minatory

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>minatory</strong> &#149; \MIN-uh-tor-ee\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> having a menacing quality</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Then the squirrel seemed to notice Vinnie; to turn a <em>minatory</em> black eye toward him. The eye extended out from its head an inch or two on a little silvery stalk and tilted this way and that." — <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=X1tqxhAljLEC&amp;pg=PA96#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">John Shirley, <em>Crawlers</em>, 2003</a></p> <p>"In 'Wonderland,' a retired ballerina named Orla Moreau (H.G. Wells-reference alert!) and her husband, a lifelong dilettante named Shaw, move their two young kids from Manhattan to the woods of upstate New York so he can pursue his new passion for painting. An isolated old house in December, some <em>minatory</em> trees in the yard—what could go wrong?" — <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/books/2020/08/20/Zoje-Stage-Wonderland-review/stories/202008200008">Bill O'Driscoll, <em>The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</em>, 20 Aug. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Knowing that <em>minatory</em> means "threatening," can you take a guess at a related word? If you're familiar with mythology, perhaps you guessed <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Minotaur"><em>Minotaur</em></a>, the name of the bull-headed, people-eating monster of Crete. <em>Minotaur</em> is a good guess, but as terrifying as the monster sounds, its name isn't related to <em>minatory</em>. The relative we're searching for is actually <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/menace">menace</a></em>. <em>Minatory</em> and <em>menace</em> both come from derivatives of the Latin verb <em>minari</em>, which means "to threaten." <em>Minatory</em> was borrowed dir