gadfly

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>gadfly</strong> &#149; \GAD-flye\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> any of various flies (such as a horsefly, botfly, or warble fly) that bite or annoy <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/livestock">livestock</a></p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> a person who stimulates or annoys other people especially by persistent criticism</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"One of a handful of well-known corporate <em>gadflies</em>, she often cut a distinctive figure, appearing in costumes that she thought would underscore her messages to company leaders. For an American Broadcasting Company meeting in 1966, not long after the network's campy series 'Batman' had its premiere, she wore a Batman mask; for a meeting of U.S. Steel shareholders in 1968, she wore an aluminum dress." — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/business/evelyn-davis-dead.html">Emily Flitter, <em>The New York Times</em>, 7 Nov. 2018</a></p> <p>"Ever since the philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed in the<em> Philosophical Quarterly</em> that the universe and everything in it might be a simulation, there has been intense public speculation and debate about the nature of reality. Such public intellectuals as Tesla leader and prolific Twitter <em>gadfly</em> Elon Musk have opined about the statistical inevitability of our world being little more than cascading green code." — <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-we-live-in-a-simulation/">Fouad Khan, <em>Scientific American</em>, 1 Apr., 2021</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>The history of <em>gadfly</em> starts with <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gad">gad</a></em>, which now means "chisel" but which formerly could designate a spike, spear, or rod for goading cattle