circumvent

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 13, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>circumvent</strong> &#149; \ser-kum-VENT\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p>To circumvent something is to get around it in a clever and sometimes dishonest way, or, if it's a rule or law, to avoid being stopped by it.</p> <p>// We <em>circumvented</em> the technical issues by using a different computer program.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circumvent">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“[Adrienne] Finch already had several friends who were making money on YouTube, and following in their footsteps seemed like a way to <em>circumvent</em> several years of early-career dues-paying. So she turned down the Warner Bros. gig and instead took a job with a smaller digital-focused production company, one that would give her the space to build a YouTube following on the side. After a year, she left to focus on YouTube full-time.” — Brian Contreras, <em>The Los Angeles Times</em>, 5 Sept. 2023 </p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>If you’ve ever felt as if someone was running circles around those trying to get something done, you have an idea of the origins of <em>circumvent</em>—it comes from the Latin word <em>circumventus</em>, a form of the verb <em>circumvenire</em>, meaning “to surround or go around” (<em>circumvenire</em> combines the adverb <em>circum</em>, “in a circle around,” and the verb <em>venire</em>, “to come”). The earliest uses of <em>circumvent</em> referred to a tactic of hunting or warfare in which the quarry or enemy was encircled and captured. This meaning doesn’t exactly <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/square">square</a> with modern uses of the word. Today, <em>circumvent</em> more often suggests avoidance than entrapment; to come full circle, it typically means to “get ar