It's the Word of the Day for March 27th.

Today's word is dross, spell D-R-O-S-S. Dross is a noun.

Something referred to as Dross is of low value or quality. Dross may also be used as a

technical term to refer to unwanted material that is removed from a mineral to make it better.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Scottish Daily Mail. Hollywood optimists argue that

AI's greatest weakness will be originality.

After all, viewers already complain of being deluged with formulaic, low-budget dross

churned out by streaming platforms because an algorithm deems it popular.

The word dross has been part of the English language since Anglo-Saxon times.

It comes from the old English word dros, meaning dregs, those solid materials that fall to the bottom of a container full of a liquid, such as coffee or wine.

While dross today is used to refer to anything of low value or quality, its earliest use is technical.

Dross is a metallurgy term referring to solid scum that forms on the surface of a metal

when it is molten or melting. Remove the dross to improve the metal. The metallurgical sense of the

word is often hinted at in its general use,

with dross set in contrast to gold, as when 19th century British poet Christina Rosetti wrote,

besides those days were golden days, whilst these are days of dross.

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

Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.