bildungsroman

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 28, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>bildungsroman</strong> &#149; \BIL-doonks-roh-mahn\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p>A <em>bildungsroman</em> is a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character.</p> <p>// She was thrilled to discover that the next book on the syllabus was a <em>bildungsroman</em> by her favorite author. </p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"[Brendan] Slocumb's debut novel, a musical <em>bildungsroman</em> nestled within a literary thriller, centers itself on the theft and ransom of a rising star's priceless violin—once a modest family heirloom until an appraisal reveals its true worth—just days before the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition." — Miguel Salazar, <em>The New York Times</em>, 4 Dec. 2022</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Bildungsroman</em> is the combination of two German nouns: <em>Bildung</em>, meaning "education," and <em>Roman</em>, meaning "novel." (Nouns in German are always capitalized.) Fittingly, a bildungsroman is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character, and in particular, with the character's psychological development and moral education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note, with the protagonist's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over, and a life of usefulness ahead. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe">Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</a>'s late 18th-century work <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wilhelm-Meisters-Apprenticeship"><em>Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship</em></a> is often cited as the classic example of a bildungsroman. Though the term is primarily applied to novels, in recent years some English speakers have begun to apply i