carp
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 2, 2025 is:
carp • \KAHRP\ • verb
To carp is to complain in an annoying way.
// They’re always carping about their boss.
Examples:
“David Fincher and Brad Pitt are together again with the sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher. ... And while I hear people carping about the wig on Brad Pitt—to quote Caddyshack, ‘you’ll take what you get and like it’ …” — Sasha Stone, AwardsDaily.com, 29 July 2025
Did you know?
Though someone might hypothetically carp about the fish known as carp, the similarity between the words is wholly coincidental. Both entered the English language in the 15th century but from different sources. Like many terms for plants and animals adopted at that point in the language’s history, the fish’s name traces back to Late Latin, but the verb is of Scandinavian origin. It shares an ancestor with the Icelandic verb karpa, meaning “to dispute.” We promise there’s nothing fishy about that.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Merriam Webster's word of the day for September 2nd. |
| 0:10.6 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.co.org. |
| 0:17.9 | That's audible.com.com. UK slash Wondery. That's audible.co.com.uk slash Wondery. |
| 0:23.2 | Today's word is carp, spelled C-A-R-P. Carp is a verb. To carp is to complain in an |
| 0:30.5 | annoying way. Here's the word used in a sentence from awardsdaily.com. David Fincher and Brad Pitt are together again with the sequel to |
| 0:40.2 | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher. And while I hear |
| 0:47.3 | people carping about the wig on Brad Pitt, to quote Caddyshack, you'll take what you get and like it. |
| 0:54.3 | Though someone might hypothetically carp about the fish known as carp, |
| 0:59.1 | the similarity between the words is wholly coincidental. |
| 1:02.7 | Both entered the English language in the 15th century but from different sources. |
| 1:07.2 | Like many terms for plants and animals, adopted at that point in the language's history, |
| 1:12.4 | the fish's name traces back to late Latin. |
| 1:15.3 | But the verb is of Scandinavian origin. |
| 1:18.0 | It shares an ancestor with the Icelandic verb, Carpa, meaning to dispute. |
| 1:23.9 | We promise there's nothing fishy about that. |
| 1:26.8 | With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:33.0 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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