durable

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 15, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>durable</strong> &#149; \DUR-uh-bul\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> able to exist for a long time without significant deterioration; <em>also</em> <strong>:</strong> designed to be durable</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>The couch is covered in an eye-catching yet <em>durable</em> fabric that will last for years.</p> <p>"And yet books about United States presidents—biographies, autobiographies, tell-alls … —have been among the most <em>durable</em> literary genres since the presidency of George Washington." — <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-obama-promised-land-20201112-2hc4lo773va67hsamfgpbaxs4u-story.html">Christopher Borrelli, <em>The Chicago Tribune</em>, 12 Nov. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Something <em>durable</em> lasts a long time, so it's no surprise that the word comes to us, via Anglo-French, from the Latin verb <em>durare</em>, meaning "to last." Other descendants of <em>durare</em> in English include <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/during">during</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/endure">endure</a></em>, and <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/durance">durance</a></em> (which now mostly turns up in the phrase "in durance vile," a fancy way of saying "in prison"). <em>Durable</em> even has a near synonym in the much rarer <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perdurable">perdurable</a></em>, which combines <em>durare</em> with the prefix <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/per-#h4">per-</a></em> (meaning "throughout") to create a word that can mean "lasting a very long time or indefinitely" or "eternal."</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>