intrepid

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 8, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>intrepid</strong> &#149; \in-TREP-id\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><em>Intrepid</em> means “fearless, bold, and brave.”</p> <p>// Her college semester abroad sparked a series of <em>intrepid</em> travels around the world.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrepid">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“After a trio of tech billionaires are forewarned of an apocalyptic <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superbug">superbug</a> and flee to a secret doomsday bunker to save only themselves, an unlikely group of friends embark on an <em>intrepid</em> mission to take down the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. Beginning with the end of civilization and jumping back and forth through time, Naomi Alderman, the award-winning author of 2016's <em>The Power</em>, weaves a cautionary tale of what society stands to lose in a near-future where AI has transformed all walks of life.” — Megan McCluskey, <em>Time</em>, 31 Oct. 2023</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>If you’re going to name a ship, whether an <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aircraft%20carrier">aircraft carrier</a> or an interstellar <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/starship">starship</a>, you could do worse than to name it the Intrepid, as both the United States military and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Star-Trek-series-1966-1969"><em>Star Trek</em></a> writers have done, respectively. (Technically “Intrepid” is a class of Trek ships that includes the <em>Voyager</em>, etc., but you get the drift.) <em>Intrepid</em>, after all, comes from the Latin word <em>intrepidus</em>, itself formed by the combination of the prefix <em>in-</em>, meaning “not,” and the adjective <em>