grubstake

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 6, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>grubstake</strong> &#149; \GRUB-stayk\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> to provide with material assistance (such as a loan) for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Kimbro, on the other hand, traveled widely, still hoping to find the speculator who would <em>grubstake</em> him for the big attack on the hidden field. He would go anywhere, consult with anyone, and offer almost any kind of inducement: 'Let me have the money, less than a year, ten-percent interest, and I'll give you one-thirty-second of my participation.'" <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZU00AQAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA1140#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">— James A. Michener, <em>Texas</em>, 1985</a></p> <p>"When my entrepreneurial father had the bright idea to start a microfilm company, he asked my grandfather for financial help, only to be refused.… Eventually his brother, Frank, a doctor, <em>grubstaked</em> him for $500 to help start the company, a tidy sum in those days." — <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/phils-column/phil-power-lessons-great-depression-and-past-pandemics-come-home-roost">Phil Power, <em>Bridge Magazine</em> (Michigan), 28 Mar. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Grubstake</em> is a linguistic nugget that was dug up during the famous California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Sometime between the first stampede and the early 1860s, when the gold-seekers headed off to Montana, prospectors combined <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grub#h2">grub</a></em> ("food") and <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stake">stake</a></em>, meaning "an interest or share in an undertaking." At first <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/diction