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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

acquisitive

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

Arts, Literature, Language Courses, Education

4.31.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 3, 2024 is:

acquisitive • \uh-KWIZ-uh-tiv\  • adjective

Someone or something described as acquisitive is characterized by a strong desire to own or acquire more things.

// The game aims to teach middle schoolers to balance their acquisitive instincts with a consideration of what will benefit society as a whole.

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Examples:

"The film casts a cynical side-eye at the acquisitive ethos of the Reagan '80s, told with a hypnotic sense of style." — Mark Olsen, The Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2023

Did you know?

While acquisitive is a useful synonym of the likes of greedy and avaricious, it's relatively unknown compared to its more popular lexical relations, acquire and acquisition. The former of that pair is most often used to mean "to get as one's own," as in "skills acquired through practice"; the latter refers either to the act of acquiring something, as in "the acquisition of skills," or to something or someone acquired or gained, as in "the museum's recent acquisitions." All three have as their ultimate source the Latin word acquīrere, meaning "to acquire." While acquire and acquisition have both been in use since the 15th century, acquisitive is a bit younger. The word has a somewhat rare use meaning "capable of acquiring" that dates to the late 16th century, but its "greedy" meaning dates only to the early 19th century.



Transcript

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0:00.0

It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for February 3rd.

0:11.0

Today's word is acquisitive spelled a c-q-u-is-I-T-I-V-E.

0:19.3

Acquisitive is an adjective.

0:21.7

Someone or something described as acquisitive is characterized by a strong

0:25.9

desire to own or acquire more things. Here's the word used in a sentence from the L.A. Times

0:31.7

by Mark Olson. The film casts a cynical side eye at the

0:36.2

acquisitive ethos of the Reagan 80s, told with a hypnotic sense of style. While a quizzitive is a useful synonym of the likes of

0:46.7

greedy and avaricious, it's relatively unknown compared to its more popular lexical relations, acquire and acquisition.

0:56.6

The former of that pair is most often used to mean to get as one's own, as in skills acquired through practice. The latter refers to either

1:07.6

the act of acquiring something, as in the acquisition of skills, or to something or someone acquired or gained, as in the museum's recent acquisitions.

1:18.0

All three have as their ultimate source the Latin aqueer array, meaning to acquire.

1:25.0

While acquire and acquisition have both been in use since the 15th century,

1:30.0

acquisitive is a bit younger. The word has a somewhat rare use meaning capable of acquiring

1:37.0

that dates to the late 16th century, but its greedy meaning dates only to the early 19th century.

1:44.0

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

1:47.0

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