WAY-lay
The journalist was waylaid by a crowd of eager fans before he could enter the conference.
Fun Fact
“Waylay” comes from an old term meaning “to lie in wait,” often referring to highway robbers. While it once had a dangerous connotation, today it’s used more playfully—think of a coworker waylaying you with last-minute questions before you leave for the weekend.
dis-reh-PYOOT
(noun) The state of having a damaged or lost reputation; being held in low regard by others or by the public.
The firm’s disrepute spread faster than any press release could contain — three clients left before the week was out.
Disrepute combines the prefix dis- meaning “away” or “reversal” with repute, from the Latin reputare — “to reckon” or “to think over” — built from re- (“again”) and putare (“to think” or “to reckon”). Repute entered English in the 15th century meaning the general opinion held of someone; disrepute followed as its logical opposite, describing the condition of having that opinion turn decisively negative.
Fun Fact
The concept of reputational damage has a surprisingly litigious history. In medieval English law, damaging someone’s reputation through false speech was a criminal offense called scandalum magnatum — literally “scandal of the magnates” — originally applicable only to nobles and clergy. The offense was taken so seriously that a single damaging rumor could result in imprisonment. Modern defamation law is a direct descendant of these medieval protections, making disrepute one of the few conditions that has been legally actionable for nearly a thousand years.
Today's Word Meritorious mair-ih-TOR-ee-us Definition (adjective) Deserving praise or reward...
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