genuflect

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 25 March 2024

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2024 is:

genuflect • \JEN-yuh-flekt\ • verb

To genuflect is to kneel, or nearly kneel, on one knee and then rise again in worship or as an act of respect. In figurative use, genuflect means "to be humbly obedient or respectful."

// Churchgoers genuflected before the altar.

// The politician was criticized for genuflecting to corporate interests.

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Examples:

"Many of the people whom director Rob Reiner has throwing bouquets during this documentary—Steven Spielberg, Larry David, Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien and Sharon Stone among them—are all more famous than Mr. [Albert] Brooks, but genuflect before his comedic genius." — John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal, 9 Nov. 2023

Did you know?

Today we give reverence to genuflect, which comes from the Late Latin word genuflectere, formed from the noun genu ("knee") and the verb flectere ("to bend"). Flectere appears in the etymologies of a number of more common verbs, such as reflect ("to bend or throw back light") and deflect ("to turn aside"). By comparison genu has seen little use in English, but it did give us geniculate, a word used in scientific contexts to mean "bent abruptly at an angle like a bent knee." Despite the resemblance, words such as genius and genuine are not related to genuflect; instead, they are related (genius directly, and genuine indirectly) to the Latin verb gignere, meaning "to beget."

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for March 25th.
0:11.4	Today's word is Genuflect, spelled G-E-N-N-N-N-A-N-G-E-N-N-G-E-N-N-G-N-G-E-N-G-N-U-F-L-E-C-T. Genuf-E-T is a verb. To genuflect is to kneel or nearly kneel on one knee and then rise again in worship or as an act of respect.
0:27.5	In figurative use, genuflect means to be humbly obedient or respectful.
0:34.7	Here's the word used in a sentence from the Wall Street Journal by John Anderson. Many of the people whom director Rob Reiner has throwing
0:40.1	bouquets during this documentary Stephen Spielberg Larry David John
0:44.9	Stuart Conan O'Brien and Sharon Stone among them are all more famous than
0:49.4	Mr Albert Brooks but genuflect before his comedic genius. Today we give reverence to the word
0:56.4	Genuflect, which comes from the late Latin word Genuflectere, formed from the noun Genu meaning knee and the verb phlectere meaning to bend.
1:07.0	phlectere appears in the etymology of a number of more common verbs such as reflect meaning to bend or throw back light and
1:16.2	deflect meaning to turn aside. By comparison Gainu has seen little use in English, but it did give us geniculate, a word used in scientific
1:26.6	contexts to mean bent abruptly at an angle like a bent knee.
1:32.0	Despite the resemblance, words such as genius and genuine are not related
1:36.6	to genuflect. Instead, they are related genius directly and genuine indirectly to the Latin
1:42.4	verb gigneur, meaning to baget.
1:45.4	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski.
1:48.7	Visit Merriam Webster.com today for definition. Visit Marion Webster
1:53.0	Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

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