It's the Word of the Day podcast for April 15th.
Today's word is mayhem, spelled M-A-Y-H-E-M.
Mayhem is a noun.
It refers to needless or willful damage or violence,
and especially to a scene or situation that involves a lot of violence.
In figurative use, it may refer to any instance of excited activity.
Nowadays, mayhem is frequently used to suggest any kind of chaos or disorder,
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Kansas City Star.
even in far less fraught circumstances, as in, there was mayhem on the field after the winning goal was scored.
The storage space is a veritable Fort Knox safe from tornadoes,
With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
floods, earthquakes, and all manner of mischief and mayhem,
Visit merriamwebster. com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.
where the 68 degree temperature and 45% humidity are ideal for preserving paper and film.
Legally speaking, the word mayhem refers to the gruesome crime of deliberately causing an injury
that permanently disfigures another.
The word comes via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb maimé, meaning to maim, and is probably of Germanic origin.
The English verb maim comes from the same ancestor.
The disfigurement sense of mayhem first appeared in English in the 15th century.
Centuries later, the word came to refer to any kind of violent behavior.