glom

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>glom</strong> &#149; \GLAHM\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p>To glom is to take or get something. <em>Glom</em> is most often used in the phrase “glom on to” to refer to taking something for your own use, becoming strongly attached to or associated with someone or something, or becoming aware of something. </p> <p>// The book consists of a collection of humorous essays <em>glommed</em> from popular magazines.</p> <p>// That author is known for <em>glomming</em> on to other people's ideas as if they were his own.</p> <p>// Other business owners have not yet <em>glommed</em> onto the impact the new parking garage will have on the town.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glom">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“I am aware that adaptations have been with us for centuries and that Shakespeare borrowed his best plots. But that doesn't stop this book lover from being suspicious when movies and plays <em>glom</em> onto my favorite titles.” — Chris Hewitt, <em>The Star Tribune</em> (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 21 May 2023 </p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glaum">glaum</a></em> (a term from Scots dialect that basically means “to grab”) and appropriated it as their own, changing it to <em>glom</em> in the process. <em>Glom</em> first meant “to steal” (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched to include figurative uses. Today the term is most familiar in the phrase “glom on to,” or “glom onto,” which can mean “to appropriate for one's own use,” as in “glomming on to another's idea”; “to grab hold of,” as in “glommed onto the last cookie”; “to latch on to,” as