Today's Word

Tatterdemalion

[tat-er-dih-MAY-lee-un]

Definition

(noun) A person who is dressed in ragged, torn, or shabby clothing. It often refers to someone who appears unkempt, disheveled, or down on their luck.

Example

The once-prosperous businessman, now a tatterdemalion, wandered the streets in his threadbare coat, a shadow of his former self.

Fun Fact

The word “tatterdemalion” has been in use since the 1600s and is thought to be derived from the word “tatter,” meaning a torn piece of cloth, and the name “Malevole,” a character from the 1604 play “The Malcontent” by John Marston, who was known for his ragged appearance.

Previous Words

Obviate

Today's Word

Obviate

OB-vee-ayt

Definition

(verb) To anticipate and prevent a problem or difficulty before it arises; to make something unnecessary.

Example

The new software didn’t fix the error — it obviated the conditions that produced it, which is a considerably more elegant solution.

Word Origin

Obviate derives from the Late Latin obviare, meaning “to go against” or “to meet in the way” — built from ob- (“in the way of”) and via (“road” or “way”). The image in the etymology is precise: to obviate something is to stand in its path before it arrives, to intercept a problem at the road rather than deal with it at the destination. It entered English in the 16th century, used in legal and philosophical contexts to describe the anticipatory removal of objections or difficulties before they could fully form.

Fun Fact

The concept of obviating problems before they arise sits at the heart of one of engineering’s most celebrated design philosophies — mistake-proofing, or poka-yoke, developed by Japanese engineer Shigeo Shingo at Toyota in the 1960s. Rather than catching errors after they occurred, Shingo designed manufacturing processes that made errors physically impossible — components that could only be assembled one way, sensors that stopped machinery if something was misaligned. The philosophy spread from manufacturing into software design, medicine, and aviation safety, producing systems so well-designed that the problems they obviate are invisible — which is precisely why the achievement is so easy to undervalue.

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Tatterdemalion

Definition

Example

Previous Words

Obviate

Obviate

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Obviate

Vaunt

Hauteur

Acrimonious

Bathetic