layman

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2022 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>layman</strong> &#149; \LAY-mun\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p>A <em>layman</em> is a person who belongs to a religion but is a not a member of its <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clergy">clergy</a>. <em>Layman</em> is also used for someone who does not belong to a particular profession or is not an expert in some field.</p> <p>// A banquet was held in honor of the faithful <em>laymen</em> who have volunteered their time and services to the church.  </p> <p>// The author claims the book to be an introduction to physics, but it proves to be quite inaccessible to the <em>layman</em>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/layman">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Elsewhere in the temple, I found the workplace of the trained <em>laymen</em> who had been granted permission to practice their art … despite not being ordained as monks." — Francesco Lastrucci, <em>The New York Times</em>, 25 Nov. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Layman</em> is a closed compound of <em>lay man</em>. <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lay#h5">Lay</a></em> is an adjective that means "of or relating to the people of a religious faith (but not of its <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clergy">clergy</a>)." The origins of <em>lay</em> and <em>layman</em> go back to Greek <em>laikos</em>, meaning "of the people." <em>Layman</em> was originally used to distinguish between non-clerical people and the clergy before being used to distinguish non-professionals from professionals in a field (such as law or medicine).</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>