volte-face

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>volte-face</strong> &#149; \vawlt-FAHSS\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> a reversal in policy <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/about-face">about-face</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"... I should explain that, some years ago, I was dealt a very severe blow when my friend ... announced that she wanted no further contact with me. She and I had been extremely close for more than a year, and there had been no warning of this <em>volte-face</em>. I was bewildered." — <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oIMCH7Zy1oIC&amp;pg=PT40#v=onepage&amp;q=volte-face&amp;f=false">Zoë Heller, <em>What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal</em>, 2003</a></p> <p>"After declaring optimistically, 'I think I have a lot to say that might be interesting to people,' she did an abrupt <em>volte-face</em>, switching to a low, confessional timbre: 'Who knows? Who knows, right, what I'm doing? I don't know. Maybe no one will be interested.'" — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/style/pamela-anderson-webcam.html?searchResultPosition=1">Caity Weaver, <em>The New York Times</em>, 28 May 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Volte-face</em> came to English by way of French from Italian <em>voltafaccia</em>, a combination of <em>voltare</em>, meaning "to turn," and <em>faccia</em>, "face." It has existed as an English noun since at least 1819. The corresponding English phrase "about face" saw use in a number of forms in the decades before that, including military commands such as "right about face" (that is, to turn 180 degrees to the right so as to face in the opposite direction); nevertheless, the standalone noun <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/about-face">about-face</a></em> (