting with the queen.
to remedy, repair, or set right
To redress is to set something right after it has gone wrong. You're more likely to come across the word in legal documents or other formal contexts, but the idea is familiar to anyone who's tried to make amends. If a major mistake is made, truly redressing the error may require more than a simple apology.
The company offered a full refund to redress the customer's complaint about the broken product.
a maker of stringed instruments, such as violins
A luthier is a maker of stringed instruments such as violins and guitars. The word is based on the French luth, meaning "lute," a stringed instrument popular in Renaissance Europe. A skilled luthier fine-tunes every detail in pursuit of beautiful music.
The luthier spent days carefully repairing the cracked wood of the antique cello.
money, wealth, or ill-gotten gains
Pelf is money or some other form of wealth, but the word carries a suggestion that it was acquired by questionable means. A fortune may be admired, and wealth may be respected, but pelf suggests riches that inspire suspicion rather than envy.
The pirates hid their pelf in a secret cave far from the village.
