captious

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2022 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>captious</strong> &#149; \KAP-shuss\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><em>Captious</em> means "tending to find fault and raise objections" or "calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument."</p> <p>// Surprisingly, the critic, who is known for being <em>captious</em>, found the movie to be a flawless gem.</p> <p>// Befuddled by the <em>captious</em> questions, the suspect broke down and confessed to the crime.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/captious">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Enjoyable as the book is, a purist will nonetheless fault its loose construction. Still, readers shouldn't be overly <em>captious</em> about this diverting, light entertainment." — Michael Dirda, <em>The Denver Post</em>, 7 Oct. 2018</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Captious</em> comes from Latin <em>captio</em>, which refers to a deception or verbal <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quibble#h2">quibble</a>. Arguments labeled <em>captious</em> are likely to "<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capture#h2">capture</a>" a person; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who might also be dubbed "<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hypercritical">hypercritical</a>," the sort of carping, censorious critic only too ready to point out minor faults and raise objections on trivial grounds.</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>