Words of the Day

Wordsmith's Word of the Day:

vizier (vi-ZEER, VIZ-yuhr) noun

A high official.

[From Turkish vezir, from Arabic wazir (minister).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=vizier

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

"In fact, poor Jeff Immelt, the grand vizier of all General Electric,
gets only $15 million, plus perks."
Mark Drought; Love of Money is the Root of All Evil; East Texas Review;
Oct 9, 2007;

Merriam Webster Word of the Day:

aghast • \uh-GAST\ • adjective

: struck with terror, amazement, or horror : shocked

Example Sentence:
In an effort to impress his date, Adam ordered the most expensive items on the menu, then was aghast when the bill arrived.
Did you know?
If you are aghast, you might look like you've just seen a ghost, or something similarly shocking. "Aghast" traces back to a Middle English verb, "gasten," meaning "to frighten." "Gasten" (which also gave us "ghastly," meaning "terrible or frightening") comes from "gast," a Middle English spelling of the word "ghost." "Gast" also came to be used in English as a verb meaning "to scare." That verb is now obsolete, but its spirit lives on in words spoken by the character Edmund in Shakespeare's King Lear: "gasted by the noise I made, full suddenly he fled."