Word of the Day

• Pavlovian was first recorded in 1925–30.
• Pavlovian comes from the name of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1936), a Russian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1904.
• Pavlov conducted experiments that conditioned animals to associate an arbitrary signal with an event, such as the ringing of a bell and food being served, that brought about an instinctive response, such as salivating when hearing the bell in anticipation of the food.

• The students' Pavlovian response to the school bell ringing was to pack up their belongings and head to the next class.
• The Pavlovian nature of addiction was evident as the individual's cravings were triggered by certain environmental cues.

• Modicum was first recorded in 1375–1425.
• Modicum comes via late Middle English from a noun form of the Latin word modicus, meaning “moderate.”
• The root of modicus is modus, which means "measured amount; limit," from which mode, the most frequently repeated value in a set of values, comes as well.

• The team was disappointed when their efforts resulted in only a modicum of progress towards their goal.
• Even on the busiest of days, he always made sure to maintain at least a modicum of calm.

• Garrulous was first recorded in 1605–15.
• Garrulous comes from the Latin word garrulus, meaning “talkative, garrulous,” which is similar to the Latin verb garr(īre), meaning “to chatter.”
• Garrulity is the quality of being garrulous, just like loquacity is the quality of being loquacious, a synonym of garrulous.

• My neighbor's garrulous nature proved to be quite challenging whenever I tried to have a quick conversation with him, as he would incessantly digress and meander through various unrelated anecdotes.
• Despite her advanced age, the garrulous woman never ran out of stories to tell, often rambling on for hours about mundane topics.

• Bachata was first recorded in English around 1955–60.
• Bachata comes from Caribbean Spanish, and it originally meant "party" or "celebration."
• Bachata in Spanish may have come from an African language, but it is uncertain.
• Bachata, the music, originated in the early 1920s in the Dominican Republic from Cuban and African rhythms.

• The sultry melodies of bachata filled the air, enticing couples to sway and dance to the rhythm.
• As the guitar strings resonated, the singer's heartfelt voice carried the emotions of the bachata song to everyone in the room.

Receipts, in the phrase show me the receipts, as evidenced in jarrett hill and Tre'vell Anderson's new book, Historically Black Phrases, out now from Ten Speed Press from Penguin Random House: PRONUNCIATION Phonetic. TRANSLATION "Where is the proof?" USAGE A defiant dare meant to encourage the spoken-to to prove their allegation. If the speaker is the person implicated in said allegation, they likely believe there is no verifiable proof and therefore are willing to stick their neck out to boldly demand proof. EXAMPLE When Tia and Tamera said they'd gone to finish their homework with Roger after school, Lisa wasn't buying it. "Show me some receipts," she said, waiting for this allegedly completed homework to come out of their backpacks.

• Receipts originated in Black English and spread to the mainstream most likely in 2002, when singer Whitney Houston demanded proof of an accusation in an interview by saying, "I want to see the receipts."
• The phrase morphed into show me the receipts in the late 2000s, and was used more generally in the context of celebrity scandals and gossip.
• The singular noun receipt was first recorded in 1350–1400 from Middle English receite, which came either from Old French recete or directly from Medieval Latin recepta “money received, receipt, recipe,” from Latin recipere “to receive.”