It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 31st.
Today's word is hallowed, spelled H-A-L-L-O-W-E-D.
Hallowed is an adjective.
It describes something such as a memorial, considered holy or blessed,
or something that is highly respected and revered.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Littub by Zachary Pace.
Writing these words, I'm sitting in the living room of my childhood home,
about five feet from the shelves that long ago contained those hallowed books from my aunt.
In this exact spot, even before I had learned how to spell and write,
I would scribble on blank paper with magic markers and staple the pages together,
always this desire, this drive, to make books.
The adjective hallowed, meaning holy or revered, isn't especially spooky,
but its history is entwined with that of a certain spooky season.
Hallowed is the past participle of the verb hallow,
a term that descends from the Middle English word hallowen.
That word can be traced back to the old English adjective hallig, meaning holy.
During the Middle Ages, All Hallows Day was the name for what Christians now call All Saints Day.
Hallow was once used also as a noun referring to a saint.
And the evening that preceded All Hallows Day was All Hallows Eve,
or All Hallow Even, or as we know it today, Halloween.