Word of the Day: VERBATIM

Word for word

verbatim (adv) - word for word; transcribed exactly as stated or written [ver-bey-tim]

BREAKDOWN: The root VERB-, meaning word, appears frequently in English vocabulary, as in proverbial, verbose, and, well, verb. The uncommon Latin suffix -ATIM means by in a handful of currently used words, including gradatim (step by step) and seriatim (in order). Despite confusion about the spelling of -ATIM vs. -ATUM, the word verbatim comes to us from Latin verbatim.

“True art selects and paraphrases, but seldom gives a verbatim translation.” —Thomas Bailey Aldrich

[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily derived from classical roots.]