vivacious

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

Arts, Literature, Language Courses, Education

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2024 is:

vivacious • \vuh-VAY-shus\ • adjective

Someone or something described as vivacious is happy and lively in an appealing way.

// Our vivacious host’s bubbly humor and welcoming spirit quickly set everyone at ease.

See the entry >

Examples:

“Mikayla Nogueira staked her claim in the beauty space on TikTok by grabbing the attention of viewers through her incredible makeup skills, her vivacious energy and, of course, her Boston accent.” — Kerry Justich, Yahoo! Life, 2 Nov. 2023

Did you know?

Vivacious may not be onomatopoeic in a strict sense, but there’s definitely something lively—maybe even a bit va-va-voom—in the way its three syllables trip off the tongue. Perhaps this is why it has appealed to English speakers since the mid-1600s, when it was formed from the Latin adjective vivax meaning “long-lived, vigorous, or high-spirited.” Vivax comes from the verb vivere, meaning “to live.” Other English descendants of vivere include survive, revive, and victual—all of which came to life during the 15th century—and vivid and convivial, both of which surfaced around the same time as vivacious. Somewhat surprisingly, the word live is unrelated; it comes to us from the Old English word libban.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for January 25th.
0:11.2	Today's word is vivacious, spelledivac a ci-o-us vivacious is an adjective someone or
0:19.5	something described as vivacious is happy and lively in an appealing way.
0:25.0	Here's the word used in a sentence from Yahoo Life by Carrie Justich.
0:31.8	Michaela Naguera staked her claim in the beauty space on Tik-Toc by grabbing the attention of
0:38.7	viewers through her incredible makeup skills, her vivacious energy, and of course her Boston accent.
0:46.0	Vivacious may not be onomatopoeic in a strict sense, but there's definitely something lively,
0:52.0	maybe a bit vavavum, in the way its three syllables trip off the tongue.
0:57.0	Perhaps this is why it has appealed to English speakers since the mid-1600s,
1:02.0	when it was formed from the Latin adjective vivax
1:05.1	meaning long-lived vigorous or high-spirited. Vivax comes from the verb
1:11.2	vivore meaning to live.
1:14.0	Other English descendants of Vivare include
1:16.5	survive, revive, and vital, all of which came to life during the 15th century and the words vivid and convivial both which
1:26.8	surfaced around the same time as vivacious. Somewhat surprisingly the word
1:32.1	live is unrelated it comes to us from the old English word
1:36.2	Liban with your word of the day I'm Peter Sokolowski
1:40.3	Visit Merriam-Webster. Visit Marion Webster
1:44.4	Webster.com today for definitions, word play and trending word lookups.

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Merriam-Webster, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Merriam-Webster and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.