It's the Word of the Day podcast for December 27th.

Today's word is Feisty, spelled F-E-I-S-T-Y. Fisty is an adjective. It describes someone who has or shows a lively aggressiveness, especially in being

unafraid to fight or argue. In some regions of the U.S., feisty may also be used as a synonym

of the words fidgety, quarrelsome, or frisky. Here's the word used in a sentence from the

Arizona Republic. Hummingbirds may be tiny, but the feisty birds

can be fearless. A video shows a falcon eating a dragonfly while perched on a tree. Then out of nowhere,

a hummingbird flies into the frame and starts flitting around the bird of prey. In some parts of the

southern U.S., the word feist, pronounced to rhyme with heist,

has been used since the 18th century as a term for a small dog used in hunting more diminutive

game animals, such as squirrels. The word comes from the much older, now obsolete word,

feisting, meaning breaking wind,

which was used scornfully in the 16th and 17th centuries to describe gassy pooches.

Feisty developed in the late 19th century, its flatulent origin lost, but its small dog association still visible with a squint. The term conveys the

spunk and determination that one may associate with a dog that manages to make its presence known,

through its bark or its bite, or perhaps even its indifference to old factory decorum,

despite its small size. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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