perdition

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."