dragoon

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

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🗓️ 22 March 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 22, 2024 is:

dragoon • \druh-GOON\ • verb

When used with into, dragoon means "to force or convince someone to do something." Without into, dragoon means "to subjugate or persecute by harsh use of troops."

// Employees complained that they had been dragooned into working overtime without adequate compensation.

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Examples:

"Half of the workforce was laid off, but those whose roles turned out to be somewhat critical were then begged to return. Some unlucky engineers were dragooned into launching the new Twitter Blue feature, which would charge users $7.99 per month for a 'verified' check mark; the rollout was catastrophic." — Sheon Han, The New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2024

Did you know?

A dragoon was a mounted European infantryman of the 17th and 18th centuries armed with a firearm called by the same name. We suspect no arm-twisting is necessary to convince you that the firearm's name, which came to English from French, comes from the fired weapon's resemblance to a fire-breathing dragon. History has recorded the dragonish nature of the dragoons who persecuted the French Protestants in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV. The persecution by means of dragoons eventually led to the use of the word dragoon as a verb.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for March 22nd.
0:11.4	Today's word is Dragoon, spelled D-R-A-G-O-N. Dragoon is a verb. When used with
0:19.6	into, Dragoon means to force or convince someone to do something. Without
0:25.0	into, Dragoon means to subjugate or persecute by harsh use of troops. Here's the
0:31.8	word used in a sentence from the New Yorker by Sean Han. Half of
0:36.4	the workforce was laid off, but those whose roles turned out to be somewhat critical
0:41.5	were then begged to return. Some unlucky engineers were
0:45.3	dragooned into launching the new Twitter Blue feature which would charge users
0:50.4	$7.99 per month for a verified checkmark. The rollout was catastrophic.
0:58.0	A Dragoon was a mounted European infantryman of the 17th and 18th centuries armed with a firearm called by the same name.
1:07.9	We suspect no arm twisting is necessary to convince you that the firearm's name, which came to English from French, comes from
1:16.1	the fired weapons resemblance to a fire-breathing dragon.
1:20.6	History has recorded the dragonish nature of the Dragoones who persecuted the French Protestants in the 17th century during the reign of Louis the 14th.
1:30.0	The persecution by means of dragoons eventually led to the use of the word dragoon as a verb.
1:37.0	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:40.0	Visit Merriam Webster.
1:43.7	Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

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