torrid

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 12 May 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2024 is:

torrid • \TOR-id\ • adjective

Torrid can be used to describe something that is literally hot (such as a region near the Earth’s equator) or figuratively hot (such as a romance).

// The tabloids were relentless in covering every minor detail of the celebrity couple’s torrid affair.

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Examples:

“Chinese cities such as Chongqing, a southwestern metropolis known for its torrid summers, have for years used their air raid tunnels as public cooling centers.” — The Associated Press, 7 July 2023

Did you know?

Hot, steamy, sultry: English is full of words that do double-duty in describing thirst traps both literal (as in the tropics) and figurative (as in, well, thirst traps). Torrid comes from the Latin verb torrēre, which means “to burn” or “to parch” and is an ancestor of our word toast. (Despite its dry implications, torrēre is also an ancestor of torrent, as in “a torrent of rain.”) Torrid first appeared in English in the 16th century and was originally used to describe something burned or scorched by exposure to the sun, but it has since taken on an extended meaning similar to the “sexy” sense of hot: “showing fiery passion,” as in “torrid love letters” or “a torrid affair.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for May 12th.
0:11.3	Today's word is Torid, spelled T-O-R-R-I-N-T-E-N-T-R-I-N-T-E-N-T-E-N-T-E- T-O-R-I-D, Torrid is an adjective. It can be used to describe something that is literally
0:20.1	hot, such as a region near the Earth's equator, or figuratively hot such as romance.
0:26.0	Here's the word used in a sentence from the Associated Press.
0:30.0	Chinese cities such as Chong King, a southwestern metropolis known for its
0:35.3	torrid summers, have for years used their air raid tunnels as public cooling
0:40.4	centers.
0:42.4	Hot, steamy, sultry, English is full of words that do double duty in describing thirst traps, both
0:49.7	literal as in the tropics, and figurative, as in well, thirst traps.
0:55.0	Taurid comes from the Latin verb torrere, which means to burn or to parch, and is an ancestor of our word toast.
1:04.0	Despite its dry implications, Torore is also an ancestor of the word torrent, as in a torrent of rain.
1:11.8	Torrid first appeared in English in the 16th century and was originally used to describe something
1:16.9	burned or scorched by exposure to the sun, but it has since taken on an extended meaning
1:22.2	similar to the sexy sense of the word hot showing
1:25.8	fiery passion as in torrid love letters or a torrid affair.
1:31.0	With your word of the day I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:36.0	Visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, wordplay and trending word lookups.

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