A.Word.A.Day --mot juste

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Today's Word

mot juste

PRONUNCIATION:

(mo ZHOOST)

MEANING:

noun: The right word.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French mot juste (right word). Earliest documented use: 1896. A related term is bon mot.

USAGE:

“Bennett Miller is a filmmaker who thinks his way long and hard into each project, and indeed each sentence, always groping for the mot juste.”
Tim Robey; ‘It’s a Film About Fathers and Fatherliness’; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jan 8, 2015.

See more usage examples of mot juste in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket, and do not pull it out and strike it merely to show you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it, but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman. -Lord Chesterfield, statesman and writer (22 Sep 1694-1773)

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