It's the word of the day for February 15th.

Today's word is vertiginous, spelled V-E-R-T-I-G-I-N-O-U-S.

Vertiginus is an adjective. It's a formal adjective used to describe something that causes

or is likely to cause a feeling of dizziness, especially because of great height. Here's the word used

in a sentence from travel and leisure. The climb is infamous for its heart-bumping switchbacks

and vertiginous jaunt along a narrow

sliver of crag. Those who fear heights, like me, typically avoid it.

The climactic scene of Hitchcock's classic thriller Vertigo features appropriately a dramatic climb

and fall from a vertiginous bell tower. Vertigenus, which describes things that

cause vertigo, a sensation of motion in which an individual or their surroundings seem to whorl

dizzily, comes from the Latin adjective vertiginosus, which in turn comes from the Latin noun vertigo,

meaning a turning or whirling action. Both words comes from the Latin noun, vertigo, meaning a turning or whirling action.

Both words descend from the Latin verb, vertere, meaning to turn.

Vertiginous and vertigo are just two of an almost dizzying array of vertere offspring

from the word adverse to the word vortex.

The dizzying sense of vertiginous is often used figuratively,

as in the vertiginous heights of cinematic legend.

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

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