It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for April 6th.

Today's word is

today's word is redoubt, spelled R E, D-O-U-B-T. Redoubt is a noun. It can refer specifically to a small

building or area that provides soldiers with protection from attack, or more broadly, to any safe or protected place, whether literal or figurative.

Here's the word used in a sentence from Forbes.

Pittsburgh has spent decades building itself as a world mecca for robotics technology and applications.

The key to Pittsburgh's development into a robotics center has been the presence of Carnegie

Mellon University, a historic redoubt of technology that continues to evolve successfully. Among its current

distinctives is that it offers the nation's number one

graduate degree program in artificial intelligence, according to Joel Reed,

president of the Pittsburgh robotics network.

Based on its spelling, you might think that the word redoubt

shares its origins with words such as doubt or redoubtable, both of which came from the Latin verb

dubitare meaning to be in doubt. But that's not the case. Redoubt actually comes to us via the French word Riddut and the Italian word

redato from a different Latin verb reduke array meaning to lead back the same route

that gives us the word reduce.

How that bee ended up in redoubt is a lingering question, but some etymologists have

posited that the word might have been conflated with another redoubt, a now archaic verb meaning to regard with awe,

dismay, or dread, which, unlike its twin, does indubitably come from Dubitare.

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

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