It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 7th. Today's word is T-I-N-C-T-E-N-S-T-E-S-T-N-S-T-E-T-T-R-E-T-E-T-R-E-T-E-N-N-N-N-T-E, it refers to a solution made by mixing a medicinal substance in an alcoholic solvent. It can also refer to a

slight trace of something as in a tincture of doubt. Here's the word used in a

sentence from health.com by Wendy Wiesner.

Lemonbaum can be consumed in several ways.

People often drink it as a tea or as an ingredient in a tea blend. You can eat the herb fresh, chopped up in a salad,

added to a cold beverage, or even as an ingredient in baked goods. You can find it as a supplement in capsule or tablet

form or as an herbal tincture. A droplet of this, a scosh of that, now you take that home, throw it in a beaker, and add a touch

of ethyl alcohol to hold it all together.

And you've got a tincture going.

Tincture is a word with a colorful past, most often encountered today in reference to a

solution consisting of a medicinal substance mixed with alcohol, as in Carl weathers his cold with a tincture of echinacea.

When the word first appeared in English in the 14th century, tincture referred to a substance used to color, dye, or stain, but by the 17th century the word had acquired several

additional meanings, including a slight infusion or trace of something.

This sense is still in use today, especially figuratively, as when an aspiring

actor is said to feel a tincture of doubt that the acting lessons are worth what he paid.

With your word of the day,'m Peter Sokoloski.

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