cabal

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 14, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>cabal</strong> &#149; \kuh-BAHL\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p>A <em>cabal</em> is a group secretly united in a plot.</p> <p>// Military police arrested members of the <em>cabal</em> who were planning to overthrow the government.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabal">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"February 14? … That's an arbitrary date picked by a <em>cabal</em> of florists and greeting card manufacturers. Love can happen any time of the year…." — Bruce Gravel, <em>Peterborough (Ontario) This Week</em>, 4 Feb. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Cabal</em> has been associated with a group of five ministers in the government of England's King Charles II. The initial letters of the names or titles of those men (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale) spelled <em>cabal</em>, and they have been collectively dubbed as the "Cabal Cabinet" or "Cabal Ministry." But these five names are not the source of the word <em>cabal</em>, which was in use decades before Charles II ascended the throne. The term traces back to <em>cabbala</em>, the Medieval Latin name for the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kabbalah">Kabbalah</a>, a traditional system of esoteric Jewish mysticism. Latin borrowed <em>Cabbala</em> from the Hebrew <em>qabbālāh</em>, meaning "received or traditional lore."</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>