- Today's Word
Semaphore
SEM-uh-for
Definition
- (Noun) A system of signaling using flags, lights, or hand movements.
- (Verb) To communicate using such signals.
Example
The sailors used semaphore to convey messages between ships without radios.
Fun Fact
Semaphore was widely used in maritime communication and railway signaling before modern technology. The famous Semaphore Flag Signaling System is still taught in some military and scouting organizations today—so next time your phone dies, maybe it’s time to brush up on your flag-waving skills!
(noun) A complicated and confusing situation that is extremely difficult to escape or make progress through.
What began as a simple contract dispute had become a morass of litigation, counter-claims, and procedural delays that no one involved could see the end of.
Morass derives from the Dutch moeras, meaning “marsh” or “swamp,” itself from the Old French marais — “marsh.” It entered English in the 17th century with its literal meaning of boggy, waterlogged ground before quickly acquiring its figurative sense of any situation that traps and exhausts in the same way a physical swamp does — something that looks passable until you’re already in it and discovering that every step forward costs more than the last.