Travail - plus, The Good, The Bad, & The Semantically Imprecise - 9/13/19

[Merriam-Webster]( WORD OF THE DAY September 14, 2019 travail [Audio pronunciation]( noun | truh-VAIL Definition 1 a : work especially of a painful or laborious nature : [toil]( b : a physical or mental exertion or piece of work : [task]( [effort]( c : [agony]( [torment]( 2 : [labor]( [childbirth]( Scroll down for more about travail TRENDING NOW: [stymie]( [what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander]( [prorogue]( [the]( [SEE ALL [>]]( PEOPLE ARE READING [The Good, The Bad, & The Semantically Imprecise - 9/13/19]( [A Guide to Using Colons]( ['Appraise' or 'Apprise']( [Scratching the Surface of ‘From Scratch’]( WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE [Musical Words Quiz]( A quiz in common time. [PLAY NOW]( Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try! [TAKE ME THERE [>]]( Did You Know? Etymologists are pretty certain that travail comes from trepalium, the Late Latin name of an instrument of torture. We don't know exactly what a trepalium looked like, but the word's history gives us an idea. Trepalium is derived from the Latin tripalis, which means "having three stakes" (from tri-, meaning "three," and palus, meaning "stake"). From trepalium sprang the Anglo-French verb travailler, which originally meant "to torment" but eventually acquired the milder senses "to trouble" and "to journey." The Anglo-French noun travail was borrowed into English in the 13th century, along with another descendant of travailler, [travel](. Examples of TRAVAIL "Time and again, the company made shrewd business decisions that, through the many travails of two centuries, has left it standing." — [Robert Klara, Adweek.com, 20 May 2019]( "The [Rolling] Stones have survived it all by this point: near-breakups, the death of one member, the voluntary departure of a few others, medical maladies, as well as all the typical travails that have doomed countless other bands coming up in their wake." — [Corbin Reiff, Billboard.com, 22 June 2019Â]( Word Family Quiz What word beginning with "p" is derived from Latin palus ("stake") and can refer to a fence of stakes used for a defense or to a line of steep cliffs along a river or ocean? [VIEW THE ANSWER [>]]( MORE WORD FUN: [WORD GAMES [>]]( [TRENDING NOW [>]]( [WORDS AT PLAY [>]]( FOLLOW US: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( SHARE: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [View this email in a web browser]( You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day. [Unsubscribe from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day]( [Manage your subscription settings]( Merriam-Webster, Inc. 47 Federal Street, P.O. Box 281 Springfield, MA, 01102, USA [www.merriam-webster.com]( | [Privacy Policy]( © 2019 by Merriam-Webster, Inc.