Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2011 is:

kegler • \KEG-ler\  • noun
: a person who bowls : bowler

Examples:
"Five keglers … brought home money from the recent Oregon Bowlers Association tournament sponsored by Striking Image Pro Shop at Wilsonville Lanes in Wilsonville, Ore." -- From an article by Rick McCorkle in the Longview Daily News (Washington), November 3, 2011

"Kegler alert: For all other bowlers (keglers in bowling lingo), the grand opening of the 24-lane, smoke-free complex is today." -- From an article in the Idaho Statesman, November 18, 2011

Did you know?
Some historians trace the game of bowling back to the Stone Age (that information may conjure up images of Fred Flintstone on the lanes), but it was a medieval version of the game that gave us the word "kegler." In medieval Germany, the game was practiced as a test of religious faith and purity. The "Kegel" (bowling pin) represented a heathen, and those who could topple it with a round stone proved that they were free of sin. "Kegel" gave English the nouns "kegling" (meaning "bowling") and "kegler," by way of the German verb "kegeln" ("to bowl"). Nowadays, both words tend to be used humorously by writers referring to the modern game.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2011 is:

raillery • \RAIL-uh-ree\  • noun
1 : good-natured ridicule : banter 2 : jest

Examples:
New workers at the plant can expect to endure some raillery and joshing from the old-timers.

"Scioli, a floorsweep, another barber and a man on the sofa called Buddy Lite are carrying on a conversation that bounces around like a Wham-O Super Ball, touching on conspiracy theories, 20th-century pop culture, UFOs, lewd raillery and an eerie tale concerning a caribou walking backward via supernatural forces." -- From an article by Luke Jerrod Kummer in The Washington Post, January 7, 2011

Did you know?
"Raillery" is the anglicized form of the French word "raillerie," which stems from the Middle French verb "railler," meaning "to mock." "Railler," which probably comes from Old French "reillier" ("to growl" or "to mutter") and ultimately from Late Latin "ragere" ("to neigh"), also gave us our verb "rail." But "rail" and "raillery" are quite different in tone. "Rail" means "to revile or scold in harsh, insolent, or abusive language," whereas "raillery" usually suggests cutting wit that pokes fun good-naturedly.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2011 is:

foment • \FOH-ment\  • verb
: to promote the growth or development of : rouse, incite

Examples:
He has been accused of fomenting violence, but he denies the claim and insists that he and his followers will only engage in peaceful means of protest.

"As it has in past years, PJFF31 will also feature a New Filmmakers Weekend (March 17-19) and offer a Documentaries & Dialogue slate (Jan. 9-Feb. 6) designed to foment debate, discussion, and discourse." -- From an article by Steven Rea in The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 4, 2011

Did you know?
If you had sore muscles in the 1600s, your doctor might have advised you to foment the injury, perhaps with heated lotions or warm wax. Does this sound like an odd prescription? Not if you know that "foment" traces to the Latin verb "fovēre," which means "to heat." The earliest documented English uses of "foment" appear in medical texts offering advice on how to soothe various aches and pains by the application of moist heat. But the idea of applying heat can also be a metaphor for stimulating or rousing to action. Within 50 years of its English debut, "foment" was also being used in political contexts to mean "to stir up," "to call to action," or, in a sense at least figuratively opposite to its original one, "to irritate."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2011 is:

conversazione • \kahn-ver-saht-see-OH-nee\  • noun
: a meeting for conversation especially about art, literature, or science

Examples:
"There is a memorable description of Lord Gowrie at an elegant conversazione at Mrs Drue Heinz's castle on Lake Como, sweltering in lovat tweeds in the Italian heat after his suitcase flies off to Glasgow without him." -- From a book review by Jane Shilling in The Sunday Times (London), July 20, 2008

"'The Sacred Made Real' [museum exhibition] … leads us on a mystical pilgrimage, its ever-shifting views inviting sculptures, paintings and visitors into a mystical conversazione." -- From an art review by Gauvin Alexander Bailey in Apollo, January 1, 2010

Did you know?
Writer Horace Walpole is credited with the first English use of "conversazione" in a 1739 letter in which he writes, "After the play we were introduced to the assembly, which they call the conversazione." As this Italian borrowing was used through the years, it gained nuances of meaning. In Italy, it generally referred to a gathering for conversation, but in England it began to be used more for a private meeting. By the 19th century, "conversazione" also referred to assemblies and soirees of people connected with the arts or sciences. The word has two plural forms in English: "conversaziones" and "conversazioni."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2011 is:

taciturn • \TASS-uh-tern\  • adjective
: temperamentally disinclined to talk

Examples:
Upon hearing that reticent Calvin Coolidge -- arguably the most taciturn president in U.S. history -- had died, Dorothy Parker quipped, "How could they tell?"

"The waiter, previously friendly and good-humored, was tonight solemn and taciturn." -- From Taylor Stevens' novel The Informationist, 2011

Did you know?
We first find "taciturn" in a satiric drama written in 1734 by James Miller, a British clergyman educated at Oxford. A character describes a nephew thus: "When he was little, he never was what they call Roguish or Waggish, but was always close, quiet, and taciturn." It seems we waited unduly long to adopt this useful descendent of the verb "tacēre," meaning "to be silent" -- we were quicker to adopt other words from the "tacēre" family. We’ve been using "tacit," an adjective meaning "expressed without words" or "implied," since the mid-17th century. And we’ve had the noun "taciturnity," meaning "habitual silence," since at least 1450.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2011 is:

swivet • \SWIV-ut\  • noun
: a state of extreme agitation

Examples:
She was in a swivet for days before the meeting, but when the actual day arrived she found she was surprisingly calm.

"The world's in a swivet over airport security. The deployment of full-body scanning technology in about 15 percent of United States airports has people even more anxious and cranky than usual as we head into the holiday season." -- From an article in The Houston Chronicle, November 24, 2010

Did you know?
People have been in a swivet over one thing or another since the 1890s. That, at least, is when the word first appeared in print in a collection of "Peculiar Words and Usages" of Kentucky published by the American Dialect Society. In the ensuing years, "swivet" popped up in other pockets of the South as well. Chances are it had already been around for some time before it was recorded in writing, and by the time it was, nobody could say where or how it had originated. What we do know is that its use gradually spread, so that by the 1950s it was regularly appearing in national magazines like Time and The New Yorker. Thus, it entered the mainstream of American English.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2011 is:

zeitgeist • \TSYTE-gyste\  • noun, often capitalized
: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era

Examples:
The movie does an excellent job of capturing the zeitgeist of the early Cold War era.

"If Broadway no longer seems behind the times or ahead of the times, it may be because there are no 'times' anymore, no prevailing Zeitgeist that sets the fashion, pace, and prevailing look." -- From an article by James Wolcott in Vanity Fair, July 2011

Did you know?
Scholars have long maintained that each era has a unique spirit, a nature or climate that sets it apart from all other epochs. In German, such a spirit is known as "Zeitgeist," from the German words "Zeit," meaning "time," and "Geist," meaning "spirit" or "ghost." Some writers and artists assert that the true zeitgeist of an era cannot be known until it is over, and several have declared that only artists or philosophers can adequately explain it. We don’t know if that’s true, but we do know that "zeitgeist" has been a useful addition to the English language since at least 1835.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2011 is:

perdition • \per-DISH-un\  • noun
1 : eternal damnation 2 : hell

Examples:
"The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!" -- From Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby Dick

"So among my earliest poems were those about a sin-eater -- a functionary at funerals from a former time who, for his daily bread and a small fee, took unto himself the sins of the dead, and then, like the goat of the ancient Jews, escaped to the wilderness laden with the burdens of perdition." -- From an article by Thomas Lynch in Commonweal, August 12, 2011

Did you know?
"Perdition" began life as a word meaning "utter destruction"; that sense is now archaic, but it provides a clue about the origins of the word. "Perdition" was borrowed into English in the 14th century from Anglo-French "perdiciun" and ultimately derives from the Latin verb "perdere," meaning "to destroy." "Perdere" was formed by combining the prefix "per–" ("through") and "dare" ("to give"). Other descendants of that Latin "dare" in English include "date," "edition," "render," and "traitor."