pontificate

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 19, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>pontificate</strong> &#149; \pahn-TIF-uh-kayt\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p>To pontificate is to speak or express an opinion about something in a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pompous">pompous</a> or <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dogmatic">dogmatic</a> way.</p> <p>// Stan loves to hear himself talk and will often <em>pontificate</em> on even the most trivial issues.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pontificate#h1">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Fact is, you can find good pizza from Memphis to Salt Lake City. But you have to look a lot harder than you do in Orlando. So, stop with this nonsense already. Similarly, let's abandon the absolutes. This place is THE BEST. That place is THE WORST. These things are entirely subjective and ranted about on the internet by a small but exhaustingly vocal contingent of zealots, many of whom I suspect enjoy <em>pontificating</em> far more than they enjoy pizza." — Amy Drew Thompson, <em>The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel</em>, 8 June 2023</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>We hate to drone on, so we’ll give you the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tldr">TL;DR</a> on <em>pontificate</em>. In ancient Rome, a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/pontifex">pontifex</a> (plural <em>pontifices</em>) was a member of an important council of priests. With the rise of Catholicism, the title <em>pontifex</em> was transferred to the Pope and to Catholic bishops. From <em>pontifex</em>, by way of Medieval Latin, comes the English verb <em>pontificate</em>, which in the early 1800s meant “to officiate as a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pontiff">pontiff</a>”—that is, as a bishop or Pope. (No