extemporize

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 7 May 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2024 is:

extemporize • \ik-STEM-puh-ryze\ • verb

To extemporize means to do something extemporaneously—in other words, to improvise.

// A good talk show host must be able to extemporize when interviews don’t go as planned.

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Examples:

“The president was fast on his feet. Sensing an opportunity to extemporize, he looked around the chamber, pleased.” — Robin Abcarian, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2023

Did you know?

Let’s dive into the essence of extemporize by exploring its origins. (We’ll try not to bore you with too many extraneous details.) To extemporize is to say or do something off-the-cuff; extemporize was coined by adding the suffix -ize to the Latin phrase ex tempore, meaning “on impulse” or “on the spur of the moment.” (Incidentally, ex tempore was also borrowed wholesale into English with the meaning “in an extemporaneous manner.”) Other descendants of ex tempore include the now rare extemporal and extemporary—both synonyms of extemporaneous—and as you have no doubt guessed by now, extemporaneous itself.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7th.
0:11.0	Today's word is ex-temporize, eX T-E-M-P-O-R-I-Z-E.
0:18.0	Extemporize is a verb.
0:20.0	To extemporize means to do something extemporaneously, in other words to improvise.
0:25.0	Here's the word used in a sentence from the L.A. Times.
0:29.0	The President was fast on his feet, sensing an opportunity to extemperize, he looked around the chamber, pleased.
0:37.0	Let's dive into the essence of the word extemperize by exploring its origins.
0:42.0	We'll try not to bore you with too many extraneous details.
0:46.6	To extemporize is to say or do something off the cuff. Extemporize was coined by adding
0:52.4	the suffix IZ to the Latin phrase X-Temporay, meaning on impulse or on the spur of the moment.
1:00.3	Inc. Temporay was also borrowed wholesale into English with the meaning in an ex-temporaneous manner.
1:08.0	Other descendants of ex-temporé include the now rare ex-temporal and and extemporary, both synonyms of the word extemporaneous,
1:18.0	and as you have no doubt guessed by now, extemporaneous itself.
1:22.1	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:25.0	Visit Merriam-Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

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