Word of the Day
salubrious
adjective
favorable to or promoting health; healthful.
Why Dictionary.com chose salubrious
More about salubrious
- Salubrious entered English around 1540–50.
- Salubrious comes from the Latin word salūbr(is), meaning “promoting health,” which is related to the Latin word salūs, “health.”
- Salūs also gives us the Spanish word salud, “health,” which is used to say “Cheers!” (“To your health!”) when toasting drinks or instead of “Bless you!” when someone sneezes.
- Use of salud in English dates back to at least the 1930s.
EXAMPLES OF SALUBRIOUS
- The company’s commitment to providing a salubrious workplace includes regular ergonomic assessments and wellness programs for employees.
- The fresh sea breeze and clean ocean air make this coastal town an incredibly salubrious place to live.
pernicious
adjective
deadly; destructive; exceedingly harmful.
Why Dictionary.com chose pernicious
More about pernicious
- Pernicious entered English around 1515–25.
- Pernicious comes from the Latin word perniciōsus, meaning “ruinous.”
- Perniciōsus combines per-, “through,” and –nici-, a form of nex, “death, murder,” that has the stem nec-.
- A few terms that share this stem are necromancy, “a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead,” and necropsy, also known as an autopsy, “the examination of a body after death.”
EXAMPLES OF PERNICIOUS
- The pernicious effects of smoking can lead to severe health problems, including lung cancer and heart disease.
- The invasive species had a pernicious impact on the fragile ecosystem, wiping out native plants and disrupting the natural balance.
hallucinate
verb
(of artificial intelligence) to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as if true and factual.
Why Dictionary.com chose hallucinate
This sense of hallucinate, used in the context of AI and added to our dictionary this year, represents many profound ramifications for the future of language and life. In 2023, we saw a significant increase in dictionary lookups for the word along with increased use in digital media.
More about hallucinate
- Hallucinate was first recorded in 1595–1605 and comes from the Latin word ālūcinārī, a variant of the verb meaning “to wander mentally.”
- Use of hallucinate in the context of computer science dates back to a 1971 research paper on training computers to accurately “read” and output handwriting.
- Hallucinate, in the featured sense, began to appear in the context of machine learning and AI by the 1990s.
EXAMPLES OF HALLUCINATE
- Researchers found that the chatbot hallucinates more frequently than previously thought, with as much as 10% of its output being inaccurate.
- The virtual assistant began to hallucinate, providing users with helpful tips mixed with unreliable information.
Learn more about why Dictionary.com chose hallucinate as the 2023 Word of the Year here!