Sluggo, I started with indurate but decided its meaning didn't diverge enough from obdurate to do both and, since obdurate was the more common, I would go with it. After working half an afternoon on obdurate , I discovered not only had I already done that word, but the first version was head and sho...

• obdurate • Pronunciation: ahb -dyê-rêt • Hear it ! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Emotionally hardened, hard-hearted, unsympathetic. 2. Intractable, unrepentant, adamantly and unshakably stubborn. Notes: Writers have done a lot of experimentation with the noun from this adjective. Obduracy...

• ardent • Pronunciation: ahr -dênt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1 Passionate, fervent, highly enthusiastic. 2. Fiery, burning, glowing, as though on fire. Notes: Although both ardency and ardentness have been used as nouns for this adjective, a noun with a completely different suf...

• mummer • Pronunciation: mêm -êr • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. A mime, a pantomime. 2. A brightly, indeed, fantastically costumed merrymaker at a festival. Notes: The behavior of a mummer in either sense of today's Good Word is mummery . This noun can also refer to the costumes of me...

• flag • Pronunciation: flæg • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: A banner (colored cloth) symbolizing something. Notes: You would think that, used as a verb, this word would mean to wave proudly but, just the opposite, it means to hang limply or become weak and exhausted, as to conversation fl...

• outrage • Pronunciation: awt -rayj • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: An act of horror beyond all bounds of decency, deserving of the greatest anger and resentment. 2. The furious response to such an act. Notes: Today's word was originally the abstract noun corresponding to the adjective ou...

• gonzo • Pronunciation: gahn -zo • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Bizarre, outrageously unusual, very 'far out', out-of-sight, off the deep end. Notes: This odd term first surfaced in a 1971 article by William Cardoso of the Boston Globe describing the journalist-novelist Hunter Thomp...

• skirmish • Pronunciation: skêr -mish • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. A minor, preliminary battle or conflict between two small opposing groups. 2. A little scuffle. Notes: No, today's word doesn't mean "a little skirm"; in fact, that is not the suffix -ish on the end of it, ...

• poseur • Pronunciation: po- sêr • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: A person who pretends to be what he or she is not. Notes: A charlatan or con artist pretends to be someone he or she is not in order to deceive. A poseur usually pretends to be someone better than he or she is in order to im...

• indefatigable • Pronunciation: in-dê- fæd -ig-ê-bêl • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Untiring, tireless, unflagging. Notes: Today's Good Word is obviously related to the noun and verb fatigue [fê-teeg], though not directly; it conducts itself as an independent word in English today. ...

• bodacious • Pronunciation: bo- day -shês • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: (US slang) 1. Unrestrained, outspoken, brazen, bold and audacious. 2. Exceptional, excellent, or outlandishly striking. Notes: Although we are still listing this word as slang, it is slowly but surely making it...

• louche • Pronunciation: loosh • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Questionable, 'fishy', not straightforward, suspicious—even disreputable in some contexts. Notes: Today's word entered English so recently (the 1810s), that it has hardly had time to procreate. However, a few writers have...

• albeit • Pronunciation: awl- bee -it • Hear it! Part of Speech: Conjunction Meaning: Although, even though, however, on the other hand. Notes: We seldom write up conjunctions as Good Words, since there is usually little to say about them. Today's word, however, recently evolved from a phrase and ...

• shebang • Pronunciation: shê- bæng • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: (US Slang) No, today's Good Word does not refer specifically to a feminist rally. It means "anything at all", but particularly a business, drinking establishment, vehicle, or living quarters. Notes: Today's Good...

• evanescent • Pronunciation: e-vê- nes -ênt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Fleeting, dissipating softly, tending to evaporate or simply disappear softly into thin air. Notes: Today's Good Word is the daughter of the verb evanesce and the mother of the noun evanescence. Objects in a ...