Today’s word of the day—initialism of the day, if you prefer—is API, which stands for “application programming interface.” It’s how software, such as that which runs a web site, can make its data available in a raw form to other software so that new uses can be made of it. We’re launching ours today.
Today’s word of the day is doke, a deep dint or furrow, a contusion, or a flaw in a marble.
Today’s word of the day is spoony, meaning “enamored in a silly or sentimental way” or “feebly sentimental; gushy.” Someone who manifests spooniness is also called a spoony or just a spoon.
Today’s word of the day is palaver, meaning “idle chatter” or “talk intended to charm or beguile.” It’s also a verb. It comes from the Portuguese palavra (though perhaps its Spanish cognate is more familiar to modern Angolophones: palabra), meaning “talk, speech, word.” The word seems to have been picked up by English sailors and travelers on the west coast of Africa, where Portuguese was the chief language spoken with Europeans.
In honor of Noah Webster’s birthday, also known as National Dictionary Day, today’s word of the day is dictionary.
A page from Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary. More photos of it here.
Today’s word of the day is dottle, a small rounded lump or mass, especially the tobacco remaining in the bottom of a tobacco pipe after smoking, which is often put on the top of fresh tobacco when refilling.
Today’s word of the day is indicia, a plural noun meaning “identifying marks” or “indications.” It’s a favorite of legal minds: “If the defendant is dishonorable, it can take advantage of this window by doing everything possible to cover its tracks; documents will be shredded, electronic evidence will be scrubbed, and any other indicia of wrongdoing will disappear.” It’s from the Latin plural of indicium, a notice, information, discovery, sign, mark, token.