Dec 24, 2025 · From its use in hunting, the verb acquired its current figurative meanings concerned with returning to the past. The variants hearken and harken (also very old words meaning "to listen") are …

Feb 3, 2026 · Learn a new word every day! Follow Merriam-Webster for the most trusted Word of the Day, trending info, word games, and more.

Feb 22, 2024 · Haggard has its origins in falconry, the ancient sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey. The birds used in falconry were not bred in captivity until very recently; traditionally, falconers trained …

Oct 13, 2023 · The earliest uses of circumvent referred to a tactic of hunting or warfare in which the quarry or enemy was encircled and captured. This meaning doesn’t exactly square with modern uses …

Feb 26, 2023 · Take the particularly apt example (stay tuned) of mushroom hunting. The likely ancestor of foray is an Anglo-French word referring to the violent sort who do invasion forays, but that word …

Jan 16, 2026 · English speakers borrowed vendetta, spelling and all, from Italian in the 19th century; literally meaning 'revenge,' vendetta first referred specifically to Italian and especially Corsican family- or

Dec 27, 2024 · In some parts of the southern United States, the word feist (pronounced to rhyme with heist) has been used since the 18th century as a term for a small dog used in hunting more …

Oct 3, 2008 · The practice of using preserved fish to confuse hunting dogs led to the use of the term "red herring" for anything that diverts attention from the issue at hand.

Nov 13, 2008 · Although some hunting traditionalists decried the practice as either cruel or unsportsmanlike when it began, the battue survives today, as does the word for it.

Jan 19, 2024 · In Old Italian, the verb aringare meant 'to speak in public,' the noun aringo referred to a public assembly, and the noun aringa referred to a public speech. Aringa was borrowed into Middle …