It's the Word of the Day podcast for June 18th.

Today's word is acquiesce, spelled A-C-Q-U-I-E-S-C-E.

Acquies is a verb. To acquiesce to something is to accept it, agree with it, or allow it to happen,

by staying silent or by not arguing. Acquiesce is somewhat formal and is often used with the words

in or two. Here's the word used in a sentence from Slate. It may be just the right time for a

chicken burger to become a significant stop on the American burger's continual evolution, but whether

beef-clinging purists will acquiesce to a poultry spin or cry foul remains to be seen. If you're looking to give your speech a gentle,

formal flair, don't give the word acquiesce the silent treatment. Essentially, meaning to comply

quietly, acquiesce has as its ultimate source the Latin verb quiescare, meaning to be quiet.

Quiet itself is also a close relation.

Quiescaray can also mean to repose, to fall asleep, or to rest, and when acquiesce arrived in English via French in the early 1600s, it did so with two senses, the familiar to agree or comply, and the now obsolete

to rest satisfied. Herman Melville employed the former in Moby Dick when Ahab orders the

confounded crew to change the Pequod's course after a storm damages the compasses with these words. Meanwhile, whatever were his

own secret thoughts, Starbucks said nothing, but quietly he issued all requisite orders, while

stub and flask, who in some small degree seemed then to be sharing his feelings, likewise,

unmermermeringly acquiesced.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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