abhor

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 1 July 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2024 is:

abhor • \ub-HOR\ • verb

Abhor is synonymous with loathe. Something or someone who is abhorred is regarded with extreme disgust or hatred.

// Mariah is an animal rights activist who abhors any and all mistreatment of animals.

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Examples:

"While Anne's embarrassed by the slightest bit of conflict, disruptive Jenny abhors obedience—she's a roll of Mentos dropped into her sister's placid Diet Coke life." — Peter Debruge, Variety, 1 Nov. 2023

Did you know?

Those who shudder to think about having to clean dirty carpets might fairly be said to abhor a vacuum. Nature is often said to abhor a vacuum as well, albeit a different one—according to plenists, there is always some matter or material floating around ready to fill a void. Interior designers afflicted with horror vacui abhor vacuums as well, being unable to tolerate empty spaces in artistic designs. In each of these cases, abhor implies strong feelings of disgust and aversion, a degree of distaste embedded in the word's history: the word's Latin source, the verb abhorrēre, comes from the prefix ab- ("from, away") and the verb horrēre ("to bristle, shiver, or shudder"). Horrēre is also the source of the English words horror, horrify, and horrible.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for July 1st.
0:07.0	Today's word is
0:12.0	Today's word is Abhor, spelled AB-H-O-R-A-R as a verb. It's synonymous with the word loathe.
0:19.0	Something or someone who is abhorred is regarded with extreme disgust or hatred.
0:25.0	Here's the word used in a sentence from variety.
0:28.0	While Anne's embarrassed by the slightest bit of conflict,
0:32.0	disruptive Jenny abhor's obedience.
0:35.2	She's a role of Mentos dropped into her sister's placid Diet Coke life.
0:40.9	Those who shudder to think about having to clean dirty carpets might fairly be said to abhor a vacuum.
0:49.0	Nature is often said to abhor a vacuum as well, albeit a different one.
0:54.0	According to Plenists, there is always some matter or material floating around, ready to fill a void.
1:01.0	Interior designers afflicted with horror vacuue or a horror of empty spaces
1:06.7	abhor vacuums as well, being unable to tolerate empty spaces in artistic designs.
1:12.0	In each of these cases the word
1:14.8	abhor implies strong feelings of disgust and aversion, a degree of distaste
1:19.8	embedded in the word's history. The words Latin source, the verb abhorere comes from the
1:27.4	prefix abb meaning from or away and the verb horererere bristle, shiver, or shudder.
1:35.0	Horerere is also the source of the English words, Horr, Horify, and horrible.
1:40.4	With your word of the day I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:43.0	Visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, word play and trending word lookups.

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