Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 27, 2012 is:

arbalest • \AHR-buh-list\  • noun
: a crossbow especially of medieval times

Examples:
The destructive power of the arbalest was so greatly feared during the 1100s that some governments tried to outlaw its use.

"During forensic examination, it was established that the murder was made using [an] arbalest. " -- From an article in States News Service, January 19, 2011

Did you know?
The arbalest was the distance weapon of choice for medieval armies. It was first mentioned in 1100 in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record of Saxon England. In 1622 British historian Peter Heylyn wrote that Richard the Lion-Hearted, the 12th-century English monarch, was "slain by a shot from an Arbalist." The crossbow's name is one of many terms that came into English from Old French when the Normans took control of England after the Battle of Hastings; our word is adapted from "arbaleste," the French name of the weapon. The French, in turn, derived their word from a combination of Latin "arcus" (meaning "bow") and "ballista" ("an ancient crossbow for hurling large missiles").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2012 is:

loath • \LOHTH\  • adjective
: unwilling to do something contrary to one's way of thinking : reluctant

Examples:
She was loath to admit her mistakes.

"Doctors are loath to testify against colleagues guilty of malpractice." -- From an article by Tammerlin Drummond in the Contra Costa Times (California), December 21, 2011

Did you know?
Many usage commentators point out that the spelling of "loath" the adjective is distinct from "loathe," the verb that means "to dislike greatly." Merriam-Webster dictionaries record "loathe" (along with "loth") as a variant spelling for the adjective, at the same time indicating that the spelling with an "e" is not as common as the form without it. Both words hark back to Old English, and the "e" ending in each has come and gone over the centuries -- but if you want to avoid the ire of those who like to keep the language tidy, stick with "loath" for the adjective and "loathe" for the verb.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2012 is:

intercalate • \in-TER-kuh-layt\  • verb
1 : to insert (as a day) in a calendar 2 : to insert between or among existing elements or layers

Examples:
Over the centuries, people of various cultures have intercalated months and days to bring their calendars into alignment with the seasonal year.

"The fossiliferous deposits of the Tatrot Formation outcropping in the area consist of pale pinkish-orange brown clays, brownish grey siltstones and shale, and greenish grey fine to medium grained sandstones intercalated with dark grey conglomerates…." -- From an article by M. A. Khan, et al., in the Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, December 31, 2011

Did you know?
"Intercalate" was formed from the Latin prefix "inter-," meaning "between" or "among," and the Latin verb "calare," meaning "to proclaim" or "to call." It was originally associated with proclaiming the addition of a day or month in a calendar. An instance of intercalation occurred in the earliest versions of the Roman calendar, which originally consisted of 304 days and 10 months and was determined by the lunar cycle. When the Romans realized that they had overlooked a two-month cycle during the winter, the king "intercalated" the months January and February. Eventually, the word's use broadened to include other kinds of insertion.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 24, 2012 is:

contaminate • \kun-TAM-uh-nayt\  • verb
1 a : to soil, stain, corrupt, or infect by contact or association b : to make inferior or impure by admixture 2 : to make unfit for use by the introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements

Examples:
Lucy ended up with a serious infection when her wound became contaminated by bacteria.

"Indian meal moths are the most common type of pantry pests, and with the female moth laying up to 200 eggs per week, they can quickly contaminate the entire pantry." -- From an article by Arrow Exterminators in Business Wire, November 17, 2011

Did you know?
"Contaminate," "taint," "pollute," and "defile" mean to make impure or unclean. "Contaminate" implies intrusion of or contact with dirt or foulness from an outside source (logically enough, as it derives from a Latin word that is a cousin to "contingere," meaning "to have contact with"). "Taint" stresses a loss of purity or cleanliness that follows contact ("tainted meat"). "Pollute," sometimes interchangeable with "contaminate," may imply that the process which begins with contamination is complete and that what was pure or clean has been made foul, poisoned, or filthy ("the polluted waters of the river"). "Defile" implies befouling of what could or should have been kept clean and pure or held sacred and commonly suggests violation or desecration ("defile a hero's memory with slander").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 23, 2012 is:

yegg • \YEG\  • noun
: safecracker; also : robber

Examples:
"The cops grabbed him and another yegg for a Philadelphia store burglary." -- From the James Lardner and Thomas Reppetto book, NYPD: A City and Its Police, 2001

"According to police the yeggs, apparently knowing exactly where the money was, punched a six-inch hole in the corner of the safe." -- From an article in the Eastern Express Times, November 26, 2011

Did you know?
"Safecracker" first appeared in print in English around 1825, but English speakers evidently felt that they needed a more colorful word for this rather colorful profession. No one is quite sure where "yegg" came from. It first appeared in the New York Evening Post on June 23, 1903, in an article about "the prompt breaking up of the organized gangs of professional beggars and yeggs." By 1905, it had acquired the variant "yeggmen," which was printed in the New York Times in reference to unsavory characters captured in the Bowery District. "Yegg" has always been, and continues to be, less common than "safecracker," but it still turns up once in a while.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2012 is:

leonine • \LEE-uh-nyne\  • adjective
: of, relating to, suggestive of, or resembling a lion

Examples:
"The world wanders into many strange by-paths of affection. The love of a mother for her children is dominant, leonine, selfish, and unselfish." -- From Theodore Dreiser's 1912 novel The Financier

"At 72, the leonine pianist [McCoy Tyner] didn't make the instrument shudder as he did earlier in his career. But, at its best, his set still produced more sound and fury, more brilliant colors and bursts of dissonance, than most of his peers could match." -- From a review by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune, December 21, 2011

Did you know?
"Leonine" derives from Latin "leo," meaning "lion," which in turn comes from Greek "lēon." "Lēon" gave us an interesting range of words: "leopard" (which is "lēon" combined with "pardos," a Greek word for a panther-like animal); "dandelion" (which came by way of the Anglo-French phrase "dent de lion" -- literally, "lion's tooth"); and "chameleon" (which uses the combining form from Greek that means "on the ground"); as well as the names "Leon" and "Leonard." But the dancer's and gymnast's leotard is not named for its wearer's cat-like movements. Rather, it was simply named after its inventor, Jules Leotard, a 19th-century French aerial gymnast.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2012 is:

weltschmerz • \VELT-shmairts\  • noun, often capitalized
1 : mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state 2 : a mood of sentimental sadness

Examples:
As I grew older and encountered more of life's hardships, I found myself plunging into a state of weltschmerz.

"Fortunately books exist -- at least for now -- and reading remains a popular indoor activity, as well as one of the top strategies for avoiding family conflict and general Weltschmerz while creating the appearance of productivity." -- From an article by James Hannaham in The Village Voice, November 23, 2011

Did you know?
The word "weltschmerz" initially came into being as a by-product of the Romanticism movement in Europe of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The poets of the Romantic era were a notably gloomy bunch, unwilling or unable to adjust to those realities of the world that they perceived as threatening their right to personal freedom. "Weltschmerz," which was formed by combining the German words for "world" ("Welt") and "pain" ("Schmerz"), aptly captures the melancholy and pessimism that often characterized the artistic expressions of the era. The term was coined in German by the Romantic author Jean Paul (pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) in his 1827 novel Selina, but it wasn't adopted into English until the 1860s.