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Mar 16, 2026
This week’s themeWords used figuratively This week’s words 
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831
Art: Katsushika Hokusai Previous week’s theme Toponyms A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargWe are physical beings in a physical world, so when we try to describe the invisible landscape of the mind, we reach for what we can touch. We borrow from optics to illuminate intelligence; we borrow from geology to describe character. When we say a person is bright, we are borrowing from the physics of light. When we say someone has grit, we are valuing the endurance of stone. This week, we explore five words that have traveled from the concrete to the abstract. Each now does double duty, keeping one foot on the ground and the other in the clouds. For each word, we offer one example that stays literal and another that wanders into figurative territory. Put them to work. Use them literally or figuratively. Use them daily or save them for an occasion that calls for extra shine. Or use them both ways in the same sentence. Share your sentences below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. As always, include your location (city, state). scaturient
PRONUNCIATION:
(skuh-TOOR/TYOOR-ee-uhnt)
MEANING:
adjective: 1. Overflowing. 2. Overly demonstrative; effusive. ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin scaturire (to gush out), from scatere (to bubble up). Earliest documented use: 1684.
USAGE:
“Then my house flooded during a violently scaturient storm.” Ben Frumin; Emergency Prep Isn’t Just for “Preppers”; The New York Times; Aug 1, 2025. “’Small Rain’, ... is a book that defends, in sumptuous, scaturient fashion, the wonders of the Snickers bar.” Rhoda Feng; Garth Greenwell’s ‘Small Rain’; Boston Globe (Massachusetts); Sep 1, 2024. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You can sometimes count every orange on a tree but never all the trees in a
single orange. -A.K. Ramanujan, poet (16 Mar 1929-1993)
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