truncate

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

语言学习

2024-11-10

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 10, 2024 is: truncate TRUNG-kayt verb What It Means To truncate something—such as a discussion or essay—is to make it shorter. // The interview was truncated and edited for clarity. cynosure in Context “I am a scholar and a student of the Arabic poetic tradition. I study poets from Imru’ al-Qays to Mahmoud Darwish, from al-Samaw’al to Hiba Abu Nada. I am not willing to chop up this tradition into palatable and digestible bites. I will not truncate a poem if the ending makes you uncomfortable.” — Huda Fakhreddine, LitHub.com, 29 Aug. 2024 Did You Know? Bushwhack your way deep enough into the literature of tree identification and you may come across references to trees with “truncate” leaves. Such leaves (as of the tulip tree, for example) have bases that are straight and even, as though they’ve been cut or sheared away from something larger. The adjectival use of truncate isn’t common—it’s mostly found in technical writing (and can also describe feathers, etc., that appear squared or evened off), but the familiar verb doesn’t fall far from the tree: it is applied when something is shortened by literally or figuratively lopping part of it off, as when someone truncates a planned speech to fit time constraints. Both adjective and noun come from the Latin verb truncare, meaning “to shorten,” which in turn traces back to the noun truncus, meaning “trunk.” So next time you’re stumped about the meaning of truncate, try to picture, well, a stump.
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  • It's the word of the day for November 10th.

  • Today's word is truncate, spelled T-R-U-N-C-A-T-E.

  • Truncate is a verb.

  • To truncate something, such as a discussion or essay, is to make it shorter.

  • Here's the word used in a sentence from lithub.com.

  • I am a scholar and a student of the Arabic poetic tradition.

  • I study poets from Imru al-Qaiz to Mamu Darwish, from Al-Samaral to Hiba Abu-Nada.

  • I am not willing to chop up this tradition into palatable and digestible bites.

  • I will not truncate a poem if the ending makes you uncomfortable.

  • Bushwack your way deep enough into the literature of tree identification,

  • and you may come across references to trees with truncate leaves.

  • Such leaves, as of the tulip tree, for example, have bases that are straight and even,

  • as though they've been cut or sheared away from something larger.

  • The adjectival use of the word truncate isn't common.

  • It's mostly found in technical writing,

  • and can also describe feathers that appear squared or evened off.

  • But the familiar verb doesn't fall far from the tree.

  • It's applied when something is shortened by literally or figuratively lopping part of it off,

  • as when someone truncates a planned speech to fit time constraints.

  • Both adjective and noun come from the Latin verb truncare, meaning to shorten,