It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24th.
Today's word is burgeon, spelled B-U-R-G-E-O-N.
Burgeon is a verb.
To burgeon is to grow or develop quickly, in other words, to flourish, blossom, or sprout.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Arizona Republic by Lex Butler.
From the quaint charm of its historic downtown,
to the dynamic energy of its burgeoning arts district,
Gilbert Arizona offers something for everyone.
Burgeon arrived in Middle English as the word burgeoning,
a borrowing from the Anglo-French verb burgeoner, meaning to bud or sprout.
Burgeon is often used figuratively, as when writer Tana Hasse Coates used it in his 2008 memoir,
The Beautiful Struggle, with these words,
usage commentators have objected to the use of burgeon to mean flourish or to grow rapidly,
insisting that any figurative use should stay true to the word's earliest literal meaning and distinguish budding or sprouting from subsequent growing.
But the sense of burgeon that indicates growing or expanding and prospering,
as in the burgeoning music scene or the burgeoning international market,
has been established use for decades and, in fact, is the most common use of burgeon today.
With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.