- Today's Word
Appetence
AP-uh-tuhns
Definition
- (noun) A strong craving or natural inclination toward something.
Example
Her appetence for knowledge drove her to read every book she could get her hands on.
Fun Fact
“Appetence” comes from the Latin appetere, meaning “to strive after” or “to seek.” Once commonly used in literature to describe passionate desires or instincts, it has fallen into relative obscurity in modern English. Despite its rarity, it beautifully conveys the deep, instinctive yearnings that drive human behavior, from curiosity to ambition.
(adjective) Too great, extreme, or overwhelming to be adequately expressed in words.
Standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon for the first time, she was struck by an ineffable feeling — something vast and wordless that no photograph or description had ever come close to capturing.
Ineffable derives from the Latin ineffabilis — “unutterable” — built from in- (“not”) and effabilis (“speakable”), itself from effari, meaning “to speak out,” from ex- (“out”) and fari (“to speak”). It entered English in the 15th century, used predominantly in religious and mystical contexts to describe the divine — God being the ultimate ineffable subject, a presence so vast that language itself collapses in the attempt to contain it.