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.
adjective
favorable to or promoting health; healthful.
Explanation
- Salubrious entered English around 1540–50.
- Salubrious comes from the Latin word salūbr(is), meaning “promoting health,” which is related to the Latin word salūs, “health.”
- Salūs also gives us the Spanish word salud, “health,” which is used to say “Cheers!” (“To your health!”) when toasting drinks or instead of “Bless you!” when someone sneezes.
- Use of salud in English dates back to at least the 1930s.
- The company's commitment to providing a salubrious workplace includes regular ergonomic assessments and wellness programs for employees.
- The fresh sea breeze and clean ocean air make this coastal town an incredibly salubrious place to live.
adjective
deadly; destructive; exceedingly harmful.
Explanation
- Pernicious entered English around 1515–25.
- Pernicious comes from the Latin word perniciōsus, meaning "ruinous."
- Perniciōsus combines per-, "through," and -nici-, a form of nex, "death, murder," that has the stem nec-.
- A few terms that share this stem are necromancy, "a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead," and necropsy, also known as an autopsy, "the examination of a body after death."
- The pernicious effects of smoking can lead to severe health problems, including lung cancer and heart disease.
- The invasive species had a pernicious impact on the fragile ecosystem, wiping out native plants and disrupting the natural balance.
verb
(of artificial intelligence) to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as if true and factual.
Explanation
- Hallucinate was first recorded in 1595–1605 and comes from the Latin word ālūcinārī, a variant of the verb meaning "to wander mentally."
- Use of hallucinate in the context of computer science dates back to a 1971 research paper on training computers to accurately “read” and output handwriting.
- Hallucinate, in the featured sense, began to appear in the context of machine learning and AI by the 1990s.
- Researchers found that the chatbot hallucinates more frequently than previously thought, with as much as 10% of its output being inaccurate.
- The virtual assistant began to hallucinate, providing users with helpful tips mixed with unreliable information.
the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.
Explanation
- POV was first recorded in 1965–70.
- POV came about by abbreviation from the phrase point of view, which was first recorded around 1720.
- POV, as used in social media, indicates that a video is meant to be watched as if the viewer were present or the viewer is in a specific situation.
- POV videos are a popular video format on social media platforms.
- For her video of the children running amok in a messy house, the mother wrote that the POV was "Just our usual quiet morning routine."
- The influencer wanted to make sure the POV of "When dad sees his buddy out in public" was clear in his new video so he put it in the text over the video.
verb
to vibrate violently.
Explanation
- Judder was first recorded in 1925–30.
- Judder is of uncertain origin, but it may have come from a combination of the words j(olt) or j(erk) and (sh)udder.
- Both jolt and jerk are also of uncertain origin, but shudder comes from the Middle English verb shodderen, meaning "to tremble."
- The malfunctioning washing machine made an unsettling noise and began to judder during the spin cycle.
- The earthquake caused the ground to judder beneath our feet, sending everyone into a state of panic.
