It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23.

Today's word is polemic, spelled P-O-L-E-M-S-E-P-E-I-C-P-E-M-I-C-P-E-N-N-N-O-N-C-A-N-E-M-C-A-N-C-A-N-C-A-N-C-A-N-T-E-C-A-C-T against someone else's opinions, beliefs, or practices.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Age of Revolutions

by Nathan Pearl Rosenthal.

That winter of 1774, 75 could be considered the nadir of the entire American Patriot movement.

After the closing of the First Continental Congress, North Americans turned upon one another as never before.

The colonists had never had a single view of Britain or how to respond to the measures it was

trying to impose on the American colonies.

Strong polemics against further resistance to the British government

spouted from printing presses across the colonies.

Diatribe, Jeremiah, Philippic, the English language sure has a lot of formal

words for the things we say or write when we are, to use a decidedly less formal term, Big Mad.

We will refrain from going on a tirade about it, however,

especially since it's good to have options,

with subtle differences in tone and meaning.

Polemic, which traces back ultimately to the Greek word for war, Polemos,

is the word you want to refer specifically to an aggressive attack on someone's ideas or principles.

Someone who is cheesed off, because they don't like cheese, for example,

would write a polemic about it, a torofile, upset about the gustatory philosophy behind their local cheesemongers,

recent offerings just might.

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

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