It's the word of the day for April 4th.
Today's word is wiseacre, spelled as a single word, W-I-S-E-A-C-R-E.
Wiseacre is a noun.
A wiseacre is someone who says or does things that are funny but annoying.
Wiseacre is an informal and old-fashioned word, as well as a synonym of smart aleck.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Deadline.
In 1982's hit action comedy 48 Hours, a young Eddie Murphy plays a Wiseacre criminal on parole in order
A Wiseacre, after all, is someone who thinks or pretends they're wiser, more crafty or knowing than they are.
But you would, alas, also be wrong.
to help a veteran cop, played by Nick Nolte, solve a case.
Given the spelling and definition of Wiseacre,
Unlike Wisecrack and Weisenheimer, Wiseacre came to English not from wise,
you might guess that the word was formed directly from the familiar adjective wise.
but from the Middle Dutch word weisege, meaning soothsayer.
The etymologies of wiseacre and wise are not completely distinct, however.
And you might be wise to think so.
The ancestors of wiseacre are loosely tied to the same old English root that gave us wise.
Wiseacre first appeared in English way back in the 1500s, while all those other wise words appeared centuries later.
With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
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