The word of the day for August 25th.
Today's word is tilde, spelled T-I-L-D-E.
Tilde is a noun.
It refers to the mark that looks like a squiggly line placed especially over the letter N,
as in the Spanish word senor.
This mark indicates nasality in languages like Spanish and Portuguese.
When a tilde appears as an independent character, it usually means approximately,
as in we'll be there in approximately 30 minutes, indicated by a tilde.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Orange County Register.
Californians with accents, tildes,
and other diacritical marks in their names will soon be able to have their vital records accurately reflect their names.
The terms piña colada and la niña share more than just a cool factor.
They're both Spanish loanwords whose spellings include tildas, those wavy marks which, in these examples,
are placed over the letter N to indicate a blend of the sounds N and Y.
Tilda is itself a Spanish borrowing rooted in the Latin word titulus,
an ancestor of the English words title and titular that means title or inscription.
The Spanish and English applications of the word tilde are distinct.
In Spanish, tilde refers most commonly to the accent symbol,
while n with a tilde above it is its own member of the alphabet, pronounced enye.
In contrast, English speakers use tilde specifically for the aforementioned mark.