Word of the Day

• 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.”

• Selcouth is an archaic word that appeared in English before 900.
• Selcouth comes from the Old English word seldcūth, which means "seldom couth."
• The couth part derives from an older meaning of couth, "known or acquainted with."
• Literally, selcouth means "seldom known."

• It was very selcouth and unsettling to see the empty streets that night.
• Her voice had a selcouth lilt to it that indicated she might not feel comfortable.

• The buff part of debuff originally comes from buffalo, whose leather was used to polish metal in the 1800s.
• Buff became a verb by 1849, meaning “to polish or shine.”
• A century and a half later, buff was used to describe someone who was physically fit.
• Buff, “strong and muscular,” is what gamers had in mind in the mid-1990s when they began to buff up their characters in role-playing games.
• The opposite of buffing a player is debuffing them, which was first recorded in 2000–05.

• The mage cast a powerful spell to debuff the enemy, reducing their strength and making them easier to defeat.
• The potion she drank debuffed her opponent's defense, giving her an advantage in the battle.