The Unfortunate Result Of Spare Time

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2025 is:

jaunty • \JAWN-tee\  • adjective

Something described as jaunty is lively in manner or appearance. Jaunty can also describe something, such as an article of clothing, that suggests a lively and confident quality.

// The server whistled a jaunty tune as she wiped the tables and set out fresh flowers in preparation for the day’s diners.

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Examples:

“He stood at the front of the room and announced that we would begin with a quiz, which we all failed because the quiz was over material that we were supposed to have covered during the last class. When he handed the quizzes back to us after the break, he did so in a frenetic, almost jaunty way, running up and down the aisles and announcing our grades—‘Zero, zero, zero’—loudly before tossing the quizzes down in front of us ...” — Lori Ostlund, Are You Happy?: Stories, 2025

Did you know?

Does throwing on a jaunty hat make someone appear more genteel? Maybe, but something more definitive links the words: both jaunty and genteel come from the French word gentil, meaning “of aristocratic birth.” Genteel was borrowed first to describe things associated with aristocratic people. Jaunty joined the language just a few years later in the mid-17th century as a synonym of stylish and also as a synonym for genteel. While genteel has maintained its associations of propriety and high social class, jaunty has traipsed into less stuffy territory as a descriptor of tunes and hats and other things that suggest lively confidence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2025 is:

espouse • \ih-SPOWZ\  • verb

To espouse an ideology, belief, etc., is to take it up and support it as a cause. Espouse is usually encountered in formal speech and writing.

// The article explores some of the lesser-known viewpoints espoused by the charismatic leader.

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Examples:

“Crammed into a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village, they [Yoko Ono and John Lennon] immersed themselves in the city’s counterculture, absorbing progressive politics whenever they weren’t glued to the television set. Lennon’s celebrity secured the duo a large platform to espouse these ideas ...” — Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Pitchfork, 11 Oct. 2025

Did you know?

As you might guess, the words espouse and spouse are hitched, both coming from the Latin verb spondēre, meaning “to promise” or “to betroth.” In fact, the two were once completely interchangeable, with each serving as a noun meaning “a newly married person” or “a partner in marriage” and also as a verb meaning “to marry.” Their semantic separation began when the noun espouse fell out of use. Nowadays, espouse is almost exclusively encountered as a verb used in the figuratively extended sense “to commit to and support as a cause.”