It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3rd.
Today's word is lambaste, also pronounced lambast, and spelled L-A-M-B-A-S-T-E.
Lambaste is a verb.
To lambaste someone or something is to criticize them very harshly.
Lambaste is also sometimes used as a synonym of beat, meaning to assault.
Here's the word used in a sentence from MarketWatch by John F. Wasek.
They come and go like pop songs and can make your head spin.
Boiled down, though, most diet longevity studies lambaste the standard American diet,
which contributes to inflammation that may trigger diabetes,
heart disease, strokes, and possibly Alzheimer's disease.
The origins of the word lambaste,
which can be also spelled without the e at the end as lambast, are somewhat uncertain,
but the word was most likely formed by combining the verbs lamb and baste,
both of which mean to beat severely.
This baste is unrelated to either the sewing or the cooking one.
Although lambaste started out in the 1600s meaning to assault violently,
English speakers were by the 1800s applying it in cases involving harsh attacks made with words rather than fists.
This new sense clearly struck a chord.
After fighting its way into the lexicon lambaste has held fast ever since.
With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.