Today's Word

Burble

BUR-buhl

Definition

(verb) To make a continuous murmuring or bubbling sound; to speak in an excited or incoherent way.

Example

The brook burbled softly as it wound through the forest, adding a serene melody to the quiet landscape.

Fun Fact

“Burble” is a playful onomatopoeic word that imitates the sound of bubbling water or soft chatter. Popularized in literature by Lewis Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky (1871), where it described the sound of a creature in motion, it has since become a whimsical way to describe gentle, flowing sounds or overly enthusiastic speech.

Previous Words

Wont

Today's Word

Wont

WOHNT (rhymes with “don’t”)

Definition

(noun/adjective) A habitual or customary practice; accustomed to behaving in a particular way.

Example

As was her wont, she arrived twenty minutes early and rearranged the furniture before anyone else showed up.

Word Origin

From Old English gewunod, past participle of gewunian (“to be accustomed”), related to wunian (“to dwell, to remain”). The word shares a root with “won” (archaic past tense of “to dwell”) and is distantly related to the modern German wohnen (“to live, to dwell”). A wont is something you dwell in — a habit so settled it becomes a kind of home.

Fun Fact

“Wont” is one of the most consistently misused words in English — it’s regularly confused with “won’t” (the contraction of “will not”) simply because they sound identical in many accents. Despite this, “wont” has survived in literary and formal writing for over a thousand years, appearing in Shakespeare, Milton, and Austen. It’s also one of the few words in English that functions as a noun, adjective, and past participle without changing its form at all — a linguistic Swiss Army knife that most people have never noticed.

READ MORE...

Burble

Definition

Example

Previous Words

Wont

Wont

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Wont

Recidivism

Fallacy

Chimerical

Unconscionable