It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for February 19th.

Today's word is prestigious, also pronounced prestigious, and spelled PRE-S-T-I-O-U-S.

Prestigious is an adjective, something described as prestigious, has the respect and admiration

that someone or something gets for being successful or important.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the LA Times by Malia Mendez.

Emma Stone has amassed a trove of prestigious awards from Hollywood, an Oscar, two

golden globes, and three Three Sag Awards among them.

But the accolade that eludes her is the one she covets most, jeopardy contestant.

You might expect, based on how adjectives are often formed in English that today's word is an extension of the noun prestige.

However, although both words share the same Latin root, they entered English by different routes and at different times.

Moreover, both adjective and noun once had more to do with trickery than respect when they were first used.

Prestigious came directly from the Latin adjective

Pristigiosis, meaning full of tricks or deceitful,

and had a similar meaning upon entering English in the mid 16th century.

Pristigiosis in turn came from the plural noun,

Pristigii, meaning conjurer's tricks.

This noun also gave English the word prestige, although it first passed through French

and arrived a century after prestigious. Though it wasn't first on the block, prestige influenced prestigious in a different way by

eventually developing an extended sense of standing or esteem. That change spurred a similar development in prestigious, which now means simply

illustrious or esteemed.

With your word of the day I'm Peter Sceoloski. Visit Marion Webster.

Webster.com today for definitions, word play and trending word lookups.

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