enhance

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 3, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>enhance</strong> &#149; \in-HANSS\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heighten">heighten</a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/increase">increase</a>; <em>especially</em> <strong>:</strong> to increase or improve in value, quality, desirability, or attractiveness</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>The newspaper company had hoped that including more full-color illustrations and adding extra news features would <em>enhance</em> its product and reverse the decline in circulation.</p> <p>"If you want to learn something new, <em>enhance</em> your skills for career development, maintain your certification, or want to learn for the pleasure of personal enrichment, we have something for you." — <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/georgetown/a-pandemic-shouldn-t-change-the-trajectory-of-your-education/article_ec286310-dc9a-11ea-9c82-f3f111d37582.html">Marilyn Murphy Fore, <em>The Post &amp; Courier</em> (Georgetown, South Carolina), 27 Aug. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>When <em>enhance</em> was borrowed into English in the 13th century, it literally meant to raise something higher. That sense, though now obsolete, provides a clue about the origins of the word. <em>Enhance</em>, which was spelled <em>enhauncen</em> in Middle English, comes to us from <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Anglo-French">Anglo-French</a> <em>enhaucer</em> or <em>enhauncer</em> ("to raise"), which can be traced back to the Latin <em>altus</em> ("high") by way of an assumed Vulgar Latin verb <em>inaltiare</em>, which would have been formed by combining the prefix <em>in-</em> with the Latin <em>altus</em>. Although <em>enhance</em> initially applied only to physical