jejune

11/25/22 • 2 min

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2022 is:

jejune \jih-JOON\ adjective

Jejune is a formal word often used as a synonym of juvenile to describe things (such as behaviors, attitudes, etc.) that are immature, childish, or simplistic. It can also mean "uninteresting" or "boring."

// Her rude and jejune remarks about the painting were entirely unbefitting someone of her stature in the art world.

// The movie adaptation employed surreal visual effects to tell the story, making the plot, jejune in the novel, archetypal rather than artless.

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Examples:

"These formulations—'rise up or submit,' 'insist on your autonomy'—border on the jejune. Yes, we live in a world of laws, drudgery, interdependence. But we also live in a world rife with real injustice and, like any concept, freedom is always contextual." — William Finnegan, The New York Times, 17 May 2021

Did you know?

Starved for excitement? You won't get it from something jejune. The term comes to us from the Latin word jejunus, which means "empty of food," "hungry," or "meager." When English speakers first used jejune back in the 1600s, they applied it in ways that mirrored the meaning of its Latin parent, lamenting "jejune appetites" and "jejune morsels." Something that is meager rarely satisfies, and before long jejune was being used not only for meager meals or hunger, but also for things lacking in intellectual or emotional substance. It’s possible that the word gained its now-popular "juvenile" or "childish" sense when people confused it with the look-alike French word jeune, which means "young."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2022 is:

jejune \jih-JOON\ adjective

// Her rude and jejune remarks about the painting were entirely unbefitting someone of her stature in the art world.

// The movie adaptation employed surreal visual effects to tell the story, making the plot, jejune in the novel, archetypal rather than artless.

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Examples:

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cornucopia

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 24, 2022 is:

cornucopia \kor-nuh-KOH-pee-uh\ noun

A cornucopia, also known as a horn of plenty, is a curved, hollow goat’s horn or similarly shaped receptacle (such as a horn-shaped basket) that is overflowing, especially with fruit and vegetables. The image of a cornucopia is commonly used as decoration and as a symbol of abundance, but the word cornucopia is today more often encountered in its metaphorical use referring to an overflowing abundance, or to a seemingly inexhaustible amount of something.

// The zoo’s new aviary is a veritable cornucopia of color and sound, with scores of different bird species swooping and squawking through the canopy.

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Examples:

“When I was 11, I moved to Texas and discovered the cornucopia of packaged options in the chips aisle. I quickly grew fond of Salt and Vinegar in particular, but I missed the sharp flavors of the snacks I’d eaten in Karachi ...” — Mariya Karimjee, Bon Appétit, 20 Apr. 2022

Did you know?

Cornucopia comes from the Late Latin cornu copiae, which translates literally as “horn of plenty.” A traditional staple of feasts, the cornucopia is believed to represent the horn of a goat from Greek mythology. According to legend, it was from this horn, which could be filled with whatever the owner wished, that the god Zeus was fed as an infant by his nurse, the nymph Amalthaea. Later, the horn was filled with flowers and fruits, and given as a present to Zeus. The filled horn (or a receptacle resembling it) has long served as a traditional symbol in art and decoration to suggest a store of abundance. The word first appeared in English in the early 16th century; a century later, it developed the figurative sense of “an overflowing supply.”

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sustain

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 26, 2022 is:

sustain \suh-STAYN\ verb

Sustain means "to provide what is needed for something or someone to exist or continue; to nourish." It can also mean "to hold up the weight of," "to suffer or endure," or "to confirm or prove." In legal contexts, to sustain something is to decide or state that it is proper, legal, or fair.

// Hope sustained us during that difficult time.

// The shed roof collapsed, unable to sustain the weight of all the snow.

// The athlete sustained serious injuries during last week's game.

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Examples:

"'Besides being a vast reservoir of biodiversity, the deep ocean provides us with benefits ranging from carbon sequestration, to medicine, to food chains that sustain billions of people,' said [Diva] Amon, who is a marine biologist and director and founder of SpeSeas." — Targeted News Service (Honolulu, Hawaii), 11 Mar. 2022

Did you know?

The word sustain is both handy and hardy. Its use has been sustained since the days of Middle English (its ultimate source is Latin sus-, meaning "up," plus tenēre, meaning "to hold") by its utility across a variety of consequential subjects, from environmental protections to legal proceedings to medical reports. The word is so prevalent and so varied in its application, in fact, that it enjoys sustained high ranking as one of our top lookups—evidence of our readers’ sustained commitment to, well, sustaining themselves with information about words.