Today's Word

Irascible

ih-RASS-uh-buhl

Definition

(adjective) Easily provoked to anger; quick-tempered.

Example

His irascible demeanor made every team meeting tense.

Word Origin

Late Middle English: from Old French irascible, from late Latin irascibilis, from irasci ‘grow angry’.

Fun Fact

Irascible doesn’t always describe someone in a full-on rage—it can apply to people who are just easily irritated or constantly on edge. It’s often used in fiction to characterize grumpy older men, volatile bosses, or that one short-fused coach. Think Scrooge, Dr. House, or a chihuahua with something to prove. It’s a word that paints a personality in tension.

Previous Words

Gossamer

Today's Word

Gossamer

GOS-uh-mer

Definition

(noun/adjective) Extremely light, thin, and delicate material; something so fine and insubstantial it is almost transparent.

Example

The morning light caught the gossamer threads of a spider’s web stretched between the fence posts.

Word Origin

From Middle English gossomer — likely from “goose summer,” a name for the warm autumn weather around November when fine floating cobwebs are most visible drifting through the air. The word originally referred specifically to those floating threads of spider silk seen on still autumn days. Over time it became an adjective for anything equally fine and light.

Fun Fact

Gossamer spider silk is, weight for weight, stronger than steel — a strand the thickness of a pencil could theoretically stop a Boeing 747. Yet a single thread is completely invisible to the naked eye. Engineers and material scientists have been trying to artificially replicate spider silk for decades for applications in bulletproof vests, surgical thread, and aerospace materials — with very limited success. The most delicate-seeming thing in nature turns out to be among the strongest materials ever studied.

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Irascible

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Previous Words

Gossamer

Gossamer

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Gossamer

Nexus

Accord

Tantamount

Knotty