mesmerize

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 28, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>mesmerize</strong> &#149; \MEZ-muh-ryze\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> to subject to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mesmerism">mesmerism</a>; <em>also</em> <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hypnotize">hypnotize</a></p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spellbind">spellbind</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>The crowd was <em>mesmerized</em> by the flawlessly synchronous movements of the acrobats.</p> <p>"Control is a coveted possession in <em>Credulity</em>, Ogden's illuminating recent study of American mesmerism. The mesmerists and skeptics she studies all seem to want it; at any rate, they want to consider themselves rational and self-possessed enough not to fall under anyone else’s. During this brief, strange moment between 1836 and the late 1850s, <em>mesmerizing</em> another person—or seeing someone get <em>mesmerized</em>, or denouncing mesmerists as charlatans—became a way of stockpiling control for one's own use." — <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/07/24/a-compelling-power-when-mesmerism-came-to-america/">Max Nelson, <em>The New York Review of Books</em>, 24 July 2019</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Experts can't agree on whether Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was a quack or a genius, but all concede that the late 18th-century physician's name is the source of the word <em>mesmerize</em>. In his day, Mesmer was the toast of Paris, where he enjoyed the support of notables including <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Marie%20Antoinette">Queen Marie Antoinette</a>. He treated patients with a force he termed <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/animal%20magnetism">animal