A.Word.A.Day --nugatory

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Today's Word

nugatory

PRONUNCIATION:

(NOO-guh-tor-ee, NYOO-)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Of little value; trifling.
2. Having no force; ineffective.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin nugatorius (trifling), from nugari (to trifle). Earliest documented use: 1603.

USAGE:

“Candidates ... from a myriad of smaller parties ... were humiliated, their campaigns ending with a returning officer reading out their nugatory scores to a sports centre full of jeering politicos.”
In Praise of the Runners-Up; The Journal (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK); May 12, 2015.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The doctrine of the material efficacy of prayer reduces the Creator to a cosmic bellhop of a not very bright or reliable kind. -Herbert J. Muller, educator, historian, and author (1905-1980)

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