circumscribe

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 8, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>circumscribe</strong> &#149; \SER-kum-skrybe\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><em>Circumscribe</em> means “to limit the size or amount of something,” or, in other words, “to constrict the range or activity of.”</p> <p>// His role as president was carefully <em>circumscribed</em> by the board.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circumscribe">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“[Jane] Addams didn’t put much stock in being ideologically pure. In the best <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pragmatist">pragmatist</a> tradition, she did the right thing according to the circumstance and the evidence and worked with people of all identities and ideologies to get there. That included people with views very different from her own. Addams wrote: ‘We know instinctively that if we grow contemptuous of our fellows and consciously limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people whom we have previously decided to respect, we not only <em>circumscribe</em> our range of life, but limit the scope of our ethics.’” — Eboo Patel, <em>The Chicago Tribune</em>, 21 Apr. 2022</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>To circumscribe something is to limit its size, activity, or range, but the range of influence of the Latin ancestors of <em>circumscribe</em> knows no bounds. <em>Circumscribe</em> comes via Middle English from the Latin verb <em>circumscribere</em> (which roughly translates as “to draw a circle around”), which in turn comes from <em>circum-</em>, meaning “circle,” and <em>scribere</em>, meaning “to write or draw.” Among the many descendants of <em>circum-</em> are <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circuit"><em>circuit</em></a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circumference