garnish

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 10, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>garnish</strong> &#149; \GAHR-nish\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><strong>1 a :</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decorate">decorate</a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embellish">embellish</a></p> <p><strong>b :</strong> to add decorative or savory touches to (food or drink)</p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> to equip with accessories <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furnish">furnish</a></p> <p><strong>3 :</strong> to take (something, such as a debtor's wages) by legal authority <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/garnishee#h2">garnishee</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>The mashed potatoes were <em>garnished</em> with chives.</p> <p>"At times, the [Illinois Department of Employment Security] anti-fraud system assumed the employees themselves were the thieves and began asking the state <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comptroller">comptroller</a> to <em>garnish</em> their wages, officials acknowledged." — Joe Mahr, <em>The Pantagraph</em> (Bloomington, Illinois), 30 June 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Although we now mostly garnish food, the general application of the "decorate" sense is older. The link between embellishing an object or space and adding a little parsley to a plate is not too hard to see, but how does the sense relating to debtors' wages fit in? The answer lies in the word's Anglo-French root, <em>garnir</em>, which has various meanings including "to give notice or legal summons" and "to decorate." Before wages were garnished, the debtor would be served with a legal summons or warning. The legal sense of <em>garnish</em> now focuses on the taking of the wages, but it is rooted in the ac