It's the Word of the Day podcast for February 22.
Today's word is astute, spelled A-S-T-U-T-E.
Astute is an adjective.
Someone or something described as astute has or shows an ability to notice and understand things clearly.
In other words, they are mentally sharp or clever.
Astute can also describe someone who is crafty or wily.
Here's the word used by Robbie Meredith on the BBC.
Geraldine and Claire were out walking their dog Daisy.
They felt as though Daisy was very astute at reacting to their mood rather than reflecting it.
Roadrunner always bests Wile E. Coyote in the famous Looney Tunes cartoon series,
but both characters help demonstrate meanings of the word astute.
Astute comes from the Latin adjective astutus, meaning cunning, crafty,
or clever, which in turn comes from the noun astus, meaning craft.
The English adjective, accordingly, can describe both the crafty and the wily.
It's easy to see how this applies to Wile E. Coyote.
In each episode, Roadrunner races along the highways of the American Southwest,
while the Coyote sets an elaborate trap for the bird,
usually with the aid of some goofy product, ordered from the fictitious Acme Company.
But alas, Roadrunner is astute, as in mentally sharp or clever.
In other words, he is not only quick on his feet, but quick on the uptake.