Today's Word

Histrionic

hiss-tree-ON-ik

Definition

(adjective) Overly dramatic or emotional in behavior or speech; exaggerated for effect.

Example

Her reaction to the minor inconvenience was so histrionic that everyone nearby stopped to stare.

Word Origin

Histrionic comes from the Latin histrio, meaning “actor,” and originally referred to stage performance. Over time, the meaning expanded to describe behavior that resembles theatrical acting—exaggerated, emotional, and designed to draw attention.

Fun Fact

Psychologists note that histrionic behavior can sometimes emerge in high-pressure environments, like competitive arts, sports, or politics, where expressive displays grab attention quickly. Studies in communication science show that dramatic gestures and heightened emotion can make messages seem more memorable — but also less trustworthy when overused.

Previous Words

Corpulence

Today's Word

Corpulence

KOR-pyoo-lense

Definition

(noun) The state of being excessively overweight; an abundance of body fat significantly beyond what is considered healthy.

Example

The Victorian novelist described his villain with pointed corpulence — every detail of the man’s physical excess carefully deployed to signal moral failure to a readership primed to make exactly that connection.

Word Origin

Corpulence derives from the Latin corpulentia, meaning “fleshiness,” rooted in corpus — “body.” The same root gives us corporeal, corpse, incorporate, and corps — a family of words all built around the physical body in its various states. It entered English in the 15th century as a neutral medical descriptor before acquiring the moral weight that Victorian literature in particular loaded onto it, transforming a clinical observation into a character judgment.

Fun Fact

For most of human history corpulence was considered a sign of wealth, health, and social status — evidence that a person had access to abundant food at a time when most people did not. Rubens painted his ideals of beauty with generous, rounded figures, and Henry VIII’s expanding girth was read by his court as evidence of his power and prosperity rather than his decline. The shift toward viewing corpulence as a moral failing rather than a marker of success happened gradually through the 18th and 19th centuries, accelerated by the rise of industrial capitalism and its emphasis on self-discipline and productive bodies — making corpulence one of the rare words whose cultural baggage tells the entire history of how Western society learned to moralize the human body.

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Histrionic

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Previous Words

Corpulence

Corpulence

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Corpulence

Garrulous

Dearth

Propitious

Surfeit