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Word of the Week: Deportment
Deportment means behavior, how you conduct yourself.
For example, “Keith’s deportment upon learning his proposal was rejected was less than stellar.”
The English Language Loves to Steal Words
T.S. Eliot once said, “Good writers borrow, great writers steal.” The English language was following that dictum centuries before Eliot was born. No fewer than 600,000 words have been used in English writing since the twelfth century. So where did they all come from? We, that is, English speakers since the dawn of the language, were very good at stealing them. For example, alcohol and alkali are from Arabic, amok from Malay, bizarre from Basque, okay from West Africa, taboo from Tahitian, and the list goes on and on and on. In 2018, the Oxford English Dictionary‘s latest update added 1,400 new words to the language, from bongga (Tagalog for impressive, excellent or stylish) to belly-bumper (a U.S. term for a head-first ride down a hill on a sled, though it was also used in the 17th century to denote a Rabelaisian womanizer). The English language is a living, constantly expanding organism—and how fun it is to watch it grow!
Word of the Week: Secrete
Secrete means to deposit or conceal in a hiding place.
For example, “Keith planned to secrete his sales forecast for next year in his executive assistant’s storage cabinet.”
Word of the Week: Biannual
Biannual means occurring twice a year or occurring every two years.
For example, “Keith enjoyed attending the biannual conference because it gave him a chance to get away from the office twice a year.”
Word of the Week: Milieu
Milieu means a person’s social or physical environment.
For example, “Keith’s business milieu turned negative when he refused to work overtime to complete a key customer project.”
Word of the Week: Voracity
Voracity means the quality or state of being ravenous or insatiable.
For example, “Keith’s voracity for sales data knew no bounds.”
Word of the Week: Acolyte
Acolyte means a follower; one who attends or assists a leader.
For example, “Keith arrived at the meeting with one of his acolytes, an eager, newly hired intern.”
Word of the Week: Halcyon
Halcyon means peaceful, happy, prosperous.
For example, “Keith fondly remembered the halcyon days of 2016 when his team broke all of the company’s sales records.”
Word of the Week: Bereft
Bereft means lacking something needed, wanted, or expected.
For example, “Keith was bereft of ideas when it came to mapping a sales strategy for the next quarter.”
Word of the Week: Debunk
Debunk means to prove something is wrong or false.
For example, “Keith debunked the rumor that his accounting team was receiving an extra week of paid vacation.”