It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11th.
Today's word is Juj, spelled Z-H-U-Z-H.
Juj is a verb.
To Juj something up is to improve its flavor or appearance by way of a small improvement,
adjustment, or addition.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Buzzfeed, quoting Brit Ross.
That deep, savory flavor comes from ingredients like fermented black bean,
shallots, mushroom powder, ginger, and seaweed.
So it's no wonder it's become my go-to pantry staple when I want to zhuzh up my dinner in a matter of seconds.
The word zhuzh, which is sometimes spelled with two O's rather than the U in the middle,
has an onomatopoeic ring to it.
It resembles other sound effect words, such as woosh or zoom,
that suggest dynamic movement or perhaps, more appropriately, a ruffling of hair or fabric.
The earliest evidence of zhuzh shows that it is part of polari,
a kind of slaying known especially for its use in 20th century British gay culture.
The word has been in use
since at least the 1970s and gained wild popularity during the 1918 reboot of Queer Eye,
a television series in which a fellow needing help in the areas of fashion, grooming,
living space, food, and social grace gets a makeover courtesy of five talented gay men.
While often used as a verb, usually paired with up,