Word of the Day!

malediction [mal-i-dik-shuhn]

noun:
1 the utterance of a curse against someone or something
2 slanderous accusation or comment

Examples:

Despite this Sisyphean malediction, with each call for new proposals, the community still tries to push its boulder back to the mountaintop. (Robin George Andrews, NASA Just Broke the ‘Venus Curse’: Here's What It Took, Scientific American, June 2021)

Mr Badoglio said he discovered a curse on the director by sleeping in the bedroom of the movie’s stars. Mr Badoglio then spent three months entreating his cemetery spirits to undo the malediction, until Mr Zeffirelli was able to begin filming again. (Laura Rysman, Telling Fashion's Fortune, The New York Times, September 2021)

"Not a promise, not an oath, or a malediction or a curse. Inevitable. Wasn't that how she put it? I told them. Warned them." (Wildbow, Worm)

Five minutes afterwards the piano resounded to the touch of Mademoiselle d'Armilly's fingers, and Mademoiselle Danglars was singing Brabantio's malediction on Desdemona. (Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo)

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Malediction, which at one time could also refer to slander or to the condition of being reviled or slandered, derives (via Middle English and Late Latin) from the Latin verb maledicere, meaning 'to speak evil of' or 'to curse.' Maledicere, in turn, was formed by combining the Latin words male, meaning 'badly,' and dicere, 'to speak' or 'to say.' (Merriam-Webster)

mellifluous [muh-lif-loo-uhs]

adjective:
1 sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding
2 flowing with honey; sweetened with or as if with honey

Examples:

The mellifluous tenor that narrated Dodgers games for generations of Spanish-language listeners hasn't weakened. (Gustavo Arellano, A Dodgers broadcasting legend reflects on life, superstar-laden team, Los Angeles Times, March 2025)

What could've been a quick journey turns into a 10-year expedition filled with mythical creatures and near-death experiences involving a Cyclops, the mellifluous Sirens, and the witch-goddess Circe. (Allison DeGrushe, Everything we know about Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey: Release date, trailer, and more, Entertainment Weekly, December 2025)

Like prying open a crypt, even the narrowest crack of the lid released a sharp, mellifluous tang, potent enough to make your eyes water. (Jennifer Hope Choi, No Vacation Is Complete Without a Cooler Full of Gimbap, Chicago Reader, August 2020)

But above all, and to give a bacchanalian grace to this truly masculine repast, the captain produced his mellifluous keg of home-brewed nectar, which had been so potent over the senses of the veteran of Hudson's Bay. (Washington Irving, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville)

At the same moment the door of the room below opened, and the captain's mellifluous bass notes floated upstairs, charged with the customary stimulant to his wife's faculties. (Wilkie Collins, No Name)

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Mellifluous comes from two Latin roots: the noun mel, meaning 'honey', and the verb fluere, meaning 'to flow'. These linguistic components flowed smoothly together into the Late Latin word mellifluus, then continued on into the Middle English word mellyfluous, before crystallizing into the adjective we employ today. As it has for centuries, mellifluous typically and figuratively describes sound, and is often at the tip of the tongues of writers who proclaim that a voice or melody is smooth like molasses (molasses, like mellifluous, is a descendant of the Latin mel). But mellifluous can also be used to describe edibles and potables, such as wine, with a pronounced note of sweetness. (Merriam-Webster)

mantra [man-truh]

noun:
1 (Hindu) a word or formula, as from the Veda, chanted or sung as an incantation or prayer.
1 an often repeated word, formula, or phrase, often a truism

Examples:

Maybe the 'us against the world' mantra is something that can drive the team on towards the heights that they have so far been unable to get to. (Andy Burke, Is there 'entitlement' around Scotland or has Townsend misjudged criticism?, BBC, November 2025)

Maharishi taught a form of meditation derived from the Vedas, the foundation of philosophical thinking in India, known as mantra meditation, in which a person silently sits alone with the eyes closed, and repeats in the mind a sacred Sanskrit mantra that is believed to be endowed with spiritual potency. (Syama Allard, Buddhist mindfulness is all the rage, but Hinduism has a deep meditation tradition too, Hindu American Foundation, May 2021)

Greenland is still a place where 'the weather decides' can be a liberating mantra - once we accept that we're powerless to do anything about the weather, we can give up control. (Gabriel Leigh, Greenland Wants You to Visit. But Not All at Once., New York Times, February 2023)

It was hard to find adequate space to run and stretch and even harder to find a quiet corner for my breathing and mantra ritual. (Ibtihaj Muhammad, Proud)

He was sitting on the ground, his knees drawn up to his chest, and he was chanting the statement like a mantra, but loudly. (Dave Eggers, Zeitoun)

Origin:
1808, 'that part of the Vedas which contains hymns,' from Sanskrit mantra-s 'sacred message or text, charm, spell, counsel,' literally 'instrument of thought,' related to manyate 'thinks,' from PIE root men- 'to think.' Meaning 'sacred text used as a charm or incantation' is by 1900 (Online Etymology Dictionary)

machinations [mak-uh-ney-shuhns]

noun:
scheming or crafty actions or artful designs intended to accomplish some usually evil end

Examples:
Instead of a unified empire, the smaller kingdoms of the Heptarchy still dominate, their various dangerous machinations providing the raison d’être for the differing orders. (Valorie Castellanos Clark, Brigitte Knightley’s debut romantasy novel is as irresistible as its title, Los Angeles Times, July 2025)

His machinations were getting no coverage to speak of, but even at that early stage, Vrabel - Volin noted - was purging the Patriots roster of players connected to his predecessors, one-year head coach Jerod Mayo and before that, legendary head coach Bill Belichick. (Jon Vankin, Mike Vrabel's Ruthless Purge of Bill Belichick Patriots Players Continues, Newsweek, August 2022)

Created in the 1980s by Tim Rice and the genius songwriters behind ABBA, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, Chess the Musical is a densely-packed and complicated story about the machinations of the shadowy secret forces of the United States and Russia in the midst of the Cold War, as their two chess masters battle for supremacy. (Brenda Harwood, Cold war machinations in densely-packed show, Otago Daily Times, May 2025)

The more complex your lives become with intellectual machinations, piles of paper, and social intrigue, the less you are aware of the Simplicity of the Moment. (Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis)

Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. (William Shakespeare, 'King Lear')

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late 15c, machinacion, 'a plotting, an intrigue,' from Old French machinacion 'plot, conspiracy, scheming, intrigue' and directly from Latin machinationem (nominative machinatio) 'device, contrivance,' noun of action from past-participle stem of machinari 'to contrive skillfully, to design; to scheme, to plot,' from machina 'machine, engine; device trick' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

mythopoeic [mith-uh-pee-ik]

adjective:
1 of or relating to the making of myths
2 serving to create or engender myths; productive in mythmaking

Examples:

Gloria Steinem's New York is a bit like everyone's: a mythopoeic territory at the intersection of real estate, restaurants and workaholism, with bits of love, sex and ambition thrown in. (John Leland, What I Learned About a Vanished New York From Gloria Steinem, The New York Times, October 2016)

Shelley had turned it into a mythopoeic representation of the Romantic poet Keats 'butchered' by critics. (Kaiser Haq, The poet as mythopoeic hero: Adonis, Dhaka Tribune, November 2017)

Like most big cosmic ideas, this one has almost certainly been purloined, ornamented and abused more than once in the vast works of mythopoeic bricolage which DC and Marvel, America's main comic-book publishers, have provided to the world over the past decades. (O M, The growth of Marvel's universe through 'Black Panther' is welcome, The Economist, February 2018)

A lot of thought went into that visual and mythopoeic synthesis, which also incorporates a strong element of Celtic and Germanic folklore. (Mike Hale, 'Carnival Row' review: Nothing new to see here, Gulf News, September 2019)

Perhaps Charles Strickland's power and originality would scarcely have sufficed to turn the scale if the remarkable mythopoeic faculty of mankind had not brushed aside with impatience a story which disappointed all its craving for the extraordinary. (W Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence)

Haggard is the text-book case of the mythopoeic gift pure and simple... Haggard's best work will survive because it is based on an appeal well above high-water mark. The fullest tides of fashion cannot demolish it. A great myth is relevant as long as the predicament of humanity lasts; as long as humanity lasts. (W Somerset Maugham, C. S. Lewis, 'The Mythopoeic Gift of Rider Haggard')

Origin:

'pertaining to the creation of myths, giving rise to myths,' 1843, from Greek mythopoios, from mythos + poiein 'to make, create'. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

mudlark [muhd-lahrk]

noun:
1a Chiefly British. a person who gains a livelihood by searching for iron, coal, old ropes, etc., in mud or low tide
1b someone who scavenges the banks and shores of rivers for items of value

2 Chiefly British Informal. a street urchin

3 either of two black and white birds, Grallina cyanoleuca, of Australia, or G. bruijni, of New Guinea, that builds a large, mud nest

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Mudlarking's popularity has grown steadily in recent years, driven in part by social media communities where enthusiasts share their finds, and tour groups that offer a trudge through the shards of history's castoffs (Megan Specia, Mudlarks Scour the Thames to Uncover 2,000 Years of Secrets, The New York Times, February 2020)

On a freezing January day during the recent cold snap, those walking along The Weirs might have been surprised to see Jane Eastman - Winchester's premier mudlark - waist-deep in the Itchen, bent double as she scoured the riverbed not so much for treasure, as trash. (Sebastian Haw, Hampshire mudlark looks for treasure and trash in Itchen, Hampshire Chronicle, January 2025)

Thames mud - damp and oxygen-free - is a 'magical preserver', Maiklem writes, and extracting an object from its embrace takes care, skill and an extraordinary level of patience, from both the mudlark and those who share her household. (Joanna Scutts, Unearthing London's history from a muddy riverbank, The Washington Post, December 2019)

"It always makes me smile, how emphatically people say, 'the piping shrike — that's the mudlark, we call it the mudlark' … and just how powerfully this myth has stuck," he said. (Daniel Keane, Magpies, magpie-larks and the striking mystery of South Australia's piping shrike, ABC News, March 2024)

Origin:

The first published use of the word was in 1785 as a slang term meaning 'a hog'. Its origin may have been a humorous variation on 'skylark'. By 1796, the word was also being used to describe "Men and boys ... who prowl about, and watch under the ships when the tide will permit." Mudlarks made a living in London in the 18th and 19th centuries by scouring the muddy shores of the River Thames for anything and everything that could be sold to eke out a living. This could include pilfering from river traffic. Modern mudlarks have sometimes recovered objects of archaeological value from the river's shores. These are either recorded as treasure under the Treasure Act of 1996 or submitted for analysis and review under the Portable Antiquities Scheme. (Word Genius)