heyday

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 5, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>heyday</strong> &#149; \HAY-day\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> the period of one's greatest popularity, vigor, or prosperity</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"The theater engaged Mr. Leslie ‘Les' Jones to build and paint the sets. He was in his early sixties when I arrived—he'd been a legendary scene painter during the <em>heyday</em> of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vaudeville">vaudeville</a>." — <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=nDA8Hvr1jzkC&amp;pg=PT51#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">Kate Bornstein, <em>A Queer and Present Danger</em>, 2012</a></p> <p>"But there are few drive-in theaters left. They've dwindled to just a handful in the Twin Cities since their <em>heyday</em> in the 1950s and '60s. There are only six left in Minnesota." — <a href="https://www.twincities.com/2020/07/26/creative-pals-deliver-pop-up-drive-in-experience/">Kathy Berdan, <em>TwinCities.com</em> (St. Paul, Minnesota), 26 July 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>In its earliest appearances in English, in the 16th century, <em>heyday</em> was used as an interjection that expressed elation or wonder (similar to our word <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hey">hey</a></em>, from which it derives). Within a few decades, <em>heyday</em> was seeing use as a noun meaning "high spirits." This sense can be seen in Act III, scene 4 of <em>Hamlet</em>, when the Prince of Denmark tells his mother, "You cannot call it love; for at your age / The heyday in the blood is tame…." The word's second syllable is not thought to be borne of the modern word <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/day">day</a></em> (or any of its ancestors), but in the 18th century the syllable's resemblance to that wor