amiable
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 20 July 2024
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 20, 2024 is:
amiable • \AY-mee-uh-bul\ • adjective
Someone or something described as amiable is friendly and agreeable.
// Both children have amiable dispositions, which makes them easy to travel with.
Examples:
"An amiable, Honda Civic–driving, bird-watching Everyman in shorts and glasses, Gary somehow turns out to be the perfect fake assassin." — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 24 May 2024
Did you know?
Amiable has its roots in amīcus the Latin word for "friend," and can ultimately be traced back to the verb amare, meaning "to love." English has been friendly with amiable since the 14th century, at which time it meant "pleasing" or "admirable" (a sense that is now obsolete). The current, familiar senses of "generally agreeable" and "friendly and sociable" came centuries later. Amare has also given English speakers such words as amative and amorous (both meaning "strongly moved by love"), amour ("a usually illicit love affair"), and even amateur (which originally meant "admirer"). And that’s just the tip of the amare iceberg: its influence on Romance languages is nothing short of integral. The Spanish word for "friendship" is amistad, the French word for "friend" is ami, and the Italian word for "love"? That’s amore.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for July 20th. |
| 0:11.0 | Today's word is amiable, spelled AM I A B L E, is an adjective. |
| 0:18.0 | Someone or something described as amiable is friendly and agreeable. |
| 0:23.0 | Here's the word used in a sentence from Vulture by Bilge Iberi. |
| 0:27.6 | An amiable, Honda, civic driving, bird watching, every man in shorts and glasses, Gary somehow turns out to be the perfect fake assassin. |
| 0:39.0 | Amiable has its roots in Amicus, the Latin word for friend, and can ultimately be traced back to the verb |
| 0:45.6 | Amare meaning to love. English has been friendly with amiable since the 14th |
| 0:51.6 | century, at which time it meant pleasing or admirable, a sense that is now obsolete. |
| 0:57.0 | The current familiar senses of generally agreeable and friendly and sociable came centuries later. |
| 1:04.0 | Amare has also given English speakers such words as amative and amorous, |
| 1:09.6 | both meaning strongly moved by love, |
| 1:11.9 | Amor meaning a |
| 1:13.4 | usually illicit love affair and even amateur |
| 1:16.8 | which originally meant admirer and that's just the tip of the |
| 1:20.6 | a-maray iceberg its influence on romance languages is nothing short of |
| 1:25.1 | integral. The Spanish word for friendship is Amistad. The French word for friend is |
| 1:30.6 | ami and the Italian word for love that's a moray with your word of the day I'm |
| 1:36.2 | Peter Sokolowski visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups. |
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