perdure

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>perdure</strong> &#149; \per-DUR\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> to continue to exist <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/last#h1">last</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"The making of a variety show—a nearly extinct genre that <em>perdures</em> as comedy fodder—is also the subject of David Cerda's 'The Rip Nelson Holiday Quarantine Special,' presented by the Chicago company Hell in a Handbag." — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/theater/streaming-theater-estella-scrooge.html">Elizabeth Vincentelli, <em>The New York Times</em>, 2 Dec. 2020</a></p> <p>"For many in Europe, the rise of the politically engaged intellectual … occurred at the end of the 19th century when writers, artists and philosophers stood up for Alfred Dreyfus, a victim of pervasive French anti-Semitism. This tradition <em>perdured</em> in the 20th century with André Malraux who joined the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and the fight between Jean-Paul Sartre …, and Albert Camus over the Algerian war for independence." — <a href="https://observer.com/2015/05/why-does-everyone-hate-bernard-henri-levy/">Jacques Hyzagi, <em>The Observer</em>, 1 May 2015</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Perdure</em> may be an unfamiliar word for many of our readers, but those who suspect they see hints of its ancestry in the more familiar synonym <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/endure">endure</a></em> are correct. <em>Perdure</em> was borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-French and traces back to the Latin verb <em>perdurare</em>, meaning "to continue." <em>Perdurare</em>, in turn, was formed by combining the intensifying prefix <em>per-</em> with the verb <em>durare</em>, meaning "to last." <em