kvell

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 13, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>kvell</strong> &#149; \KVEL\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><em>Kvell</em> is from Yiddish and means "to be extraordinarily proud."</p> <p>// The parents <em>kvelled</em> over their daughter's dance solo. </p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kvell">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"[Norman Lear] had no reason to think he would be a comedy icon with some 120 million people watching his shows each week. How his Russian-born Jewish grandparents would have <em>kvelled</em>." — Sybil Adelman Sage, <em>The Forward</em>, 17 Sep. 2020</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Kvell</em> comes from <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Yiddish">Yiddish</a> <em>kveln</em>, meaning "to be delighted," which, in turn, comes from the Middle High German word <em>quellen</em>, meaning "to well, gush, or swell." Yiddish has been a wellspring of creativity for English, giving us such delightful words as <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meister"><em>meister</em></a> ("one who is knowledgeable about something"), <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maven"><em>maven</em></a> ("expert"), and <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shtick"><em>shtick</em></a> ("one's special activity"), just to name a few. The date for the appearance of <em>kvell</em> in the English language is tricky to pinpoint exactly. The earliest known printed evidence for the word in an English source is found in a 1952 handbook of Jewish words and expressions.</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>