It's the Word of the Day podcast for June 18th.
Today's word is jeopardize spelled J-E-O-P-A-R-D-I-Z-E.
Jeopardize is a verb.
To jeopardize something or someone is to put them at risk or in danger.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the LA Times.
To keep the cub from forming bonds with people that would jeopardize his return to the wild,
staff members charged with his care are dressing up in bear costumes,
including a mask, fur coat, and leather gloves.
Imagine you're a contestant on a game show,
and your task is to provide a question as a response to this statement from the host.
This word was once controversial, and in 1870 a grammarian called it a foolish and intolerable word,
a view shared by many 19th century critics.
If you answered, what is jeopardize, you might be going home with some money.
The preferred word back then was jeopard, which first appeared in print in the 14th century.
The upstart jeopardize didn't arrive until the late 16th century and took a while to catch on.
In 1828,
Noah Webster himself declared jeopardize to be a modern word used by respectable writers in America,
but synonymous with jeopard and therefore useless.
Unfortunately for the champions of the word jeopard,
increased usage of jeopardize ultimately put the former word in jeopardy.