enervate

Pronounced: EN-uhr-vate, verb; ih-NURR-vit, adj

Notes: One of those words in which the two parts of speech are pronounced differently

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Yesterday’s word

The word meliorism is “the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

British novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) claimed to have created both our word and the word ‘meliorist’; however, the latter version had been around for decades. Nevertheless, she does get credit for the first documented use of our word. The word came from the Latin word melior (better). The same Latin word is behind the words ‘melioriate’ and ‘ameliorate’, both of which means “to make better”. As far as the belief goes, it is a nice, comforting belief; however, the Bible teaching that sin has brought a curse on both man and the earth, and that both are degrading over time would seem to fit better. Despite that, I do think that humans can choose to make the world better, so I agree with the last bit of our word’s definition.