envisage

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>envisage</strong> &#149; \in-VIZ-ij\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p>To <em>envisage</em> something is to picture it in your mind, or to view or regard something in a particular way.</p> <p>// She <em>envisages</em> many positive changes and opportunities in the New Year.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/envisage">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“Amid all his onscreen work, [Sheb] Wooley never stopped writing songs. And the one that took off … was ‘The Purple People Eater,’ which skewered the musical crazes of the time by <em>envisaging</em> a grotesque space invader taking the bait.” — Morgan Enos, <em>UDiscoverMusic.com</em>, 31 Oct. 2023</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Envisage</em> this: a word is borrowed from French in the mid-17th century and sticks around to be used in the 21st. It’s not hard to picture; <em>envisage</em> is not alone in this accomplishment. Used today to mean “to have a mental picture of something, especially in advance of realization” and “to view or regard something in a certain way,” <em>envisage</em> for a time could also mean “to confront or face someone.” That use, which is now archaic, nods to the word’s origin: we borrowed <em>envisage</em> from French, but the <em>visage</em> part is from Anglo-French <em>vis</em>, meaning “face.” (It reaches back ultimately to Greek <em>idein</em>, “to see.”) <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/visage"><em>Visage</em></a> is of course also an English word. It entered English much earlier, in the 14th century, and is typically used today in literary contexts to refer to a person’s face. <em>Envisage</em> isn’t necessarily restricted to literary contexts, but it does have a formal tone. Its near twin <em><a href