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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2009 is:

intransigent • \in-TRAN-suh-junt\  • adjective
: characterized by refusal to compromise or to abandon an extreme position or attitude : uncompromising

Example sentence:
Ms. Baxter was intransigent about her most famous rule: no gum or candy in her classroom unless you’d brought enough to share with everybody.

Did you know?
English speakers borrowed "intransigent" in the 19th century from Spanish "intransigente" ("uncompromising"), itself a combination of the familiar prefix "in-" ("not") and "transigente" ("willing to compromise"). "Transigente" comes from the Spanish verb "transigir" ("to compromise"), which in turn comes from Latin "transigere" ("to come to an agreement"). The French have a similar verb, "transiger," which also means "to compromise." You may wonder if the word "transigent" exists in English, and the answer is "not really." It has seen occasional use, but it is not well established. There is, however, one other common English word that traces from Latin "transigere": "transact," meaning "to conduct (business)."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2009 is:

sastruga • \SAS-truh-guh\  • noun
: a wavelike ridge of hard snow formed by the wind -- usually used in plural

Example sentence:
"Over the sastrugi it is all up and down hill, and the covering of ice crystals prevents the sledge from gliding even on the down-grade." (Robert Falcon Scott, Journals: Captain Scott’s Last Expedition)

Did you know?
If "sastruga" and its plural "sastrugi" seem like unusual English words, that may be because in some ways they are. Many of the words we use in English can be traced to one of two sources: about one-quarter of our vocabulary can be traced back to English's Germanic origins, and another two-thirds comes from Latinate sources (most such words come by way of French or from Latin directly, but Spanish and Italian have made their contributions as well). "Sastruga" was borrowed from German, but is not Germanic in origin. It’s originally from "zastruga," a word that comes from a dialect of Russian and means "groove," "small ridge," or "furrow." "Sastruga" is not widely used in English, and when it is used, it often takes the plural form, as in our example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2009 is:

whimsical • \WIM-zih-kul\  • adjective
1 : full of, actuated by, or exhibiting whims 2 *a : resulting from or characterized by whim or caprice; especially : lightly fanciful b : subject to erratic behavior or unpredictable change

Example sentence:
The whimsical decor of Mary’s home reflects her playful personality.

Did you know?
As you may have guessed, the words "whimsical," "whim," and "whimsy" are related. All three ultimately derive from the word "whim-wham" ("a whimsical object" or "a whim"), which is of unknown origin and dates to at least 1500. "Whimsy" was the first of the three to spin off from "whim-wham," debuting in print in 1605. English speakers then added the adjective suffix "-ical" to "whimsy" to create "whimsical," dating from 1653. "Whim," which came about as a shortened version of "whim-wham," appeared as early as 1641 in a sense that is now obsolete, but its current sense of "a sudden wish, desire, or change of mind" didn't appear in print until 1686.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2009 is:

depredate • \DEP-ruh-dayt\  • verb
*1 : to lay waste : plunder, ravage 2 : to engage in plunder

Example sentence:
“[O]ne of our party, after being asked by the owner to help depredate a few of the green, squawky birds at a feedlot, took 4 shots and killed over one hundred.” (The Bakersfield Californian, August 16, 2008)

Did you know?
"Depredate" derives primarily from the Latin verb "praedari," meaning "to plunder," an ancestor to our words "predator" and "prey." First appearing in English in the 17th century, the word most commonly appears in contexts relating to nature and ecology, where it is often used to describe the methodical, almost automatic destruction of life. That’s how the film critic Stanley Kauffman, for example, summarized the plot of the famous horror movie Jaws (1975): “A killer shark depredates the beach of an island summer resort. Several people are killed. Finally, the shark is killed. That's the story.”

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2009 is:

indefeasible • \in-dih-FEE-zuh-bul\  • adjective
: not capable of being annulled or voided or undone

Example sentence:
After his father's untimely demise, which reeked of foul play, Prince Nikolai took to the throne as was his indefeasible right as the king's eldest son.

Did you know?
We acquired "indefeasible" in the mid-16th century by combining the English prefix "in-" ("not") with "defeasible," a word borrowed a century earlier from Anglo-French. "Defeasible" itself can be traced to an Old French verb meaning "to undo" or "to destroy." It's no surprise, then, that something indefeasible is essentially "un-undoable" or "indestructible." Another member of this family of words is "feasible," meaning "capable of being done or carried out." Ultimately, all three -- "indefeasible," "defeasible," and "feasible" -- can be traced back to the Latin verb "facere," meaning "to do."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2009 is:

receipt • \rih-SEET\  • noun
1 : recipe *2 : the act or process of receiving 3 : something received -- usually used in plural 4 : a writing acknowledging the receiving of goods or money

Example sentence:
If you find that the item has been damaged during shipping, please contact us upon receipt to request a return shipping label.

Did you know?
These days it may seem odd to speak of "grandma's cookie receipt," but at one time the only meaning of "receipt" was "recipe." The first recorded use of "receipt" is a reference to a medicinal preparation in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1386). "Recipe" didn't arrive until the 1500s, and it was also first used to describe medicine. Both words began to be applied to cooking only in the 18th century, after which "recipe" slowly became the preferred word. "Receipt" acquired its currently more familiar sense of "a written statement saying that money or goods have been received" in the 17th century. Both "receipt" and "recipe" are thought to be ultimately derived from Latin "recipere" ("to receive"), making them probable relatives as well as synonyms.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2009 is:

namby-pamby • \nam-bee-PAM-bee\  • adjective
1 : lacking in character or substance : insipid *2 : weak, indecisive

Example sentence:
The candidate criticized her opponent during the debate, calling him a namby-pamby flip-flopper who could not stand up for what he believed in.

Did you know?
Eighteenth-century poets Alexander Pope and Henry Carey didn't think much of their contemporary Ambrose Philips. His sentimental, singsong verses were too childish and simple for their palates. In 1726, Carey came up with the rhyming nickname "Namby-Pamby" (playing on "Ambrose") to parody Philips: "Namby-Pamby's doubly mild / Once a man and twice a child . . . / Now he pumps his little wits / All by little tiny bits." In 1733, Pope borrowed the nickname to take his own satirical jab at Philips in the poem "The Dunciad." Before long, "namby-pamby" was being applied to any piece of writing that was insipidly precious, simple, or sentimental, and later to anyone considered pathetically weak or indecisive.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2009 is:

provender • \PRAH-vun-der\  • noun
1 : dry food for domestic animals : feed *2 : food, victuals

Example sentence:
"The ambrosial and essential part of the [huckleberry] fruit is lost with the bloom which is rubbed off in the market cart, and they become mere provender." (Henry David Thoreau, Walden)

Did you know?
When English speakers first chewed on the word "provender" around 1300, it referred to a stipend that a clergyman received from his cathedral or collegiate church, something also known as a "prebend." A mere 25 years later, though, the word’s current meanings had developed. These days you’re most likely to encounter "provender" in articles written by food and travel writers. A few such writers confuse "provender" with "purveyor," meaning "a person or business that sells or provides something," but most of them keep the words straight, as Deidre Schipani does in this quote: "The kitchen remains true to its local roots. Buying from island farmers, fisherman, shrimpers, butchers and small local artisans keeps the provender and purveyors in alignment." (The Post and Courier, September 3, 2009)

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 09, 2009 is:

ukase • \yoo-KAYSS\  • noun
1 : a proclamation by a Russian emperor or government having the force of law 2 a : a proclamation having the force of law* b : order, command

Example sentence:
"The professor's first instruction to the [playwriting] class was a ukase: Never begin a play with a telephone ringing." (Bruce McCabe, The Boston Globe, June 23, 2000)

Did you know?
English speakers adopted "ukase" more or less simultaneously from French ("ukase") and Russian ("ukaz") in the early 18th century. The word can be traced further back to the Russian verb "ukazat'," meaning "to show" or "to order," and its ultimate source is an ancient root that led to similar words in Latin, Sanskrit, and Old Church Slavic. A Russian ukase was a command from the highest levels of government that could not be disobeyed. But by the early 19th century, English speakers were also using "ukase" generally for any command that seemed to come from a higher authority, particularly one that was final or arbitrary.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 08, 2009 is:

fiery • \FYE-uh-ree\  • adjective
1 a : consisting of or marked by fire b : using or carried out with fire c: flammable 2 : hot or glowing like a fire 3 : red 4 *a : full of emotion or spirit b : easily provoked : irritable

Example sentence:
"As the game ended, he gave a fiery pep talk to his linemen, and on a brutally tough day, they appreciated it." (Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News, November 16, 2009)

Did you know?
If you find yourself tempted to spell today's word "firey," you're relying on sound logic. "Fiery" was formed by combining the word "fire" and the "-y" suffix, so it is reasonable to expect that the result would be spelled "firey." At the time that the adjective was coined in the 13th century, however, the spelling of the noun had not yet become standardized. One alternate spelling was "fier." Presumably, it was this spelling that eventually led to English speakers settling on "fiery," even as the lone surviving spelling of the noun turned out to be "fire."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 07, 2009 is:

Nimrod • \NIM-rahd\  • noun
1 : a descendant of Ham represented in Genesis as a mighty hunter and a king of Shinar *2 not capitalized : hunter 3 not capitalized, slang : idiot, jerk

Example sentence:
Dad fancied himself a mighty nimrod after he captured the rabbit who had been eating our garden.

Did you know?
Nimrod is described in Genesis as "the first on earth to be a mighty man" and "a mighty hunter before the Lord." It's easy to see how people made the leap from one mighty hunter in the Bible to calling any hunter a "nimrod." A lesser-known fact is that "nimrod" has seen some use in English as a noun meaning "tyrant" (apparently, the mighty Nimrod was not reputed to be an especially benevolent king), although that sense is now essentially obsolete. The legendary Nimrod is also sometimes associated with the attempt to build the Tower of Babel. Because the tower resulted in the wrath of the Lord and proved a disastrous idea, "nimrod" is sometimes used with yet another meaning: "a stupid person."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 06, 2009 is:

lief • \LEEF\  • adverb
: soon, gladly

Example sentence:
"I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as / lief have been myself alone." (William Shakespeare, As You Like It)

Did you know?
"Lief" began as "lēof" in Old English and has since appeared in many literary classics, first as an adjective and then as an adverb. It got its big break in the epic poem "Beowulf" as an adjective meaning "dear" or "beloved." The adverb first appeared in the 13th century, and in 1390, it was used in John Gower’s collection of love stories, "Confessio Amantis." Since that time, it has graced the pages of works by William Makepeace Thackeray, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and D.H. Lawrence, among others. Today, the adjective is considered to be archaic and the adverb is used much less frequently than in days of yore. It still pops up now and then, however, in the phrases "had as lief," "would as lief," "had liefer," and "would liefer."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 05, 2009 is:

chapfallen • \CHAP-faw-lun\  • adjective
1 : having the lower jaw hanging loosely *2 : cast down in spirit : depressed

Example sentence:
The team's failure to make it to the playoffs yet again was another disappointment, but hardly a surprise, for its chapfallen and long-suffering fans.

Did you know?
"Chapfallen" is also commonly written as "chopfallen," a spelling that may help us to better understand this somewhat unusual word. The "chap" in "chapfallen" is a word that dates back to at least the 16th century. It refers to the fleshy covering of the jaw or to the jaw itself and is often used in the plural, as in "the wolf licked its chaps." If that phrase doesn't seem to quite right to you, it is likely because you are more familiar with "chops," an alteration of "chaps" which is also used to refer to the jaw or the mouth. "Fallen" is the past participle of "fall." Thus, to be "chapfallen" or "chopfallen" is, literally, to have one's jaw in a fallen or lower position.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 04, 2009 is:

leviathan • \luh-VYE-uh-thun\  • noun
1 : the political state; especially : a totalitarian state having a vast bureaucracy *2 : something large or formidable

Example sentence:
Towering leviathans of the forest, these giant sequoias often reach heights of more than 200 feet.

Did you know?
Old Testament references to a huge sea monster, "Leviathan" (in Hebrew, "Liwyāthān"), are thought to spring from an ancient myth in which the god Baal slays a multiheaded sea monster. Leviathan appears in the book of Psalms, as a sea serpent that is killed by God and then given as food to the Hebrews in the wilderness, and it is referred to in the book of Job as well. We began equating "Leviathan" with the political state after the philosopher Thomas Hobbes used the word in (and as the title of) his 1651 political treatise on government. Today, "Leviathan" often suggests a crushing political bureaucracy. "Leviathan" can also be immensely useful as a general term meaning "something monstrous or of enormous size."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.