verbiage

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 13, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>verbiage</strong> &#149; \VER-bee-ij\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> a profusion of words usually of little or obscure content</p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> manner of expressing oneself in words <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diction">diction</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"One resident … said during a virtual focus group that a lot of his community was concerned reading the changes of <em>verbiage</em> from 'flood control task force' to 'infrastructure resilience.'" — <a href="https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/champions-klein/news/article/Northwest-Harris-County-residents-want-15450146.php">Paul Wedding, <em>The Houston Chronicle</em>, 31 Jul. 2020</a></p> <p>"It was always G-rated trash talk—he is a devout Catholic, after all, and the strongest epithet he ever seemed to let loose was 'Shoot'…. And his <em>verbiage</em> was often misunderstood. To opposing fans he was a mouthy loose cannon. To those who knew and understood him, it was just his joy and exuberance spilling over." — <a href="https://www.dailynews.com/2020/02/10/alexander-there-arent-many-like-philip-rivers/">Jim Alexander, <em>The Daily News of Los Angeles</em>, 10 Feb. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Verbiage</em> descends from French <em>verbier</em>, meaning "to trill" or "to warble." The usual sense of the word implies an overabundance of possibly unnecessary words, much like the word <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wordiness">wordiness</a></em>. In other words, a writer with a fondness for verbiage might be accused of "wordiness." Some people think the phrase "excess verbiage" is redundant, but that's not necessarily true. <em>Verbiage</em> has a second sense meaning, sim