palmy

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 30, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>palmy</strong> &#149; \PAH-mee\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><em>Palmy</em> describes something that is <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flourishing">flourishing</a> or marked by prosperity, or something that is abounding in or bearing <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/palm">palms</a>.</p> <p>// They knew her in her <em>palmy</em> days when she was living high.</p> <p>// They moved to a <em>palmy</em> suburb with lots of new homes and parks.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/palmy">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“The newspaper industry will survive, and golfers are in no danger of becoming an extinct species. Still, in both cases, the <em>palmy</em> days are probably long gone. Advertising revenues that largely sustained the press have been diverted to the upstart media of a digitized world, while the leisurely pace of golf proves increasingly out of step with the modern hurly-burly.” — James Gill, <em>The Times-Picayune</em> (New Orleans, Louisiana), 6 May 2022</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Our language became a smidge more prosperous the day <em>palmy</em> first waved “hello.” As the palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory, so did the word <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/palm">palm</a></em> come to mean “victory” or “triumph” in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-Chaucer">Geoffrey Chaucer</a>. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would employ <em>palmy</em> as a synonym for <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/triumphant">triumphant</a></em> or <em>flourishing</em> in the tragedy <em>Hamlet</em> when the character Hora