blithesome

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>blithesome</strong> &#149; \BLIGHTH-sum\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> with lightheartedness or unconcern <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gay">gay</a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/merry">merry</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"The stranger had given a <em>blithesome</em> promise, and anchored it with oaths; but oaths and anchors equally will drag; naught else abides on fickle earth but unkept promises of joy." — <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15859/15859-h/15859-h.htm">Herman Melville, <em>The Piazza Tales</em>, 1856</a></p> <p>"Writing and producing comedy is no laughing matter. A subtle alchemy is required if it is to work—a strange magic involving both the playwright, the director and the cast. One slip and the most <em>blithesome</em> of comedies becomes either ponderous sludge or hopelessly contrived and blunt-ended." — <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/115627199/cast-of-five-nails-the-pink-hammer">Chris Moore, <em>The Press</em> (Christchurch, New Zealand), 9 Sept. 2019</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blithe">Blithe</a></em> had been bounding about in the language for six centuries before English speakers attached a <em>-some</em> to its tail to make <em>blithesome</em>. Poet Robert Greene appears to have been among the first to employ the extension. In his 1594 poem "A Looking Glasse for London and England" he wrote "these [large leather bottles] of the richest wine, / Make me think how blithesome we will be." The suffix <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-some#h5">-some</a></em> has over the centuries produced a great number of adjectives (many