Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11th.
Today's word is subterfuge, spelled S-U-B-T-E-R-F-U-G-E.
fraud, double-dealing, and trickery, there 's nothing tricky about the word's etymology.
Subterfuge is a noun.
English borrowed the word with its meaning from the late Latin noun subterfugium,
It's a formal word that refers to the use of tricks to hide, avoid, or get something.
which in turn comes from the Latin verb subterfugere, meaning to escape or evade.
Here's the word used in a sentence from The New Yorker by Margaret Atwood.
That word combines the prefix subter, meaning secretly, from the adverb subter, meaning underneath,
Despite her difficult childhood, Mavis Galant persevered through grit,
with the verb fugere, which means to flee,
bloody-mindedness, an absence of self-pity, and an ironic sense of humor.
and which is also the source of words such as fugitive and refuge, among others.
Lunch with her was always hilarious and often horrifying.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
The tales she told about her life exceeded in unlikely gruesomeness even her own fiction.
Visit merriamwebster. com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.
She certainly had the cold eye that Yeats recommended for writers,
and she saw through subterfuge no matter who was trying it on.
Though the word subterfuge is a synonym of deception,