It's the Word of the Day podcast for February 26th.

Today's word is ignoramus, spelled I-G-N-O-R-A-M-U-S.

Ignoramus is a noun, and ignoramus is an utterly ignorant or stupid person.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Sydney Morning Herald by Ross Gittins.

The alleged purpose of the fee increase was to discourage young people from taking courses

that didn't lead to jobs where the demand for workers was great.

Predictably, it didn't work, and only an ignoramus would regard an arts degree as of little value.

The word ignoramus is also the title of a farce by George Ruggle that was first produced in 1615. The title character, whose name

in Latin literally means we are ignorant of, is a lawyer who fancies himself to be quite clever,

but is actually foolish and ignorant. Ruggle may have been inspired in his choice of the name

by a proceeding in the English judicial system.

The term ignoramus was written on bills of indictment when the evidence presented seemed insufficient

to justify prosecution. In these cases, Ignoramus indicated, we take no notice of, that is, we do not recognize this indictment.

Such a reference would have been most appropriate for Ruggles' satire of the judiciary.

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

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