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.
plural noun
the earliest stages or first traces of anything.
Explanation
- Incunabula was first recorded in 1815–25.
- Incunabula comes from Latin and means variously “the straps holding a baby in a cradle," "earliest home," or "birthplace.”
- Incunabula also refers to "books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type."
- In that sense, incunabula has the singular form incunabulum.
- The discovery of crude stone tools marked the incunabula of human civilization.
- The faded photographs from the 1800s are cherished incunabula of our family history.
adjective
gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible.
Explanation
- Macabre was first recorded in English in 1400–50.
- Macabre comes from French, most likely from the phrase danse (de) Macabré, "dance of death."
- Danse (de) Macabré, of uncertain origin, refers to a symbolic dance in which Death, represented as a skeleton, leads people or skeletons to their grave.
- Halloween decorations adorned the front yard, creating a delightfully macabre atmosphere.
- The artist's eerie paintings captured the macabre beauty of decay and darkness.
adjective
pleasing or enjoyable.
Explanation
- Lekker comes from Afrikaans, a creole language spoken in South Africa with roots from Dutch.
- Lekker is also a word in Dutch, meaning "tasty," which is related to the Dutch verb likken, "to lick."
- Lekker was first attested in South African English around 1900.
- They had a lekker time dancing the night away at the lively South African club.
- The warm sunshine and cool breeze made our beach picnic absolutely lekker.
adjective
beyond calculable or appraisable value; of inestimable worth; priceless.
Explanation
- Invaluable was first recorded in 1570–80.
- Invaluable comes from the negative prefix in- and the word valuable in its outdated sense of “capable of valuation.”
- To complicate it all, invaluable has also been used to mean "worthless," although its "priceless" sense is much more common.
- The advice she gave me was invaluable; it completely transformed the way I approached the project.
- The experience of traveling to different countries and immersing myself in different languages and cultures has been invaluable to my personal growth and understanding of the world.
noun
afternoon.
Explanation
- Arvo is Australian English slang that was first recorded in 1930–35.
- Arvo takes the af- from the word afternoon, voices the -f so that is pronounced like a -v, and combines it with -o.
- The ar- represents how a speaker of a dialect in which r is not pronounced, like Australian English, would say a low back vowel (-a).
- Many Australian English terms are similarly shortened, like avo for avocado, servo for service station, and devo for devastated.
- Their friends said they would catch them at the beach later in the arvo for a game of volleyball.
- The sun is shining, making this arvo perfect for a bike ride.
