Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day's InsaneJournal:

Monday, November 28th, 2016
12:00 am	vicissitude http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/vicissitude-2016-11-28 Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2016 is: vicissitude • \vuh-SISS-uh-tood\  • noun 1 : the quality or state of being changeable : mutability 2 a : a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition b : a difficulty or hardship usually beyond one's control Examples: "The vicissitudes of life strike us all. But when life gets difficult for the poor, economically or emotionally, or most often both at once, it can pitch them into complete chaos."  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 22 Aug. 2016 "A good coach on tour is at once a friend and a taskmaster, a psychologist and an emotional buffer against the vicissitudes of competing at the highest level of the game."  Geoff Macdonald, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2016 Did you know? "Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better," wrote British theologian Richard Hooker in the 16th century. That observation may shed some light on vicissitude, a word that can refer simply to the fact of change, or to an instance of it, but that often refers specifically to hardship or difficulty brought about by change. To survive "the vicissitudes of life" is thus to survive life's ups and downs, with special emphasis on the downs. Vicissitude is a descendant of the Latin noun vicis, meaning "change" or "alternation," and it has been a part of the English language since the 16th century. In contemporary usage, it most often occurs in the plural. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016
12:00 am	impute http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/impute-2016-11-23 Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 23, 2016 is: impute • \im-PYOOT\  • verb 1 : to lay the responsibility or blame for often falsely or unjustly 2 : to credit to a person or a cause Examples: "Now, one comment in reaction to my essay said that by talking about the city's problems and not its promise, I was in the business of tearing down Syracuse. At LeMoyne, I was taught that the most dangerous thing to do in argument was to impute motives to your opponent."  Carl Schramm, Forbes.com, 4 Mar. 2013 "The CAS panel concluded that Sharapova's case 'was not about an athlete who cheated.' Instead, the panel found, 'It was only about the degree of fault that can be imputed to a player for her failure to make sure that the substance contained in a product she had been legally taking over a long period & remained in compliance."  Tom Perrotta, The Wall Street Journal, 4 Oct. 2016 Did you know? Impute is a somewhat formal word that is used to suggest that someone or something has done or is guilty of something. It is similar in meaning to such words as ascribe and attribute, though it is more likely to suggest an association with something that brings discredit. When we impute something, we typically impute it to someone or something. You may also encounter the related noun imputation, which appears in such contexts as "I deny all your imputations of blame." Another sense of impute means "to calculate as a value or cost (as for taxation)," as in "impute a benefit from the use of the car." (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 19th, 2016
12:00 am	meshuggener http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/meshuggener-2016-11-19 Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 19, 2016 is: meshuggener • \muh-SHUG-uh-ner\  • noun : a foolish or crazy person Examples: "What kind of meshuggener would apply the small plates concept to Jewish comfort food, which is all about abundance and appetite?"  Tracey Macleod, The Independent (United Kingdom), 16 Dec. 2011 "Whoever decided to remake The Producers in 2005 was a meshuggener. There will certainly not be a remake of The Frisco Kid, a film from 1979[Gene] Wilder plays a rabbi who rides into trouble in the Wild West. Don't go there!"  David Robson, The Jewish Chronicle Online, 1 Sept. 2016 Did you know? From bagel and chutzpah to shtick and yenta, Yiddish has given English many a colorful term over the years. Meshuggener is another example of what happens when English interprets that rich Jewish language. Meshuggener comes from the Yiddish meshugener, which in turn derives from meshuge, an adjective that is synonymous with crazy or foolish. English speakers have used the adjective form, meshuga or meshugge, to mean "foolish" since the late 1800s; we've dubbed foolish folk meshuggeners since at least 1900. (Comment on this)