facultative | Word of the Day

April 18, 2019 facultative [fak-uhl-tey-tiv] adjective 1. left to one's option or choice; optional: The last questions in the examination were facultative. word-trends Has The Word "Expert" Lost Its Meaning In 2019? word-trends Is "Crude" The Right Word To Use To Describe Someone's Language? WORD OF THE DAY facultative continued... QUOTES I cannot but be conscious, when this toast of "Science and Literature" is given, that in what tends to become the popular view it is Sir William Grove and Science who are obligatory; it is I and Literature who are facultative. -- Matthew Arnold, "Banquet at the Royal Academy," The Times, May 2, 1881 ORIGIN The adjective facultative comes via the French adjective facultatif (masculine), facultative (feminine) "conveying or granting a right or power," from the noun faculté "knowledge, learning, physical or moral capacity." French faculté is ultimately from Latin facultāt-, the stem of facultās "ability, power, capacity" (originally a doublet of the noun facilitās "ease, ease of performance or completion, facility"). The French adjective suffix -atif, -ative comes from the Latin suffix -ātivus; the English suffix -ative comes from both French and Latin. Facultative entered English in the 19th century. MORE FOR YOU 1 Can We Call Products "Meat" or "Milk" If They Don't Come From Animals? In our age of meatless chicken nuggets, tofu hot dogs, and faux burgers that "bleed," what constitutes meat today? 2 The Google Effect And More 'Rules' The Internet Created Who needs to stash away names and dates into our longterm memory when we have Google? And, guess what, that phenomenon has a name! 3 Dissent vs. Protest: Why Choosing The Right Word Matters It seems political conflict in the 2010s has put the words dissent and protest at the center of our vocabulary. But are we using them correctly? 4 The Double Meanings For These Innocent Animal Emoji Sometimes, a lobster isn't just a lobster ... 5 Does "Spark Joy" Mean The Same Thing In English And Japanese? In the context of the KonMari method, joy goes beyond just happiness. So what does it actually mean in Japanese, then? © 2019 Dictionary.com, LLC. ABOUT CONTACT You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: matzom229@gmail.com Subscriber since: September 06, 2017 Unsubscribe Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Manage your subscription Terms & Privacy