It's the word of the day for September 9th.
Today's word is stigma spelled S-T-I-G-M-A.
Stigma is a noun.
It refers to a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Business Insider.
The stigma surrounding workers of my generation is real.
Some depict us as burned out, overworked employees who are difficult to manage
and are merely looking for a paycheck while mapping out our exit strategy for retirement.
Tattoos are now common, but not long ago adorning one's body with ink was frowned upon by much of mainstream society.
Even today, tattooed individuals in some communities
and contexts face stigma based on their particular form of self-expression.
It turns out that the link between tattoos and stigma is ancient, at least etymologically.
The roots of stigma trace back all the way to the Greek verb stitzain, meaning to tattoo,
which led to the Latin noun stigma, meaning mark or brand.
The earliest English uses of stigma hew close to those of its Latin forebear,
the word first referred to a brand left by a hot iron.
In modern use, the scar is figurative.
Stigma most often refers to a set of negative and often unfair beliefs
that a society or group of people have about something,
as when people talk about the stigma associated with mental illness or the stigma of poverty.