- Today's Word
Obviate
OB-vee-ayt
Definition
(verb) To remove or prevent the need for something by anticipating and addressing it.
Example
Installing motion sensors obviated the need for manual lighting controls.
Fun Fact
Obviate is a favorite in engineering, policy, and tech, where the goal is to solve issues before they arise. It differs from similar words like “prevent” or “avoid” by implying action taken early enough to render something unnecessary altogether. It’s problem-solving through preemption.
(noun/verb) A gentle, continuous murmuring sound made by water or a person speaking rapidly and excitedly.
The hikers followed the burble of the stream through the dense forest long before they could see it, the sound guiding them toward water and rest.
Burble is an example of onomatopoeia — a word whose sound imitates the thing it describes. It emerged in Middle English as an imitative word for the sound of bubbling or gurgling water, related to the Old French borboiller, meaning “to bubble.” Lewis Carroll famously used it in Jabberwocky — “the Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came” — cementing its place in the English literary imagination as a word that sounds exactly like what it means.