psephology
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2024
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 5, 2024 is:
psephology • \see-FAH-luh-jee\ • noun
Psephology is the scientific study of elections.
// Brianna was excited to learn that a course on psephology on the schedule for next semester will coincide with local and state elections.
Examples:
"The high school-aged participants of the program partake in various aspects of psephology, from gaining support early in a campaign to debating fellow candidates." — James Barberis, The Tallahassee (Florida) Democrat, 28 Sept. 2020
Did you know?
Psephology comes from the Greek word "psēphos," meaning "pebble." (One relative of psephology is psephomancy, meaning "divination by pebbles.") Psephology merited election as the name for the work of election analysts, or psephologists, because pebbles were used by the ancient Greeks in voting. Similarly, the word ballot was an excellent choice for a means of voting since it comes from ballotta, an Italian word meaning "little ball," and Italians once voted by placing such balls in a container.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Word of the Day podcast for November 5th. |
| 0:11.0 | Today's word is Cephology, spelled P-S-E-P-H-O-L-O-G-Y. Sehology is a noun. It's the scientific study of elections. |
| 0:23.6 | Here's the word used in a sentence from the Tallahassee Democrat by James Barbaris. |
| 0:29.6 | The high school-aged participants of the program partake in various aspects of Cepology, |
| 0:35.6 | from gaining support early in a campaign to debating fellow candidates. |
| 0:40.3 | Cephology comes from the Greek word Cephose, meaning pebble. |
| 0:45.3 | One relative of Cephology is Cephamancy, meaning divination by pebbles. |
| 0:51.3 | Cephology merited election as the name for the work of election analysts or |
| 0:57.1 | sephologists, because pebbles were used by the ancient Greeks in voting. Similarly, the word ballot |
| 1:03.5 | was an excellent choice for a means of voting, since it comes from ballata, an Italian word |
| 1:09.9 | meaning little ball, and Italians once voted |
| 1:12.6 | by placing such balls in a container. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakaloski. |
| 1:21.6 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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