Every morning, I receive dictionary.com’s word of the day in my inbox. Usually the word is something that I know I’ll never use, and I’m likely to forget the word ten minutes later. Sometimes, though, the word sticks, either because the definition is either useful or humorous, or because the word is just fun. Today’s word falls into the latter category because it’s just fun to say: prestidigitation. The word means the “skill in or performance of tricks; sleight of hand.” I’ve been repeating this word all day.
An example of part B of the former category (a word with a humorous definition) would be the word of the day from 19 June 2008: defenestrate, which means “to throw out of a window.” There’s actually a word in the English language for throwing something out of a window. How terrific. I now use this word at work when I want to throw my work computer out the window err, defenestrate my computer because it isn’t working properly. Look out below.
