festoon
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 6 June 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2025 is:
festoon • \fess-TOON\ • verb
Festoon usually means "to cover or decorate (something) with many small objects, pieces of paper, etc.," or "to appear here and there on the surface of." It can also mean "to hang decorative chains or strips on."
// Tiny wildflowers festooned the meadow.
// We festooned the halls with ribbons and garland.
Examples:
"The road was lined with ancient trees festooned with Spanish moss." — Tayari Jones, Travel + Leisure, 14 Apr. 2025
Did you know?
The noun festoon first appeared in the 1600s when it was used, as it still is today, to refer to decorative chains or strips hung between two points. (It can also refer to a carved, molded, or painted ornament representing such a chain.) After a century's worth of festoon-adorning, the verb festoon made an entrance, and people began to festoon with their festoons—that is, they draped and adorned with them. The verb form of festoon has since acquired additional, more general senses related not only to decorating, but to appearing on the surface of something, as in "a sweater festooned with unicorns." Perhaps unsurprisingly, this celebratory-sounding and party-associated word traces back (by way of French and Italian) to Latin festa, the plural of festum, meaning "festival."
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Word of the Day for June 6th. |
| 0:10.0 | Today's word is festoon, spelled FESTO-O-N. |
| 0:17.0 | Festoon is a verb. |
| 0:19.0 | It usually means to cover or decorate something with many small objects, |
| 0:24.4 | pieces of paper, etc. Or to appear here and there on the surface of. It can also mean to hang |
| 0:31.0 | decorative chains or strips on. Here's the word used in a sentence from travel and leisure. |
| 0:37.1 | The road was lined with ancient trees, festooned with Spanish moss. |
| 0:42.5 | The noun festoon first appeared in the 1600s when it was used, as it still is today, to refer to decorative chains or strips hung between two points. |
| 0:52.2 | It can also refer to a carved, molded, or painted |
| 0:56.3 | ornament representing such a chain. After a century's worth of festoon adorning, the verb festoon |
| 1:03.5 | made an entrance, and people began to festoon with their festoons, that is, they draped and |
| 1:09.7 | adorned with them. |
| 1:11.6 | The verb form of festoon has since acquired additional more general senses related not only |
| 1:17.3 | to decorating but to appearing on the surface of something, as in a sweater festooned |
| 1:22.7 | with unicorns. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this celebratory sounding and party-associated word traces back by way of |
| 1:31.4 | French and Italian to the Latin word festa, the plural of festoom, meaning festival. |
| 1:38.1 | With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:46.1 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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